I wanted to let you, my readers know about my "other" blog. It is The Peoples Home Library. It is actually a book published in 1910 and describes itself as "a set of three practical books, the aim being to give the reader a complete library of practical information"
This book includes three essential subjects needed in the home, be it on a farm or on a city lot. Housekeeping and all it entails, from keeping a home clean and neat along with the acceptable etiquette of the day, how to cook, what to cook, and when to cook. Medical information -- not just the everyday treatment of cuts and bruises but things such as birthing, treating broken bones, and diagnosing and treating common and uncommon diseases including herbal remedies and the making of tinctures, teas and salves. Animal Husbandry -- how the man of the house can treat his stock, the horse, the pig and cattle, even a few hints on keeping the house cat and the essential farm dog! Oh and of course a chapter on keeping chickens and even how to build a chicken coop!
I simply transcribe sections of the book -- I don't write any new words to what this book offers. I present the book as a historical document for those who might be interested in "how things were done" a hundred years ago.
I do not transcribe the book in any particular orderly fashion, so one entry may include diseases of horses, with the next weeks posting may be recipes for muffins or how to set a table. If you are interested in a particular subject, please use the "labels" to find pages that I have already transcribed from the book.
I would like to add a note of caution. Some of the items such as herbal remedies could be dangerous, so please use what is written only as entertainment value, not as medical advice! I take no responsibility for your own choices in the use of the information that comes out of this book. Keep in mind it was written and published more than one hundred years ago and modern knowledge has changed and improved in that time.
I did start transcribing this book, in 2008 but it has been on hold for almost 2 years while I waited to have the book and bindings restored. I now have the book back in my hands and intend to continue entering pages and exerpts from this long ago household "bible".
My Mother discovered this large old book in a second hand shop in the early 1960's and even tho it was then 50 years old, it held some relevantcy to our life as my Father had just moved us from a city house to a small farm near St. Andrews, Manitoba (near Lockport) and we had a lot to learn about raising chickens and keeping an old farmhouse warm using only two potbelly wood stoves! In those days, my mother became an expert farm wife, even to the point of saving the life of a sick turkey, only to have the turkey nabbed by a marauding neighbours' dog a few days later!
Go to http://peopleslibrary.blogspot.com/ to read the details of how to manage the home in the early 20th century.
I hope you enjoy this departure from everyday modern life -- it is a bit of time travel, I think.
