Florida Haiti Auction, Kentucky Manure Standoff, Winter in Lancaster
Another Friday round-up of items from around Amish America:
Florida Haiti Auction is this weekend
The Florida Haiti Benefit Auction will be held this weekend in Sarasota. Here’s your auction schedule, with events beginning Friday (that’s today!):
Friday Eve:
Chicken BBQ & Catfish Dinner…… 4:00pm
Singing by: Voices of Praise Quartet..5:00pm
Craft Auction ………………………….5:30pm
Sell “In Home Meals” ……………….. 6:30pm
More Singing and Closing
Saturday
Breakfast – Food Tent……… 7:00am
Main Auction ………………………. 8:00am
Silent Auction………………………. 8:00am
Tool Auction- Tool Tent………….. 9:00am
Model Tractors –Tool Tent ……… 10:00am
Lunch – Food Tent ……………….10:30am
Lawn Equipment – Tool Tent……11:00am
Specialty Item …………………12:05pm
Silent Auction Closes ……… 1:00pm
The auction location is the Sarasota Fairgrounds, about a 5-minute drive from the Pinecraft community. The address is 3000 Ringling Blvd. Sarasota, FL 34237. You can find out more at the auction website. Here’s video from last year’s edition:
If you live somewhere else and would like to attend a Haiti auction, here’s the schedule for this year’s events in other states:
Kentucky Haiti Benefit Auction – May 17, 2014
Bluegrass Sales Stables
205 Tress Shop Rd
Trenton, KY 42286
Indiana Haiti Benefit Auction – May 24, 2014
Shipshewanna Antique Auction Building
345 N Van Buren St.
Shipshewanna, IN 46565
New York Haiti Benefit Auction – June 21, 2014
Penn Yan Fairgrounds
Old NY 14, Penn Yan
NY 14572
Pennsylvania Haiti Benefit Auction – July 19, 2014
2727 Old Philadelphia Pike,
Bird-in-Hand, PA 17505
Ohio Haiti Benefit Auction – September 6, 2014 August 30, 2014
Mount Hope Auction
8076 SR 241
Millersburg, OH 44654
Another Ohio Haiti Auction is held March 8, 2014, organized by a non-Amish Plain church and located at Darke County Fairgrounds, 800 Sweitzer St. Greenville, Ohio. More info at haitiauction.org
Illinois Haiti Benefit Auction – October 25, 2014
Otto Center
2058 CR 1800 E, Arthur
IL 61911
2015 HAITI AUCTIONS
Florida – January 17, 2015
Complaints of loads in Amish Kentucky
Amish in a small western Kentucky community have come into conflict with local government over manure left behind by buggy horses.
The Auburn City Council has decided to give the Amish community one more opportunity to deal with mess left by their animals, tabling an amendment to an ordinance which would require collection bags on buggies. From the article titled “Amish get one more chance to clean up” (Update: article no longer online):
The council brought the amendment to the animal ordinance to the table due to numerous complaints over several years of horse droppings on the city streets. The amendment is to drop “collect” from the law, leaving only “capture.” This would mean, if passed, the Amish community would have to have collection devices (bags) on their horses when traveling through town. This is to permit any droppings from hitting the pavement.
“It can be dangerous to put catching devices on trotting horses as they will kick and run,” said Amos Mast, one of the Amish at the meeting.
Auburn Mayor Mike Hughes stated that he had researched cities with similar ordinances and sees the capture device is attached to the buggy rails, not the horse. Mast noted the crosspiece between the rails doesn’t leave enough space for anything else. “Some of the horses’ legs hit the axle when they run. Walking isn’t an issue but running is,” said Mast.
Hughes reminded the Amish in attendance that he had met with most of the older gentlemen over a year ago about collecting the droppings, but there was still a problem.
Apparently this has been a problem for some time, with “numerous complains over several years”, and leaders apparently trying to work directly with the Amish community, but with little progress.
Are the Amish dragging their feet here, or is there a legitimate safety concern? Other Amish have suggested that stopping to clean up after every horse “event” would be dangerous. The article suggests that the Amish themselves are conflicted over the issue.
There are two sides to every story, but the impression this article gives is of a council which is trying to be patient and work to solve a community concern.
Councilman Rex Evans said if the Amish could in good faith show that there is an effort being put forth it might make a difference. Evans made a motion to table the second reading of ordinance 2013-10, which passed with hesitation.
“I have a feeling we will be right back here discussing this issue again real soon,” said Kutzman.
Issues over horse manure are common, especially, it seems, in younger Amish communities where animal leave-behinds are a new feature on the landscape. Yet one wonders why manure problems linger in some communities but are willingly addressed in others. Does it have more to do with the people involved, the character of the community, or something else?
Winter Wunderland
We started this post in the warm environs of south-central Florida, so let’s finish with a few shots of a climate those now in Pinecraft have (temporarily) fled. These photos were taken by reader Ed in Lancaster County on various occasions.
Thanks Ed
Ed those are wonderful pictures, thanks for sharing.
Is the manure on the highway any worse than the salt we dump on the highway every winter? Nice pictures.
Love seeing all the pictures. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Ed, love the video and I have subscribed to your videos, great stuff, wonderful pictures , and a great read. 🙂
What is the danger?
I do not understand the danger the manure causes. Yes it smells and draws flies. But old cars and trucks with leaky mufflers smell and pollute the air and give us asthma sufferers attacks. I do not see anyone having to prove they fix their leaking tail pipes to the city leaders.
Safety
I think the safety question has to do with Amish drivers having to stop and collect manure after every occurrence. In the one article I linked to above that seemed to be the implication. Not sure what the expectation would be otherwise…unless someone made regular runs through an area to clean up the manure, which doesn’t seem realistic at all. Right now I’m in a town which has a lot of horse-drawn tourist buggies and there is someone who regularly does this. Much smaller area to cover though.
what is a silent auction?
silent auction
Julie: a tag is attached to the item being auctioned with a place for your name and bid. any one can see your bid and bid higher if they want. At a certain time all bidding stops and the highest bid gets the item. Some times a phone number is requested and/or an address if the auction is big and a lot of people may not know one another.
Manure Problem
These people need to get a life. It’s bio-degradeable and makes excellent garden compost. If it’s on the road it will soon be carried off by trucks and cars. If there is a big pile at the hitching post at Walmart the horses themselves will step on it it will wash away with the next rain.
When I left the farm in 1972 to go off to college, the smell of the animal barn was what I missed the most.
I think the English are much too occupied with horse S—. Get over it and move on…..
Oh please — cleaning up the horse’s manure? Ridiculous!
2014 Florida Haiti auction report
Have been meaning to post this for awhile but just getting to it now. A little report on the Haiti auction from someone who was there:
The Haiti Benefit Auction had a very good turnout; over 1000 buyer numbers were handed out. The phrase that stuck out to me was an auctioneer’s “Let’s have an auction!” The approximate proceeds, $250,000.00, go directly to missions that directly help Haiti. The proceeds were higher this year than last year. The weather was sunny, with a cool north wind. People ate ice cream anyway, with their jackets on. The shrimp dinners on Saturday were a hit, kind of like stir-fry. On Friday evening, 1600 barbecued chicken dinners were served, plus enough catfish dinners, to equal 3100 dinners.
We were so glad to see the wonderful doughnut-making family from Tennessee. I bought one to put in my vehicle to eat later. But I could feel the warmth of the freshly-made doughnut through the napkin in my hand, so I decided to eat half of it. Of course, I didn’t have the discipline to stop at half and ate the whole thing. You could watch the girls cut out a doughnut with an open, upside-down tin can, then bolt to quickly pull the dough to make a hole and a larger size “nut”.
To everyone’s surprise, the highest quilt sold for $4,750. Of course it takes a backup bidder to get it that high, too. The rest of the story is that the King Size, Reach for the Stars Quilt, in Brown and Greens, was not even planned to be in the auction. But when the owner heard that they wished they had more quilts for the auction, she went home and brought it and donated it, as an afterthought, even though she didn’t think it was anything special.