Amish Friends

ahem.....you two have forgotten Indiana. We have several large communities in the NE part of the state. Indiana has the the world’s third greatest Amish population, also has the most settlements over 10 church districts in size.

We would meet up with them when we would go to the Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor shows.

(I am a Hoosier) ;)
 
The Sugarcreek Ohio Amish community is about in SE Ohio, not far from the border with WV. Middlefield, near me, is about 1.5 hours away. Both are long standing large communities. My experience is there are subtle differences, based on sects, in each of these groups.

Kinda neat to learn about it.
 
Sorry your Amish friends are moving. We used to have a good sized Mennonite community in VA Beach many years ago. Seems they moved to GA. Several families, now all the dairies are gone. I suspect some had to do with the market for selling their milk to processors. There are still a few families but, farming other than cows.
 
There is a Mennonite community near us in Emory. We have done business with one family's slaughter facility. The boys took over from their father as teenagers. Their school graduates the students at 16 years old. The boys do a fine job of running the business, they do the killing and slaughter, the girls work in the cutting and packing room.
 
I got a call first thing this morning, .50 chicks at rural king. I picked up my amish friend and his little boy. Left rural king with over 100 chickens, 30 or so were stinky CCX couch potato chickens. 2 bags of pine chips and 5 bags of feed. This absolutely made my day. I really love his little boy (5), he's always smiling and just now starting to learn English.

No pictures sorry... I try my best to adhere to their beliefs. I guess they are not going to move to soon :)

He told me that he'll use a kerosene heater with a piece of metal over the top to distribute heat to keep the chicks warm. But we carried the boxes into the.kitchen and set them near the oven until he gets them set up in the coop.

Got two pies a lemon cream and coconut cream plus a pint of cream for whipping.
 
Well I can take one picture of the pies and cream :)
IMG_20201205_112925408.jpg
 
They do have good food. CC, is that a sugar cream pie?
 
This morning was very sad 😢. I'm a guy and honestly there ain't to many other guys I call friends. But I did develop a close friendship with my Amish friend.

Today was moving day, my wife reminded me two days ago, that they planned to have the semi loaded and on the road by noon today. But somehow it slipped my mind. When I rolled out of bed on my knees to pray this morning the memory came back to me in a huge way. So I got over to their house about 9:00 AM.

There must have been 50 Amish men, boys and woman and girls there packing, cleaning and loading up the truck. Two big long vans also for them to ride in. I stopped in the drive as I walked up and took a big deep breath trying to fight back the sadness of what I felt in my heart.

I found my friend and is only son (5) packing up one of the bed rooms. I spoke with him and told him "Thank You for being a Friend, even if you don't realize it, you taught me how to be a better man. I believe God, puts good people in our life like you, to help us see our own faults and show us how to improve ourselves".

Now granted this is the very first time we ever spoke of God before. But I must have said the right thing because I seen smile and a tear flow down his cheek. Then he said, "yes, yes you are right, God does and I've learned a lot from you also, you showed me, what it's like to not be greedy". Then he said "everytime you come over you unknowingly blessed the family." You would never take even a penny from us, eventhough we insisted, that is a very rare and often misunderstood gift you have, we had to get creative with paying you with pies" I laughed and then I shed a little tear also.

I helped him and his son pack a little. Then my freind stopped and reaffirmed something I've known for a long time when he said "You know we are no different than you are, we have our faults also" but his words somehow brought a new depth of understanding. I said "you are so right and once we all realize that simple truth and truly accept that we all have faults, it's then, when, we all start to heal and develop relationships like we have". He agreed and that, brought a huge smile to both our faces. The sadness I had just up and left me.

I left smiling and happy, just the exact opposite of when I pulled up. We agreed to keep in touch via snale mail. When I got home, my wife informed me I had it all wrong though. My friend is moving to Wisconsin, a 8 ~ 9 hour drive from here. It was his brother and his family that moved to WVa. That made me even more happy because my wife and I agreed that we expect one day to drop in for a visit, since it's really not all that far away ☺️

so for now and into the near future, no more Amish friend stories.
 
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