Wassup with this home economics anyhow?

Congratulations

First, We hope that your wife recovers quickly and completely.

Second congratulations on the application of your skills to a different tasks set, and subsequent inspirations.

I believe some of this is called Logistics, and certainly in the Military good cooks are valued personnel. (I believe that MM&Ms were invented to meet Military needs for Chocolate in the South Pacific.)

James Jones highlights the position of the Company Cook in From Here to Eternity I believe, though it may have been The Thin Red Line.

As well the Cook and his methods highlighted in Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty, is an important character.

While Home Economics, is not necessarily called Logistical and Economic Principles of Time Management and Supply Chain Co-ordination, that's what it turns out to be, aye!

P.S. My Mother had a degree in Home Ec, and at one time ran a Hospital Kitchen. Her Dad, my Grandfather had been an Engineer, and the Design Team Leader that made the Norden Bombsight. So as they say: "The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree."

I apply similar approaches and logic to my home life as well. The women who have came and went didn't seem to see it as practical though.

One girl hated when I did laundry for some reason. For her 4 loads in an 8 hour day was a full days work. I on the other hand just sort my colors and fabrics as needed toss them in and press the button and just assume the machine built for washing clothes can actually wash them without me having to stand next to it the whole time.

I would go and do something else for an hour while it ran and then come back and put the wet clothes into the dryer and press the dryer button and just assume that it too can do its intended function without me babysitting it. I also assumed that both the washer and the dryer can in fact run simultaneously and unsupervised without ripping a hole in the space/time fabric as well. I have washed and dried 8 loads of laundry in one day and still had plenty of time to get my normal days work done. SInce then to now further speed up laundry I have two hampers so when I undress the two main types of clothing automatically go right in the correct hamper and when one gets full I immediately toss that one in the wash.

Another time I got cussed out for using the same plate, bowl, spoon and fork for a month. When I am done I rinse and wash them and then put them back. Apparently I am supposed to take different ones and let them pile up until everything is dirty and then spend a few hours washing everything at once while its all caked on and crusty. She had a fit one time when I used the pressure washer to clean the burnt on crust off of a cooking pot. Apparently I was supposed to stand there at the sink and scrub my hands raw for an hour instead of using some clever thought and 2200 PSI @ 2 GPM for 15 seconds while standing out in the driveway!

If you want it done fast and efficient find a lazy engineer and get him to do it! Given enough thought I have now taken a full weekend day of house work and now have it reduced down to around 15 minutes a day or less spread out over the whole week.

I suspect that with proper planning and training I could handle a family of six and still have less than an hour a day total invested on house work!

I myself over the years in order to maintain some domestic tranquility do not argue with my wife over laundry, or the kitchen.

If she wants to do the laundry, and cook, well okay.

There was 15 years between one "wife", and another, though in between two what I call "Temporary wives", and girlfriends.

I suppose I did learn to be logically illogical.

Further during certain times of the month when women may say things that are amazing, I go deaf.

I have been known to say to women: "If you want a perfect man, marry a woman."

I presume you are single or your partner doesn't read your entries to CR4!

Chas

My guess is that he has been downgraded to single status a number of times.

I'm wondering - a family of six whats? There's an old saying about getting anything accomplished with help, "One boy is a boy, two boys is half a boy and three boys is no boy at all."

Hi TVP45,

I can definitely identify! I am a ChemE and, as long as I can remember, have employed optimization techniques in housework; especially cooking. I haven't gone to the technical lengths you did for your Christmas dinner - I plan it out in my head, and it usually works out quite well. I think I have an advantage over married engineers in that, I don't have any women spouting their opinions about how I go about doing things (and I have "been there" and "done that"). Like tcmtech, I spend a minimal time at housework. I have lots of time in the shop, and my house is always in order.

Good post!

Mike

But no one has yet addressed the Garden. One cannot spread eight hours of cutting, trimming, hauling, drinking beer and the like in a few minutes a day over a week...

Thats where being sociable and friendly with the neighbors and family comes in handy!

I don't have garden and probably never will. But I do have a smaller tractor and the right equipment to make the pre planting dirt work a snap! Plus a big water tank and pump system on a trailer thats free to borrow scores points all summer long as well! Just call me ahead of time and it is always full and ready to go when someone needs it!

I donate a few hours and a couple gallons of fuel to work up the gardens in the spring to level far greater than any hand power or walk behind tiller could do then help plant afterwards. Then if needed I come over with the water tanker and pump and help out with some free watering and then reap the rewards many times over later on!

Never once did I have to pull a weed or touch a garden tool and by winter I am almost sick of eating fresh garden veggies day in and day out!

HI TVP45,

Hope your wife will recover soon. Cooking is an art it is not monopoly of females. Many celebrities were good cooks. If you could cook Christmas Dinner then you are Master of Cooking.

Suresh Sharma.

Yes, thank you, my wife is recovering. My concern now is what she'll do to me when she finds her favorite recipes in Joy of Cooking have been altered to read "granulated sugar, 2 tsp +/-0.2 tsp". Oy!

I think I'm finally getting through to my erstwhile 'other'.

Her mother (who was Queen of Every Kitchen) shuffled of her mortal coil a week or two before Christmas, so she/we put a family Christmas dinner together for her Dad & various others.

Tonight, I overheard her saying to a friend "I realized that I should have done a time line ..."

Meal was great anyway, and maybe the next will be a bit less stressful.

Hope all works out for you, and that you all finish the mid-winter festival well & happy.

Running a home is a profession: Domestic Maintenance Engineer. Most practitioners have the procedures "written on the back of their eyelids", which comes with practice. The sad thing is that this profession is hard work, long and odd hours, and often completely unpaid. That so many are skilled at it is a thing of great wonder and like all other branches of Engineering, of great long-term benefit to mankind.

PW, you sound remarkably like one of my un-wives lawyers.

Oddly, post "black belt in martyrdom", the 'cleaning lady' manages it all, in 45 minutes / day, (averaged).

As can anyone half organized - less if they clean as they cook, clean as they shower and so on, as I did both pre and throughout 'martyrdom/s' (when around).

Kids throw it into chaos, but only for a year or five - each + a bit /extra kid

So avoid getting the cleaning lady pregnant, and it's all sweet.