Ever see an Amish buggy like this?
I’m working on a huge Amish buggy post for Friday. Â Many photos, including some lesser-known buggy styles and designs. Â One example: Extra credit to anyone who knows where this photo was taken.
Amish buggies
The Amish farrier
As Ira discussed yesterday, Amish work a lot. Â Selling books in Amish communities, I’d often come across Amish in the middle of some task. Â If you show up at an Amish home and want to talk to the residents, odds are you are going to be interrupting some chore or job. Â I quickly learned which tasks I could politely interrupt and which ones were best…
The end of “low” Amish in Kentucky?
Here on the blog and on the Amish America Facebook page, some of you have been bringing up the court decision in Kentucky on Slow-Moving-Vehicle (SMV) triangles. Â The SMV triangle has become iconic of the Amish and the vast majority of them willingly display them on their carriages. However, some of the “lower” groups (in particular the Swartzentruber Amish and a few others) refuse to…
Buggy shopping
When was the last time you went car shopping? Â Have a fun time? If you were buying new, odds are you had to pick through a whole pile of choices. Amish buggy buyers have their fair shake of options to choose from too–everything from the upholstery to the lighting to the dash to the battery holder (a relatively new feature in Lancaster County has the…
Amish SUV?
Traveling through Amish settlements you may notice something like this: That’s not a Plain people hauler, nor the caboose of some sort of horse-drawn train. Â This bulky vehicle is a church wagon, and you’ll see them throughout Amish America. Each Amish church district will have its own wagon, used to transport benches from one location to the next. The benches are mainly used as seating…
Amish buggy safety video–Ride along with a Geauga County Amishman
The topic of Amish buggy safety comes up often on this blog. In rare cases acts of nature result in accidents (the recent Kentucky Amish tragedy). Sometimes, Amish are to blame. This week, an Ashland County, Ohio Amish youth was ticketed after reportedly racing another buggy and clipping an oncoming car. But more often, car drivers are the ones at fault. Recently I came across…
Five Amish Buggy Styles
I thought I’d share a bit more on one of the most obvious visual markers of Amish – the buggy. Â As you probably know, buggy styles can vary across the hundreds of Amish settlements in North America. Below are the five main styles I encountered on a recent trip. Four of them are not commonly seen, driven by only a minority of Amish in certain…
A visit to the Amish, in 12 numbers
I just got back, late Saturday, from a great trip visiting friends in Lancaster County and elsewhere. I’ve got a lot to share in upcoming posts. Â But for now, a little summary. Here are 12 key numbers from last week’s travels to Amish communities in PA, DE, VA, and MD: 7-number of settlements visited. Â In addition to the ones I mentioned in this post, I…
Not something you see every day…
I’m probably somewhere in Lancaster County right now. Will be back online in a couple days. Â In the meantime I thought you might enjoy this photo I came across. I tried to think of a caption to go with this but came up blank. Â All I know is that this is from a New York Amish settlement. Â Not exactly sure what is going on here:…
Buggy signs, part 2
After regretting (on the original buggy sign post) that we had no Allen County, Indiana sign, reader Torey has kindly shared this photo, taken near the town of Grabill. You may be aware that Amish in Allen County are considered “Swiss Amish”. Swiss Amish differ in a few ways from most other Amish (most Amish are considered to be of “Pennsylvania German” ethnicity). Swiss Amish…