No, you’re not reading an old post from 2020 or 2021. I’m surprised to be sharing another COVID-related story with you, as we’re nearly into 2025. But this is a current story – and a big problem for Amish in one Ontario community. The root of the problem? The Amish in question didn’t use an obligatory Canadian smartphone app when crossing the border. From The…
The buggy was empty at the time, thankfully (especially after recent stories of runaway buggies with Amish children inside). However the driver of the truck was seriously injured when it struck the buggy. From WNEM: CLARE CO., Mich. (WNEM) – A man was injured and a horse died in a crash involving a vehicle and an Amish horse and buggy in Clare County on Friday….
This one was fun. Here are some photos from my trip to Amish cheese maker Goot Essa last year. Together with my friend Ben Riehl, we made the 2.5-hour drive up from Lancaster County last December. I’ve been saving these photos for a post. To get there, we traveled through several central PA valleys which have Amish populations. This is a shot taken on the…
Trend Alert: People are buying Amish sheds and converting them into living spaces, studios, and stores. That’s the report from the Bangor Daily News. They share the story of Jason and Jennifer Remillard, a Chicago couple who moved to Maine several years ago to “homestead”. This fits in nicely with the tiny home movement that’s been mainstream for about a decade now. Here’s the couple…
That’s the clear message from Steven Nolt of Elizabethtown College. He has analyzed the numbers and shares why with us today. This comes in contrast to one recent headline (“It’s too early to know whether Amish voters ‘delivered’ Pennsylvania for Trump, researchers say“). Rather, Nolt says that “It IS too early to know how many Amish voted, but it’s not too early to know that…
How do the Amish create new churches? Jim Halverson sends along a snippet from Amish publication Die Blatt giving an Amish church “District Division” report from Indiana. Note: this would be “divide” in the neutral/positive sense (not a split where different factions of Amish go their different ways). We’ll take a look at that report below. First a bit about the Amish church district. A…
A sad story out of northwest PA. An 11-year-old Amish boy was lethally shot on Saturday while hunting for chipmunks. From the Erie Times-News: MEADVILLE — Three young members of a Crawford County Amish community were hunting chipmunks over the weekend when a shot fired from a .22-caliber rifle struck an 11-year-old boy in the head, causing his death, according to the Pennsylvania State Police….
The one-year-old baby was thrown from the buggy along with her mother. The baby survived with minor injuries…while her mother lost her life. From the New York State Police: On October 28, 2024, at about 4:15 p.m., State Police in Herkimer responded to Butler Road in the town of Newport for a crash involving a motor vehicle and an Amish Buggy. A preliminary investigation revealed…
Jim Halverson gives us a look inside a plain and simple Amish country store in Gladwin County, Michigan. Gladwin County is home to a pair of Amish communities. Last autumn, we had a nice look at a Swartzentruber Amish barn-raising from this area. And we’ve also seen inside a Gladwin County Amish home, from a group similar to the conservative Kenton, Ohio Amish. An Amish…
With the election nearly upon us, we have gotten our fair share of the expected “Will the Amish vote?” articles. I’ve been seeing this coverage for months now. I have contributed to some of it as well (for some reason, mostly for French-language publications). Among the latest is this piece from Deseret News, which suggests two things of interest that could motivate more Amish to vote…