Most Amish and some Mennonite farmers use steel wheels on their tractors, an aspect of church rules that encourages slower and less driving. It’s hard to get a fast (or at least a comfortable) ride when you feel every pebble in the road thanks to the unforgiving metal. Thus steel wheels deter unnecessary trips (in contrast, in a few Amish communities, rubber-tired tractors have meant…
An Amish businessman in Lancaster County has turned the camera in the other direction in an attempt to catch a thief. Apparently the culprit in question, likely assuming the Amish-owned businesses would be lightly protected, was brazen enough to break into the same four shops multiple times over a period of a few months. One unlucky store was robbed on six separate occasions. Knowing that…
An Amish acquaintance in Lebanon County, PA has kindly passed on a link to a Lancaster Sunday News story I’d missed from a couple of weeks back. Demonstrating that unceasing Amish innovative drive, it seems the folks at Stoltzfus Coach Supply have hitched up a new buggy alternator (no longer online) device to keep running lights juiced. The alternator solves two issues–the danger of a…
“It is very definitely a gray area, in fact it is nearly black.” An anonymous Amish friend from Lancaster County has offered candid answers to some questions on Amish life. In this first of two parts, he comments on topics such as the Amish presence in the media, Amish internet usage, friendships with non-Amish people, and the benefits and challenges of living life as an…
From Living Without Electricity (by Stephen Scott and Kenneth Pellman): “The majority of Old Order Amish use lamps that burn “white,” or clear, gasoline or naphtha. The fuel tank in these lamps is filled with compressed air. The air forces the fuel to the generator tube, where it is vaporized, and then to the mantles, where it is burned. Mantles are loosely woven fabric bags…
Big Valley, Pennsylvania is home to three main Amish groups–the Byler Amish, Renno Amish, and Nebraska Amish. They’re often known by the color of their buggies–yellow, black, and white, respectively. The somewhat fancy dash of a Byler Amish buggy. Yes, those are keys hanging on the right. You’ve got to start the horse somehow. Some Amish smoke. So this comes in handy. Also for recharging…
David Weaver-Zercher is chair of the Department of Biblical and Religious Studies at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania. He is also the author and editor of numerous publications on the Amish, including The Amish in the American Imagination, Amish Grace (with co-authors Donald Kraybill and Steven Nolt), and Writing the Amish: The Worlds of John A. Hostetler. His latest book, The Amish and the Media…
Amish people tend not to be too comfortable in the big institutional medical setting (come to think of it, who ever really is comfortable in a hospital? Shots, flourescent lighting, strange smelling hallways, poking and prodding doctors, ugh). This has influenced the Amish approach to obtaining medical services. Midwifery centers and home births are popular among the Amish, as are the services of country doctors…
Two quick bits of good news: One more tech snag has been overcome-I hope(!) It seems the size of the blog has gotten a bit large, and that’s complicated email or feed reader delivery over the past couple weeks. For reader/email subscribers to Amish America, you’ll now be getting just a short snippet of each post, and you can simply click on the post title…
First night at Abe and Sarah’s Lancaster farm went well, except for the friendly rooster who stomps the ground just beneath the window of my room. Apparently concert time is 430 am. I felt compelled to compliment Sarah on her bird’s voice the next morning. That got a knowing chuckle. Earplugs didn’t quite keep it out, but closed windows did the trick last night. Abe is a swell organic farmer, and…