How do amish deal with summer heat?

Two ways I deal with this temps is to keep a wet wash cloth on my neck. It really helps. I have to keep wringing it out in cold water fresh from our well to keep it cold. The other thing I do is to fill a pan with cold water and soak my feet in it. It is helps more than anything else.

We have been keeping our curtains closed to keep the sun out. I also cut my hair off and it has helped with these temps.

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IMO, it's just that people are just not used to the heat, let alone extreme heat.

If you live in the heat and just use a fan - or nothing, the extreme heat will just be more uncomfortable.

If you are used to air conditioning, so cold, you need covers at night, then extreme heat, can cause problems with the body.

Winter is no different. If you are used to being out in the cold, it's different than someone who is always either in a warm home, warm car or warm office, then exposed to extreme cold.

I think our Amish friends prepare for summer heat all winter long. They keep their house so hot in winter that summer just feels normal. When I visit in winter, I sit by an open winter.

They get used to it the same as I get used to working in hot houses all day, every day. Every place I go, all day, the AC doesn't work. I fix HVAC for a living. So far this summer, the only time I felt hot at work was yesterday. Four hours of hard labor in direct sun had me a bit sweaty.

If you think your house is hot, go up into the attic. Crawl across the rafters on your hands and knees, through fiberglass insulation, carrying 50 lbs of tools and parts. Lie down between roof trusses and a machine, and try hard to concentrate on what is wrong. That's what I frequently have to do in the summer. The hottest I have measured was over 130 degrees, for a couple hours.
I remember one July week installing in an attic. The thermostat in the hallway showed 94 degrees, and when we came out of the attic into 94 degrees, it felt like a walk in cooler.

I also recommend straw hats. I recently started wearing one in the garden, and I am impressed. It keeps the sun off, but allows air in.

It has been so hot here that a couple of nights ago I gave up and slept in the basement. Hubby stayed up in our bedroom and woke up all grumpy the next morning because he had not been able to sleep due to the heat. Next time it gets that hot I bet he'll be sleeping down there with me, lol.

[QUOTE=FarmBoyBill;6001967]I m entioned the summer of 36 being the worst on record. Both for the highth of the heat, and the length of it. That was in the last century. Imagine you woke up tomorrow and it was 1936. What would/could you do. Youd have to live with it. Thats what the amish have been doing all their lives. They likely stay away from places that have heavy AC, so that their bodies and minds dont get used to it.
But ACs are like tv, or puters, and whatever else luxurys that we have that they dont. We wouldnt want to be seperated form any of them. The amish never have been near them, so they havent experienced them so that they wouldnt miss them. {QUOTE}

My grandmother birthed my father in an old farmhouse July 16, 1936 in Iowa. I use to hear stories about how bad that summer was (like over 100 degrees 16 days in a row or something like that).

As for us here in NC, it seems our AC never stops during the summer. I keep the shades drawn to keep out the sunlight, set up a few fans for the rooms we are in (to help out the AC), and take multiple dips in our intex above-ground swimming pool throughout the day which REALLY helps to cool me down.

I think most of the deaths are people who were in ill health to begin with and couldn't take one more stressor.

Thanks for the replys all! Was just looking for a fresh outlook and ideas, many i have heard, a few new. I certainly deal with heat regurlarly as I am a union firefighter for a living and farm 250 ac on the side. The massive power outtages this past week have had me thinking... trying to plan new house, and make homestead more efficeint. I did not grow up in this lifestyle, so its been a learning curve since moving to the farm in 2008(our own, finally). Love the memories of era's past, keep em coming!

If you're building, Energy Savers: Passive Solar Home Design

We lost power for 8 days. Actually just got the electric turned back on this evening. These hot days really take a toll, sleepless nights. What made it bareable was lounge chairs in our basement and I went and slept in the cellar. LOL Our shade trees, and we have some mighty big ones, just didn't cut it with the high temps/humidity but the cellar sure helped.

Many British soldiers died from the heat in the forests of New England and upstate NY. in their heavy wool uniforms during the revolutionary war.

High ceilings and learning how to use windows, (closed in the daytime... open at night), diet and plenty of water works pretty well. I didnt have A/C at all growing up, and only rarely up until the past few years. The Amish doctor in our area says he has never heard of anyone dying from sweat.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

I seem to get most of my heat through the metal roof of my cabin. And the 4 inches of styrofoam I installed doesn't seem to help all that much.

I plan to drape a soaker hose with 56 degree well water dripping over my roof. Has anyone else tried this?

I also have lots of windows that face the sun in the afternoon. Thinking about hanging shade cloth on the outside of them.

Would appreciate any comments. I am in NW arkansas.

My head just exploded. Every Amish community I have heard of does not believe in secondary or university education because they believe higher education leads to pride. Its one of the big 3 reasons their young people leave the church. The reputation is that they value professional skills like medicine and law and will pay for good services, but I've always heard you'll never find an Amish Doctor, Lawyer, or Seminaried Minister.

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In North. Nevada we set up a soaker hose and sprinklers on the house when a wildfire was getting close to the house, the fire never got to us but it sure made the house a LOT cooler!

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Never, and in the trash.
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I have often wondered about this. We always see pictures of Colonial men and women in long sleeves and (women in) long dresses, but I've never read anything about the clothes they wore in hot weather. Did they switch to much lighter fabrics, such as gauze or loosely woven linen? Is it possible the men and women wore less clothing and it just wasn't mentioned? Why did shorts and tank tops wait for the 20th Century to come along? It's just something I've never seen addressed and always wondered about.

I'm not Amish, but I grew up without air conditioning. Dad built his house with big windows in every room, and big overhangs. I think that the positioning of the house, as well, was designed for air flow through.

I was a reenactor for a time, and women's lives and clothing of the era were my field of research.

Pre 20th century, clothes were all made of natural fibers including wool, linen, silk and cotton. Even a thin, loose knit wool dress is cooler than a lot of synthetic clothes women wear today, but gauzes were VERY popular for summer dresses.
I can speak only for the "era of the hoop" (since that is what I wore) but the undergarments were quite cool, and a "bell" type motion of rocking the skirts back and forth was also very cooling. Corsets in the heat were the worst. They even wore stays under bathing costumes. The layers of underclothes were very useful for wicking away sweat.

Prairie women who were not as confined by society sometimes forewent the corset, wore simpler dresses (such as the "T-dress", an ankle length 1 piece cotton garment similar in cut to a tee shirt), or wore their bare chemises with skirts. (This was like a nightgown worn between the skin and the corset) Anytime you are visiting a reenactment and a lady is wearing a white blouse, it's implied that she is basically only wearing a bra-- weather she knows it or not.
Women occasionally wore mens trousers or overalls when doing men's work, but not often.

To Fellas, "stripped to the waist" meant your coat and vest were off, and you were wearing just your shirt, suspenders and trousers. (Wool, Cotton, Linen or Canvas.) Modesty was the norm. A man would likely not go bare chested unless he thought he was alone, or didn't care (and that's how so many women got away with impersonating men to be soldiers.) Like when you're in your living room on a hot day today, drinking a cold one, sitting in your chair, watching TV, in your undies. Same idea.

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There is a time and a place for decaf coffee.
Never, and in the trash.
Are you an AZ farmer too? Arizona Backyard Farmers on facebook

Ok... pick up those pieces of your head and glue them back together. This particular Amish doctor doesnt have any plaques or diploma's from any universities hanging about his office. He is an iridologist and practices within (barely) the legal limits of the law. His diagnostics testing consists primarily of looking at your eyes, and his "prescriptions" or treatments amount to dietary change... and herbs to be consumed for the various "what ails you". Most folks that I have talked to that have utilized his "expertise" rave about him. Me personally? Not so much.... I wasnt all that impressed. He missed both my heart condition as well as my cancer. I do have to admit however that I have never heard of anyone dying of a little sweating.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

If I recall correctly it was mostly the Prussian soldiers, not so much of the British soldiers. The Prussians were from even further north than the British and had worn their heavier uniforms.

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There is a very arid town here called Lytton that is in the Fraser Canyon. Lytton gets bitterly cold in the winters and blazing hot in the summers. Regularly gets sustained temps in the 40's centigrade (100's farenheit) for weeks and weeks in summers. We have some friends who live at Lytton and their home is an earth sheltered home. The roof is covered with soil and plants and completely surrounded up to the roof by earth and plants all around the house. It's a house underneath a garden. The windows are big but deep and shaded by little sloping cedar shake roofs (awnings?) that stick out about 6 feet.

They have a little stream running through the middle of the house. It's a small part of their whole irrigation system and the indoor stream helps to keep the house humidified and cooler in the summers. Because it's an earth shelter house it stays cool anyway even without the stream if they have to divert the stream to irrigated gardens during summer. When winter approaches they divert the stream away from the house for the whole winter. They use woodstove and fireplace to heat their home and the house is toasty warm in winter underneath all that insulating earth.

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