what is a daily to do list for a woman in old western times?
We are learning about the west & im just curious what a daily to do list for a woman would be..
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- It would vary somewhat depending on where in the west she was living. If she was a farmer's wife, as most women who went west were, then she would be very busy indeed. She would do housework, of course, sweeping, dusting etc. She would have meals to prepare, no easy task in those days, all food would have to be prepared from scratch, and there were no ovens with temperature control etc. She would probably feed the chickens and pigs, and do the milking. She might have to fetch water from a well or pump, or perhaps a spring if they lived near one. She would be likely to have clothes to make or mend. she would have a garden to tend, growing vegetables and herbs. Some jobs would not be done every day. For instance, washing was normally a weekly job(no washing machines of course, washing would be done by hand). In the UK, traditionally, Monday was washday, Tuesday was drying day, Wednesday ironing. I don't know if if was the same in the US. A western woman might have to cope with emergencies, like killing snakes, dust storms, prarie fires, locusts etc. In winter she might be snowed in, and it would be a hard struggle even to reach the woodpile. A woman who was living in one of the goldmining towns or camps would have a somewhat different life. She would be likely to be buying things rather than growing or making them herself, and she would have more people to talk to. In a mining camp she might have to cook over an open fire, and might be living in a tent. Housework would be very basic. Some women in mining towns and camps were able to make quite a lot of money from cooking, there was a shortage of good cooks, and any woman who could produce good food could make a good income selling it.
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