Southern Indiana Amish farm
Orange County, Indiana Amish farm photo courtesy of Cindy Seigle. Wintry weather means staying inside, mostly. Is this farmers’ favorite time of year?
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An Opinion On Puppy Mills – From A Lancaster County Local
Commercial dog breeders (also frequently described as puppy mills) have been in the news a lot lately. Recent changes in Pennsylvania law has made it difficult for breeders to operate, thus forcing many to begin to get out of the business. Opponents, most visibly in the form of activists such as Bill Smith of Main Line Animal Rescue, have made headlines with their sometimes dramatic…
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Raber’s Almanac
A while back I wrote a post on Raber’s Almanac, an annual guide used by the Amish. The Almanac includes an extensive listing of Amish church districts and their ministers. Â It also includes a Scripture and hymn schedule for church service as well as some folk wisdom and even a dab of astrology, which I examined in the original post. The other day I came…
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History of Amish names: A ‘Smiley’ Amishman by way of the British Isles
David Luthy shares the history of Nathan Smiley, born in Ireland to a British mother in 1797. At age four, Nathan arrived in America with his mother, and for reasons unexplained was placed in a foster home in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. That home happened to belong to an Amish family. On coming of age, Nathan chose to join the Amish church, and later married. Nathan Smiley…
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Another look at the Amish and health insurance
The Amish potential-exemption-from-health-insurance-requirement story has shot around the net and become something of a hot sub-story to the health care issue. Frankly I thought it would get some attention but the amount of media coverage surprised me a bit. A scan of commentary reveals some upset at what’s been called a ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card for the Amish (and, presumably other religious groups who meet the criteria),…
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Behalt: An Amazing Painting of Amish & Anabaptist History
Behalt is the name of a pictorial history of the Anabaptists from the time of European beginnings through their existence in America. Not only is it educational, it has been dubbed “the most exciting cyclorama in America”. Having only visited one cyclorama in America (the other – of the Battle of Raclawice in Poland being non-American and of a decidedly non-pacifist nature) I can’t say…
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Success Made Simple book update
Have just recently been finalizing page proofs for Success Made Simple. If you’re wondering, this is the part where the text of the book is placed in the proper font and style and fitted to the page, so it actually looks like the page of a book, as opposed to a Word document, which is what we’ve been using up til now. You work from…
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New Wilmington Amish Christmas school program
A week back I wrote about how Amish celebrate Christmas, with a mention of the holiday program that takes place in many Amish schools. Rick shares a photo from a recent visit to the New Wilmington, PA Amish community, taken during the Christmas Eve program at a local one-room school.
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Low Amish Cancer Rates
The qualities of being a closed population, as well as good genealogical records, make the Amish an attractive group for genetic and health-related studies. In a recently-reported Ohio State study, researchers theorized about higher rates of cancer, but found the opposite. They discovered that Amish in Holmes County, Ohio exhibit cancer rates only 56% of the national average. The researchers explain that low cancer rates…
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Boy #3
A bit of good news lost in the mix over the holidays, and maybe appropriate to share here on New Year's Day. About a week ago I received word that my friend Abe, whom I've mentioned in the past on the blog, has just become a father for the third time, this one a boy like the previous two. Abe, who is a produce grower…
