Old-Time Country Wisdom & Lore

Book excerpt: A collection of over 1,000 craft projects, games, activities, recipes, skills, and more that transport you back to the simple life of the countryside. In Old-Time Country Wisdom & Lore, you’ll learn how to read the clouds to predict the weather, make a long-lasting campfire, can fruits and vegetables, braid a rug, use a divining rod to find water, make a hammock, brew strawberry tea, tap trees to make maple syrup, find the best fishing spots, make homemade cheese and butter, build a rubber-band boat and other children’s toys, fashion a backpack, cook up jams and jellies, keep your house spic-and-span, make gravestone rubbings, stitch a quilt, form adobe bricks, tan animal hides, dip wax candles, play Mumblety-Peg and other games, mix your own shampoos and lotions, build a tin-can lantern, make wallpaper and wall stencils, smoke sausages, cure arthritis and other ailments, fire a clay pot, craft homemade Christmas ornaments, repair leather shoes, rid your home of pests, plant your garden according to the moon’s phases, and much more. Curated by famed Texas folklorist Jerry Mack Johnson, Old-Time Country Wisdom & Lore is a homespun encyclopedia of classic country know-how.