scottyman...thank you thank you. It was so nice to read your post this morning. Took me back to when granny kept a water syster (I think that's what it was called) anyway, she caught rain water in a barrel and used it for anything that fresh well water wasn't needed for...remember drying apples on old window screens...and stringing green beans "leather britches" then hanging them to dry on the back porch...and granddads shaving glass hanging over the water basin on the porch post, often near the well..oh the smell of apples in that old wooden bowl on the kitchen table sure did beat todays glade fragrances and the smell of fresh rain as it landed on the dusty yard or road....I remember playing in granny's button jar which was a prized possession in her house (how many buttons have you saved lately...none, hum...me neither) but best of all is the memory of sitting on the floor around granny's knees while she told a Bible story or Pappa read from the "good book"....whew....

oldreustybucket,

I inherited my grandmothers button can, and one from the lady across the street where I grew up! they have provided countless hours of entertainment for my kids, grandkids, kids I've babysat! Right now, my daughter is designing some pouches to sell and using many that are "old fashioned" looking enough to fit them. (they are for folks at a Renaissances Faire)!

Oh how I loved to wash my hair in water from the old wooden rainbarrel!

Cisterns are still widely used in most parts of Mexico where all potable (drinkable) water is bought in bottles.

Catching rain water is important for all other purposes (watering flowers); and their cisterns are often on top of the roof (many houses made of concrete) and then gravity feed is used to water plants and such.

An important factor in the use of cisterns is to prevent mosquito breeding.

Many people in California are installing cisterns for fire-fighting purposes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cisterns for Collecting Non-Potable Water

Some things I wouldn't want to return to. The wringer washers don't sound like much fun!

I don't have a garbage disposal, so most of the scraps go to the dogs, cats, and horses.

I do cut up old t-shirts for shop rags.

I like to hang my laundry on the line. But it is going to rain today, so I am thankful for my dryer! :)

I save all my kitchen scraps and just throw them out in the garden all winter and till them in come spring. I put them out during the summer when I am canning too. I would like to make a compost bin this year, but the way that the scraps have helped my soil shows what a difference it makes.

Also around here I want to cheer when I see farmers out spreading manure on their fields ( field corn). It is great that they are using up the waste to fertilize their fields. I want to stop and tell the farmers how proud that I am of them.

Another thing I am going to do is do a rain water barrel in the front and back. I can get sealed barrels from a friend andthey are 50 gallons. Then I just have to put a spigot in the side of it. We have been fighting drought and they charge so much for water in our town, I hate to water if I don't have too.

I also save my canning water and throw it out in the garden or yard when it cools. I also would like to capture the water from our air conditioner downstairs and use it to water the yard and gardens. We will see if that gets done, the steps are steep and hard to get up and down but I think with dumping the bigger buckets into smaller buckets would work out for me.

Stacie

We do some of those things;
Rags - yes, but if it still has use, we try to give it away. (although I have been told that some of my old shirts were ready for the rag pile before I was ready to part with them!)
Compost - Yep, all veggie scraps go into the compost.
Rainwater - We have two collection barrels, but rain has been hard to comeby as of late.

Leftover scraps of food were either buried in the garden or fed to the animals. If you cleaned a fish that you had caught, the scraps were buried in the garden for fertilizer. Fertilizer for the garden wasn't something you bought at a big box store. Instead, you went out in the cow pasture and picked up aged cow patties that you buried in the garden.

Fresh fruits and veggies weren't necessarily grown in the garden. You took advantage of what nature provided. They picked poke salit, dewberries and black berries, muscadines, persimmons and other stuff. My dad's family lived on the Ozarks. They did hunt and eat possum, raccoons and squirrels among other things. You did not waste food. You only took what you needed or could use and left some there so nature could provide again the next time.

I'm not sure why, but the family burned down the grass every year. This also had the benefit of limiting the tick population without a lot of pesticides.

I've been saving rainwater for my plants for a few years now. I'm catching some today in fact. I put out a couple 9x13" cake pans and dump them when they get full. I have one of those water jugs with the spigot on the side (like a water cooler at work type thing) on my counter in the kitchen, that I pour it in.
Leslie

We always catch rain water to use for our flowers and garden. It's a scramble to get everything in place when the clouds start to gather.

I love thinking back growing up and smells from the kitchen. I didn't get to live around my maternal grandmother or grandfather, so don't have any memories of them. And my paternal grandparents were more 'uptown' I guess. They owned and operated a carnival, so that was exciting. They traveled with it a lot. No memories of yeast breads or gardens on that side of the family.

I remember Mother and aunt washing my hair with rain water.

My Dad always burned off the lawn in the early Spring. Seemed to make the grass just thrive.

We have a large compost tumbler that we used now. In fact, I need to get that tilled in my beds very soon.

When my Dad had a farm, there was a farm down the road with 4 little girls around my age. On many days, the Mama had a big black kettle on an outdoor fire making lye soap. Then she would boil the dirty clothes in hot water and wash the clothes in lye soap and hang them on the line. I was fascinated.

Their yard was dirt no grass whatsoever. The Mama actually sweep the dirt everyday to reveal the compacted soil that seemed like concrete.

The family was very poor, no tractor, but they had a Plow pulled by a Mule.

Geez, I just payed someone to mow my yard on a riding lawn mower yesterday. (Mine is out of commisson) I have 2 loads of laundry I'm dreading to do today.

Gayle

Does anyone remember their mother stretching the lace-paneled curtains on the frames? My mom would wash them and rinse them and starch them. They then went on a very large frame, which had tacks all around the perimeter. When they were dry, they would practically stand up by themselves!

She also starched my brother's blue jeans and put those metal 'jeans forms' in the legs, then when they were dry, she would iron them so they had a crisp crease. They could also stand up by themselves!!

All of our underwear had to be soaked in soapy hot water, and washed, BY HAND, then hung on the line to dry. We had a wringer washer, too. We had a dryer, but rarely used it, in favor of line-drying. I would not wish to go back to doing it the old way!

Every spring and every fall, it was deep-cleaning time. We took all the rugs out and hung them on the line. We then beat the living daylights out of them, until no more 'dust' flew - man, what a job!

We were probably healthier for doing all those things, but I just don't think, now, that I could muster the muscle it took to do all that hard work!!!

Hi kay jones,

The exercise'd likely keep your heart in better shape ... which might help you to live longer.

ole joyful ... who doesn't exercise as he should ... but hangs clothes on the line, through most of the year

Cloth diapers...aren't they making a comeback?

I've used a wringer washer...I don't think there's enough $ in the world to make me go back to one of those.
JoanMN/FL

We must find ways to conserve our planet and its energy while still reaping the benefits of technology. Wringer washer? Not for me. Pesticides? Nope. Cloth diapers?.....I struggled with the question of cloth vs disposables 38 years ago, when my first was born. My very frugal grandmother said, "Dear, when I was a girl we had to launder our own 'rags.' I have never heard of a woman who continued to wash her rags once Kotex came on the market. Use disposables." I did.

I compost, recycle, switched to CFLs, conserve water and electricity, keep the house at 67º in winter, use a reel lawnmower on my very large lawn, use as little plastic as I can for storing goods and leftovers. My car gets 38 MPG and I combine trips. And I used disposable diapers for six kids and still feel guilty about it.

Sherry

This brings back some very good memories...Kayjones, I do remember the curtains on the wooden frames and also remember the pin holes in the fingers while stretching the curtains....
I loved the wringer washer and used one well into the 60s...In fact, a neighbor or mine still has one in her basement and uses it to do rugs and work clothes....
Cloth diapers....We had 4 kids in less than 5 years and I didn't have a dryer..I laugh when I see the old pictures, there is always a line of diapers in the background...I'd love to go back to some of the "green" things...And you're right, we were all in better shape and healthy back then...

Oh, I remebered something else. Flour used to come in cloth sacks. My grandmother told me she used to pick her based on the fabric design because that fabric would be made into clothing. In one of the few pictures I've seen of my dad as a child, he was wearing a flour sack dress.

I remember when my Mom used to save aluminum foil. She would gently straighten it back up and wash with hot soapy water and then dry. Then she would neatly fold it to use another time.

My Mom hated her wringer washer. I love mine, use it on weekends to run laundry. Curtain stretchers, remember them well, used them into the 70's. Pant stretchers, not my favorites, but it beat ironing in the summer. Still make soap on cool days. Beat rugs every chance I get, what a stress reducer, every rug in my house has a name and it changes often. Treadle sewing machine when the mood strikes, relaxing.
Everything does not have to be done in a hurry.

We compost all year long. When it snows, we save the compost in a small covered metal can and wait until the snow clears before we put it in the compost box. My DH used to be in the food business so we had 2 very large chest freezers. One finally bit the dust, so we took the top off, drilled holes in the bottom, put it on 2x4's to raise it up off the ground, and made it into our compost bin. We turn it every few days in the summer, and whenever we can in the cold months, and the compost that comes out of it is nirvana for our garden.

We collect rainwater in barrels and use it in our bird bath and to water plants.

I cut up old t-shirts and use the strips of fabric to tie up vegetable plants in the garden. I also use them as rags in the house. Old washcloths make great dusting cloths, too.

I have a dryer, but I line dry our clothes in the mild weather. And there's nothing like the wonderful scent of air-dried clothes. We have a front-loading washer because it uses much less water. And it saves on detergent, too.

If I have to run errands, I make sure I map out a route so that I don't use unnecessary gas. Plus it saves time, and time is $$$.

We make our own suet for the birds. I bake bread, not only because it's cheaper, but it's healthier. I can vegetables from our garden, and what can't be canned is frozen. My husband calls me his "Renaissance Woman", and I sure take it as a compliment LOL.

We keep the house between 66-67 degrees in the winter, and only use the AC when it's hot and humid. Our pug, Tootie, needs AC so we can't skimp on that. One of the specifics of the breed.

We have raspberries bushes, and every year they produce an incredibly large amount. I make jam and freeze them for later use, but we end up with a dearth of them, so what to do? We sell them down by the end of our driveway. The money earned always goes towards something special. This year DS will be "manning the booth", so he'll get a cut of the action.

Great stuff everyone!

Flour sacks became dish towels, and the printed ones sometimes became aprons. Cooking fat was saved and turned in to the butcher who sold the fat to soap making companies. The button box was a joy to play with--worn out clothes that couldn't be repaired or downsized for someone were disposed of after buttons were cut off. Socks were darned. All the fruit on the fruit trees in the yard were served or canned. Leftovers often were served in delicious recipes developed to use up those leftovers.

My Grandmother was born in 1885, she passed away in 1961. But I remember her well, she was widowed twice, yet managed to keep her home by turning it into a rooming house. She was an excellent cook. She used Crisco as face cream, she dried out her tea bags and re-used them, she used cucumber peels as bug repellent. She was very "green". She saved the plastic bags carrots came in and used them for storing food.

My Grandmother loved to grow roses. She'd take a cutting, strick it in the dirt and cover with a mason jar. Her secret was coal ashes. She had a coal furnace and put the ashes on her rose garden.

When we moved here (MO) from Ca. 25 years ago I used a wringer washer for several years. Matter of fact we brought it from Ca, belonged to my MIL. We had a cistern to catch rainwater and also had a big tank on back of truck and hauled water from town to fill the cistern when there was a lack of rain for a few weeks. Now, have a well down and a automatic washer and dryer but still hang clothes on the line when the weather cooperates.

Have a compost bin. What scraps are left after the animals are fed goes into it.

I have a huge tin full of buttons and cut the buttons off of any clothing being discarded for rags. I use a lot of them on the kitchen towels that I crochet tops on for hanging. Over half of these buttons were my Mothers.

Wish we could burn off the land around here to help get rid of the ticks. Old timers here say there used to be very few ticks as every spring everyone burned their pastures, can't do it anymore unless a fire gets away from you and then you can be fined.

I use old T shirts cut up into strips to crochet rugs.

When first married I used those pant stretchers for DH's jeans. No more, just fold them and put away, thank goodness he's not particular. I buy a lot of his jeans at yard sales to work in and if they are a tad too long, he just whacks them off and has a little fringe on the bottom after several washings. lol.

We try to reuse, recycle everything possible.

Remember the green wall paper cleaner? That smelled soooo good!

Donna (^_^)

Wow, I love your stories. I wish I had known my grandmother better before she died.
It makes me want to be a better grandma so I can make the memories that you all have..
Trin

When my husband's jeans get raggedy, and the knees get holey, he cuts the legs off and uses them as Bermuda shorts.