Pioneer Days

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Pioneer days in the Cash household

So the kids and I have decided to totally and completely lose our minds. In the spirit of cooking food all the way from scratch we decided to live like Pioneers to the best of our ability for Thursday and Friday. The kids go to their biological father’s house on Friday evening and I won’t see my babies again until Sunday evening….it kills me to share them, but I love them and want them to have a great relationship with their father. But, it’s also fun when I get to do cool stuff with them too. So, the blog, the cookbook, and now Pioneer days…..Oh, Lord…what have I signed on for?

Here’s the parameters or as K.K. says…the rules of Pioneer days:

Wednesday night at midnight I flip off all circuit breakers. By this time there will be bags of ice picked up from 7-11 and stuffed in the freezer and the fridge to keep food fresh and safe…not exactly Pioneer, but the best I can do from where I sit.

So rule 1: NOOOOO electricity…which is why this is being typed two days in advance and our commentary will be posted this coming weekend after we all sit down and chat about the experience.

(Preston is devastated that no electricity means no Myth busters movies…K.K. is not happy that there won’t be a radio playing in the background…and I am not thrilled that laundry will not be done by my washer and dryer.)

On Thursday we will rise with the sparrows to begin a list of daily farm type chores. Tinkerbell and Max will become livestock that we tend to throughout the day. The barnyard will be tended to and we will be cooking over an open fire pit. To, which, Preston is thoroughly excited about….as he loves to cook outside.

Rule 2: All meals will be cooked on the fire.

So, our Pioneer menu for two days worth of food goes like this:

Thursday:

Breakfast:

Homestyle pancakes on a griddle over the fire

Syrup

Fruit

Milk

Lunch:

Sandwiches

Mac n cheese (if I am good enough to get it done on the fire)

Fruit

Tea

Dinner:

Steak on the fire

Baked potatoes

Sautéed onions

Peas

Tea

Friday:

Breakfast:

Biscuits or muffins…whichever survives the fire

Jam

Milk

Lunch:

Spaghetti

Corn

Fruit

Tea

Dinner:

BBQ chicken

Baked potatoes

Sautéed onions

Green beans

And a cake…(YIKES!)

Rule 3: Laundry will be done in the tub and hung out to dry.

Sigh….the kids are ready for this one…I am not…so in the spirit of keeping as much of my sanity as possible I am doing as much laundry as I can in the next 24 hrs so that a few pairs of socks or undies is all I need to really do.

　

Rule 4: Candlelight will burn brightly in the evening and we will play games and chat and read together for entertainment.

It’s a lot of togetherness and thank goodness I like my kids. There aren’t too many other people I would want to attempt this with.

Rule 5: Neighbors are strangers. Unless you lived in town, neighbors were few and far between, so we are segregating ourselves from the doorbell and interferences and essentially camping around a bonfire pit and cooking for the evening….complete with a bucket of water nearby.

Right now, the kids are digging the fire pit deeper that Jason built me over the fall. They are measuring a grill grate to ensure that it will sit in the pit and be steady with food on it. I am planning a quick trip down to the 7-11 for ice and turning the fridge temp down so that it will be colder by the time I toss ice in there and hopefully it will stay cool. If I notice that it doesn’t, I’ll toss the food in the freezer to maximize food preservation…(otherwise and I hate to say it, but I’ll cheat and use some electricity for that purpose. No judgment, please. With two little kids in the house and an issue with low blood sugars, there must be food in the home.)

So tomorrow, I will be in the backyard, setting it up like a barn yard…complete with water area for the dogs, the kennels will act as a pen, and at night we won’t venture beyond the back porch. Much like we did on the farm I lived on as a kid. Dad was the only one brave enough to go the barn at night. Oh, Jason….you will be in the field for this excursion….and how much I will miss you even more during the night when I’m hoping that I can keep a fire going thru it by sleeping in the living room as I did last night. I, truthfully, did not actually sleep. I laid on the couch staring at a cursor that blinked and mocked me and tried to write in my book. Hopefully I can get a fire going in the fire place and keep it going so that I can heat tea or coffee in the morning, so I’m not a cranky brat all day. If I can keep it going thru the night, rise it hot in the morning and cook off it throughout the day and evening…by Friday night when Jason gets home from the field and we take the kids to their father I will feel like I succeeded at something major this week. This may be a dear journal entry….expect to read about tears, tantrums, and an assortment of minor injuries and wounded ego and pride….the only thing I would consider a real failure is the fire and food issue. If I can’t keep it going, successfully cook off it and keep the food in the fridge and freezer cold….then I have failed.

But in the spirit of being a my father‘s daughter.….I think I’m smart enough to work my way around this one and get it right. What will really kill me is no outside contact with anyone else in the world. I may put pen to paper and actually write letters on Thursday and Friday…just to stay entertained and I do have a lovely set of stationary. No electricity means no phone, no computer, no nada….so I won’t be typing for two days…..I won’t be making calls for two days…..I won’t be blogging or journaling for two days….I may just cry now and get it over with.

The inspiration came when I thought about Jason being gone….how Dad was gone a lot…on one job site or another….how we got snowed in….and even though we don’t have six feet of snow piled high along the fence line…..I thought it would be interesting to see if I could create a similar situation and teach the kids how to fend for themselves….Preston has been wanting to cook on a grill or open fire since we decided to do this and here is his opportunity….

I will submit my recipes for the menu when I figure out which ones work and taste yummy but until then I truly do not want to open my big mouth and say….here’s how to do it before I put it to the test. K.K. still wants Julia’s cookbook and I, personally, wouldn’t want to entertain the notion of cooking like Julia Child over an open fire….but let’s get through this event….then we’ll see if anyone has any grand ideas on a cookbook…hell, maybe we’ll write our own.

Stay tuned…..