We don’t have any chain stores around here, but some of the local stores that sell clothing have learned to stock practical, durable, feminine clothes. I wish I could steer you to a good online store, but since we’re still digging out from The Great Heart Failure Adventure, I haven’t been buying anything at full retail for quite awhile, which puts me a bit out of the loop on that.

I’d suggest cornering a friend who crosses your path wearing something that doesn’t look like it was slapped together by the Needs Replacement Soon But Who Cares crowd, and ask her where she found it.

Once you get past that hurdle, then you get to learn how to wear skirts while doing chores you’ve never done except in pants. Hands and knees cleaning jobs, for instance. (Skirts don’t move along like pant legs do, and it’s an art form to not get hobbled.)

Have you seen the movie Burnt by the Sun? It is about the Stalinist purges. Such a sad moment in world history.

Thanks for the review. I know so much about these books via my husband (and friends at church) but I should really read them myself someday.

Cows are really good for building the soil, because they tend to trim the grass down– while horses and sheep and such will pull up loose grass and eat the whole thing!

If you want to improve the soil quality, pea-family plants (clover, alfalfa) will add nitrogen, too.