Aunt Rae's Remedies Book Review

This is a review written by Professor Gholdston of Southern Utah University (The Captain)

If you don't already have a copy of Lord Robert Baden-Powell's "BoyScout Handbook," or one of its eleven successive editions, you need to have a copy of "Aunt Rae's Remedies."
The newly released book, a fraction the mass of the tome Boy Scouts now lug around, was written by LaRae Olsen, a.k.a. Aunt Rae, and published by Cedar Fort Inc. in Springville, Utah.
It tells, in almost narrative style, the story of a how a family close to the middle of Nowhere, Utah, found reasonable ways around dependency on WalMart to live harmoniously with nature.
It's the kind of book that should be in every emergency preparedness kit, as well as in arms reach in an effective kitchen. Particularly now, as life becomes more precarious and the like lihood that the corner pharmacy will not still be on the corner by the end of the year increases, we all need to figure out how to do more with less.
Aunt Rae teaches us how to make lye soap, how to keep ants out the house and how to quiet canker sores with your own ear wax (eww!)
And she does it as a mother, daughter and granddaughter who has learned how to become less tied to cash and electricity.
Put red cloths in your first-aid kit, for instance, so the kids don't see red blood on white washcloths when you clean up cuts and scrapes.
Put Jet-Dry drying agent in your mixture to clean your windows on the outside, so you don't have to dry them, is another trick she's learned.
But this is not just another a how-to book. It's the story of afamily struggling to get by with what was on hand. It's a delightful,easy read which will leave you wishing you knew more about this solid family.
It's indexed into categories and the tips are easy to find, but they are almost secondary to the yarns weaving them together. From the time Vale needed to clean ink off a white shirt to the worst incident when Wes came home so soaked in skunk stink he had to strip on the back porch so his clothes, and his skin, could be neutralized.
This is a fun book you'll want to buy to read and then keep to reference.

John Gholdston
Communications Department
Southern Utah University