Stories of yesteryear as told by “old-timers”.
The Way We Used To Do it…
When my grandfather got his first tractor he decided to keep his horses and old horse-drawn equipment in case the day ever came when he couldn’t buy gas or tractor parts. Grandpa, his horses and farm machinery are now gone. But his vision lives on.
- The Spring House
- The Ice House
- Building a Root Cellar (5 pages)
- Potting Meat
- Salt Curing Meat
- Yeast Cultures for Bread Making
- Making Bread in a wood burning oven
- Making Butter
- Making Sauerkraut
- Soap Making (9 pages & 3 Sites)
- Growing and Harvesting Wheat By Hand
- Building a Cistern
- The Out House
- Remember Mama’s Recipes (42 pages)
- Memories, by Libby Maxwell
- Just for Fun – The Homestead House
- Just for Fun – Getting Electricity
- Just for Fun – Getting Water
Links to Other Sites
- Old Time Trade Exibitions at Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.
- The 1850 Westville, GA Living History Museum See 1850’s cooking, candlemaking, buildings & furnishings, blacksmithing, spinning and weaving, pottery making…
- Widow Rumble’s Home Page Recreations of many facets of life in the 1800’s.
- Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation
- Association of Personal Historians. Helping people preserve their life stories.
- The Online Homesteading and Small Farming Resource
- Spinning Wheel FAQs by Christine Jordan
- Handmade Parchment & Vellum
- Cheese Making
- Handweavers Guild of America, Inc.
- Cisterns by the University of Florida ** This page no longer exists on their website. It has been archived on our site here.
- The Rural Resource Center
- The Kansas Pioneer Way of Life by Norris Torrance
- Jackie’s Smoke House
- The Rugmaker’s Homestead ’99 Learn to make a rag rug.
- Old type bread baking ovens
- Laura Ingalls Wilder author of Little House on the Prairie
- The Overland Trail Tons of really interesting, exciting stuff.
- The Home Steader Web Ring
- Family History of Walter Scott
- Eldon’s Jerky and Sausage Supply Everything you need to cure meat.
- Whoever thought plumbing history would be interesting???
It has been said that when a person dies a library burns. Only those who have tried to compile a life story on someone who has departed this life knows what a reality this is. Today there is an increasing self awareness among many toward becoming more self reliant. We try new things and – in my opinion – try to re-invent the wheel. The pioneers of 100 years ago were already more self sufficient than most of us will ever be. Perhaps instead of looking to the future and new ways of doing things, we ought to at least take a small look into the past and re-acquaint ourselves with the old ways that are proven, that work, yet are nearly forgotten. The subjects listed on this page comes from the old folks themselves. Occasionally their stories have been supplemented with newer ways of doing the same things, but generally the ideas and methods remain theirs.