# Great downloadable "survival" book published in 1838



## Guest (Jun 13, 2008)

This is called *The American Frugal Housewife*, but it was published long before electricity, running water, home canning, etc, and has fantastic tips for food preservation, cleaning, purifying water, home remedies, etc etc, using simple ingredients, many of which can be foraged or produced at home from things you grow or that you can buy cheaply.

http://www.archive.org/details/americanfrugalho00chil

You can download it to your hard drive from the left side of the page, or browse it online by clicking the Flip Book link.


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## MedicalUser (Apr 26, 2008)

thanks cool link

pEaCe


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## scotty 38 (Nov 7, 2006)

thanks cool link


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## seedspreader (Oct 18, 2004)

Eggs will keep almost any length of time in lime-water
properly prepared. One pint of coarse salt, and one pint
of unslacked lime, to a pailful of water. If there be too
much lime, it will eat the shells from the eggs ; and if there
be a single egg cracked, it will spoil the whole. Thej
should be covered with lime-water, and kept in a cold place.
The yolk becomes slightly red ; but 1 have seen eggs, thus
kept, perfectly sweet and fresh at the end of three years.
The cheapest time to lay down eggs, is early in spring, and
tlie middle and last of September. It is bad economy to
buy eggs by the dozen, a^ you want them.

(From Page 11 of that book)


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

ladycat - I copied and pasted your OP of this thread into the List in the Announcment thread so we won't lose it if threads get renumbered.

Angie


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## Guest (Jun 14, 2008)

Did anyone else see the instructions for making a barrel of soap? That should be enough to last a while! 


AngieM2 said:


> ladycat - I copied and pasted your OP of this thread into the List in the Announcment thread so we won't lose it if threads get renumbered.
> 
> Angie


Thanks!

I don't have a printer, but I'm going to be writing down some notes from that book.


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

I also downloaded it to this computer.

(does anyone think that putting something like this burned on a cdr then play back on a car/portable cd/dvd player for when electricity is being out?)

Angie


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## Guest (Jun 14, 2008)

From page 15:

Butter is sweetest in September and
June ; because food is then plenty, and net rendered bitter
by frost. Pack your butter in a clean, scalded firkin,
cover it with strong brine, and spread a clotli all over
the top, and it will keep good until the Jews get into Grand
Isle. If you happen to have a bit of salt-petre, dissolve
it with the brine. Dairy-women say that butter comes
more easily, and has a peculiar hardness and sweetness,
if the cream is scalded and strained before it is used. The
cream should stand down cellar over night, after being
scalded, tliat it may get perfectly cold.
Suet and lard keep better in tin than in earthen.

I had to look up the word Firkin. I know I have seen that before, but never looked it up. It seems to be some sort of cask that holds 56# of butter.

That phrase "until the Jews get into Grand Isle" must have been a colloquialism.


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## WeaverRose (Jun 29, 2007)

We used the Frugal Housewife book as a reference when I worked at a living history museum, haven't thought of her for years.


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## Guest (Jun 14, 2008)

AngieM2 said:


> I also downloaded it to this computer.
> 
> (does anyone think that putting something like this burned on a cdr then play back on a car/portable cd/dvd player for when electricity is being out?)
> 
> Angie


That's a good idea. Try it out and let us know if it works.


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## sgl42 (Jan 20, 2004)

AngieM2 said:


> (does anyone think that putting something like this burned on a cdr then play back on a car/portable cd/dvd player for when electricity is being out?)


If you had a notebook computer with a CD/DVD drive, and enough to power the notebook, you'd be able to view it from the computer.

I think if you burn a CD, it would be stored in a computer text format. Your car CD player would need a different format to play music. The old ones didn't even play mp3 format music, altho I believe some of the newer ones do. Perhaps some of the newer players also support a computer format, I'm not sure, but certainly older ones do not. My car is a 2000 model, and the CD player does not even support mp3 files for music. 

Perhaps I misunderstood what you were trying to do, and I haven't shopped for a non-computer connected cd/dvd player in a while so I'm certainly out-of-date on the consumer side of things (but not on the computer side.)





ladycat said:


> That phrase "until the Jews get into Grand Isle" must have been a colloquialism.


googled and found this (emphasis mine):


> http://www.jewishmag.com/81mag/usa4/usa4.htm
> 
> President James Madison appointed the first Jew as a foreign ambassador. Mordechai Emanuel Noah was appointed American Counsel to Tunisia in 1813. He was shamefully recalled when the Muslim government refused his credentials upon learning he was a Jew. Noah, sometimes called the first American Zionist, attempted *in later years to establish a Jewish colony on Grand Isle opposite Buffalo, New York. The community named Ararat failed. *Noah never forgot his roots.


also:


> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Island,_New_York
> 
> In 1824, in a precursor to modern Zionism, journalist and Utopian Mordecai Manuel Noah tried to found a Jewish homeland at Grand Island in the Niagara River, to be called "Ararat," after Mount Ararat, the Biblical resting place of Noah's Ark. MacArthur Award-winning cartoonist Ben Katchor fictionalized Noah's scheme for Grand Island in his The Jew of New York.


and thanks to the OP. i'm saved a copy to my hard drive.
--sgl


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

I'm talkinga about those dvd players that play the movies in the back seat configurations. And using a laptop would work with some cars. My car has a fold down passenger seat back that becomes like a desk and the dash has an ac outlet that I can turn on while the car is running (like a generator).

I'm thinking like that, not just a audio, but a video dvd.
I may have to try it with my inhouse dvd player.

Angie


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## MedicalUser (Apr 26, 2008)

]

there are loads of this book on amazon for sale, some cheap  One as little as $4

PeAcE


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## DW (May 10, 2002)

It is sitting on the shelf by the computer...mine says 1833. I bought it as a souvenir when we went to Hannibal...it was in the Becky Thatcher Book Store. I should probably reread it.


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## Grace&Violets (Apr 4, 2007)

MedicalUser said:


> ]
> 
> there are loads of this book on amazon for sale, some cheap  One as little as $4
> 
> PeAcE


At .08 cents a copy, it'd be cheaper just to print it out, even at Kinko's. $3.04.

I would maybe buy it from Amazon, though. Have an original.


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## Guest (Jun 14, 2008)

Grace&Violets said:


> At .08 cents a copy, it'd be cheaper just to print it out, even at Kinko's. $3.04.


Does that mean I could burn it to cd and take it to Kinko's and let them print it out???

I have a few books I'd like to get printed out!


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## Blu3duk (Jun 2, 2002)

ladycat said:


> Does that mean I could burn it to cd and take it to Kinko's and let them print it out???
> 
> I have a few books I'd like to get printed out!



Yes they will do that as long as the material is not copyright protected and not made for resale.... though i doubt if they even check in most places....

My problem is it is 70 miles to the closest copy place and that is Staples, which will also print from CD and if you open an account they will also print from a pdf off email [this i know from a Appellate brief i had to submit to the Idaho supreme court last year and well they got some of my business].

William
Idaho


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## Guest (Jun 14, 2008)

Blu3duk said:


> Yes they will do that as long as the material is not copyright protected and not made for resale.... though i doubt if they even check in most places....
> 
> My problem is it is 70 miles to the closest copy place and that is Staples, which will also print from CD and if you open an account they will also print from a pdf off email [this i know from a Appellate brief i had to submit to the Idaho supreme court last year and well they got some of my business].
> 
> ...


I'm going to look into it!! If it only costs a couple cents a page, a 150 page book would only be $3.


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## joseph97297 (Nov 20, 2007)

Awesome book.

I have wanted to for a long time burn out some Cd-r or even Dvd-r's with all of the books and information I have found. Just wondering if I hosted a site, would you guys/girls, upload your material and then we could all just search that and download/burn/print whatever we wanted?

I wonder how the legal issues would be? For instance, I got a copy of the Foxfire books before they were removed from Librums pdf pages and they are great copies, but unsure about the legality of them......

Anyway, just an idea, any opinions?


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## sgl42 (Jan 20, 2004)

ladycat,
i think kinko's (now part of fedex) on their web site has a place you can upload the file you want to print, and have it printed out for you, so you don't have to burn a CD. Search their web page for details, as I haven't used this service before, just heard about it.

--sgl


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## Guest (Jun 14, 2008)

sgl42 said:


> ladycat,
> i think kinko's (now part of fedex) on their web site has a place you can upload the file you want to print, and have it printed out for you, so you don't have to burn a CD. Search their web page for details, as I haven't used this service before, just heard about it.
> 
> --sgl


I can't upload a file bigger than a couple of MB (I have to use a download manager to get them on my hard drive).

But do you mean they would mail it to you after they print it?


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## LvDemWings (Sep 11, 2005)

I had to laugh when I read this part. Its nice to see that the more things change the more they stay the same.


The prevailing evil of the present day is extravagance.
I know very v/ell that the old are too prone to preach about
modern degeneracy, whether they have cause or not ; but,
laugh as we may at the sage advice of our fathers, it is too
plain that our present expensive habits are productive of
much domesuc unhappiness, and injurious to public prosperity.


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## Guest (Jun 14, 2008)

LvDemWings said:


> I had to laugh when I read this part. Its nice to see that the more things change the more they stay the same.
> 
> 
> The prevailing evil of the present day is extravagance.
> ...


Some things never change. 

This near the beginning goes good with your quote:

In this country, we are apt to let children romp away
their existence, till they get to be thirteen or fourteen
This is not well. It is not well for the purses and patience 
of parents ; and it has a still worse effect on the
morals and habits of the children.


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## Guest (Jun 14, 2008)

Good tip!

Poke-root, boiled in water and mixed with a good quantity
of molasses, set about the kitchen, the pantry, &.c. in
large deep plates, will kill cockroaches in great numbers.
and finally rid the house of them.


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## WanderingOak (Jul 12, 2004)

ladycat said:


> I can't upload a file bigger than a couple of MB (I have to use a download manager to get them on my hard drive).


One thing you could to is send them an edited version of the .txt file. That should only be a few hundred KB. I would like to know why the people who scan documents using OCR software cant use a bloody spellchecker before distributing them.


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## sgl42 (Jan 20, 2004)

ladycat said:


> I can't upload a file bigger than a couple of MB (I have to use a download manager to get them on my hard drive).
> 
> But do you mean they would mail it to you after they print it?


see http://fedex.kinkos.com/fpfk/index.php. now you know as much as i do! ;-)

looks like you download some s/w, such that kinko's is now one of your printers. also looks like you have a choice of picking up at kinkos, or having it shipped to you (at extra charge, I'm sure).

if you have file upload problems, I don't know why, and you'll have to get help elsewhere.

--sgl


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## Guest (Jun 15, 2008)

sgl42 said:


> if you have file upload problems, I don't know why,


I'm on dialup.


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## FalconDance (Feb 4, 2007)

I downloaded a copy but am also ordering one from Amazon. Have a feeling that this is one of those books that will be used over and over both by myself and a good friend who is like-minded.


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## Aeirios (May 31, 2007)

Wonderful, looks to be lots of very good info. Thanks for sharing:happy:


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## happycat (Dec 22, 2003)

I have a hard copy of that book; it's a very interesting read. Never thought of it as a "survival" book, just figured it was a very practical book of the time.


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## LostnEurope (Feb 26, 2007)

Ladycat, thanks for that link....I have downloaded the book to my computer...LnE


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## Blu3duk (Jun 2, 2002)

If you are into neat old books then  The Compleat Housewife might be up your alley. Though is you dont have $6000.00 for that first edition,  Kurt Saxon website has the dvd scaned version on special again/still with the rest of his works. or for those that only want it by itself with 5 other books and not all the works at once, The compleat Housewife $25 And nope i dont get a anything for sending anyone to go look or purchase, but I think the man has been a pretty good reference to keeping some folks on an even keel.

William


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## Guest (Jun 15, 2008)

Blu3duk said:


> If you are into neat old books then  The Compleat Housewife might be up your alley. Though is you dont have $6000.00 for that first edition,  Kurt Saxon website has the dvd scaned version on special again/still with the rest of his works. or for those that only want it by itself with 5 other books and not all the works at once, The compleat Housewife $25 And nope i dont get a anything for sending anyone to go look or purchase, but I think the man has been a pretty good reference to keeping some folks on an even keel.
> 
> William


There are TONS of old books along those lines in the text section of Archive.org http://www.archive.org/details/texts

I've been downloading as many as I can, but it's slow going on dialup.

I've also been downloading old farming-type books; some of them more than 150 years old. They are chock full of useful information.


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## GoddessKristie (Jun 18, 2007)

I'd love to know more of your favorites so far! I adore these old books!


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## GBov (May 4, 2008)

Downloaded it today, took AGES with the computer idiot that I am LOL but I was reading a bit here and there as I was printing and the bit about how to tell if your whole roasted pig is halfway done just about did me in and I am NOT squeemish.

ewwwww what an image, must be softer than I thought


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## Wizard (May 29, 2007)

Check out this web site for some of the same type books.

http://manybooks.net/


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## Guest (Jun 17, 2008)

Wizard said:


> Check out this web site for some of the same type books.
> 
> http://manybooks.net/


Looks like a great site, but when you try to download one, it gives you a link that expires in 5 minutes (!)

Can't do that on dialup.


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