Read Online Plain Wisdom by Cindy Woodsmall - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Cindy Woodsmall
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provide for their family.
C HALLENGES G REAT AND S MALL
T HE W ASH H OUSE, THE K ITCHEN, AND THE G ARDEN
D uring my visits to Miriam’s home, I like to chip in and help, but the Amish way of handling chores is quite different from my way. For one thing, the Amish avoid gasoline-powered motors, electricity, and owning cars. Lawns are cut with push reel mowers. Transportation is provided by horse and buggy. Light comes from kerosene lamps or natural-gas lighting, similar to items Englischers use when camping out. When I go to Miriam’s, I take a flashlight to use after the sun goes down.
In winter, Amish homes are heated by burning wood or by gas that comes into the home from a propane tank in the backyard. The propane also provides energy to heat the hot-water tank and keep the refrigerator running. Cooling a home in summer is managed through open windows and shade trees. When that doesn’t work and it’s too hot to sleep, people who have basements move to them.
When my youngest son first went with me to Miriam’s, he was around eight. One of the benefits for me was the inability of the world to sneak into the home. I didn’t have to monitor sitcoms, movies, computer games, or Internet usage. To my delight he loved every minute of his visits. The only thing he missed was a fan blowing at night, not just to add a little coolness but also to block the noise of the farm. Who knew cows, horses, and donkeys were so talkative at night? I’d lived in afarming community in Maryland while growing up, and we had a few cows, horses, and chickens, but we kept our windows shut year-round, and in our two-hundred-year-old home, we ran several window-unit air conditioners all summer.
The aim for self-sufficiency is important to the Amish, as is their desire to live separate from the world. Natural gas– and solar-powered items make life a little easier, but they don’t alter the Amish way of life—only their workload. The use of natural gas and solar power are in line with the goal of staying close to home and hearth. They don’t pull people away from their community the way electricity or owning vehicles would.
I began my first morning at Miriam’s home by making beds, straightening rooms, and gathering dirty clothes. I’m sure she doesn’t allow her usual visitors to do those things, but I convinced her that I needed the experience in order to save her time in explaining how the Amish perform their tasks. She was all for that, and I could hardly blame her. I’m sure she could have washed and hung a week’s worth of laundry in the time it had taken her to explain the processes over the phone or in a letter.
On that first day I took my load of dirty clothes to the wash house. This small room is attached to her home through an enclosed hallway; it also has an outdoor entrance/exit that opens toward the clothesline. Together Miriam and I sorted the laundry into piles—whites, black aprons and some pants, and dresses by pale or dark color. Because the wringer washer tends to break buttons, the men’s shirts and pants went into a pile of their own, regardless of their color. Since the Amish don’t use zippers, most pants have a fair number of buttons.
She turned on the hot water in a mud sink and ran an attached hose into the basin of the wringer washer. As the tub began to fill, she sent her daughter up to the
Daadi Haus
(grandfather’s house—pronounced
daw’-dee
), where Miriam’s in-laws live, to ask her father-in-law to get the air compressor running. She said it was difficult to start and he knew how. The machine runs off compressed air, which is powered by a generator. I couldn’t possibly explain how that thing works. All I know is that her father-in-law did what he needed to, and soon a very loud washer began agitating.
Almost all Old Order Amish homes have a wringer washer, usually powered by diesel fuel. Clothes are run through an agitation cycle. The model Miriam and I used has a switch for turning on
C HALLENGES G REAT AND S MALL
T HE W ASH H OUSE, THE K ITCHEN, AND THE G ARDEN
D uring my visits to Miriam’s home, I like to chip in and help, but the Amish way of handling chores is quite different from my way. For one thing, the Amish avoid gasoline-powered motors, electricity, and owning cars. Lawns are cut with push reel mowers. Transportation is provided by horse and buggy. Light comes from kerosene lamps or natural-gas lighting, similar to items Englischers use when camping out. When I go to Miriam’s, I take a flashlight to use after the sun goes down.
In winter, Amish homes are heated by burning wood or by gas that comes into the home from a propane tank in the backyard. The propane also provides energy to heat the hot-water tank and keep the refrigerator running. Cooling a home in summer is managed through open windows and shade trees. When that doesn’t work and it’s too hot to sleep, people who have basements move to them.
When my youngest son first went with me to Miriam’s, he was around eight. One of the benefits for me was the inability of the world to sneak into the home. I didn’t have to monitor sitcoms, movies, computer games, or Internet usage. To my delight he loved every minute of his visits. The only thing he missed was a fan blowing at night, not just to add a little coolness but also to block the noise of the farm. Who knew cows, horses, and donkeys were so talkative at night? I’d lived in afarming community in Maryland while growing up, and we had a few cows, horses, and chickens, but we kept our windows shut year-round, and in our two-hundred-year-old home, we ran several window-unit air conditioners all summer.
The aim for self-sufficiency is important to the Amish, as is their desire to live separate from the world. Natural gas– and solar-powered items make life a little easier, but they don’t alter the Amish way of life—only their workload. The use of natural gas and solar power are in line with the goal of staying close to home and hearth. They don’t pull people away from their community the way electricity or owning vehicles would.
I began my first morning at Miriam’s home by making beds, straightening rooms, and gathering dirty clothes. I’m sure she doesn’t allow her usual visitors to do those things, but I convinced her that I needed the experience in order to save her time in explaining how the Amish perform their tasks. She was all for that, and I could hardly blame her. I’m sure she could have washed and hung a week’s worth of laundry in the time it had taken her to explain the processes over the phone or in a letter.
On that first day I took my load of dirty clothes to the wash house. This small room is attached to her home through an enclosed hallway; it also has an outdoor entrance/exit that opens toward the clothesline. Together Miriam and I sorted the laundry into piles—whites, black aprons and some pants, and dresses by pale or dark color. Because the wringer washer tends to break buttons, the men’s shirts and pants went into a pile of their own, regardless of their color. Since the Amish don’t use zippers, most pants have a fair number of buttons.
She turned on the hot water in a mud sink and ran an attached hose into the basin of the wringer washer. As the tub began to fill, she sent her daughter up to the
Daadi Haus
(grandfather’s house—pronounced
daw’-dee
), where Miriam’s in-laws live, to ask her father-in-law to get the air compressor running. She said it was difficult to start and he knew how. The machine runs off compressed air, which is powered by a generator. I couldn’t possibly explain how that thing works. All I know is that her father-in-law did what he needed to, and soon a very loud washer began agitating.
Almost all Old Order Amish homes have a wringer washer, usually powered by diesel fuel. Clothes are run through an agitation cycle. The model Miriam and I used has a switch for turning on
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