The Old Fatted Goose

I've been reading a book called Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart to my mom at the nursing home.  It's a series of actual letters written in 1914 by a woman who moved out to Wyoming and these letters are just delightful.  They give a fascinating glimpse into the day-to-day life of ordinary people living out in the secluded ranches tucked away in the canyons and prairies of Wyoming.

Yesterday there were two incidents that caught my attention.  The first involved a bobsled ride in the middle of winter.  Mrs. Steward, her husband and several houseguests were preparing to head out cross-country to a remote ranch for a dinner party.  This trip would involve a day's ride by bobsled over the snow-packed terrain and then a stay of several days before heading home.  To help them stay warm on their journey, the husband heated up rocks in the fireplace and then packed the bottom of the bobsled (which was a wagon bed set on bobsled runners) with straw.  He placed the heated rocks on top of the straw and then placed more straw on top of the rocks.  Next came a layer of blankets.  The people sat on top of the blankets and piled more blankets on top of themselves.  That is how they set off, using the hot rocks as a form of our "heated leather seats" in cars today.

I asked Mom if her family had ever employed this heated rock technique to stay warm when they traveled by bobsled.

"Oh, yes," she replied.  Since Mom lived out on a farm in Minnesota where it gets mighty cold and snowy, I have no doubt that she was remembering correctly.

The other thing that caught my attention was the fact that one of the houseguests, a German lady, insisted on greasing up Mrs. Stewart's baby with goose grease to protect it from the cold before they headed out on their trip.  Ugh!  Goose grease?

"Mom, did anyone ever do that to you?" I asked.

"They sure did," Mom answered.

"Whatever for?" I asked.

"I have no idea," she replied, "but I'm glad that didn't do it when I got older."

Must have been a German thing, I thought.  I'm just glad that goose grease went out of fashion by the time I came along.

"So I guess Vick's Vapor Rub was YOUR version of goose grease and that was why you were always smearing it on me," I teased.

"Probably," Mom laughed.

Thank Heaven for small favors.

Put Me On a Boat and Call Me Sonar

As my mom used to sing, in her warped sense of humor, "I feel like hell.....I feel like hell.....I feel like hell...ping some poor soul."  Yup, I've got the galloping crud or whatever is being passed around these parts.  I really thought I might avoid it this time when I moved across the hall into the guestroom when the Commander came down with it.  Unfortunately, those blasted germs chased me down.

It's the usual Springtime upper respiratory thing, with the sneezing, runny nose, and coughing.  It caught me unprepared with not a lot of cold remedies around the house so I've been relying on my usual allergy meds.

I've been trying to stay hydrated by drinking lots of water.  When that gets old, I break into the Diet Pepsi.  In the mornings, I rely on hot coffee and tea.

Sometimes I go for the stronger stuff.  When you're operating with only 1-2 hours of sleep a night because of the stuffy nose and horrible coughing, it's any port in a storm, I say.

Speaking of coughing, I figure I could hire myself out to the Navy as sonar.  Honestly, with all the hacking and clearing of my throat, I sound like I'm doing constant "pings."    I walk around the house and you can follow my progress by listening to the sound of "huh, huh, heh, heh."  I just can't seem to hack up those darn phlegm balls.

Whatever did folks do back in the old days before modern medicine when they had horrible coughs?  Since I can breathe better when I'm sitting upright, I've had time to actually do a little research on the computer into that very question.  Here are some of the home remedies I found suggested to tame a cough.  CAUTION:  You might not want to try any of these.  I simply found them on the 'Net and we all know how reliable THAT can be.  But they are good for a laugh.  Also remember that honey shouldn't be given to young children 1 year or younger.  Comments in italics are mine.

1.  Stay hydrated.

2.  Try some honey (1 Tablespoon) with juice from 1 lemon

3.  Chew on a piece of peeled fresh ginger

4.  Inhale steam

5.  Smear vapor rubs on your chest

(These remedies were found at www.righthealth.com/ )

6.  Try Licorice for a cough

7.  Mix garlic and honey together for a cough remedy (no one will CARE if you are coughing because no one will want to get near you)

8.  Chocolate has a component in it that is said to relieve coughing.  (Now THERE is a suggestion that I can get onboard with)

9.  Make a Ginger, Cayenne Pepper, and and Vinegar Tea (I think I'll stick with NyQuil.)

(These remedies were found at http://www.grannymed.com/ )

10.  Drink grape juice with a tsp. of honey

11. Drink Onion juice mixed with honey (You've GOT to be kidding me.)

12.  Grind up raisins with water and then add sugar and heat it up.

13.  Take a daily warm-water enema (Um, I'm coughing out of the other end.)

(These remedies were found at http://www.home-remedies-for-you.com/ )

14.  Eat a tablespoon of peanut butter

15.  Empty some whisky out of the bottle and add to the bottle, hard rock candy,  2 lemons and honey and let it sit 24 hours then use it to dose for coughs and colds. (I wonder how many old-timers convinced their wives that this was a remedy for coughs and NOT liquid refreshment?)

16.  Put Vicks on your feet,  slip socks on and then your cough will lessen within an hour. (another person said you could also use plain Crisco or lard.)  (I'm thinking that your cough will go away when you start screaming after you fall while trying to walk with Vicks or lard on your feet and break a hip.)

17.  Raise one arm up above your head.  (Just don't try this if sleeping in bed with someone OR if at an auction.)

18.  Rub vodka or brandy on your chest or throat before bedtime. (Hmm, well, you definitely wouldn't want to do this if you had to go anywhere else, like an important meeting or church.)

 (These remedies were found at http://www.myhomeremedies.com/static/cough.html )

There you have it.  Now aren't you glad that you can just pop over to a drugstore and pick up cough drops or cough syrup nowadays?  Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go smear some lard on my feet.  I'm thinking that it might not cure my cough, but it might just polish up my floors.

Who Would Have Thunk It?

Today's post is a bit of lagniappe - a good old word that I first met in a Cajun cookbook.  Its meaning in that book was "a little extra."  It can also mean a little gift thrown in for free to someone or something given over and above, like the Baker's Dozen.  For Hot-Flashed Funk today, it means a bit of this and that thrown together to brighten your day.

My first little "extra" that I found as I was reading the paper this morning was a short article on the most popular baby names in 2009.  Top choices for girls were Olivia and Isabella and for boys were Jacob and Michael.  To see the entire list of the top 10 names for both boys and girls, you can go here.  Strangely, if you look to the right on that page, you'll see a link that takes you to a short video of Chubby Checkers counting down the top 5 boys' and girls' names for the decade 2000 - 2009.  I must say, Chubby is still looking pretty good for someone whose music I used to twist to back in the 60's.

My second "extra" of the day is the news from Great Britain in a recent survey.  The folks there were asked to rank the top 100 inventions in their opinion.  Well, would you believe that they put their iPhones above their flushing toilets?  It kind of boggles my mind.  If you'd like to see how the rankings went, you can do so here.

Do you enjoy free things?  There is a website that lists all sorts of things and services you can get for free and it is sorted by category, which makes it easy to browse through.  It's at thefreesite.com which you can access by clicking here.  They even have a page of listings of free things for bloggers.  Who knew?

Have a favorite coffee travel mug that has gotten stained and grungy-looking inside?  I know that mine looks terrible inside but yet it is shaped in such a way that it is hard to get my whole hand inside to really scrub it.  Well, here is a tip I've read and I think I'll try.  Moisten a sponge with white vinegar and pour some table salt on it.  Then rub the inside of your mug with the sponge.  The stains should come off as the salt will act as an abrasive.  You can rinse everything with warm water and repeat the process as needed to get it clean.  The vinegar should really make the inside sparkle.  I might give this a try this afternoon.  If I do, I'll report back here to let you know how it goes.  You'll definitely need to wash out the mug afterwards, though, to get rid of the vinegar and salt taste.


Well, that's it for today.  I'm off to high tea at a new tea shoppe where a group of us will be celebrating a friend's retirement.  Pictures and a report tomorrow, I hope.  In the meantime, I'll leave you with a graphic from my family collection that you can use for your scrapbooking.  It's a little calling card featuring a dove and roses that someone gave my grandmother when she was a girl.  Enjoy!