I have studied survival and prepping most of my life, and I have learned quite a bit. There have been all kinds of recent improvements in technology that give us tons of cutting-edge toys to make life easy. However, I have found that the key to prepping and homesteading is looking back… not looking forward.
As technology has taken off, we have become soft as a society. We no longer have the need to physically work hard and adapt to our environment to survive. City utilities and modern appliances have replaced the well, the fireplace, the candle, the book, and the root cellar. For projects, power tools have replaced chisels and hand drills.
So. what happens when the grid goes down? All of this wonderful technology goes with it. It is estimated that 90% of Americans would die in the first year if the grid went down permanently. This is because those 90% do not have the skills or tools to survive without the grid. The Amish have always done it best.
Despite the world evolving and growing around them, the Amish have relished in their simple and pious lives. They refuse to use most modern technology or electricity, so they live much like everyone did prior to electricity.
Related: 5 Lost Survival Lessons I Learned from the Amish
The one exception is that some Amish have started using generators, solar power, and wind power for enough juice to light their homes at night. The Amish give us as preppers and survivalists a unique opportunity to see how skills and tools from the past could keep us alive when SHTF.
In this article, we are going to discuss prepping items from the Amish that could help you survive.
Water Gear
Water is the single most important resource you need to survive off the grid assuming your home is already warm and dry. Without electricity, your water pump does not work on city water or well water. That means no showers, no laundry, and no drinking water. It also means no watering the garden if you are growing one.
If you see a hand operated water pump, consider snatching it up. It can be hooked up to an existing well, or you can dig a well. You might also grab any pipes or fittings they have to keep the project simple. In addition, you should have containers for transporting and storing water.
It is best to have one large reservoir, and sometimes these can be found at Amish stores. They may also have smaller buckets for collecting and transporting water or gear to build a rain catchment system.
You will also need to pick up supplies to filter your water, and you might find them there. Finally, tools for washing laundry are always helpful. Washboards and other tools found at the Amish store can help you wash clothes without power.
Lighting
Without electricity, keeping your home lit at night is difficult. Your best options are going to be those that do not require batteries. It’s great to have battery-powered lanterns and flashlights, but the batteries run out at some point.
The Amish largely light their homes with candles, the fireplace, and oil lamps. The oil lamps can be hard to find, but an Amish store is a good place to look.
There are tools like pokers, shovels, tongs, and brushes for fireplaces that can be found at Amish stores.
You can also find candle holders and sometimes homemade candles in bulk. Get creative by using jugs of water or mirrors to project the light around the room.
Related: A Green Beret’s Guide to EMP: Practical Steps to Prepare for a “Lights Out” Scenario
Heat and Cooking
Most people in the US use either gas or electric stoves and ovens for cooking. Obviously, this is not an option if the grid goes down. There are lots of other options for cooking the way the Amish do.
Wood stoves are one of the best solutions as they can handle the cooking and heat the home at the same time. Good woods stoves are hard to find, but you might get a lead on one at an Amish store.
You can also cook outside over a fire if the weather permits, and this requires some tools. For a campfire to work for cooking, you really want a way to elevate pots and pans above the flames or to put the food directly in the coals.
There are metal rigs you can by to elevate pots and pans, there are metal rotisserie frames, and there are metal grates that all can allow you to control the heat of a fire for cooking. Lots of these tools are handcrafted and can be found at Amish stores. If not, you may get info on a blacksmith in the area.
For cooking hardware, you can’t do better than cast iron. Cast iron pots and pans distribute heat more evenly than any other pans. They are also practically indestructible. I suggest picking up at least a couple sizes of pots and pans along with at least one Dutch oven.
The Dutch oven will let you cook like any other oven by piling coal on top and all around. Cast iron cookware is a regular at Amish stores. You might look for utensils while you are at it.
Sewing
While sewing may not big a big part of modern life, it is for the Amish. They typically make their own clothing and then repair it as needed versus buying new clothes.
Needle and thread are always an option, and you can find sewing and knitting kits at Amish stores.
In addition, having a foot pedal sewing machine is a huge bonus. My wife loves to sew, and she enjoys the control that you get with a pedal sewing machine. These are hard to find, but you might see one if you get lucky.
Related: Lost Native American Survival Skills
Gardening and Farming
Not every home will have the land needed for a garden or for farming, but if you have the land you should plan on using it.
The Amish have been feeding themselves with gardens and livestock for hundreds of years.
Without electricity or access to gasoline, hand tools are needed to garden.
You may already have some of this gear but go ahead and get anything that you don’t.
You should have a variety of shovels, rakes, hoes, pitchforks, and post hole diggers. You may need metal stakes, tomato cages, or fencing that could be found at the Amish store.
Sometimes you can get a line on manure, compost, or other soil amendments. Many farmers will sell their manure and compost. You may also need irrigation supplies like hoses, sprinklers, and piping. Any of this could be there if you look around.
Building, Carpentry, and Fencing
Surviving off grid means repairing and building things when needed instead of hiring someone else to do it. Your home itself will need repairs, but there will also be building project to make your homestead more effective.
You may need to build fencing for livestock or a chicken coop. You may need to add a water catchment system or build a smoker to preserve meat. Whatever the case may be, you will need some hand tools.
Some of these you will already have but look for a variety of different sizes and shapes of hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, sockets, pliers, saws, pry bars, hand drills, vice grips, chisels, files, awls, and planes. Anything that has a blade in an Amish store is probably a good purchase if you don’t already have one.
There are so many different shapes and purposes for blades that you really need a collection to be efficient without power.
Related: 25 Powerless Appliances for Your Homestead Kitchen
There are the items that I really look for at a good Amish store. I want to get a hand drill, a mini sledge, and a saw I’ve never seen before. This is the fun stuff. Once you pick it out, you get to go home and figure out how to use it.
Don’t forget to pick up supplies for these projects. If you need things like stakes, fencing, or tanks they can often be found there.
Livestock Care
There are lots of tools specific to the care of livestock that can be found at Amish stores. You can find tools for keeping the animal healthy as well as tools for harvesting and butchering the animals.
This is all fairly specific depending on the types of animals you are raising, but take the time to look around and see if they have anything to help.
For example, I once saw a device designed to hold the head of the rabbit while you snap the neck for the most humane way for it to die. This is the type of thing you might find there.
While we have not yet been plunged back into the dark ages, it is only a matter of time. With the natural disasters we have had lately, more and more people are forces to live off the grid for a period of time.
So what happens when hackers or an EMP blast shuts the whole thing down. You can be sure that the Amish will be just fine.
You will also see that they will still be selling their goods to help out the rest of us, but the price might be a bit higher at that point.
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It is just about impossible (or not worth it) to read articles on this site anymore, with that stupid pop-up ad for Lost Ways 2. I try to scroll down through the article with my mouse wheel, and if i need to reverse and go up even the tiniest bit, BAM can’t read anything. Please eliminate this. There are other prep sites that people can use.
Hmmm…
David LaGrange,
You might want to check the security settings for your browser. Maybe you can turn on a pop-up blocker. I’m not getting that problem, so I doubt that it’s coming from the site. I’m using Chrome and have a blocker turned on.
I agree with Old Bald Guy. I am using Firefox and I do not have an issue with the popups. I have just the generic popup blocker, so nothing fancy.
As far as being “not worth it” to read articles on the site, if it is due to your issues with popups, then once you have those blocked, I hope you find value in some of the articles, but even if the articles are “not worth it”, then the ensuing comments generally have some valid (and invalid) input.I come to this site, all news pipeline, and the gateway pundit, to read the articles/news, but mainly to gather some hopefully useful insight from the comment sections.
May your day be filled with joy (when you stop those dang popups), and may your future be bright.
Duck duck go and pop up blocking is working for me.
use the Brave Browser. no pop-ups.
use the blocker.
Kerosene lanterns of excellent quality, p,us wicks and spare parts, are available from W.T. Kirkman.com
You can also check at Lehman’s in Kidron, Ohio. They have a large store online.
Anything you buy at Lehman’s seems to last for centuries! Always wondered where all the strange stuff in the house came from as a kid since I never saw it for sale in Macy’s! The answer is Lehman’s!
yeah, but almost all of Lehmans items come from China
You should check out the rocket stove design that uses less fuel with a lot of heat, seen on u-tube.
A good reference material for buying antique, old, or old style tools is one of those facsimile catalogues of Sears Roebuck or other mail order companies from the late 1800’s – early 1800’s. These have detailed illustrations and descriptions so you can identify the tools when you find them at thrift stores and yard sales, because the seller may not know what they are either.
There are also price guides to buying antique tools that sometimes show up in second hand stores. The older books may not have current pricing information, but they do have information on brands, manufacturers and photos of the product, as well as naming the tool to assist your research.
A couple of ideas to help with these items that are readily available #1 a rain barrel or bucket under each downspout. There is a water supply that is usable. #2 you can purchase from many places a barrel stove kit which lets you convert a 50 gal. steel barrel into a usable cooking stove and a very efficient heating stove. There is also a kit to make it possible to install a second barrel above the one that holds the fire to make it even more effective in heating an area. #3 you may not like it but human waste i9s also a fertilizer and can be composted and used in a garden
Just remember to use a lid and put the downspout into that. Mosquitoes and so on do not like going into the dark. Most states allow storage of rainwater. Many encourage it. Some have outlawed it for pansy reasons. One great thing to do is buy or make a sealed new septic tank and run water into that. A filter keeps out most debris and bird droppings. niio
You can buy oil/kerosene lamps locally and Academy and other sporting goods stores, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Kohl’s, Walmart & Amazon (of course). They’re really not hard to find. Candles and candle holders are even easier to find…even grocery stores will have at least some of those. Likewise, if you have a wood/charcoal grill or smoker and some sort of cover, you can cook over a fire anytime. Actually, if you have some sort of overhead outdoor cover, you can cook over a ground fire despite weather. Rocket stoves and the like can be handy if all you have is small stuff. Dakota hole is a ground version of the rocket stove.
Buy only oil lanterns made in the U.S. or Germany. The Dietz brand is the best made. The Chinese knockoffs rust too easily, do not give off much usable light, use too much fuel, and tend to smoke too much. The glass globes are not supported well and break easily. WalMart sells the Chinese made lanterns, do not buy them. Look for lighting at Lehmans or estate sales, the glass lights are OK, but not very portable. Check the burners for rust, too. Buy extra globes and wicks in bulk rolls off eBay in case of breakage. Paraffin oils are the best for no odor lighting. I use them all the time in power out conditions. Make sure to suspend them by the bail when using them for room lighting by brass hooks that screw into your wood. Shame on you if you use sheet rock over your rafters.
I admire the Amish for the close community they enjoy because of their religion and embrace of generations old values. I’ve never been a part of anything quite like it. It’s very cool that they send their kids out to see the world before asking them to commit to it, too. Imagine the patience of Amish life, working with hand tools, traveling by horse and buggy instead of rocketing along in a 300 horsepower pickup. When i used to plow I’d stumble into the kitchen, fill a thermos with coffee from the auto coffee maker, fire off the garage door opener on the equipment barn, check the fluids and tire pressure on Juan Venado, hop up in the cab, start up, load a CD, crank the AC and spend the morning plowing along a contour holding the wheel with 2 fingers rocking out to Delmore Bros, Rev. Gary Davis, and Doc Watson. And I imagine an Amish farmer and his son in a wooden barn in the half light checking plow lines and harness running their hands over every inch looking for weak spots, driving a couple of damn mules out to the field, getting them in the rigging, then that old boy riding the metal seat of the plow all day feeling every inch of his land. I couldn’t do it, not patient enough, I’d be down at the equipment rental place looking at tractors before the morning was out.
JH – They do a lot of this with no shoes on their feet too. Feeling the dirt under their feet makes them feel that they are as close as they can get to God’s green earth. None of today’s so called environmentalists do that. I’d like to see John Kerry do that.
I feel having at least a good bicycle if not several with tires tubes chains etc for transportation and carts you can pull behind if you’re physically able. Also you could sell barter trade in a shtf. I scrap on the side and you wouldn’t believe how many times I get bikes that are good given too me also people leave on the curbs for free.
I looked up “Amish Market” and found a directory of locations. Unfortunately, none of them are in the Northwest. None in WA, OR, ID, or Montana.
Freedom Loving Jeannie,
No Amish, but ya may be able to find Mennonite stores in Idaho and Hutterite in MT.
I am also in PNW.
Do ya know about the LDS stores?
Only foods available but have many canned for 25 years shelf life in #10 cans.
Quick internet search will locate one close to ya.
Peace,
MadFab
If we lived closer to Mexico, they have stores in the mountains where anything can be bought at a tenth we’d pay in the US. Down there, off-grid nothing too modern is common, especially out in the brush. Solar, yes. ! niio
When TSHTF and everyone finds themselves living in the 19th century again, the Amish will not notice any big change in their lifestyle. Unfortunately they are civilized pacifists and the human animals will come calling.
Years ago I lived with some Amish near my hometown in Ohio. I enjoyed it much, learned the dialect to be able to function in a conversation, etc. Now where I live, I haul Amish to town and various places.
Some thoughts: I put some kerosene or jet fuel in my lamps, worked okay for a while, but because they were in sunlight most of the time, the kerosene turned a dark red, also hardening the wicks. Then I discovered my friends were using odorless mineral spirits for their lamps and kerosene cookstoves. I’m switching over to that.
They use small 20-50 watt solar panels to charge their batteries or their engines to using the 12 volt system to charge the batteries.. They use l.e.d.headlamps to see around in the evening in the home, or out in the barn or shop. I’ve also picked up that as a habit too. The batteries they use a lot are the lithium 18650’s, with a high m.a.h. (or milli amp hour). Remember those light switch type lights at Harbor Freight? I convert them to use a single 18650 lithium battery, really nice and bright, not too hard to convert either.
Another project of mine is to start converting things like a vacuum food sealer to run on 12 volts to pull a vacuum for canning or sealing plastic bags. Also converting a Nicad and Nimh battery charger to run on 12 volts too. I already have one that does use 12 volts to charge batteries.
BTW, the Amish I lived with are Old Order, as well as the ones I am friends with and haul. They’re good people, have the same problems, hopes, aspirations as we do, and they dearly love their children………………..nemo
Old Instruction manuals for what you have are good to pick up too if you don’t have them. Been looking for one for a pedal Singer sewing machine just like the one pictured in this article or quite some time. I have a fold-out Golden oak box in one of the drawers with all sorts of odd looking metal attachments that I have no idea what they are for or how to use them. Grandma didn’t need the instructions but I sure do!
An older brother likes to clean attics and basement. He finds a lot of stuff like Ford’s series of books that came with every brand-new Model T. It about teaches how to tear one down and rebuild it. niio
Singer Treadle Sewing Machine Update – Found everything I needed to know about Singer Treadle Sewing Machines at ISMACS.net. AKA “The International Sewing Machine Collectors Society.” You can easily identify your machines, find out when a machine was manufactured and download all sorts of sewing how to instructions and maintenance manuals., including manuals that explain all those crazy looking attachments! All free of charge.
There isn’t an Amish store anywhere in my state. Sure as hell not going to move just to have access to one.
But that aside, this site is repetitive. It keeps giving you the same info in various ways, or it’s so asinine that it’s wholly unhelpful. I remember when they had damn good articles on here. But now I’m seeing clickbait shit like “don’t step on this plant!” And “skills pioneers have part 33”.
I’ll check back in a year and see if there’s anything new and good on here. Until then I’ll just go elsewhere
You don’t need an Amish store. Most things you can find online. Anyone that is interested, you can go to Lehman’s online and order one of their catalogs. They can be pricey, but you can find out what’s out there, e.i., different types of grain mills, or crocks for making pickles. It’s a wealth of information. They use to charge $5 for the catolog. In my humble opinion, it’s worth it.
Don’t check back, just go away!!!
Thank you for this information & the comments are very helpful too.
There’s an Amish Market here in Midtown Manhattan, over on the west side. They sell prepared food and typical grocery store food items. Nothing else.
Maybe there are some in New Jersey or upstate NY. Have you tried googling it?
Hi there,
I believe this article may provide the information you are looking for: https://www.askaprepper.com/what-is-the-closest-amish-market-to-your-home/
God bless,
Claude
CC: Head up to PA, danville. Go thru town over the river, make a left. Travel several miles to Crestline. They were Mennonites, and know a lot of stores that are. Crestline was selling scrap slab bacon for 1.49/pound last September. Canning lids were 1.75/dozen, but my sister said their price went up. When there (Sept.) I go 100 yards down the road, make a right to Erb’s place. He had bushels of apples (Rambo! Pies! Sauce!) for 10 a half. He does free range poultry, eggs and birds. Peaches, opposite from Danville to Amish and Mennonites. Apples in AZ, Mexico, to the Mennonite Zone niio
I’m sure this has been addressed before and I probably just missed it but what can you do about keeping foods cold or even frozen if no electricity is available? I know people used to have root cellars but that isn’t going to keep things frozen. And I can’t imagine canning meat.. it just doesn’t sound appealing at all .. LOL Jerky yes and just eating veggies unless fresh meat is available but canned… I just don’t think I can do… Any and all advice would be welcome.. I desperately feel the need for preparation. I refuse the current jab they’re trying to get everyone on board about and I know eventually they’ll shut those who don’t abide completely out meaning no commerce or trade. My family and I have several things covered but living in a warmer climate I’m just not sure what to do in preparation for cold storage
As far as keeping frozen or cold items, you’re going to need to get a generator. There are kerosene powered refrigerators available too.
Fwiw, I’ve tried canned meats and they aren’t bad. Don’t write them off until you’ve tried a couple of different varieties and brands. They can be a valuable resource for your pantry, and you can use them for any recipe calling for cooked meat. Canned fish is a good alternative/adjunct.
Try the meat in pot pies, spaghetti sauce, casseroles, tacos. The only thing that I’ve noticed is that the texture of canned chicken is a bit mushy and tends to be “wet” even if you drain it and canned beef can taste a little burnt. It’s something that you can work around, though with experimentation and an attitude of adventure. Think of it not as a poor substitute, but as something unique unto itself.
Canned meat is fine, if done right. Most of it is stewed as ready to eat meals.
Post SHTF, the only way to keep things cold will be a well or springhouse, if you have them. this works if you’re in the mountains with a shallow well, or up north where water stays cold all summer. Down my way, ice cream was strictly a winter treat 🙂 niio
Miz Kitty: diesel generators are better. they can be converted to methane when diesel runs out. Gas generators tend to fall apart from acid in the methane.
Just make certain you have extra seals for the pressure canner! niio
My amish friends all have icehouses to keep their food cool, but not frozen. Water freezes at 32 degrees, so that will be the temps in the icehouse. Around February, March, or when the ice is at least 8 inches or more thick, they go to their ponds or neighbors ponds to cut the ice with saws, usually gasoline powered, into blocks, then haul them out with ice tongs. They are then loaded onto their wagons in single layers, so they don’t freeze together, and hauled home to their ice house. The inside is usually 8’x8′, heavily insulated with either foam blocks or spray foam. A small area 3’x4′ is reserved for their refrigerated items, usually kept on wooden shelves. The door is just as thick, and latches securely to keep the cold air in. A drain is placed somewhere in the floor to let the melting ice water drain. Used properly and carefully, the ice will last to the next ice harvest, i.e., a year at least.
The only way you’re ever going to have a place to freeze, or to keep frozen your food stuff is in areas like the Yukon or Alaska where the ground is frozen solid a few inches under the top soil, year round. That is called permafrost. Most people up there have to work hard to excavate a small area to store their food.
I was went spelunking in Tensleep Canyon in Wyoming once down in a fissure cave where all the walls were frosted, but that was rappelling 75 feet down. Not practical. A school teacher who spent her summers hiking the Weminuche wilderness above Durango, Colorado once found a cabin abutted up against a high rock face. In the back of the cabin was a door that went into an ice cave where there were still some deer meat hung up and frozen solid. I don’t pretend to understand why caves are icy, but one I experienced, the other was told to me second hand.
I would like to point out that living “old timey” is not relegated to just Amish, many of our parents, grandparents and others lived this way too. It’s just that the knowledge has been forgotten and replaced by new fangled ideas and technology……………….nemo
Just read the reply on ice houses. Some of you may remember the (Ice man). I was raised in the coal regions of PA. Out side of many towns someone builds a dam so the pond is shallow about 4 ft deep. then constructs a well built barn to store the harvested ice in . When it was harvested in blocks cut from the pond it was covered with sawdust to keep blocks seperated and insulated. Then during the summer they came around with horse and wagon or truck and sold ice to those that still used ice boxes(the original refrigerator) Some of our neighbors would not even consider an electric refrigerator becaus it dried out articles where the ice box kept everything fresh and flavorful. As kids on a hot summer day we would wait for the iceman to go in a house and we would jump on and grab chuncks of ice to suck on and cool us down
The Amish do use oil and gas. They often run a a generator to work the shaft driven tooling in most of the shops. They shop at Walmart for food and baking supplies.
So while yes they are sorta self reliant. It isn’t exactly what most people assume.
Yet, while you’re right, they can do without those things. But, as well, too many I knew cut down their orchards because it’s easier to buy cases at a store than work their own. Then they sell it like it was their own produce. When I go east, I buy from only Amish and Mennonites who I know. niio
If you don’t have access to a pond, but do have the room to build an ice house and the winters get cold enough, you can fill recycled plastic water or soda bottles about three-quarters full and put them in a safe, sheltered spot to freeze overnight. (You may need to use a bit less water if you have issues with the bottles splitting.) Then you can put these in your icehouse.
It will take a bit longer to get it all together, and you will need plenty of storage for the empties, but if the bottles are carefully cleaned before use and you use potable water you can drink it after it has melted in your icebox, so it will be an important adjunct to your water supply as well as food storage.
You would need to boil or perhaps filter ice melt from pond water to make it potable, although it could be used to water the garden after it warms up a bit so the cold doesn’t shock the roots.
I haven’t tried this because I don’t have the room and the winters where I am haven’t been cold enough recently, but I can’t think of any reason why it wouldn’t work.
Miz Kitty, how do? Bottled and frozen is a great idea. We keep jugs in the freezers in case of a power outage. This far away from all the excitement of cities (drive-by shooting, drug lords, burglars, and mojados), when the power goes out, it might stay out for 3 days. A plus, when going shopping in Tucson, a few jugs in the coolers keep meat fresh for the 50 mile trip home. It hit close to 110 F today, normal for here, so those jugs come in handy. This time of year, the joke is, when you turn on the cold water tap, always wear oven mitts because of the steam 🙂 niio
Good idea Miss Kitty. My one Amish neighbor used a neighbor’s freezer to freeze jugs of water to keep his stuff cool until he could fill the ice house in winter. The one point about using jugs of water; hard to stack, unless laid on their sides, or put on shelves. Though it would take longer to freeze, five gallon buckets would stack a lot easier.
I had an old acquaintance, (ex-military, alphabet agency after that) who was in our southern tropical countries in this hemisphere, and said they used to take old freezers that the compressors were bad in, and hooked nitrogen into the
high side of the system to cool their food. The caveat was the nitrogen had to be very slowly released on the condenser side, since the compressor was no good or no electric to run it. Having been a sealed system tech working for Sears, I understand how this would work. He said the nitrogen would last quite a while…………..nemo
Nemo:
Interesting option, liquid nitrogen. I wonder how that would work….if those people are having good luck with it in South America, it might be a good choice for for some here as well.
I also used to work for Sears in their parts and service department, years ago, both as a service contract sales person and as a parts clerk. I can honestly say that the techs I worked with were the nicest bunch of people and good at their jobs… of course, this is before planned obsolescence, when people actually fixed broken appliances instead of throwing them away.
I covered NE Wyoming, 10,000 square miles of the three counties there. I did everything there except some electronics. I was basically on my own, and had to be sure I diagnosed correctly each time, I had no backup at all. I worked out of Rapid City, SD, then later Casper, WY.
The nitrogen was fed through the high side line from where the removed compressor was. It was under regulator pressure from the nitrogen tank to be somewhere around 125-150 psi. I’m not sure how it was released from the low side into the atmosphere, it couldn’t be recycled back through without a compressor of some sorts. I did use nitrogen for checking for leaks after installing a new compressor or any sealed system part. Kept a tank of it in my van…………………..nemo
City Chick:
Thanks for the info for the sewing machine!
I have an old Ricoh that I got for free, but there was no manual and I don’t know how to use a sewing machine anyway (thought I could teach myself…lol!) Having a manual will surely be a big help.
Miz Kitty! And here we all assumed you were expert in all things prepper! Too bad I’m not there to help. Mom always said no one could tangle up the foot-powered Singer like I could. I’m better at blanket weaving, of course. I need to make a rabbit blanket. Good in summer or winter, they work great and are light. I screwed up my leg, and am taking it sort of easy now. niio
Red:
Hardly an expert, I just bumble along and try to pass along any good information I pick up along the way. No, I nearly flunked home ec waaay back when…missed a lot of classes showing us how to use a sewing machine when my grandma passed. It was a very short lab, for some reason. I just managed to finish my projects by sewing them by hand and barely passed. I think my teacher just wanted to get rid of me.
I’ve been working on my hand sewing skills and they’ve been improving, but I always thought that learning how to use a sewing machine would be a worthy skill.
I just checked that site, btw, and Ricoh machines weren’t listed. Alas! I’ll keep looking, though…
Red:
Sorry I didn’t mention it before, but I’m sorry you got hurt and I hope you feel better soon. ??
Miz Kitty: No es nada, as folks say. I’m always getting basnged up or knocked around. Like a cuz in N. Carolina said, ever’body gotta has a hobby.
You were raised in town? I wasn’t, but Dad liked to do things as he was taught, scythes, horses, and all. anything can be learned and you’re quick on the brain. That’s a very respectable thing. niio
Red:
I have some sort of mental block about the whole thing – I feel vaguely nauseous whenever I even think about trying to foil around with that old thing.
I think I’d be better off to either get a new machine or to just concentrate on my hand sewing skills. I’ve already got the basic skills and equipment for that, so I don’t have to buy anything special, it doesn’t require power to operate (always useful in a grid down or off grid situation) and I can work at my own pace. I rarely get the chance to just sit and work on any project anymore – seems like I’m always jumping up to do something else that needs immediate attention. I can see getting really frustrated with trying to operate a sewing machine and having to go do something else in the middle of it. Better to dance with the one who brung me.?
Thank you all for such informative information. Miss Kitty. I too had a hard time in home ex class. The first half was cooking which I was very good at and passed with flying colors. The second half was sewing. Our project was to make a dress (sleeveless shift). I really tried to do my best but when it came to putting it all together I couldn’t get the armholes right. Time to wear our dresses and I couldn’t get my arms through the armholes. They were so tiny. My grade suffered. Graduated in 1970. Haven’t attempted to see since. I feel your frustration and dread trying to learn again. Everything discussed about Amish ways and how to keep food from going bad without refrigeration or freezers is a huge concern of mine. I’m no longer married and now live in an Independent Living Community in San Antonio, Texas. Summers are beyond hot and winters are sweater weather. With the exception of two winters ago when we had a severe freeze we weren’t prepared for and it was a cold snap that won’t be forgotten for years. A lesson learned the hardest way. Anyway I worry about how I will survive if we do have a SHTF occurrence. I have approximately a year and a half food supply for myself but what about the others in my community. I once asked the manager if he had a plan in case of an emergency such as an EMP. NO was his answer and walked away. There is difficulty keeping my prepper ideas secret around here since everything I order must come through the front office first. It’s no secret what I’ve boxed away in the second bedroom of my 2 bedroom apartment. My family thinks I’m crazy and make it clear they won’t allow me to store my preps at their homes. It’s a big concern of mine. I can no longer afford my own car so a storage unit is out of the question. Any ideas or helpful advice from all the informed geniuses out there? I would be forever grateful for any advice. Thank you all.