Past the cows, goats and chickens and down the road to see the farm across the street -

And finally to Daniel's house and barn!  Even for Amish country, it is off the beaten path.  You are more likely to see buggies pass by than cars.  The windows in the barn give light to the blacksmith shop.

Amish Pickup  The family dog and cat at the hayloft door,
the handmade door to the shop and the tools of the trade.

The modest store has a few horse products, such as linaments and
wormers and also the puzzling objects on the right made by one of
Daniel's relatives.  These are butter churns.  One fills the two gallon
jars with cream and lowers the metal fitting onto the top of the center
post of a wringer/washer.  The washer agitates until you see butter thru
the slits next to the handle and turn it off.

While I talk to Daniel, I sometimes see people come and go in their buggies
or watch the next door neighbor work the field just outside the door.

The fan, softly ticking as it turns, is powered by an air compresser, which is fueled by gas in another location.

Next door, the neighbor patiently works his field.  All the buggies
and farm equipment have metal wheels, not rubber tires.
 
 
 
 
 
 

When I arrrived for a visit one Wednesday, Daniel wasn't working.
It was Ascension Day, an Amish Holiday, and the family was getting
ready to go to a picnic later in the day.  Daniel came out of the house to
invite me inside.  For an event I was having, I had just picked up a large
order of donuts from an Amish woman and I asked Daniel if the kids
could have some donuts.  So we took the big box in the house and put it
on the kitchen table.  Everyone gathered around and Daniel opened the
refrigerator and poured us all a delicious glass of milk straight from
the family cow.  Super market milk just doesn't tate like this!

Rebecca was busy fixing all the girls hair in the traditional pulled back way.  Every child thanked me more than once for the donuts.  Chris, the only son, was sitting on top of the kitchen table with his feet on the chair.  At one point, he got down and lefft the room.  When he returned, he leaned against his Dad and said a few words I couldn't understand.  They speak PA Dutch and German as well as English.  To bring me into the conversation, Daniel repeated in English, "So this is money that you earned?"  Chris nodded yes.  Daniel
said, "Why don't you put it right here...." and tapped on the corner of the
table.  When Chris put the change there, Daniel said, "Chris wants you to
have this for the donuts."  I thanked Chris, told him he didn't have to do
that and picked up the change and put it in my pocket.  Daniel eventually
let me know that Chris had seen the post-it note on top of the donut box
showing the amount I owed for my entire order - $44.  Little Chris
apparently thought it was 44 cents and he tried to scrape it up, but could only come up with 43 cents.  I was so touched by this gesture.

8/26/04  Yesterday I went to visit my friend Daniel Stoltzfoos.  He and Rebecca had spent the morning cleaning up the schoolhouse with all the other parents.   I arrived just a few minutes before they did, so I talked with some of the kids they’d left at home.  Then He and Rebecca drove up in their buggy and had to unpack the shovel, weedeater and other tools they had taken with them.    The children were delighted when they pulled out some books the school had decided to discard.  Young Cris unhitched the horse and put it in a stall.

It was lunch time – their big meal of the day, and Daniel invited me to come in the house.  Rebecca asked if I’d like to have some lunch with them.  The table had already been set, undoubtedly by the oldest girl, Emma.  Daniel pulled up an extra chair for me.  Rebecca started to pull out all the things she needed from the refrigerator and slicing the best tomatoes I have had in years.  You just can’t buy them like this in stores.   They have a big garden.  Next to the sink there was a collection of about twenty quarts of tomato juice and about ten pints of homemade sandwich spread – sort of like orange mayonnaise with finely hopped red sweet peppers in it.  The end result is rather colorful and tasty, too.  For lunch, there was sliced baked ham, American cheese, pasta/vegetable soup, sliced tomatoes, sliced red peppers, lots of small pimento olives (everybody seemed to love these), homemade applesauce, home-churned butter, thick slices of fresh homemade whole wheat bread and homemade strawberry jam.  Emma poured glasses of water for everyone.

All the children sat quietly around the table until Rebecca could be seated.  There was a silent prayer until Daniel moved and began to eat and everyone went into action passing food and making their own sandwiches.  I fixed myself an open-faced ham and cheese sandwich with the orange spread and sliced tomatoes from their garden on top.  It was delicious!  And then Rebecca urged me to try the jam, so I reached for the thick heal of the loaf, but Emma offered me a slice out of the middle.  I said that I’d really like the heel – and Daniel said he also liked the heel of a loaf.  Anyway, my desert was the bread, butter and jam, but there was also plenty of cold watermelon for desert and I had a slice of that, too.

Rebecca was getting ready to go to her sister’s new house about 15 minutes away to help sow the grass seed for the new lawn.  When everyone got up from the table, Emma went into action clearing the dishes.  She had a 5 gallon container that she emptied any of the scraps from the bowls each person had.  Then she stacked all the bowls and collected the flatware on top and went to the sink to wash dishes.  Chris went out and hitched up the horse again and then Rebecca and the six children piled into the buggy and drove off.  Rebecca’s sister has a large family, too, and Daniel told me the kids all love to play together and even get a little rowdy at times.

Daniel and I went up to the blacksmith shop in the barn and he began to shoe the two horses that had been dropped off while we had lunch.  I sat in my lawn chair and we talked about current events.  An English (what they call a non-Amish person) man from the neighborhood dropped in for a few minutes.  He is almost deaf and you had to talk very loudly for him to hear.  Daniel asked him if he had heard about the two Russian planes that crashed the day before.  After the man left, I asked Daniel how he had found out about that incident.  With no radios or television, I wondered.  Apparently there is an 800 number you can call that gives news headlines and weather.  He also gets a regular newspaper delivered, but the plane crashes were too recent for him to have seen that in a newspaper.  Being a Wednesday, he was using his phone Tuesday night and called the 800 number.  When I visit, he is always interested in talking about current events.  He wanted to know if I vote and who I plan to vote for.  Daniel doesn’t vote, but he says although he doesn’t’ agree with Bush much of the time, he’d probably vote for him instead of Kerry.  Interesting.

9/10/04  After I returned from the Stoltzfoos house last visit, I started to think about the discarded school books the kids had been so excited to get.  The most they had in the way of illustrations was a little black pen drawing at the beginning of a chapter or perhaps a painting on a cover of the paperback babysitter mystery series that Emma enjoys so much.  The old art teacher in me started to rear her head and I started wondering how I might tactfully introduce some beautifully illustrated books to the family.

While I was teaching, I had organized and administered a program called Artists in Schools, which lasted about three years after the court ordered desegration and merge of eleven school districts into one giant district.  Debra Frasier had a room within my art room for a year and a half.  This incredibly creative person later published some children's books which she authored and illustrated.  While whe was there, we had Olivier Dunrea, a children's author/illustrator come in to have my classes create their own books.  This was a wonderful week!  Ollie has had many books out is the last 30 years - many now out of print.  I discovered that some of his first edition books he signed for me are now worth a couple hundred dollars on eBay or from rare book dealers!

I ordered about a dozen of the books by my two friends and, after they had all arrived, I made another trip to see Daniel.  This was a Friday, which meant there were a lot of Amish men coming and going with their carts and buggies for a drive through shoeing job.  Daniel offered me a chair and I sat and watched and listened.  Most of the conversations I couldn't understand.  When daniel had a semi break, I showed him the books and asked if they would be OK for me to give to his children.  He said he didn't see anything to object to, so when the kids arrived from school, I got them all to come in the barn and together, we chose a book for each child.

 The first book I held up was The Painter Who Loved Chickens and asked if anyone likes chickens.  All the girls said that Chris feeds the chickens, so I asked him if he'd like a book about chickens.  It has stupendous illustrations!  So that was the first book to find and owner.

Next up was The Boy Who Loved to Draw: Benjamin West Illustrated by Ollie
This "biography of Benjamin West, "the father of American art," has an informing theme that unifies text and illustration into a seamless whole. That theme is set in the brief prologue, which introduces the large West family and notes that when Benjamin was born in 1738, the last of ten children, the preacher prophesied that 'this boy will do great things someday.'"  This was a Philadelphia family and their clothing in the illustrations didn't look too different from the current Amish clothing.  Emma (11 years) said she'd like that one.  Ravenawas selected by Rachel.  Broody Hen went to another little girl and another chose Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster by Debra Frasier.  There were two interactive books, "Puppies" and "Farm Animals," with stickers to place on corresponding shapes for the two youngest.

The rest for everyone to use went into the house carried by Emma.  If you need a book for a gift to a child or for your own child, look these up.
Rusty, Trusty Tractor Illustratee by Ollie Numerous colors and models of tractors in addition to the main character.
Noggin and Boggin in the Garden
Mogwogs on the March for the very young
Skara Brae: The Story of a Prehistoric Village
The above books are all illustrated and/or written by Olivier Dunrea.
 Out of the Ocean by Debra Frasier

This Was a Friday and there were several Amish men who had appointments to get their horses shop.  As they and Daniel talked in PA Dutch, I watched.  Once in awhail Daniel would say something to me.  At one point, he asked where I do my shopping and I replied that at little stores, the supermarket and sometimes I pick up things in Dutch country.  Daniel then introduced me to John King, who was waiting for his four horses, and told me that he farms for produce sales and that his family also has a bakery.  I talked with John for awhile and he gave me his address.  I couldn't resist dropping by on my way home and picking up a few things.

After Daniel finished the last horse, we talked for a while longer.  He said, "It is very quiet around here.  Usually when the kids come home from schood, they are racing all over the place.  You KNOW what they are doing!"

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The Firehouse Sale and Auction
Amish Road Auction
The Farms
One Family's Farm
Working Horse Teams
Smucker's Harness Shop
Shopping for Flowers
Clothes Lines
Daniel Stoltzfoos, Blacksmith
The 2005 Morgan Horse Sale

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