An abundance of abundance...

[_Blixa]

Where do you find most of the yarn you use? On E-Bay as well?

Yes. And now I have more than I will ever live to use, probably!

Here's a link to Rebecca. They have a lot of free patterns on this site. Enjoy! http://www.rebecca-online.de/cont_en/

[_Jason Bourne]

My bride used to be quite the canner-pears, peaches, apple sauce, tomatoes, grape juice and son on. She also was a sewer, baker and so on. We used to grow a veggie garden that would feed an army. But that has changed over time. Some of it is due to our children growing and leaving home. Some is because we can afford not to do as much of that anymore. I miss it some but my wife does not. It is a lot of work a while I would help some she did most of it. I think our oldest two daughters can do much of this now but our 14 year old was fairly young when my wife started phasing this out.

[_MCB]

Although I'm nevermo, those traditional skills are important. I learned many as a child and young adult. So many of the younger generation have had no experience with them. We, children of those who survived the depression, know their value.

Just wondering-- can these skills be shared with the community through non-religious organizations? County extension service, 4-H? Maybe helping the community food pantry, preserving fresh produce that might spoil before it gets distributed? Maybe a kitchen set up through one of those agencies, especially equipped for canning, dehydrating, and freezing, where people can process excess from their gardens?

Some LDS values are good.

[_Yoda]

Where do you find most of the yarn you use? On E-Bay as well?

Yes. And now I have more than I will ever live to use, probably!

Here's a link to Rebecca. They have a lot of free patterns on this site. Enjoy! http://www.rebecca-online.de/cont_en/

Thanks for the link! This is great!

[_solomarineris]

A little window into harmony's world:

Last week, my friend the RS president called and told me I was the last woman in the ward for visiting teaching interviews. I reminded her that I wasn't a visiting teacher, and she agreed, but she said I was a font of wisdom and she needed to tap it. I'm like... what is the bottom line, my friend? What do you want? Turns out, she had observed that the young women and young married women in our ward don't know a lot of things we all learned when we were teenagers or younger... things like how to sew, how to preserve food, how to make bread. And she wanted to know what my ideas might be on how to fix that.

Homemaking skills? I thought RS had gotten away from "homemaking skills"? It appears not. I must put my thinking cap on and ponder this for a while.

At least 10 years ago, I gave all my jars and canning equipment to my sister, as I was through through through with that phase of my life. Any year's supply I needed, I'd buy it in the store. No garden (besides my 2 tomato plants), no excess produce, no more gleaning the fields or the orchards.

Never again, I said!

Meanwhile, it seems the wives of some of my sons have never canned... and want to learn. They also want to know how to make bread, how to quilt, how to knit, how to sew... all those skills I once used daily, but work hard now so that I don't have to do them!

Perhaps it's the "have to" that I wanted to leave behind, rather than the skill itself?

A few months ago, 2 of my children became unemployed, and moved home to save money while they looked for work. We are 3 families under one roof. Good thing I have 4 bedrooms, huh? 1 son has a job now, and the other has a job pending, but they all still live here (along with 3 grandkids 5 and under, but that' another thread).

Day before yesteray, a neighbor dropped off a big box of peaches. Peaches so beautiful, they'll never see the inside of a store. Peaches the like of which you can only find at a farmer's market, and then only if you get there really early. And then the garden my son and his wife and children have so diligently tended all summer long is... well, let's just say it's overproducing. Tomatoes are piled in buckets and stuffed in every free space in the fridge. We have a squash pyramid on the front step. Watermelon and cantaloupe vines are taking over the driveway.

What to do with all of this stuff? I can't bear to have it go to waste...

So... yesterday, I stopped at Walmart and picked up 3 dozen jars and a water bath canner. And my DIL's are canning peaches and tomatoes under my tutelage. Even my son has gotten in on it. Yes, every big bowl and pan in the house is dirty, but we have 15 quarts of tomatoes, 6 quarts and 12 pints of peaches, and my sons' wives are exhausted... but they now know a skill they didn't know before today and feel a bit more able to look economic hardship in the eye... and spit! (my problem is, I think we're going to have to do it again in 2 weeks, when we again have buckets and bowls full of tomatoes starring at us.)

Thanks for this beautiful post Harmony.
It is indeed sad if Church RS steers away from Homemaking lessons, emphasis. I realize that it is came to be buttjokes of RFM type of boards but it is a survival skill for girls that Mormons taught so well. My ex wife did alots of canning when we were married, even nowadays she does when she gets a chance.
I say help these ladies if you can, even though you have your hands full with your own family.