Wartime Farm

We have all been watching the Wartime Farm.  It has been fascinating watching it with darling father, as he was 8 when war broke out and he lived near his uncle's farm.  He tells us what he saw and what he experienced, and all the stories of when he was young.  It is amazing.

I honestly don't know how mothers coped then.  I know people manage all sorts when they have to, but many women worked long hours, then they had queuing for food - although they were tied to some shops and didn't have to shop around - then after they had had food packed in their own paper which had been saved they had to try and eke out the rations to feed their families.  After that, with so much rationed and so much unavailable, they then had to clean their clothes and houses with rationed soap.  They had to try and keep growing children in clothes on a ration, and it was an offence to use one person's ration for clothes for another.  When the Queen got married, and clothing still rationed, lots of people sent her clothing coupons and they all had to be sent back.  Then they had to sort out the stuff that we would call recycling, making sure that stuff for any pigs, scrap paper, bones, rags, rubber, aluminium and iron were sorted separately for the war effort.  Even tubes of toothpaste when emptied were taken back to the chemist when you bought more toothpaste as the tin was used for the war effort. 

Darling father told me that one local shop was preferred to the co-op as when the sugar ration was weighed out, the co-op weighed it by pouring it into the bag, so the weight of the bag was added on to the scales whereas the local shop weighed it first and then put it into the bag - when you only barely had enough to sweeten tea, every spoonful counts. 

And the wartime farm was showing the lady making a quilt by filling small bags of fabric with feathers and sewing them together.  I want to try this.  I really want to try this - I want to sooooo much.  However, I daren't think of the unfinished projects currently kicking around at the moment.  I may set myself a target so that I can have a go at it only if I finish some things off.  It does look lovely and warm and great to snuggle under on a cold winter's night. 

Interestingly enough, when I was trying to find a linky to a pic of the quilt (here) I found ehow, which I think will now greatly enrich my life!