Almanac for Homemakers

Keep Tab on Local Rainfall With a Rain Gauge "Everybody talks about the weather, but you can do something about one phase of it. You can record rainfall by putting up an inexpensive rain gauge in your yard and making regular reports to your local weather station, newspaper, or other interested organizations." You can literally still do this today! Join CoCoRaHS ! Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network This is a group of volunteers who track weather and report their measurements. What in the world I would never have known this without Google. How did people in the 1970's do this? Well the first known records of rainfall were used by Greeks around 500 B.C. Rain and snowfall was also measured by Chinese mathematicians in the 13th century, In 1860, British meteorologist George James Symons published the first record of annual rainfall. Helping to track rainfall is great for collecting data on droughts, floods, or ju...

How to Make Perfect Pie Crust "The frozen pie shells and graham-cracker crusts available at the grocery stores are good and worth keeping on hand. But nothing beats a pie you have made yourself, including the crust." Oh yeah Pies Apple, Peach, Pumpkin, and Chicken Pot Pie. I love sugary, fatty goodness surrounded by a flakey bread-like casing. The onslaught of calories just ensures the food coma that follows when you enjoy a piece of pie. Now our Almanac gives a recipe for a pie crust that is pretty standard. But Today I am going to share a recipe that I have been using courtesy of All Recipes. This recipe is literally called "Grandma's Secret Pie Crust Recipe" I have used this recipe for both savoy and sweet pie recipes. They have consistently been a hit. A couple of pie crust tips from a culinarian expert  Tip 1 Invest in a pastry cutter. Inexpensive tools great for cutting butter or shortening in to...

Lilies of the Valley Bloom Indoors "Garden shops sometimes offer a few potted pips of lilies of the valley for forcing into bloom indoors at this time of year. If you have a well established bed of these flowers, you can get a similar jump on the blooming season by using your own pips as soon as the ground thaws." Look at our Homemaker Heroine! She got that green thumb. Me? I got rocks. My gardening style is more of a Mad Max, desert utopia, it's all dead kind of theme. I do well with plants that don't need a lot of attention such as a cactus. Our Almanac today suggests that encouraging blooming is to make sure the pips have enough time in prolonged freezing temperatures. Like some other plants, these lilies need a good winter rest. And here I thought that freezing was bad for flowers. Really what do I know? So if you had a mild winter, it is better to bag the pips and digging them up and keep them in the freezer for a few we...

Housekeeping without Power: Refrigeration "Modern housekeeping depends heavily upon power, usually electricity or gas or both. Unfortunately, the flow of these energy sources into our homes is now subject to possible interruptions, a situation that may continue for years. So what do we do?" As a human person who has been on this earth for a while, I am not unfamiliar with a power outage. Being from the "south" I am also privy to uncertain, severe, and quick forming weather that can disrupt the power. Now our Almanac post has some handy tips.  1. Have an emergency generator 2. If it's cold outside, store your food out there 3. Use picnic hampers or plastic coolers 4. Use dry ice ... Now I can get down with some of these. Here are some other tips for you in our modern 2018 setting. Due to research, we now know that certain foods need to stay within a certain temperature range to stay safe from growing bacteria and speed...

Store Poinsettia Soon Did you get one of these flowers for Christmas? If so and you haven't thrown it away or killed it, it is soon time to do something else with it. This Almanac entry is about taking care of that red plant. I don't garden. Let me clarify I can garden. I choose not to. Once upon a time I had a vegetable garden and it was amazing. The best tomatoes, organic produce, crazy long green beans, and some fresh basil. Now when a weed came and destroyed everything and all my hard work was gone I just put my gloves and shovel down exclaiming "I QUIT!" .... If you care to keep your plant around for next Christmas you can follow these instructions here. .... URBAN LEGENDS Now there is a myth that the plant is toxic. There is an urban legend that states a child died from eating the leaves of the plant.  In truth the poinsettia isn't toxic enough to kill a person. Eating it can cause an ...

How to Get Baby-Sitters and What to Tell Them "The recommendation of a friend or neighbor is the best way to find a baby-sitter. Schools recognize that sitting is one of the few ways teen-agers can earn money and sometimes offer child-care courses or include information concerning care of children in home economic courses. Contact the school office for the names of sitters in your area. Some newspapers run free ads for young people seeking such jobs." Totally totally ask friends who they trust to sit their kids. Please please do not ever call a school asking for the name and number of some young high school girls who might be able to baby sit. Lord you do not want to end up on the news. ... We have used trusted kids we knew from our church. We have even dropped off our kids with awesome friends who would watch them so we could go galavanting off somewhere. Definitely have a guide for your sitter no matter who they are. I foun...

Running Gingerbread Man Cookie Cutter "Most of us know this rhyme form the ancient childhood folk tale. Today's cookie bakers still like to create luscious ginger cookies. But most cutters produce a symmetrical likeness of the man, facing you head on. Here is the outline for a cutter that has him in his most typical pose - running." Here we go again. Shop Class Making cookie cutters.  What is so wrong with the standard shape? And look at this outline! That cookie is not running anywhere. It looks like a cookie Dr. Frankenstien would make. Imagine that thing running after you?! I think I will stick with the standard non threatening Gingerbread outline. "You can't catch me! I'm the Gingerbread Man!" IF my cookie man straight up started talking to me and running out the door, I would let it. Get that evil out of my house! If you are ever interested on making your own horrifying cookie you can follow...