P.L. Gaus's Blog: From Ohio's Amish Country, page 4

Amish Scenes from Holmes County, Ohio – A Nap in the Sun

It was a hot summer day recently in Ohio’s Amish Country.  I caught these two beautiful horses taking a nap in the sun.  It seemed that all over Holmes County, the draft horses were at rest.  It wasn’t time to take in hay, and most fields had long ago been plowed.  When winter wheat needs to be cut in July, these beauties will be back at work.  For now, though, it’s time for a well-earned rest.

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Amish Scenes From Holmes County, Ohio – Belgian Draft Horses

This Amish man is getting rather a late start on Spring plowing. The Belgians don’t do all the work. It looks like the man is hard at it, too. For freinds and fans of The Amish-Country Mysteries – I have made a good start on novel number ten.

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Amish Scenes from Holmes County, Ohio – Fields Ready for Planting

This Amish family has finished turning the soil.  The next step is planting.  After a cold and slow winter, things in Holmes County are going to start to get busy.  But as you look at this scene, doesn’t it seem like a quiet place?

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Amish Scenes from Holmes County, Ohio – At The Cheese Counter

The cheese counter is a favorite place in the Health Foods Store at Mt. Hope.  It is busy all day and every day, with Amish families making up the majority of the shoppers.  There is no romance or intrigue here, just everyday life.  If you can do it without intruding, it is an interesting place to visit.  And if you’re going to buy some cheese?  Try the Lacy Swiss.

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Amish Scenes from Holmes County, Ohio – A Cow Goes to Market

This is an old order livestock wagon.  It’s probably a Schwartzentruber man who is driving, because the wagon is old-order green, and the wheels are made of unpadded iron.  Schwartzentrubers wouldn’t use rubber padded wheels.  It would be too modern.   The cow in the wagon is on the way to the Mt. Hope livestock auction.  Schwartzentrubers may be the most conservative of the old order Amish, but that doesn’t mean they are unwilling to make a modern-level cash profit when they can do it.

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Amish Scenes from Holmes County, Ohio – A Plow Takes A Sunday Rest

Yesterday was Sunday in Amish Country, and work was avoided as on any proper Sabbath.  The farm implements sat idle in the fields, and the plow horses were out to pasture.  Maybe there is something we could use in this idea.  Take a day off.  Restore ourselves.

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Amish Scenes from Holmes County, Ohio – Horses in a Spring Pasture

We are starting to see more green in northeast Ohio.  Here are some horses in an Amish pasture, and I’m sure they appreciate spring as much as we do.  Images as pretty as this?  It’s fairly commonplace in Holmes County.

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Amish Scenes from Holmes County, Ohio – Idyllic Farm

Could it get any more iconic than this?  The little house to the left of the big house is a Daadihaus, built for the grandparents.  There are no retirement centers in Holmes County’s Amish country.  Grandparents retire to their own custom home and live out their lives on the farm that they once owned.  Would you call that an idyllic lifestyle?  Maybe so; it certainly is a beautiful setting.

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Amish Scenes from Holmes County, Ohio: A Six-Horse Team on a Plow/Harrow

Here is an Amish man working a field with a team of six horses, pulling a rig that includes both a plow and a harrow.  He is standing on top of the complicated platform, and it proves that Amish life and farming, though often plain, are not always simple.

 

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Amish Scenes from Holmes County, Ohio – A Family Drives Home from Market

Here is an Amish family on their way home from the market in Mt. Hope, Ohio.  They are all dressed in black – father, mother and two little children.  Rather different, wouldn’t you say?  The lifestyle is difficult to imagine, I admit, even though I’ve been writing about it for over fifteen years with my Amish-Country Mysteries.  I have often been asked how hard I think it would be to make the transition from modern life to Amish life.  My answer is always this: it would be, in all practical terms, nearly impossible.

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