A Trip to Amish Country...

We took a group from our church (including John Wesley) to the airport in Columbus to catch a flight to HAITI for a mission trip.  Harold and I decided to take the opportunity to make it into a roadtrip--just the two of us, after we dropped the group off at the airport!!!  (Thanks to Mom and Dad for watching the kids for us!  You are such a blessing to us!)   The first thing we did was stop off at the rental company and rented a car.

Then we were off to Lehman's!  I've been wanting to go for a while now and I wasn't disappointed!  The sheer amount of STUFF was almost overwhelming, but it was all so interesting.  I actually didn't buy much at all.  Just a couple clearance kitchen things and a few things for the kids.  Oh...and a book with lots of goat's milk recipes!  Hopefully that will get lots of use in a few weeks after the kids are weaned and/or sold!

We loved seeing all the buggies parked everywhere.

And the bicycles...

The Amish farms are so beautiful and well-kept, almost manicured.

Being spring, everything was so green and fresh and pretty!

It was interesting to see these milk cans at the end of several driveways.

I took the next picture through the windshield.  We were amazed that these young girls, probably the age of Lena or a little younger, were riding this little buggy, pulled by a tiny Shetland pony, down one of the main roads of this community.  See the hills?  Imagine if a car or truck came up over the hill too quickly and they couldn't see the buggy until too late?  Ugh. 

The Amish have their own schools and in order to support them (pay the teachers, buy textbooks, pay for up-keep on the school house, etc) they have auctions.  I'd have loved to had the opportunity to go to one!

Amish boys, around 12 and 14 years old, delivering milk jugs.

It's interesting to me, as someone who doesn't trust horses, to see how apparently well-behaved and well-trained all the horses were. 

Another view of the same boys delivering their milk.

We made a pit stop at this bakery!  That was probably a mistake.  They had samples of EVERY thing available.  By the time we left we had probably had our daily allotment of calories!

Daily allotment, notwithstanding...we headed across the street to this cheese factory.  We got to see cheese actually being made.  They also had samples of EVERY kind of cheese (probably around 100 kinds).   Their tagline is, "Where the Cheese is Made."  Harold threatened to go in and ask the workers, "Who CUTS the cheese?"  I threatened him severely enough that he did not do that!

Some of the buggies were closed like the ones above and some were open like this one.  I'm sure it has to do with differences in the Amish orders.  I assume there are several separate communities within this area.

Harold and I stopped and spent a while looking around in an antique mall. 

Then we needed to start back toward Columbus.  It was a gorgeous drive, so peaceful.

On our way back to Columbus to get our bus, we passed the Longaberger headquarters.  I had always heard about the basket-shaped building.  Sure enough, there is was.

The perfect ending to a perfect outing...P.F. Changs!  Yum!

After our late dinner, we tried to find a hotel.  No luck for the first two hours or so.  I'm not sure what was going on in the area, but we had a terrible time finding a room.  When we finally did, we were so thankful.  We had been up, by that point, for just a few hours short of 48 hours.  That's a long time for us old folks!

Another Birthday to Celebrate!

Happy 17th Birthday, Katy Lu!  Your much-too-short life continues to teach us, to impact ours in ways it might never have if you had stayed.  I have missed you in every family picture we have ever taken, but in your absence, you have made our family what it is.  Because of you, our family is full of faces that would not have been here if you had not changed our hearts.  In so many ways you ARE here...in my every day, my every thought...a part of who I am and who we are as a family.  Thank you for coming, for imparting in your too-short stay what it takes a long lifetime for many to accomplish.  Our lives are so much richer, so much fuller because of the time we were blessed to share with you. 

Trade Days 2011...

A couple weekends ago, we packed up the camper and headed out to Trade Days!  We always have lots of fun going to spend the weekend together exploring all the booths in search of treasure.  The real treasure we come home with at the end of each Trade Days weekend is the time we spent together and the memories made along the way.

This was the first year we actually brought animals to sell.  We brought several roosters, a few hens, a couple of breeding pairs and a trio.  We were happy to see that our animals all appeared cleaner and better cared for than many of the others being sold, which would account for why they sold so quickly.  Unfortunately, several of the vendors there were selling animals that had very clearly not been cared for.  They were pitiful.  Anyway...ours all sold within the first day, most were gone by early afternoon.

Part of what I love about Trade Days is just watching everyone.  Trade Days is a combination of flea market, carnival (minus the rides), livestock sale, and yard sale.  The things found for sale vary as widely as the people who come to look.  I could find an out-of-the-way seat and just watch everyone all weekend.

Folks sell EVERYTHING.  We've seen bear cubs, HUGE turtles, coyote babies, wolf cubs, snakes, and then of course there's the more mundane hunting dogs, pet puppies, and run of the mill farm animals.

We found a couple more pigs to raise.  My freezer is just about empty of pork from our last crew.

John Wesley and I had been admiring (online) the blue-laced red variety of Wyandotte chickens, and had been talking about how we'd like to find a nice pair.  Lo and behold, one of the men selling chickens close by us had this beautiful pair for sale.   He had some really gorgeous chickens.  (You didn't know chickens could be gorgeous, did you?  Indeed.)

And of course, here's Romeo.  We bought him at LAST year's Trade Days.  He's just a young punk, but he's starting to strut around, trying to impress everyone on the place, not just Juliet, his peahen, but also some of the chickens--I don't think they're buying it, though!  Peacocks don't develop the "eyes" on their feathers until they're about 3 or 4 years old, so it'll be a couple more years before he's truly impressive, but for now, he's sure funny to watch fanning out his imaginary feathers and wiggling his fuzzy hind quarters!  We got to see the lady we bought them from again this year and Harold took a minute to stop and do an impromptu commercial for her telling one of the customers checking out her birds how happy we are that we bought from her and how knowledgable and helpful she has been to us.  Hmmm, seems he should've gotten a commission from that sale!

Pass It On...

What a wondrous time is spring

 When all the trees are budding

The birds begin to sing,
The flowers start their blooming

 That's how it is with God's love

Once you've experienced it.

You want to sing, it's fresh like spring

You want to pass it on.

A Drive Down the Dirt Road...