Ohio

Aug 14th

Through Harvest Host Kathy found Yoder’s Amish Homes, and they had room for us tonight. The farm was previously an Amish farm, and the Yoders have preserved it and hired local Amish folk to tell you about their lifestyle. Mia looked up articles about the Amish, as part of her social studies. Along the way we started seeing signs warning us to watch out for horse and buggies. Then we started seeing the buggies on the road everywhere. In the small towns we were passing through, we started noticing the Amish Men and women walking around. We later found out that almost half of the county’s residence, are Amish. Yoder’s Amish Homes is a local tourist attraction, and the parking lot was full when we arrived. The farm is beautiful. Once we had our trailer settled, we paid for the tours. First was the tour of the barnyard area. Dan, a local Amish gentleman, was our guide. He told us about this particular farm and about Amish farms in general. They have goats, sheep, pigs, horses, donkeys, cows, rabbits, chickens, turkeys, peacocks, dogs and cats, all of which had babies. Mia couldn’t get enough of the babies. Next, we had a tour of the old Amish houses. The kitchen in the big house is still being used by local Amish to make food for a local Amish farm stand, and met Elsa, who was making fresh cinnamon rolls. After the houses, we met with a former Amish school teacher who told us about their one room school houses. She was fascinated by our trip and home schooling of Mia. Last was the carriage ride around the farm. When the tours stopped for the day, all of the Amish, cleaned up, and were out in the yard talking. They were all speaking Pennsylvania Dutch, a form of German. All true Amish speak both German and English, and you can hear the slight accent as you talk with them. By 6pm everyone had gone home (some of them in horse and buggies) and we were left all alone on the farm. It was one of the most serene and peaceful nights I have ever experienced. Listening to the sounds of crickets, frogs, birds and the occasional barnyard animal, while watching the fire flies all around us.

Aug 15th

I slept so well last night. This morning we still has the farm all to ourselves. Being Sunday, it is closed and all of the Amish are at church. We were even told that none of the businesses in the local towns would be open today either. We are staying at a blueberry farm tonight in Northern Ohio. On our way there, we drove through my old Diebold stomping grounds in Canton, OH. From the drive through it didn’t look like much had changed since I was last there. Our hosts tonight run a blueberry/maple syrup farm. They are very nice and invited us to wander around the 70 acres. It is late in the season, but Mia was able to find enough blueberries on the bushes, for pancakes tomorrow morning.