Life before the easy times came along even with a recession

The dining table is set with the best blue and white china ready for the Sunday lunch. The children will be expected to be on their best behaviour and help mother with the serving. This is one of the beautifully done displays at the Matakohe Kauri Museum.

The Mother of the Bride seeing to the final touches

I remember asking my Grandmother who had grown up in the Northern Wairoa what it was like during those days. She told me just one thing out of all her stories of muddy roads, sinking boats and cooking on a woodburning stove, as the family home she was growing up in, went on a barge up the Northern Wairoa River to Mangawhare - where it remains today on River Road. She told me life then was very very hard. Money was very very tight and what little they did have they made do with. Nana and her sister Ellie would get up at 5 am and milk their parents dairy cows then walk several miles to school after they had put the milk into the separator, then finally had breakfast. They helped their mother with the laundry using a scrubbing board.

Thank Goodness for Automatic Washing Machines!

Nana told me we didn't truly know how lucky we were. I realise that now even with this recession the papers keep reporting on we truly are fortunate. I have the land to grow my own food, the chickens give us eggs each day, and eventually when River does calve we'll have our own milk supply as well. Meat will be coming shortly when the bull is put down and into our freezer. Later this year I'm going to go and learn how to do cheese and butter making then I won't have to pay $20 for a kilo of ordinary cheese anymore - I now have the luxury of time. Today I'm going to be planting more peas, beans and hopefully if and when I can find it some winter lettuce. Our garden is doing well. The chickens are now keeping well clear of the electric fence. Jayne from Our Great Southern Land put up a great post about Making do recipes. Worth a read.

They don't make wine like this anymore