20 skills from my grandma

hi welcome today I want to share with you 20 skills old-fashioned skills that my great-grandmother used every day uh that I still use in today's fast-paced world I find that these skills can help us lead a more grounded more fulfilling life uh her way of life was one of self-sufficiency of course it wasn't any big thing back then that was just the way of life um these have been passed down through generations in my family and other homesteading what we call homesteading today was farming men families so join me as I share 20 enduring uh traditional skills that connect me to them and I hope to inspire you to start your own Journey or continue your own journey toward a simpler more rewarding lifestyle I was blessed to know my great-grandmother she passed away when I was nine or 10 but her influence has carried on uh through me because of my grandmother who was her middle daughter as you know my grandparents are the ones who taught me to embrace and love this lifestyle um to them it was just a way of life um it was all they knew what we learned what they learned from their parents my great grandparents uh they passed on to us their way of life for us uh like I said they're simpler my um grandparents recorded their life stories for our boys and they are on you can find those stories on the farmers lamp uh in our voices of Heritage series they are audio recordings and then I transcribe them for you their own words their own stories so that's a really fun and interesting thing if you'd like to go listen to that now we're going to talk about these 20 skills uh I'm going to just skim over them and you can go over to the companion article for this video and read more in depths about them and how you can put them into practice they on the farmer lamp you know I realized her way of life was much harder than mine I have the modern convenience of electricity and running water uh one of my grandmothers had electricity and running water um by the time I was born she didn't when she was Raising her children um my grandmother Brown had two light bulbs in her house one in the middle of the living room which was also two bedrooms and one in the middle of the kitchen and she didn't have running water until I was 12 so um I understand more about how hard their lives were than I would have had had not had that experience um even though I have these things I'm still humbled when I think about the resilience and the strength of our ancestors um in spite of these differences I do find immense value and satisfaction in practicing some of the same skills that she did okay we're going to start with food production gardening of course is the number one thing her garden was her pride and joy and it was that way from my grandmother and as a young child working in the gardens with them I didn't realize they were teaching me uh you know as a kid it's just fun to be out there with Granny doing different things but as you know we uh do garden and raise most of our food that way um on the farmers nap you can find all kinds of gardening articles we're here to help you in any way we can composting now nothing went to waste in my great-grandmother's house or my grandmother's house they had uh a slot bucket out the back door and they had a compost bucket out the back door and what didn't go into the slot bucket went into the compost bucket the slot bucket was for the pigs the chickens and the dogs so um there there was never any kind of waste there composting um is a great way to improve your garden soil the resulting uh rich soil can be uh Incorporated to rais beds into the traditional row Gardens into containers so if you're um interested in diving deeper into composting of course we have a lot of soil health information over on the farmers land raising chickens and eggs for meat uh their chickens free range they'd be in the woods they would be you know everywhere uh they put themselves up at night she would go of course and close the CPE uh after they had gone to bed but with over 45 years of chicken uh keeping experience from over at least seven generations I don't even know how far back our chicken keeping goes uh I've come to realize that um chickens contribute a lot to the homestead they clean up the garden they uh give us free fertilizer eggs of course and meat entertainment they do help control some forms of insects so you there's always that um we raise Heritage breed chickens which you can read more about that on the farmers land why we do that what they are uh it's a connection between us and our past uh and our ancestors dairy cows pigs and poultry okay my great-grandmother and my grandmother uh were great um milkers and they were very particular about who touched their cows and I was I don't know 11 or 12 before my grandfather was allowed to milk the cows that in my memory I'm not saying he never did I'm just saying um but um I do that we have an A2 A2 Jersey cow they didn't they weren't concerned about A2 back then they did have mostly have jerseys they did have some gsies and I seem to recall a couple holins but they always had a dairy cow for milk butter cheese and of course the meat from the bull Cales um they raised pigs and turkeys and guies um they ate the guinea eggs if they could find them and of course the the guies are just fantastic soldiers at P control so um I do not make my cheese we don't really eat a lot of cheese but uh and something I want to do I just haven't taken the time to learn that skill and that's that's one of the great Parts about this lifestyle is there's always a skill to improve there's always something to learn from other people and as Papa said uh even if it's just to learn what not to do you have to learn those things um we also raise these these uh we raise pigs and cows and guiney and turkeys turkeys are are just fantastic to have but they require uh a commitment it's a a commitment to have life livestock so be aware of those things and then we have some articles of course on the pharmacy from scratch especially in today's world it's really important to cook from scratch there are so many toxic chemicals and additives and preservatives in our food and they hide under so many uh labels did you know there are over 200 names for sugar it it's it's just mind-blowing but when you cook from scratch you can control the ingredients you can control the nutrition especially if you produce a lot of your food uh not everybody can have cows not everybody can have pigs but you can uh work with local farmers you can go to farmers markets and all those things to take it back but cooking from scratch saves money uh it does take some time but it's also a skill uh that you will need and we have a lot of recipes on the farmers up there for you making bread Saturday was my grand Grand mother's bread making day she also did her cookies her pies her cakes anything she was going to bake that was her Saturday my great grandmother um my grandmother um she baked whenever she wanted to because she had the convenience of a a gas stove and she also had a wood stove that she used in the winter but you know she had other conveniences that my great-grandmother didn't have so she just baked whenever she needed it uh Saturday works for me uh as I record this today is Saturday and my bread for today this week is uh on its second Rise and I'll give it a bake when I'm done speaking with you about this so um there's just something so satisfying about making bread it's just you know a few basic ingredients start with a simple recipe we use in corn flour if you're interested in learning about that and why we use in corn flour uh you can find that on the farmer lamp I'll try to remember to put all these links uh in the article but if you go to the article for this video you'll find all this information hunting and fishing now traditionally in our family it was the men that did the hunting and fishing and uh the women stayed behind to process it but we were taught as girls uh to hunting fish I don't really care for it is that's just me so I prefer to stay behind and do the processing and the preserving my uncle Stanley loved to fish and he would take us fishing and it was great fun because he was great fun but if the fish weren't biting I didn't really enjoy it okay now we're going to talk about housekeeping handwashing dishes I know that a lot of people prefer um dishwashers because they say it saves uh water and of course it's a time-saving device but I have always preferred I don't even remember the last time I had a dishwasher it's probably been close to 15 20 years or longer uh it's just something I like to do uh using a clothes line unless it's rainy or snowy or there's something else something that I don't like to put on the clothes line that need special care which I don't really have any of those things uh everything goes on the clothes line it saves US money uh and I there's just nothing that smells as good as that sewing quilting and knitting I am not a sinstress as anyone who knows me will tell you but I can do basic sewing I can make curtains and tablecloths and I can do mending my grandmother taught me to quilt and I do enjoy quilting I don't have the time to do it as much as I would like because we have uh the option you know to Bible blankets and different things I do have some of my great-grandmother's quilts I have some of my grandmother's quilts and I have made a quilt made two or three quilts um but it's not something I um specialize in knitting I love knitting it's just a great activity I do it in the winter socks and hats scarves um I'm trying to learn mittens but I mean I'm just a basic Knitter I'm not a specialist in anyway but she did all those things um but she did it to make clothing for for her family sweaters and you know uh underwear they made all that stuff so food preservation and sustainability canning and preserving food uh we can our meat and we can tomatoes everything else we dehydrate I I have pictures of my grandmother's pantry and I can remember my great-grandmother's pantry just you know from floor to ceiling and wall to wall in the in the back room that was just everything was canned peas beans tomatoes pepper I mean everything was canned and meat she did preserve her meat that way so um we have some articles of the farmers lamp to help you with that with dehydration and with canning using a root seller now she had a great root seller and I loved going in there as the kid all the smells the earthy smells now we right now use a part of our basement uh as a root seller and it does a good job but we're looking forward to having the dedicated root Celler finished uh better temperature control better humidity control natural uh medicine natural home remedies and herbs she had an herb garden that as a child I didn't understand the significance of her medicine Garden that's what she called it my medicine Garden um but I loved being there I loved the smells of the herbs and the earthiness there and uh helped her make some tinctures and um in my now I realize as I'm older and trying to learn you know more about these things uh she she was making saves I can remember her soaking uh peppermint leaves and whiskey and we always got that when we were uh sick as children so uh there are lots of ways to learn about herbal medicine uh we have in that's just in the companion article for this some links to some places that we recommend community life and family life storytelling and oral history every evening we would sit on the porch at my uh grandma 's house and share stories and I can remember sitting on my great- grandmother's porch uh I didn't I don't remember the stories but I do remember the adults talking and just sitting there enthralled with what they were talking about listening to them um the farmers lamp voices of Heritage series is one of these things I encourage you to keep a journal uh make a video for your family of your lifestyle go and and interview your grandmothers and your great-grandmothers if you're still blessed to have them and get those stories down because they are really Priceless bartering sharing with your neighbors if there was too much um they shared if they had something if a neighbor had something they needed they would barter uh we still do that towards the end of our growing season uh what we open up our garden to our family um or to those in our neighborhood who are in need and they can come and pick everything they need uh if or want uh if they're not physically able to do it we we do pick for those who can't do it for themselves and take it to them so if you have a surplus of HomeGoods that's a great thing to do and the last thing I want to share is a failing thing in our country at least is front porch City now my grandmother and my my great-grandmother lived at the end of a dirt road and my parents still live at the end of a dirt road they're the only people on that road my great-grandmother uh had two of her daughters that lived down that dirt road with her but she was at the very end and they ended every day by sitting on the front porch and you know the night shades were coming in the animals were beding down you could hear the calves and cows blowing out their breath as they laid down and the Whipper Wheels would be singing and they would tell stories and my grandmother Brown loved to tell us scary stories that was her thing you know even in the daytime uh sitting on the front porch shelling peas um just doing all kinds of different things sewing the neighbors would pass by they'd see you there um at my grandmother's the neighbors didn't pass by my great-grandmothers they just came there but the road ran past my grandmother's house the dirt road and um they would stop have coffee um share stories help you with some work it was just a place where work felt like Leisure um I have so many great memories of Front Porch Sitting we we do sit on our front porch um nobody can see us but we get to see all the animals and the land around us and enjoy it um if you have a balcony sit on your balcony and watch your neighborhood if you have a backyard or a front yard if you have front porch sit out there and you know you may be surprised who may stop and talk with you I know in our time it's um it's an unheard of thing but take the time to enjoy it look around relax just be out just being outdoors is great for you I hope you've enjoyed these 20 skills that my great-grandmother used that I did that I still do and uh be sure to go check out the companion article for this uh video and you can learn more there until next time safe and happy Journey

Channel: The Farmer's Lamp

Views: 43,235

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Id: RHhQ8kwDCz0

Length: 15min 46sec (946 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 09 2024