If you’re near Hicksville, Ohio, tomorrow, you might want to drop in on the Defiance County fair for one of America’s rarest sporting events: I picked this flyer up at the Topeka auction house here in Indiana. I found the terms of the race pretty interesting–”a limit of five horses per race”; ”all drivers must [...]
Continue reading Amish races in Ohio
We got a lot of interesting guesses on the Allen County mystery shack. Everything from a portable toilet to a shepherd shelter to an Amish buggy camper. Now, I will preface this by saying that being Sunday, I did not have a chance to confirm. But I’m pretty sure this: has to do with this: [...]
Continue reading Mystery shack explained?
SMV triangle, streamlined top, mini-door. What is this thing? A road-ready chicken coop? I took this photo yesterday in the Allen County (Grabill) Indiana Amish settlement. Today I’m off to Michigan. Will have more on this photo tomorrow, but til then, what do you think?
Continue reading What is this thing?
The Amish home is changing When you visit Amish communities, can you pick out the Amish homes? As a general rule, the more conservative the community, the easier it is to tell the Amish dwellings from the English. The lack of power lines is one giveaway. So is the style and design. A Swartzentruber Amish farm [...]
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Last week’s Lancaster County favorites post has been getting some nice suggestions. Lot of food places and Amish businesses, plus some rather off-the-beaten path recommendations like Amos Hoover’s library and the Lititz area. Lindsay asked if we could do the same for Elkhart and Lagrange Counties in Indiana (i.e. Shipshewana, Middlebury, and so on). [...]
Continue reading What are your Indiana Amish favorites?
Lance shared a link to an interesting video on the Indiana Amish post this week. It’s an unusual look at a nominally Amish family in Indiana. It’s a bit confusing what’s going on, but this seems to be a born-again Christian family in transition away from an Amish lifestyle. The father, Elam Graber, is described [...]
Continue reading Plain pessimism in Indiana
Indiana is home to America’s third-largest Amish population. Indiana Amish facts: Indiana has the most settlements founded in the 1800s (6), and the most communities over 10 church districts in size (5). Indiana has the largest Swiss Amish population. You’ll find Lancaster gray-topped buggies in two settlements in the state. Lancaster Amish first came in [...]
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The Connection is one of numerous new Amish periodicals Amish readers have enjoyed a variety of new publications over the past few years. One of my favorites is called The Connection. The Connection is published out of Topeka, Indiana, and features a variety of columns and articles written by Amish from around the country (as [...]
Continue reading Amish magazine “The Connection”
I’m away from the computer for a couple of days, but have auto-posted some hat shop photos. The first is from the Nappanee, Indiana Amish community. Nappanee is the 3rd-largest Amish community in Indiana, and 6th-largest in the nation. There is also a small Old Order Mennonite community near Nappanee: You can see a few [...]
Continue reading Amish hat shops
“We could probably build a better car than Detroit can. I will go out on a wing and say that. I honestly believe we could do that.” It’s not often you hear an Amishman make such a claim. But it almost makes sense–when you learn that the fellow who said this is from northern Indiana. [...]
Continue reading What does “wealth” mean to you?
