I ain't got nothin' on these women.

I read in article in a local magazine a few weeks ago that I just had to share. I know it’s so easy to “romanticize” the idea of a homestead. Truth is, it’s back-breaking, blood-sweet-and-tears, work. It takes a lot of work to do things with your own two hands and it takes a lot of work to make things from scratch. This article did a great job of depicting life back when homesteading was the only way to live: 

“Work on the homesteads in the 1880s and ’90s was almost all gender specific. 

Wives and daughters were responsible for all inside house work and a few outside chores as well, including the garden, the chickens and the milk cow. 

Food – growing, cooking and preserving it – took much of the women’s time and energy. Planting and tending to the garden demanded constant attention from early spring to fall. The garden was expected to provide fresh food from summer to fall and preserved food the remainder of the year. 

Whenever possible, seeds were harvested from ripe vegetables to save the expense of store-bought seed. 

When potato planting time came on the Tramm farm near Rearden, Marie Tramm peeled potatoes as thinly as possible and planted the peelings, wasting none of the potatoes. Fruit parings were saved to make vinegar – necessary for pickling vegetables. 

… The chicken pen was also the province of the wives and daughters. Eggs were gathered all year and a hen was set on a batch in the spring. When the first batch hatched the chickens were raised by hand and the hen sat on another batch… 

… Preserving food was essential to keep a family fed through the winter. Esta Tetherow, near Waterville, recalled her father raising hogs. ‘Father had a smokehouse full of hams and bacon…mother made the best sausage and stuffed it in cheese-cloth bags and smoked it along with the hams.’ Fruit was dried and canned in five-gallon cans, carrots, squash,and potatoes stored in the root cellar and jams and jellies were put up in bottles… 

… She also remembers her grandmother storing meat, milk, butter, and other perishable food in an ice house, insulated with sawdust and lined with blocks of ice cut from the Wenatchee River. The ice held out until summer when the last was used to make ice cream. Butter was a staple. The majority of the housewives made it for home use but Leitha Coonan’s mother, near Badger Mountain, ‘made 80 or 90 pounds a week to sell.’ At Monitor, Ida Richardson’s butter was so much in demand that, according to her grand-daughter, Marilyn, ‘It was used as legal tender.’…  

… The washing could take from early morning to evening (with breaks to cook meals), depending on the number of children in the family. Ten to 15 kids was not uncommon. All the laundry was done on a washboard in water heated on the wood stove. Even in the head of summer, white clothes were boiled before scrubbing, then wrung out by hand and hung outside to dry. They froze solid in winter then were brought in and hung about the stove to thaw out. Flat irons headed on the stove were used for pressing…

… Buhock powder had to be scattered over the bedding and rubbed into cracks in the pine board ceilings and walls to keep the bedbugs at bay. Mattresses needed to be filled with fresh straw and once a year the carpets were taken up and hung on the clothes line where the girls beat the dust out of them…

… Pioneer women’s job made a long list. They were difficult, time consuming, and required a variety of skills. They lasted the year-round. There was rarely a break. The pioneer women’s work was truly never done.”

I am so thankful that while experiencing a taste of the homesteading life is something we get to do, it is not something we have to do.

While it is rewarding and cost-effective to grow our own produce, if there is a storm that wipes out our crops, we are no more than a few minutes away from having access to food. If I get rodents in my storage shelter, I know I will still be able to eat through the winter. I will not freeze, or fail to eat, because the firewood runs out. I will not die of curable sickness, because I have access to health care. If I have one million loads of laundry to do, all I have to do is push the ‘GO’ button on my washing machine. And while it is therapeutic and lovely to line dry my clothes, I have the blessing of a dryer, should I desire it. 

I am so thankful for what the past can teach us. The pioneer women were tough, steadfast, and solid. They understood the value and necessity of keeping a home. And they even kept their homes without the conveniences we have come to utilize! Like vacuums. Showers. Toothbrushes. Grocery stores.

As with all things in life, I think there is a beautiful balance to be found in the homesteading life. God has given us many blessings as technology has advanced – and there is nothing wrong with using these conveniences and luxuries in our homes! That being said, while not every one will, I find it very therapeutic and rewarding to do “chores” as they did them back when. I get enjoyment out of baking our bread and brewing our beer. I get joy out of a simplified cleaning system that is nothing more than a rag, vinegar, and lavender oil. I get joy out of watching clothes dry in the sunshine and tending to my vegetable garden. I get joy out of cooking all our meals from scratch and knowing that they have been made with the best ingredients I can provide for my family. I get joy out of canning (dehydrating, freezing, pickling) the bounty of a wonderful harvest and enjoying that bounty through the winter. I get joy out of being appreciative of even the smallest harvest that is from the Lord. 

This homesteader doesn’t look like she is being brought much joy by collecting cow pies for fire fuel. I hope your Friday is more joyful than hers. 

What brings you joy in your homesteading journey?