progressivehomemaker

Latest Posts by progressivehomemaker

Butch/femme realness

Are you. Fucking kidding me

my dad’s grandparents used to make all their grandkids turn off all the lights and he completely silent during thunderstorms and dad thought it was because they had some strange superstition around thunderstorms but it was actually because my great grandparents liked to watch/listen to them in peace.

Wanting a man to provide for you doesn’t mean you’re incapable. Of course you’re capable. But it’s nice to have someone help you and take of you. That doesn’t mean you can’t do those things yourself. That just means someone loves you enough to make your life that bit easier <3

FUCK OFF IF YOUR BLOG IS 18+ I’M SICK OF IT

Daily chores for a clean home:

Monday: living room

Wipe down tables

Dust surfaces

Tidy up shelves and tables

Wipe windows and windowsills

Dust heaters

Vacuum + mop

Tuesday: kitchen and dining room

Wipe down appliances

Spot clean fridge + throw out anything that might have spoiled

Clean sink, counters and dining table

Reorganize and spot clean pantry

Clean microwave

Vacuum + mop

Wednesday: bathroom

Wash towels and bath mat

Wipe counters and mirrors

Disinfect toilet, shower and tub

Tidy cabinets

Empty trash cans

Vacuum + mop



Thursday: bedroom

Dust + declutter nightstand

Dust cabinets, windowsills and fans

Change sheets

Vacuum + mop

Friday: wrap up

Go over anything you couldn’t finish this week

Declutter counters

Clean desks

Clean out car, bag and phone

Schedule appointments

Go over mail 

Vacuum and wet mop throughout entire house

Weekend: reset and relax

Write out to do lists

Meal prep and make grocery list

Review calendar

Make time for self care

Morning skincare:

Cleanse

Tone

Serum

Moisturise

Sunscreen

evening skincare:

Cleanse

Exfoliate

Serum

Moisturise

Sleep mask or oil

if you don't do anything else today,

Please have a moment of silence for the people who were killed instead of freed when news of emancipation finally reached the furthest corners of the american south.

have another moment for the ledgers, catalogs, and records that were burned and the homes that were destroyed to hide the presence of very much alive and still enslaved people on dozens of plantations and homesteads across the south for decades after emancipation.

and have a third moment for those who were hunted and killed while fleeing the south to find safety across the border, overseas, in the north and to the west.

black people. light a candle, write a note to those who have passed telling them what you have achieved in spite of the racist and intolerant conditions of this world, feel the warmth of the flame under your hand, say a prayer of rememberance if you are religious, place the note under the candle, and then blow it out.

if you have children, sit them down and tell them anything you know about the life of oldest black person you've ever met. it doesn't have to be your own family. tell them what you know about what life was like for us in the days, years, decades after emancipation. if you don't know much, look it up and learn about it together.

This is Juneteenth.

white people CAN interact with this post. share it, spread it.

Not TradWife in a 1950s housewife, modern stepford way but in a post-apocalyptic homesteader, me and my husband vs the world way

Pink!

1950s Housewife Aesthetic

The basics of growing food

So, growing food sounds very intimidating, and in reality, it’s something people knew how to do thru all history, and it’s made even easier by new methods of ‘no till’ and ‘no dig’ garden. I didn’t know almost anything about it until 3 years ago, when I got a plot in a community garden and started growing food with no experience. Still it went good! Here’s what I learned:

The basics are as simple as 'if you put a seed underground and keep it wet, it’s going to come out.’ If you start off from that, even if you know nothing else, eventually you will succeed. The additional stuff is done to ensure success. The biggest actual issue of gardening isn’t how, but when. When are you supposed to put all the seeds underground to get good harvest? For most of the plants, it can be as simple as 'Spring’. For others, it’s very important just when in the spring you plant it.

Let’s say you want to start your first garden, you want to plant some onions, lettuce, peas, green beans, tomatoes, peppers and zucchini. All of these can be planted in the spring! But these plants are sorted in 2 categories: Those who can survive a frost, and those who cannot. We call these 'frost hardy’ (those who survive the frost) and frost-tender (those plants will die if they’re exposed to lower than 0 temperatures). From the ones I listed, onions, lettuce and peas are frost hardy! It means you can plant them very early in spring, such as February and March, and they can be hit with snow and ice and be just fine. They can also be planted in autumn, and they only really start growing in the spring.

Green beans, tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini are frost-tender, meaning you absolutely can’t grow them before the chance of freezing temperatures is gone. This is known in gardening as 'the last frost date’. Every area has a different last-frost date, so it’s good to google yours to be sure you’re planting these when it’s safe to do so. For me it’s mid-April.

Now, since it’s a long time to wait for your plants to grow if you’ve only planted the seeds in mid April, people have found a way around it by planting the seeds in little containers inside of their house, or in a greenhouse, so they grow in a nice warm place on a windowsill, and are moved out in the ground when it’s warm and safe. This is a very fun thing to do as you will have bunch of little plants growing in your home. Important thing to know about it is to use really light and airy soil, not garden soil, (you can use forest soil!) and to make sure you’re not over-watering them and you give them as much light as possible.

Soil is another big thing in gardening, the grass grows so easily from it, but you can’t exactly plant your seeds into the grass; they will get suffocated. For a long time people have tilled the ground to make it empty of all the weeds and easy to handle; however this isn’t healthy for the soil, because it ruins the quality of top-soil, exposes it to sun and wind erosion, and it dries up very easily. Here are some beneficial methods of gardening: mulching and no-dig. Mulching means adding stuff like hay, straw, tree leaves, woodchips, pine needles on top of the soil. You’re protecting your soil from sun, wind, erosion, drying out, and if your mulch is thick and dark enough, no weeds will grow in your garden. You are gardening by science.

So what does this mean for you, when you’re standing before a patch of grass, thinking of turning it into a garden? You need to do this months before the actual planting, using time to your benefit is the smartest thing a gardener can do. You pick a patch of land and bring in everything you can on top: cut grass, hay, tree leaves you raked or found, straw if you have any, woodchips, anything that will stop the grass from growing. If you really want to build up your soil you can bring in compost too! All that organic material will eventually turn into compost and fertilize your garden as it degrades to soil. It’s important to not mix it with the soil, and to only keep it on top of the plants. Mixing it will deplete the soil of nitrogen, and you need nitrogen to grow anything green. If you keep bringing in organic material for years of gardening, and on top of that put some compost as well, in 3-5 years your soil will become so rich and soft you will no longer have to use tools to plant in it.

But, hey, if it’s your first time, you don’t need to aim for perfection. If you didn’t prepare your soil in the fall, whatever! You can still pull the weeds, dig around a little to make some clear soil, and plant your stuff! I’ve done this last-minute planting and it works just fine. Mulching and adding organic material is only the easiest, most scienc-y way to garden.

The next big thing in gardening is spacing and depth: how far apart should your plants be? And how deep to plant them? For depth, the rule of the thumb is 'twice as deep as the seed is tall’. But I’ve seen people pull various shit in this area and succeed so do what you want. As of spacing, I would also say, try out what fits for you. It takes a year of gardening to get a sense of just how big the plants get, and what would be ideal spacing for each of them. I decided only on my third year to plant tomatoes VERY far apart, because I realized in this case, one plant will give me more than 8kg tomatoes and it’s much less work than planting 3 times as many plants that are close together. Peas seem to like to grow close tho, for some reason. Sometimes you can decide you want a bunch of tiny plants because you’ll eat them young, so you don’t space them on purpose, people do that with lettuce, leeks, spinach. If you want your plants as big as possible with as much yield as possible, give them half a meter and see what happens.

Fertilization is another big thing in gardening; if you add a lot of compost and mulch your garden consistently, you won’t need a lot more; however there’s a cool free trick you can do (if you’re not currently sick): you can mix your urine with 10x water, and water your plants with that. And I really mean mix it with 10x water! Plants can get very fried by it and start to wilt if they’re bombed with too much fertilizer at once! There are rules for this: use it when you want your plants to grow a lot of greenery, not if you want them to flower or produce fruit. This fertilizer is rich in nitrogen, and nitrogen inspires plants to grow more leaves! If you wanna fertilize them later in their growth, put a lot of nettle plants in a big container with water, leave it in the sun for 10 days; when it starts to smell real bad, it’s ready. (you can also do this with comfrey). Also dilute it with 10x water! Don’t use these fertilizers on bean or pea plants, or any legume, they don’t like it.

Now I’ve given you so much info at once, you’re probably struggling to take it all in, so here’s a good youtube channel where I learned all I know: Roots and Refuge. If you watch this lady garden for long enough, she will tell you all of the secrets.

I remember being a first time gardener overwhelmed with worry; what if I fail, what if nothing grows, what if I kill all the plants, what if I have a black thumb, what if the plants die because I am stupid, what if I put all of this work in and get nothing, what if people make fun of me, what if I run into problems I won’t be able to solve. Here are some of the answers to these!

A part of what you grow will DEFINITELY DIE. I can guarantee it, it happens to everyone, every single garden in the world has had plants die, sometimes for no reason at all, but in no case will EVERYTHING die. We all count on a part of our plants dying, becoming slug food, not doing well in general, and we always plant 30% more than we absolutely need. Even if you are personally responsible for killing the plants, the plants will not hold it against you! Plants appreciate you spreading their seed regardless of success, they understand that by trying multiple times you will eventually succeed and they absolutely want you to learn thru occasional failure. The answer is again to plant a lot, and it never ever happened that nothing came out of it. Most often, it’s not going to be your fault at all. Sometimes the year will be good for tomatoes and carrots, and bad for peas. It’s all okay! Because you just planted extra peas, and you’ll get more tomatoes than you expected to have.

If you have the desire to plant food, you do not have a black thumb; the green thumb is in the heart that yearns to grow. You’re not stupid if your plants die, plants die for everyone. And people are likely to come at you with million advice; listen to no one, try everything yourself. If they make fun of you, they’re gonna look real stupid when you have home-grown food. Any problem you might run into while gardening is google-able! Or you can join a page of gardeners and they’ll be happy to identify the issue.

The real main issue with gardening are slugs and bug-type pests, and that is a problem for another day because all I know to do is to yeet those away by hand and shake my finger very sternly at them. Hope this helps!

Homesteading survival knowledge

Growing Food:

The basics of Growing Food

Crops to grow for Maximum Production

Seed Starting Plan

Grow transplants for free

How to get Seeds for Free

How to find good soil for Free

Amending the Soil

How to Collect Seeds

Re-potting and care for tomato transplants

Growing dry beans

Growing Garlic

How to grow a lot of Leek

Plants going to Seed Explained

Food you can grow and eat in the Winter

Climate change and Food Security

Plant Lemon Trees from Seed

Why is rain much more effective than watering?

Stashing Food

Storing the Food from your Garden

Living in nature and food conservation

Making a Meal from foraged and Garden Food in Winter

Sun-drying Strawberries

Sun-drying Cherry Tomatoes

Citrus Tips

Canning

Blackberry Jam

Strawberry Jam

Salsa (tomatoes, peppers, onion, garlic)

Đuveđ (mixed vegetables preserve)

Ajvar (preserved peppers)

Preserved sugar Cherries

Foraging: 

Edible Mushrooms that grow on trees

Edible Wild Plants to Forage for in Spring

Make Honey out of Dandelions

How to cook with Nettle

Incredible value of Pine Needles

Herbalism

Rose Water

On herbal infusions and poison tea

Herbs to Collect for Tea

How to safely make Elderberry Syrup

Yarrow and Lemon Balm

Basic Medicinal Herbal Tea Uses

Tree Care:

How to grow trees

Where are the Tree Roots?

What is Root Flare

Tree Pruning Mistakes

Types of Pruning cuts

How to Prune Correctly

Other:

Building a Cob House

How to make Earthen Floors

Cooking with minimal use of heat

Processing Forest Clay

How to hand-work clay

How to make laundry detergent out of conkers

Creating baskets out of Newspapers

How to keep your space cool during heat waves

How trees create a living atmosphere

How to get rid of ants

Survival Recipes

What garden plants can be used as poison

Hey just a quick psa because I haven’t done one of these in a while IF YOU ARE A TERF GET OFF MY FUCKING BLOG!!! I don’t care what the fuck you call yourself, terf, gender critical, or whatever bullshit, if you don’t support trans people, I want you gone!

TRANS WOMEN ARE WOMEN

TRANS MEN ARE MEN

NON-BINARY IDENTITIES ARE REAL AND VALID

You either stand with the entire lgbt+ community or you stand with none of it. I stand with my trans siblings and if you don’t, get off my blog

most tradfems are also truly feminists.. as long as you truly believe in equality not that women should have more privileges than men. The only reason some women out there denounce feminism is because it's gotten to that point now in a lot of situations these days in a manipulative manor.

also I should add I have met gay and bisexual tradfems too.. otherwise it just means Traditionally Feminine. does this mean you are masculine? ?

most tradwives would consider me masculine, yeah. I’m not submissive, I have a job, haven’t shaved my legs in over a decade, can be rather crass.

the way other people identify is none of my business. gay and bi and pagan and liberal tradfems are welcome to claim that title. I do not wish to be categorized as a tradwife/tradfem.

🧺 an announcement 🧺

I love to wear dresses. aprons, too. I fill their pockets up with rocks and herbs from the garden. I want to bake bread, have babies, sew buttons, mend socks, bring my family’s clothes outside in a great big basket and hang them on the line to dry.

but please, do not mistake my appreciation for the old ways of living for a desire to return to a time when the non-white and/or non-male population didn’t have rights.

lately I have been getting an influx of followers and/or suggested posts which look, at first, similar to me and mine… but when you look closely, they are rife with anti-choice and thinly veiled misogyny under the guise of “cottagecore” and “simple living” and all that.

I am not one of you. I would kindly ask that you please not reblog pictures of my body, my gardens, my home, or my poetry to a blog that is centered around the romanticization and glorification of oppression. this is a body that desires freedom and autonomy. these gardens nourish that body, in our home with two heads. my observations about my life are my own - I am happy to share them, but they were never meant to be statements about the way anyone else ought to live.

if you’re still reading and this doesn’t apply to you, thank you, and hi. happy you’re here!

Happy Pride Month Everyone!!!

The Monroe News-Star, Louisiana, May 12, 1950

Oh my, I believe this qualifies as “relationship goals” <3

I finally watched The Sound of Music and like I get it now, I get it. 

It’s a beautiful two hour love story of a strict man finally opening his heart again and then a fifty minute public service announcement to hate the nazis. Brilliant.

In case any of y’all needed a smile today :)

Puppy, 1950s

Happy International Asexuality Day! 🖤🤍💜

cruising 💐 spring

http://www.instagram.com/loithai/

Here's a nice, grass green 1946 Packard to get you in the mood for St. Patrick's Day...

Reno Gazette-Journal, Nevada, September 16, 1950

This extends to people of any gender, too! Women identifying people should get to choose the course of their life without shame, men identifying people should get to choose the same (not this, oh they can choose any career because Privilege, I mean they get to be a homemaker if they want and be gnc if they want without toxic masculinity backlash), nonbinary people, agender people, genderqueer people; no matter what gender (or non-gender) you identify as, the ability to choose one’s own life should be paramount to other peoples’ opinions!

No matter your identity, do what you want to do, do what you love, and don’t let anyone tell you different! 

Making fun of girls who dream of being a wife and stay-at-home-mom actually doesn’t make you progressive or feminist or cool, it just makes you a person who shits on someone else’s dream, a.k.a an asshole 

Love is love, no matter the decade!!!  ❤️

Photos of gay couples from Sage Sohier’s 1980s collection At Home With Themselves