My family has always called Holmes County and the surrounding area "Amish Country." We have been going up there since I was wee little. Part of me used to HATE going (the being stuck in the car for hours on end with my brothers and sister) and part of me LOVED going (the horses, the food, the people). My mom would buy bulk flour and spices from the Ashery Country Store (which was just one little room when we first started going), especially for her Christmas cinnamom rolls and rings she would make as gifts.
I try to get up there at least once a year also. I have had to buy cinnamon and flour from the grocery - GASP - for the past couple of months. For one thing, it is super expensive to buy whole wheat and unbleached flour this way, let alone spices. Plus, the stuff from the Ashery is fresher. I know, you are thinking, what????? But it really does make a difference. And we bake quite a bit around here. My mom used to bake all the time when I was a kid and I still remember coming home from school and smelling fresh baked bread. Nothing beats fresh bread with butter melted on it for an after school snack! (Can you tell where all my extra pounds have come from?) This is part of the reason Jason and I decided, before we had kids, that we would give up a lot of 'stuff' that we could get with me working in order for me to stay at home and be MOM. (What a run-on sentence! UGH! The editor in me is cringing but I don't feel like fixing it! Blogging should mean FREEDOM.) Anyway...... back to Amish Country.
Abbe and Eian were out of school last week for our Fair break. So, we decided to take a couple of days and go to Amish Country. (We were going to go see my friend Amy in South Carolina but that is a whole 'nuther story. (See me crying.)) Getting Ruth ahead with her school work was definitely INTERESTING. Since she is being homeschooled through an online school, they obviously didn't have last week off. Abbe was super excited about going. She loves all the food.
We do what my parents always did also. We get on the way back township roads and just drive around looking at all the beautiful scenery and farmhouses. If you have never been, the Amish around there have a distinct way they build their homes. The flowers are always beautiful and full and vibrant around their houses and gardens. Mom and I always say we are going to stop and ask what their secret is one of these days. Horse manure tea??
Anyway, between Jason and I (mostly me - he was driving) we took 194! pictures. We always take the kids' pictures outside the Der Dutchman Restaurant (which was only one little room with booths when we were little). It has become a kind of tradition. The first day was mostly sunny and beautiful with the second day came the misty rain.
My uncle used to say that at night the Amish would open their roofs and put up their satellite dish. :-)He could never imagine living without all the modern conviences. One thing that I did notice more of on this trip was solar panels. Quite a few Amish had solar panels on their work sheds/barns. I only saw one have a solar panel on their house. (
Here is an interesting website with a little background.)
The whole area has become A LOT more commercialized just since Jason and I got married. Let alone how it has changed since I was a kid. Mom and Dad talk about all the times we would go to auctions up there and us kids would play with the Amish kids. I have a hard time imagining our kids doing that now.
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Emergency break to go find Blacky. Thank goodness he was found because it would have been my fault. I put him out in his yard cage this morning and the one end had come loose somehow and he escaped through that! For a second, I thought the neighborhood red tailed hawk had had a rabbit brunch. Close call!
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Here is what my spice cupboard looks like now with all the new herbs and spices. You DO know that you should replace them every once in a while, right? Look at the prices!!!!!
By the time we were heading down the back roads slowly making our way home, I had grown tired of the fussing and fighting, so I let them play on their dsi's. I know, I know... sing songs, play games... blah blah blah. Well, I HAD been doing that for the past two days. Selfish me just wanted to enjoy the time I had left looking and talking to Jason. So, out came the dsi's. The only thing we had when I was a kid were books. Although Ruth does take a backpack full of books EVERYWHERE she goes. The seriously funny thing about the first picture is that Ruth is too busy playing on her dsi to realize that there are horses RIGHT OUTSIDE her window! If you know Ruth, she is crazy about horses. Then, once they realized the horses were there, they were using their dsi's to take pictures of the horses.
