The Amish man's dress code is symbolic of his silent opposition and resistance to the military styles of the founder's day, and the European peasant farmer's work and Sabbath clothing, three hundred years removed. 7 Amish women wear deeply colored dresses covered by an apron pinned at the waist, similar to the habit of the 17th Century Catholic nun. White prayer caps are worn at all times and are covered by black shawls or bonnets outdoors. 8 Amish live without electricity in their homes and depend on lantern light in darkness. Unconnected to public utilities, they create heat from wood, coal, kerosene and bottled gas.
Windmills pump water from deep wells and sanitary systems are self-contained.
Amish forbid telephones, radios, televisions and computers in their homes. 9 Most Amish remain full or part time farmers. They till the soil with steel plows drawn by draft horses, whose manure is returned to the soil in the circle of life. They bind cut wheat and oats in shocks for threshing. All Amish farming methods remain generations behind their modern neighbors.