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How Did The Pioneer Women Do All of This?

8:50 PM, Monday, August 27, 2007 .. Posted in Living Learning Moments, A Dixon Home Education .. Link

Sunday, 8-26
They say necessity is the Mother of invention...
You have no idea how many times in the past 2 months I have asked myself, "How did the pioneer women do all of this?". How did they do all of the planting and harvesting and cooking and cleaning and laundry and canning, and... and.... sheesh - take a breath! I read an older post on a friends' blog last night(she has 6 children), and she was asking how moms with a dozen children do everything they do. Then, top all of that with the fact that the girls have been wearing their prairie bonnets all over that Brielle sent them as a sweet gift, and I had to find an answer to this perplexity that has been bugging me so much lately.

Today, I went out to make some stands for the chick feeders and waterers, and I am out there, with the Littles and a couple of older children. They came out to help, and kind of withered away in the help department after they carried up a few small pieces of wood. Now, you know, I have had a hard time keeping the garden weeded and stalls repaired and built, the housework done, because I have a beautiful little LittleLucyLillie to tote around. I absolutely do not mind the toting; it's the work that doesn't get done that bothers me. I can hardly strap my LittleLuc on my back and go out and work in the barn yet... and pulling weeds in the hot sun with the little pumpkin on my back is out-of-the-question. Well, at least until she is 6 months old, anyway. Anyway, today, Amanda was holding the Raspberry.

So, again... I ask myself, "How did these pioneer women do all of this?". All of this WORK? I mean, they had no running water, no electricity. They had to GROW ALL THEIR FOOD... in the garden or in the fields and store it for the entire year. And, did their children complain about having to work? I know Junior didn't have to mow the lawn, but did he complain about all the other tasks he was responsible to do?
Did little Suzy complain when she had to go and help with the bread-baking and laundry-scrubbing?
Watching Little House on the Prairie does not qualify me to live the pioneer life. I really want to know how this was done. And I'm sure I don't know nearly as much about pioneer life as I used to think I did.

Never fear, as I looked over some planning notes for homeschool, I thought again, "Why not just take a look at Pioneer info, just to see what comes up?", so keyboard in hand, I googled 'work "in the pioneer days" '. It came up with a lot of interesting info about pioneer life. As I perused everything from how to build a house to what foods they planted to candle-making and root cellars, I thought how much I would love for our children to learn some things, instead of just thinking they know, too. We take a lot for granted in this day and age. No matter how strong our faith is, it seems to me that we don't have to have much faith sometimes. These families had to have faith. They didn't have a heater that almost always worked. They couldn't run down to their local grocery or gas station and just pick up something they needed to bake bread.

These women were planners, and they were diligent, because if they weren't, they would die. Period. They had to teach this to their children, because their children would have to know it for adulthood. Besides, they knew the value of many hands lightening the load. They understood that you slept in the same bed with your siblings so you wouldn't literally freeze to death, instead of crabbing, because they wanted their own little rooms all to themselves.

We watched Pioneer House on PBS a couple of years ago, and I couldn't believe how people treated each other and did not want to do the work that was necessary to live by. They had agreed to live as a pioneer family and abide by the ways of the 1800s era in every way, and then, some of them even crossed into this century and went to a little shop and bought some pies and other sweets and treats. I mean, yes, it was hard work, but, what? It was not long that this family just quit doing what was necessary to live. The husband got all skinny and really sick... They lacked the diligence and the understanding of life out on the prairie. It was really life and death. You don't harvest enough hay and grains for your animals... um, you don't get to run down to Tractor Supply for some straw. The guy who was wise and saved more than you did it to sell for profit... he gets yours.

Diligence.
Hard Work.
Working Together toward a common goal.
Planning for the future.
Teaching it all to your children.

I found so much information on pioneering, I think there may be too much to learn! That won't stop me though! I am now in the process of reformatting some of the plans and ideas that I found online. I know we have a few American Girl cook books and craft books to get out and look at.
Jocelyn had researched the 1800s lifestyle and etiquettes and different information for her novel, and it will be interesting using her book as a resource for our Unit Study.

I have said many times that I was born in the wrong era/century, thinking how nice it would be to have a simple life, tending the children and the garden, teaching them. And, now, our lives have been so simplified, and it still isn't simple enough, because it seems that is all we do, and I am still wondering how to do it all. Having 2 goats a year ago was a lot different than having 5 more with the 2 milking now. Of course, then there is the fact that we no longer grab a bag of feed and give it to them. We mix our own formula of grains and then we also graze them in a sort o 'goat tractor' everyday. Jocelyn has taken over this daunting task, of course, but it still involves the entire family. The biggest problem with the horses is keeping up with stall repairs and locks on the doors, so there isn't much work there, though Amanda would tend to disagree, since she shovels the stalls each morning!

Right now, we are caring for the 60+ chickens we have down in a stall in the barn. I just put up an inside door to the stall, but the outside top stall door broke off, so we have that and some pasture gates and fence built... time and money, my friend! I wish I had been taught about planning. It's hard to keep up with everything while you get things in order and fixed, too.

So, I will be researching the pioneer days. We will be living it out. I would really like to go without electricity for a week, but I don' thing dh will go for that! (Yikes!! Can you imagine-- the girls and no blogging privileges for a whole week!!)?? There are, however, many other ways to experience the pioneer days here in IN. In a few weeks is the Johnny Appleseed Festival in Fort Wayne, and I want to go. I need to look at the schedule and see how I can fit that into the schedule... er, the other way around!

It will be interesting to study the pioneering from the standpoint of our own state and local area. I know there are historical markers all over that we can go and experience and discuss and dream about 'how it all was back then'.

Whatever direction this takes us in, I know it will be fun and we can cover any kind of topics about pioneering we seem to find interesting. Hopefully, I can find some relief for my question about how the Pioneer Women did it. I just don't think I will ever really understand their plight, short of living it out. I know one place to start though... I am positive they got to bed before 3 am every night. *That* is what I want to start with. Enough sleep to get up at the crack of dawn.

Some interesting and fun sites I found about pioneering:
Pioneer Children's Games
Life on a Pioneer Farm
Indiana Pioneer Life
The Homestead

This post is a part of The 13th Homesteading Carnival. Please take a few moments and look at the beautiful Carnival posted at Simple Folk.
It is also a part of the Carnival of Homeschooling and the Carnival of Education... Check them out!!!!.
Blessings to you!!!
-Jacque

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