The Amish community in the Sarasota-area Pinecraft neighborhood is one of the most unique Amish settlements. I went into more on why in the Florida Amish state guide page, as well as in the 40+ photo post about my 2013 visit. So if you don’t know much about this unusual community, I’d suggest checking out […]

Continue Reading Another Visit To The Amish At Pinecraft (44 Photos)

This story caught my attention first for how the paper framed it with their headline: “Horses lead the way to a less peaceful coexistence in Amish country.” Is that meant to be a cute title? It sounds like it is strictly blaming the Amish for the conflicts, at the least. The article addresses two issues, […]

Continue Reading Washington Post: Horses “Lead The Way” To Less Peace In Amish Country

So I’ll be visiting various Amish communities over the next several weeks, starting tomorrow in Florida. Expect to see some posts from these places in the coming days. I’ve been to all of these at least once, except for the NC community. Linked posts from the last time I was in each settlement below. If […]

Continue Reading My Amish Travel Schedule (Nov-Dec 2019)

Some Amish people make a supplemental income – and sometimes a full living – through what might be termed “alternative animal breeding”. These are not your everyday cows, pigs, and chickens we’re talking about. The authors of Nature and the Environment in Amish Life explore this topic in chapter 6 of their book (“Tinkering with […]

Continue Reading 4 Types Of Alternative Animal Businesses Run By Amish

Pioneer Equipment is a longstanding Amish manufacturer which makes horse-drawn equipment, wagons and other vehicles, and related implements. The company got its start in the mid-1970s when Wayne Wengerd and his father Henry tested out a plow prototype on a back field of their land, a response to the growing lack of horse-drawn equipment available […]

Continue Reading A Closer Look At Amish-Owned Pioneer Equipment (Wayne County, Ohio)

Leaders of a sizeable Amish community in Ohio have accepted a new safety enhancement on their buggies. These are not the Swartzentruber Amish living in Ashland County (though that group has been open to buggy safety changes as well). A second group of Amish living near the city of Ashland are one of the more […]

Continue Reading Amish Group Known For Unusual Safety Triangles Expected To Add New Safety Enhancement

“You’re supposed to defend yourself if you’ve been aggressed upon.” That’s what Ora Hochstetler, now 82, says in his own defense, a half-century after his excommunication from the Amish church. He likens it to a famous battle from Scripture: “Kind of like David and Goliath. I don’t believe in just going out and boom, kill […]

Continue Reading Ex-Amish Army Veteran Recalls His Excommunication A Half-Century Ago

Amish father Jonas Stoltzfus recently filed a lawsuit challenging a new New York state law requiring students to be fully immunized against contagious disease. Stoltzfus says he was informed that his three children will be blocked from attending their Cranberry Marsh School, a traditional Amish school in this Seneca County settlement of six church districts. […]

Continue Reading NY Judge: No Religious Vaccination Exemption For Amish

Going back again through some photos from earlier this year, I realized I still had a lot of shots from my visits to Charlotte County, Virginia. I’ve already written about this community several times – in posts on an “off-the-map” Amish dry goods store, on Amish phone shacks, and on Esh’s Variety Stand, a little […]

Continue Reading 10 Views Of The Charlotte County, Virginia Amish Community

Reader Marge asked on our recent Amish funeral customs post, “Why do Amish not publish obits in local newspapers?” I responded that they do in fact appear in local papers. You can quite often find them online. Here is an example: an Amish man named Roman E. Harshberger, 70, of the Nappanee, Indiana community, passed […]

Continue Reading An Amish Obituary