A Tutorial on Ironing, Sleeves, Creased Pants, and Ruffles

The Old Farmers Wife instructs us on ironing.

Now we are home enjoying our semi quarantine

and I am tidying up some of my neglected mending and ironing.

So it seemed a good time for this.

First you want dampened cloth or you can spray or steam as you go.

For a laundry basket full of predampened clothes go back to one of the early posts

Called "Tueday was....". (It followed Monday is Wash Day)

SLEEVES

These are tricky if you don't know the tricks.
Start with the shoulder over the end of the board and iron it.
Then lay the sleeve out flat and iron it. Now the trick!

Flatten it with the outer side centered over the inner seam 

and lay one edge over the side of the board.

Then you can iron the middle out with the iron off the edge 

of the board and not pressing the other edge, ergo no inadvertent creases.

TROUSER CREASE

If you don't want creased pants iron them as you would sleeves.
Start your pants with the tops put over the end of board and iron around
the waist and pockets. Then lay them out lengthwise along the top of board.
 with the inseam and outside seams lined up over top of each other

from the crotch down to the hem. Iron flat to the edges.
Them fold back the top leg and iron the bottom leg.
Flip them over and repeat on reverse side.

Perfectly centered creases.

RUFFLES

These may just require a little practice to get the feel of.
You stretch out the edge of ruffle following the curve as it goes.
Iron along the edge with the tip of the iron working into ruffle.
You may only be able to do a few inches at a time depending on how wide the ruffle is.

You will get the feel for this after doing a few inches.

So there it is.
Wishing us all luck clearing up these odds and ends
lingering around the house until we have time! 

Old Fashioned Spaghetti Sauce

On the farm Thursday was spaghetti day. 

Today the Old Farmers Daughter is cooking Spaghetti, 

so it seemed a good place to start the "recipe book". 

The Old Farmer's Wife's technique, slightly updated from home canned 

to store bought tomatoes, also a couple cans 

as opposed to 3-4 quarts home canned tomatoes and puree.

2 cans diced tomatoes, recommend 

good brand without to many

stem end pieces or skin in it

2 cans tomato paste

12 fennel seeds, ok...more or less!

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp basil

1/3 cup sugar

A couple halved garlic cloves

This is a good start....will smell great simmering as low as you can set it, stir everytime you pass thru the kitchen, hopefully at least every 15 mins! The Old Farmers Wife was working around the house so passed through the kitchen often.   Don't worry....

see note 1*

A couple hours before supper it's time to do the meatballs and sausage.

Take 1 pound of hamburger

Add 1/2 cup bread crumbs
         1/4 cup parmesan cheese
          Few shakes of mixed Italian
    seasoning
          Some minced or diced onion
          Salt/pepper to taste
          1 egg
Mix well, form balls to preferred size, fry or bake, then add to sauce.

And the Sausage, cut mild or hot to 3-4" lengths
Saute until done. Prick in several places to release the grease. Some modern sausage is so fat free you might want to add a bit of oil to pan, it will cook better.
Add to sauce

  NOW the magic

Add diced onion (1/2 to a whole depending on onion and batch size)

to the sausage drippings and saute. 

When tender add a couple scoops of the sauce, drain excess grease if any.

Stir up the sausage flavor into that bit of sauce and add to the pot!

Adjust seasonings, maybe a shake of Italian seasonings. 

Maybe a shake of red pepper flakes, careful, very spicy! 

The Old Farmer used to shake a bit on his plate. 

A tsp. of salt...While it continues to simmer cook your pasta. 

Then enjoy.

*1 - if sauce is to thin you can let simmer longer or you can cheat 

and thicken with cornstarch.

Its The Little Things

Its the little things...

 Speaking in pig latin,

    the Old Farmer was quite proficient.

Playing games around the table after dinner,

    guessing state capitals and national capitals.

Jigsaw puzzles and bedtime stories.

Board games on Saturday night.

 Homemade popcorn.

Homemade milkshakes!

 Sitting on the porch 

watching a storm.

Riding on the tractor.

Learning to drive the tractor!


Blowing out the birthday candles.

Hanging tinsel on the Christmas tree.

Learning to ride a bicycle.

 


Climbing trees, 

picking blackberries,

 apples, and pears

 Making snowmen.

Throwing snowballs.

Piggy back rides (a bucking bronco!)

A hidey hole, (a blanket over a card table)

Hide and seek, outdoors at night!

Tag and move up baseball and croquet.

 Spur of the moment ride in the country.

Hiking on the railroad tracks.

Niagara falls and Watkins Glen.

Olcott Beach 
and amusement park.

Welland Canal, the Erie Canal.

Finding a bird's nest

 or some baby rabbits.

 Catching frogs and crawdads at the pond.

And then letting them go.

 Nightmares and fire sirens 
and hearing ghosts at night.

Hiding under the covers.

Playing with a flashlight at night,
 can you see through your hand.

What is this shadow animal, 
duck, dog, bird flying!

The things a child will remember all of their lives.

What are some of yours?

Fireman's Field Days

Farmers worked hard in the summer.
We also played hard!

Those were the days of volunteer fire departments.
The siren would go off and could be heard for a couple miles away.
The first ones to the department would get the location
and head out with the trucks.
Volunteer firemen farmers would converge on the site.

Volunteer firemen also had a band at each department.
All were recruited if they could play an instrument.
The old farmer's oldest daughter played a glockenspiel.
Then every weekend over the summer a different department hosted
a field days event and parade.
They all marched in each others parade.

 

The field days involved many booth of games.
Dart throwing, ping pong balls tossed into ivy bowls.
(With a gold fish in each!),  hammering a nail into a 2x4
(who could drive a nail with one blow?), knocking down the weighted critters,
target shooting, and on and on. 

Guess who always came home
with a 50s ruby or green glass ivy bowl and a goldfish!

So this was actually a lot of work too, building the booths,
volunteering to run them, barbecuing the chicken, parading.
But the work was on the host department,
you got to enjoy everyone elses!

What do you remember about field days? 

Did you ever run a booth or march in the parade?

Snow Days

Snow Days.

Didn't we all love them! 

A play day, a fun day, a romping in the snow day. 

Unfortunately they were few and far between.
If the side road was impassable The Old Farmer's children

had to hike to the top of the hill on the main road to catch the bus! 

When we had one we made the most of it.
One of this Old Farmer's daughter favorite memories of a day at home

would be when The Old Farmer's wife covered a card table with
a blanket to make a tent, a cave, an igloo! 

We would use a dining room chair as a doorway
to crawl into the cozy space. 

When getting outdoors in our snowsuits

we would play fox and goose, making concentric circle paths

in the snow with a cross through them to a safe space in the center. 

When the fox caught a goose (one of the other players)

they became the fox until they could catch a "goose". 

There was a lot of slipping and falling down in the 

bulky suits which were hard to move in! 

The Swamp in Winter

While the swamp was spooky in the summertime,

In the winter it creaked and groaned as the frozen

trees blew gently in the cold breeze.

We would try to quietly tramp through the crusty snow

breaking through sometimes, good boots were a plus.
We would find tracks of aquatic mammals like muskrat.

An occasional deer track passed through, maybe it was
that big buck the hunters had reported. 

There was the elusive ermine, In the prized winter coat of a weasel.

If you stood quietly the squirrels would start to chatter
and run up and down the trees, occassionally leaping from one to another. 

Birds...there were kingfishers and crows. 

Hawks, woodpeckers, and starlings. 

Life was bountiful if you knew where to look,
even in the depth of winter.

Warm radiators and furnace

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Its winter on the farm.

  The Old Farmer stokes up the coal furnace in the basement.

The is a twice a day job. You shovel out the ashes in the bottom,

Then shake a  grate handle on front of furnace. The cinders and smaller coals

fall through and the hot bigger coals remain on top of the grate.

By the next shift any hot coals that fell through are burned out and safe to shovel out again.

Then in goes a couple big shovels full of new coal.

 In the fall the Old Farmer had let any air pockets out of the radiators

with the radiator key. This was called bleeding the system. Sometimes

during the winter this process was repeated if there was an air block

and the hot water wasn't circulating.

Hot water would circulate through the radiators and they were toasty warm.

There was nothing like coming in the house from the cold and sitting
by a radiator and warming up with a cup of cocoa.
They were also a great place to dry our snowsuits and boots!

 

I remember being home from school sick in the winter.

The Old Farmer's Wife would bundle me up in a blanket

on a chair by the radiator in the kitchen. Then was she could

do her work and keep an eye on me. 

And the Old Farmer's would go outside the big windows and build

a huge snowman using bushel baskets full of snow.

Cutting Down The Tree

Once upon a time the Old Farmer and his brother 

found a big old two man saw in barn #2. 

They decided to see how long it would take to cut down
a really big tree with it.
Also providing the Old Farmer's children and the cousins
some entertainment in the effort!

There happened to be a really big old tree in the front woods
 (across from the house).
This tree must have been a good 4' diameter,
 but was largely hollowed on one side. 

Still sturdy but thought to be expendable as a future hazzard
 it was chosen for the experience. 

They started sawing mid morning. 
Continued sawing until lunch. 
Took a lunch break and came back to sawing.
And finally we were all told to stand back, and boom!




I guess it took about 4 hours  and several blisters laterto get through the treeand it gave us many years of fun afterwards, 
climbing up on it and running along the length. 

3  J's

For those who still live in the area, there was a tree towards the front
corner of the woods nearest the house. I have wondered if it has been
cut down with the building of new houses or is still in someones yard? 
Fairly high up the Old Farmer had carved the notation "3 J's".
I don't think it was that high originally, but grew higher as the tree grew.
(three J's referred to the three women in the family whose names began with J)


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