Author: user

The Plain and Practical

What is a Browncoat?
Years ago, there was a television series called Firefly, which was followed by a movie named Serenity. Two main characters, Mel (Malcom) and Zoey, were former resistance fighters who sided with the Independent Faction looking for sovereignty and the right to govern themselves, feeling that the Alliance should not be allowed to assimilate all the planets and all the peoples of the universe. The resistance lost, and history was re-written to portray the Independents as crazy and barbarian and backwards. Mel and Zoey and a skeleton crew, kept their spaceship barely operational with spare parts they bartered from everywhere they traveled, each person on board had to do menial tasks like cleaning and painting and kitchen duty, and they would transport illegal medical supplies or a herd of cattle, or sit in on a local zoning argument as mercenaries, whatever was needed to make ends meet. If you look carefully, you can see elements of other screen heroes, the hard work and family atmosphere of the Waltons, the resilience and can-do make-shifting of the Clampettes in Beverly Hillbillies, and the ability to escape from dangerous situations on a par with swashbuckler Indiana Jones.
Many of my friends and I fantasize about ourselves being like Mel and Zoey—we are excited about activities and skills that are way out of the mainstream. Amongst friends I can count brewers and mead-makers, weavers of baskets and rugs, metalworkers and leatherworkers and seamstresses and candlemakers, hunters and herbalists. Once you learn how to do one task, then work towards mastery, you’ll soon be interested in another. Crocheting leads to knitting and beadwork and soon embroidery and twining bags and before you know it, you’ve bought a loom or a spinning wheel, or both. Get a kit for making a leather coin purse, with the pieces already cut out and the lacing pre-measured, and before long you are well-versed in Tandy Leather’s offerings and buying hides to make up with your own patterns into slippers, mittens, and other warm and useful things. Stain a chair and soon enough, you’re building bookcases.
I have one friend who can make paper, soap, medicinal balms, cough syrup, and purify water. Another can make a metal part to anything. Another is a polyglot; several teach, several can make a professional drawing of a building with plumbing and electrical systems. Several use a wood stove for heat and oil lamps for lighting their homes. About half of them garden and/or process their own foods for storage, and keep ample emergency supplies for inclement weather, insecure finances, or unforeseen shortages.
In other words, we could call ourselves Browncoats, not primarily because we are fans of a now-cancelled television show, but because we carry within us a longing to be independent of any institution that seeks to assimilate us, make us “medium,” take away the edgy things we love to do. It might be suspicious that I have comfrey leaves, ammonia, lime, diatomaceous soil, and have stored away vegetable and herb seeds, but I don’t want any one to say I can’t.
I’d like to run a power cord out to my garage when I need to saw some boards for a home project, and not have someone from somewhere come and say I need a temporary permit to do that. I can’t have chickens here, which would provide me low-cost eggs and occasionally meat, take care of scraps, and four little hens would happily gobble up any bugs they see out in the yard, but neighbors on our block can have six (yes, six) dogs that share a tiny yard, bark obnoxiously at everyone coming by on the sidewalk, and provide no food or clever use of resources.
A recent online article, Boat In A Hole, details in DIY style how a central Washington State couple, wishing for a dry, even-temp, economical root cellar on their five-plus acres, landed on the idea of using one of the many non-seaworthy boats in their area, and bury it. This worked out well, the fiberglass hull meant no bugs or water, they sealed the top and, with a couple of ventilation pipes, the whole thing went into a crotch between two hillocks. (con’t on page 2)

“Live simply, that others might simply live.” Elizabeth Seaton

Year Five, Issue 38, February 2012

The Effervescent Gardener
So, maybe by now you’ve opened up your Baker Creek or other seed catalog and you’ve picked out some radishes and beans and spinach to put into a “real” garden plot, your own, or your neighbor’s, or perhaps down at the community center.
But have you thought “outside the box” yet?
There are many places you can put seeds and your started plants, to raise food for yourself or others, that you may not be using or thinking of.
Alongside a garage in full sun can be a place to hang those nifty tomato bags, they are easily watered from a barrel you’ve stuck the downspout into right there at the corner of the structure, and at the corner you can put in a nice climbing rose—this not only beautifies the building, but gives you tomatoes to eat and share and put away for winter in pretty jars, but also rose hips and petals for tea, and canes for basketmaking and wreathes.
A back porch or front porch looks pretty with some planters and pots, and herbs of all kinds like to perch in those, conveniently located so you can run out and get a snip of this or that to go on a piece of chicken just before you put it into the oven, or snip some fresh goodness to add to your soup or salad.
Catnip is good for you and the feline at your house, tea for you, snockering drugs for him, and it’s almost a weed once you get it started by just tossing seed into a sunny corner and sifting some light soil over the top, water it often, and soon there will be more catnip than you can use, and next year (it will usually reseed itself) enough for the neighborhood and far flung friends.
Is there a vacant lot near you? Ugly places are less so, when some wildflowers are grown there. Put in some berry vines, they will propagate themselves, and you and local critters can eat the fruits. Got a place to put in an apple or cherry tree? At the corner of the driveway, got a place you can plant a patch of flax or lavender, for using next winter?
Look around you as you pass the homes of older friends this winter. Think of the world more as a place to spread yourself to, than chalked-off domains of individual ownership. Would old Mrs. Smith like you to put a couple of window boxes up for her, and plant purple basil and chives and spinach in them? Would the fire department like to have that abandoned garden plot in back, planted with tomatoes and cabbages? Can you make arrangements with someone to put a few rows of corn or broom corn into the back of their garden, and share the work and the products?
Look around. Use your gardener’s eye to see where else your skills are needed.

February, 2012 Second Month
S M T W TH F S
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29
Groundhog Day, 2nd
Valentine’s Day, 14th
President’s Day, 20th
Equinox, on March 20th
“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.” Edith Sitwell

Take the Chill Off
—There’s a lot of ways to make a warmer—whether it’s a bag of cherry pits you lay next to the fireplace and take up the stairs to put under the covers next to where your feet will be in a few minutes, or a tube sock you’ve filled with rice and microwave’d and laid around your neck. Even a flat rock, warmed at the edge of the fire and then wrapped into a thick towel, can give out comforting heat to your vehicle’s passenger’s feet.
—think warm beverages—a basket of tea and hot chocolate packets next to the tea kettle, is one of the nicest things your visitors may see in your kitchen this month. It’s cold out, so imbibe freely in those hot beverages, and don’t forget a cup of hot bullion will keep diners busy until you can get the rest of the meal onto the table.
—Casseroles not only use up leftovers and often contain inexpensive ingredients, but they hold well for when the ride home takes an extra half hour, or shoveling the walk takes longer than expected. The oven warms the kitchen, the casserole warms the body.
—remember that a sixty-degree room is still nearly forty degrees cooler than your body, so layer up—cotton socks then wool ones then slippers. Undershirt then light shirt then sweater. The gaps are where you’ll feel cold—neckline, wrists, ankles—so tuck one layer into another. Loose clothing is warmer and more comfortable than tight clothing.
—For those who have never tried it, here’s a nifty trick. Take a bowl of warm water into the bathroom next time you’re going to take a shower or bath, and immerse into that water a zip-lock baggie you’ve put some of your favorite lotion into. When you get out, still a little wet, open the baggie, coat your hands, and rub yourself down before dressing in your fresh layers of clothing. Warm lotion is much more pleasant than cold.

Being Fully Engaged In Your Hobby
I just submitted some sketches and I have a Short North Gallery putting up my work in August, so as soon as the weather permits to saw and drill and whack things on the porch or in the back yard, I’ll be out there turning old broken chairs and picture frames and other “trash” into nifty wall art.
I was always most fascinated, in my college art classes, by the works created by just plain folk who didn’t go out and buy canvases and oils, but who worked with what they had to hand. Sometimes that was an old board, leftover house paints, and a whittling knife (Elijah Pierce), or some wood trash she found in her broken-down slum neighborhood (Louise Nevelson), or driftwood she could make into beautiful horse sculptures (Deborah Butterfield). There was the tinfoil-covered trash made into a throne room, and the tattered yellow pages covered from front to back with beautiful charcoal drawings on gesso. I really have a deep appreciation for those artists, as well as the women of my grandmother’s and great-grandmother’s generation who plied a thread or crocheted a rug or lined up their colorful jars of canned goods, to fulfill that inner need to create color and pattern in their lives.
Some folks can say “You need to get a hobby” but that’s such a tiny tip of the iceberg, really, that little bit of someone’s hobby you might glimpse on a visit to the library and you see their salt and pepper shaker collection in the showcase, or you notice their garden out in back of their garage, that’s a hobby for sure. But there’s something that happens when people fully engage in the pursuit of their hobby. The basket collector that learns to make baskets, and then learns to make the materials to make baskets, then teaches the classes and sells the materials, then writes an article on their research of a particular type of basket . . . That person is fully engaged in their craft.
What if you garden? Do you start your own seedlings, make your own supports, put together some birdhouses and a garden bench and then a pond with koi and then a fountain? Do you try new varieties, swap seeds with friends near and far, save seeds, start a seed exchange, run a community garden, gather folks to start donating extra food to the local pantry, make crafts out of your garden goods, can and freeze from the garden, dry herbs and peppers and garlic you grew? That would be fully engaged.
So look at the “hobbies” that are important in your life. Do they grow and become more fulfilling as the years go by? Are you learning and being more and more satisfied with the time invested in it? How long since you “stretched your elbows” and made it a bigger part of your life? Have you a new book, a tool you want to use, a material you haven’t worked with yet, a workshop you’ve been wanting to attend? Most importantly, are you teaching your skills to others, and sharing resources?
I know you’ve heard me say it before, but any of the above hobbies—and especially anything that requires you walk, hike, camp outdoors, fish, bike, move your arms and legs—is a far better way for you to spend your time than watching the Dummy Box on an ever-widening rear end. Even if you have to wean yourself off by doing your hobby two days a week with nothing more than a radio for noise, you’re still moving in the right direction for a healthier mind.
So study and pray upon the matter and see if you think you need to expand on your favorite hobbies, grow in them, share them, teach them. This might be the year to get that new bandsaw, go to museums and sketch those antique tools, take containers of plants to the nursing home, start a book review, take photos of the local parks in all their seasons, write that book you’ve been putting off, or join the local theater as an actor or a stage hand. There’s a big world out there, so pick yourself up, make a list, and get yourself started on exciting new things. Every day is precious, so spend it making the world a better place!

Editor's notes
Owners: Craig and Valerie Hibbard. Expenses covered by Editors until successful enough to stand on its own. Ads selected by Editors and given freely, and we reserve the right to refuse any ads. Email comments to
valerie@plainandpractical.com, or mail to: 216 S. Plum Street, Marysville, OH 43040. We’d like to hear your comments. You may read PNP free on the web at www.plainandpractical.com, or order print copies by writing or emailing the editors.
Valerie sells her things on Etsy, at www.apronsrecycled@etsy.com, and has a blog for diary entries, at www.plainandpractical.typepad.com

A Nice Thing To Do
If you have some young ones you want to teach well, next time you have them for an afternoon give them some old cards to recycle and stickers and bits of paper and paste, and ask them to make a nice stack of flat attractive labels for donation. Your local food pantry would really enjoy having these for outgoing packages, delivered with some peanut butter, canned meats, canned beans and other high-protein items. The post-Christmas season is difficult for many folks, so remember to think of others.

Browncoats, con’t.
This is, of course, the short form of the story, it was still a bit of work and the husband admitted, next time he’d do the shelving of the inside BEFORE they buried the boat because it would be a whole lot easier that way.
Now imagine if he’d gone up to city hall and said, “Hey, I’m going to make myself a root cellar to hold all the canned goods and cabbages the wife and I do in the summertime . . .” Lord have mercy. There would be permits and submitting of drawings and electrical inspections and maybe the EPA would be required to look at the drainage of the woods where he tucked in his little project. Because he was smart enough to think “out of the box” and recycle a perfectly useful item that already existed, there would be gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands and I bet it would take at least one lawyer and a couple years of paperwork before the project could even start, and he got it done for $700 in a month. I vote him a Browncoat.
Another (probably apocryphal) story about Lee Ioccoca, at the helm of Chrysler, was that he told the engineers in R&D that he needed a convertible to show off what direction the company designs were going in, and was told “two years” by one group of staff and “eighteen months” by another, and at five o’clock he went downstairs, rolled up his sleeves, took a couple of hands-on engineers and a blowtorch and cut the roof off a brand new car. They cobbled together some trim and upholstery to finish off the edges and he was driving it in Detroit the next day. There’s a Browncoat for you, albeit one with power and resources.
So that’s my little string of thoughts for you to consider. Are you a Browncoat? Do you respect your independence enough to build your skills, quietly get done what you need to do, with as little government “help” as needed? Do you garner and build up your own resources, so you can be one of the good citizenry and depend on your own common sense and intelligence?
We all owe it to ourselves to be as Browncoat as we can. Do what you can to be self-sufficient; share your skills with others, teach what you know. It might spoil your day in the workshop a little bit to have a noob teenager there, but someone’s got to teach them. You would rather go hunting without your nephew, maybe, but he’s got to be taught the process from beginning to end. Participate in Freecycle and Craigslist and classified ads from individuals, when you can. Independency can begin in small ways, at your own hands. And remember to Pay It Forward.

The PNP newspaper is hoping to switch over the back page to individual box ads (free) on alternating months, so that more information can reach our readers. If you have something you make or grow at home, please let us know and help up put together some nice advertising so people can learn about your work and how to purchase from you, whether it’s sewing, seed sharing, spinning, raw wools, broom corn, grapevines, camping retreats, or other wholesome things.
“The store of wisdom does not consist of hard coins which keep their shape as they pass from hand to hand; it consists of ideas and doctrines whose meanings change with the minds that entertain them.” John Plamenatz, Philosopher

Start A Groundhog Day Group
There’s been various attempts in large cities to gather together in camps and parades, massing to convey the point that many Americans are financially frustrated on so many fronts.
My response to this was to invite forty friends to a networking party at my house the first week of February, at seven on a Saturday evening. I’m calling it a Groundhog Day Meeting (it’s right around Groundhog Day, and since the folks who were invited are grounded in wholesome good skills and talents to share, and we’re coming out into the light to share, it seemed a fitting name).
We’re going to do a round-robin sort of kindergarten show and tell thing, I’ll stand up and say, Hello, I’m Valerie Hibbard, and I like to spin and weave and make baskets, I’m available to advise on homeschool art and craft projects, I’m looking to buy or trade for some metal strips and scraps for an art project I’ve got coming up.” People who build decks can pass around photos of their work, those who sell their time can pass out business cards, and so on. After we go around the circle, I’ll shove people towards the coffee, tea, cookies, fruits, and treats in the kitchen and let them mill about connecting with each other and around ten we’ll start yawning and indicating the door’s over that’a’way. There will be a basket with local maps, a cup of pens and pencils and scratch paper to write on and we’ll set the date of the next meeting while everyone’s here. And I’ll probably hand out copies of this paper, if there’s any left.

Page 2

Ways to Recycle A Worn-out Pair of Pants
Cut off the leg just below where the knee’s worn out, sew across at the cutting point, turn inside out and sew again, turn, attach handle, and you have a dandy sack that fits a mason jar, thermos, fire starter sticks, or to use as a washable trash bag in your vehicle.
Cut into 1/2 wide strips and crochet or braid into seat covers, placemats, small rugs for trivets, or under plant pots to keep them from scratching up your furniture
Fold and cut into pieces, removing zippers and snaps, and stuff into a pillowcase for the dog or cat to have outside on the porch, you can mix those 50-50 with cedar chips to provide a softer and flea-resistant cushion
If you have several similar pants, treat the old ones like a spare duplicate car—keep them around to cut patches out of, for repairing the newer ones
Good wool slacks make dandy pieces for wool embroidered quilts, fold and cover for a nice pincushion; 10-12 layers make insides for a hot pad.
And of course, if they are completely just rags—cut them up for rags. Shoes need to be shined and oil spread on furniture and stain on steps . . .

Here is a recipe I wanted to share with you—
Ingredients:
Instructions:

Here’s A Couple of Fridge Tricks
Get yourself four quart jars, clean them nicely, and for one month, every time you bring home milk, pour it right away into the jars and put those in your fridge. Or, if you have a glass pitcher that seals real well, use that. See if you like this system.
I’d seen older folks who kept their milk this way, even when they didn’t have a cow, and wondered if it was because managing a smaller jar or pitcher was easier on their older shoulders and arms than a big nine-pound gallon jug.
But last week, we got a half-gallon of half-and-half, and as the clerk bagged it, she dropped it, and said, oh, it’s fine, but when we got home we realized it had started to leak. I rinsed off the container, and poured it into two quart jars I had handy, and put those into the fridge.
Now, I have to admit I have more imagination than many folks, but I think milk tastes better this way. That doesn’t make sense, because after all it spent more time in the cardboard jug than it did in those glass jars before we used it up, but it seemed somehow nicer, colder, better tasting. I plan to put our milk and our creams into glass jars from now on. Think how pleasant it would be to reach in and get a jar of milk and just take it with you to enjoy, instead of pouring it into a glass that might spill before you get to where you are going. If you don’t want a whole quart, you can fill them up to where you want and refrigerate them like that.
I also keep jars of iced tea in the fridge, good to grab and go, two in the winter and usually six or more in the summer. Those might be oolong, or red rose, or mint teas, or mixtures of flavors, but if I put in some mint then I don’t feel the need to sugar it at all.
And another hint, we keep two narrow trays, sort of sided containers of washable plastic, in the fridge—one is a selection of meats (His) and one is cheeses (Ours) but we’ve found this to be a great help in not wasting food. Meats from the freezer get laid in his tray to defrost, along with his salami and bolognas and beef stick snacks; cheeses from the freezer get put into the other tray to defrost, and that’s where fresh cheeses live. You can pull out the whole tray, select some for snacks, slice off what you want and put it all back—easy to see what you have, keeps it all neat.

Thrifting Around Columbus, Ohio
—the Southeast Corner

Family Thrift, 4815 East Main street
2 &3.
This Volunteers of America and Salvation Army store are in adjoining properties (4280 and 4242), and are worth the drive to this area even if they are the only two you visit while there. Big stores, lots of clothing, linens, housewares, books, one has some furniture. Take 70 to Hamilton road, then onto Macsway Avenue—the stores are not visable from Hamilton road, they are about two blocks to the northwest.

High Street/23

I-270 beltway

Hamilton road

4. Dortha, 4110 East Main Street
5. Ohio Thrift—1580 Alum Creek Drive
6. Judy’s Good as New—2527 East Main, 614-237-5529, consignment shop.

I-70

4

Main Street

1

6

5

2 & 3

Alum Creek

Not shown on map: East Broad street stores
Volunteers of America—1776 East Broad
Ohio Thrift—4618 East Broad street
Also, there’s a Just Plus consignment shop at 6042 East Main street, 614-759-7587

“Frugality may be termed the daughter of Prudence, the sister of Temperance, and the parent of Liberty.” Samuel Johnson
“Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character.” Calvin Coolidge

Page 3

Page 4

A Few Plain and Practical Resources for Self-Sufficiency
(Editor’s Note: I managed to check all except the bulk food stores, before going to publication,
and since I want to add some mills which sell to the public, and co-ops, I’m still working on those—thank you)
Bulk Food Stores and Mail order Foods
Clintonville Community Market, 200 Crestview Road, Columbus, Ohio, 43202, 614-261-3663
Yutzy’s Bulk Foods, 614-873-3815, 6010 Converse Huff Road, Plain City, Ohio 43064
Countryside Bulk Foods, 4230 West Pike, Zanesville, OH 43701, telephone 740-450-1595
Bulk Food Depot, 5457 Radford Road, Athens, OH 45701, 740-594-5053.
Apple Hill Ltd., 8690 Vermilion Road, Amherst, OH 44001-9475. Telephone 440-965-7077
Coon’s Candies, 16451 County Highway 113, Harpster, OH 43323, telephone 740-496-4141
American Harvest 51323 County Road 16, Coshocton, OH 43812, 740-622-2855
Swiss Village 309 S. Broadway St., Sugarcreek, OH 44681, telephone 330-852-2896
Sewing and Crafting Supplies
Scrap Leather, lacing, and hides, all American leather, Real Leather People, P. O. Box 251, Sonora, KY 42776 or 270-369-8880 or
sales@realleatherpeople.com
Make your own brooms—Broomcorn and supplies at R.E. Caddy, Box 14634, Greensboro, N.C. 27415, 336-273-3609.
Sewing Supplies, Home-Sew Inc., P. O. Box 4099, Bethlehem, PA. 18018-0099, 1-800-344-4739, homesew.com.
Linen and wool fabrics, 1-888-546-3654, FabricsStore.Com, 6325 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite #102, Hollywood CA 90038
Countryroad Fabrics and Gifts, 2195 N 700W Shipshewana, Indiana, 46565, good resource for fabrics, snaps, prayer caps, and more.
Knit Picks, P. O. Box 870760, Vancouver, WA 98687, 1-800-574-1323. Fine quality wool and wool blend yarns—their natural color, dye your own selections are especially well priced. Many sock yarns, patterns, and superior quality needles. Online also.
Raw Wool for Spinning at $2-4 pound, also well priced natural roving, and shepherd’s supplies, Mid-States Wool Growers Co-op, 9449 Basil Western Road, Canal Winchester, OH, 43110-9278, 614-837-9665, call for hours and directions.
Wm. Booth, Draper. 18th century reenactment supplies, I get my linen thread, horn thimbles, and other well-made, old fashioned items from this resource, 2115 Ramada Drive, Racine, WI. 53406, or, http://wmboothdraper.com, or 815-648-9048.
Clothing Patterns and Ready Made
Modest clothing patterns for women and girls, Candle on the Hill, R 139 E. Townline Rd., Athens, WI, 54411, or email:
info@candleonthehill.net
Gohn Brothers, Box 1110, Middlebury, Indiana 46540-1110, toll free number 1-800-595-0031. All sewing done by local seamstresses to your measurements, at very reasonable prices for good quality.’
Prayer caps (crisp mesh style), Plain and Simple Head coverings, Bayley Thompson, P. O. Box 185, Bagdad, KY 40003.
Aprons, Dresses and Coverings, Mennonite Maidens, http://www.mennonitemaiden.com , or orders by phone, 703-622-3018 or 304-492-
5590. Wide variety of all offerings, reasonable prices.
GVS, clothing for the entire family, baby supplies, toys, stationary, sewing supplies—many hard to find items. Highway 5, Versailles, MO 65084.
Housewares and Home Needs
Non-electrical tools and household goods, Lehman’s, 877-438-5346, or write for a catalog, 289 N. Kurzen Rd., Dalton, OH 44618.
Healthy natural soaps and salves, Cindy High, 905 Egeler Lane, Dexter, MI 48130
Quaker Hill Farm, children’s books, P. O. Box 10, Harrisville, MI 48742 (recently featured on Animal Planet!) Quaker Anne has all kinds of good things made from her farm, web site is www.quakeranne.com
Sisterthreads is a group of three Christian women who sew together in the daughter’s house amongst her four children, one of which is special-needs. Although they focus on quilts, they also do a variety of purses and organizers for knitting needles, crochet hooks and other sewing items. By mail: Sister Threads, P. O. Box 91, Herrietta, MI, 49638, or telephone, 231-389-0253.
Home Remedies, Wellness Service, 420 Weaver Road, Millersburg, PA, 17061, books, supplements, oils, massage tools.
Treadle Sewing Machine support group, TreadleOn, http://www.treadleon.net/ Parts, repairs, maintenance, advice.
Beverly Thorne, ask me for address, makes candles, soaps, and handspun yarns (see box ad next month here in the PNP).
Support for Becoming or Learning About Being Plain
You can write or email to me: see editor’s box. I can provide rough sketches for clothes and will gladly answer any questions to the best of my ability—Valerie
Quaker Jane—a@quakerjane.com, she has the best and most thorough site for those who have questions about becoming Plain
Quaker Anne—See Quaker Hill Farm under “housewares,” above
Headcovering statement based on scripture—Plainly Dressed’s web page, http://plainlydressed.com/headcoveringinformationfile.html
Christian Reading Materials/Non-mainstream Informational Resources
Keepers At Home magazine (Plain homemakers) $13 year/4 issues. 2673 Township Road 421, Sugarcreek, OH 44681
An Encouraging Word, P. O. Box 374, Covert, MI, 49043, $20/year includes yours and one gift subscription.
Plain Interests newspaper (Plain lifestyle), 420 Weaver Road, Millersburg, PA, 17061. Monthly, $16 yearly.
Pendle Hill Bookstore (a Quaker publishing house and retailer of Quaker literature), 338 Plush Hill Road, Wallingford, PA, 19086-6099, or telephone 1-800-742-3150 ext. 2. Bookstore email, bookstore@pendlehill.org
Rod and Staff Publishing, cookbooks, homeschooling, religious reading, 606-522-4348, P. O. Box 3, Hwy. 172, Crockett, KY 41413-0003.
Homeschooling, Pastoral, and Bible Study Reference Supplies, Christianbook offers free catalogs, call 1-800-CHRISTIAN, or write your request to Christianbook, 140 Summit Street, Peabody, MA 01960.
The Budget, a Mennonite rural newspaper, P. O. Box 249, 134 N. Factory Street, Sugarcreek, OH, 44681. Several editions, so ask for information, 330-852-4634.
Farm And Dairy, rural interests newspaper for farmers, P. O. Box 38, 185 E. State Street, Salem, OH 44460, 1-800-837-3419.
Ridgeway Books, toll free at 888-822-7894, or 3129 Fruit Avenue, Medina, NY 14103. Extensive Christian selection, ask for catalog.
New Additions:
Young Companion, Pathway Publishers, 2580N=250W, LaGrange, IN 46761, scripture-rich moral stories for young people, many are reader-contributed. They also produce Family Life, as well as Blackboard Bulletin, and I recommend all three as suitable literature to leave around where you find yourself spending a few moments in the day, they are uplifting, spiritual, and helpful to the simple life.