Amish Country

We went to see the land and people who refuse to conform. It was beautiful country. And lucky for us, they had some kind of youth celebration going on, whether it was purposely for Labor Day or not I don't know, but they were all out playing volleyball.

It was cloudy all day, had rained all morning, but whenever we got out of the car to walk around, we didn't have to mess with mud, luckily. Kids really liked walking around the open fields.

Our first stop was here:

They didn't have the tours going today, but the horse drawn buggy tours were still in operation. I saw a pickup location near a restaurant in Walnut Creek. The Amish know capitalism well.


 Trent thought they were Fox Trot horses (because they can go quickly at a trot without having to gallup since that hurts the horses on concrete/gravel) but when we asked an Amish boy who had just pulled up in his horse, he said it was a standard bred horse.


After grabbing some cheese at the Guggisberg Cheese Factory, we found a picnic bench reserved just for our family.

I was expecting Tillamook quality, and though it was very good (especially on Grilled Cheese sandwiches tonight), Tillamook is still better.

I hope they are siblings, cause I doubt this is legal...

We were getting good at identifying the Amish houses from regular houses. They usually had laundry hanging (no dryer) and a stable instead of garage in the back. And for some reason, a large # of Amish houses had the floral arrangement of red, white, red, white, etc. alongside their houses. Maybe they are patriotic regardless of their German/Swiss/Austrian roots.

Just another day....

 This guy needs to update his barn. Almost all the other Amish barns were completely red, so if he wants to conform to the non-conformist way, he needs to bring out the red tint.

Some of the houses had these little outhouse looking buildings and Trent said they weren't actually outhouses, but telephone booths. Picture is kinda dark, but you can see one on the right with a small white window.

Every fence had about 5 of these. And in the main flea market in Berlin, they had a bunch of these but in extreme fashion. Maybe this is how they teach the young kids how to build. Start small. Amish built furniture around here is expensive stuff.

I think this is still Charm, OH.

Yep, there is their school.

And by going past Charm into Farmerstown, you found where everyone was hiding...

 having their version of Youth Conference or EFY. But probably no dance at the end.

Wonder what she did to have to stay home and mow the lawn instead of play volleyball...

 Beautiful houses, well groomed lawns and great produce by the Amish community.

fun visit.

 We got a few things from this store. Red Raspberry pie is excellent.

Kyleigh was fast asleep by this time, so we didn't try any old fashioned soda. (probably tastes the same anyway, right?)

Some of our spoils: