Sunday, October 19, 2008

The Amish Thing

Logan and I went up to the Lancaster area last week to do the Amish tourist thing. I have a pretty healthy obsession with the Amish. I've read everything I can get my hands on about them, I know the whole history of how they got established, why the Menonites broke off, their rules etc. If it weren't for the religious part, I'd love to be Amish.

We have Menonites that live near us but the closest Amish are in the Lancaster area, we'll see them in their buggies when we are driving north but I've never talked to them or anything. So, I decided to change that before we move since their aren't any Amish in Georgia that I know of.

Even though it is totally touristy, we did a buggy ride. It was a lot of fun! Logan and I got to sit up front with the driver who was an honest to goodness Amish man. He was very nice and funny. He did talk in the Amish dialect and could be hard to understand at times.

Here's our view from the Amish buggy we rode in. The horses name was Bonnie and she was a good horse. It was very scary crossing some of the busy roads in a buggy. We were really wanting Bonnie to get a move on!


The Amish area is very beautiful. Here are some views of the farms around there.

Being a beautiful fall day, most of the Amish were out working in the fields. It was really interesting to see them using modern harvesting machines, only drawn by horses instead of a gas engine. We saw tons of people out harvesting.

I also got a bunch of animal pictures which I'll post in a few days. Another house picture coming up tomorrow!

13 comments:

Melody said...

There might not be any Amish in Georgia, but there are Amish in Kentucky.

I love the Amish too!

The place in Kentucky where I used to live was a remodeled Amish built house. I lived with lots of Amish neighbors and had to watch out at night for buggies (those black buggies are hard to see at nighttime!). It was fantastic to hear the clip-clop of the horses go by my house more that hearing cars go by.

There are Amish communities in Crab Orchard, KY and maybe a few left in my little town of Gradyville. There are a few other groups sprinkled throughout KY, but those two towns had the most that I knew of.

Atlanta is about 6 hours from Gradyville. So if you ever want to visit Amish country again, you won't have to go all the way back to Pennsylvania to do it. ;-) I loved going to their little stores and green-house nurseries when I lived there.

What a great time you and your family must have had!

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Wow. I never realized how limited the view was out the front window of one of those buggies. All that you can see is that big horse rump. lol!

What a wonderful thing to do before your move to GA, Christy. This will be a wonderful memory for you and Logan. He looks like's truly enjoying himself...and I can just see those wheels spinning in his head. What a smart cookie, he is.

I'm glad to see that the Amish don't seem interested in selling off their land to developers. It's wonderful that there are still places to watch real farming worked the way it used to be done so long ago. And those wide open vistas with fields of green are so beautiful, as well.

~Lisa

Gail said...

Wonderful pictures and what an opportunity for everyone. I have an Amish cookbook that is one of my favorites. The work ethics of these people is unmatched. We have Amish in Missouri. The small boys in one family earn extra funds by training miniature horses to ride.
Love your blog.

Christy said...

Good to know there are Amish in KY and Missouri, I'll miss seeing them. I'd love to have an Amish neighbor I could actually get to know. I could learn so much from them!

Lisa - it is so beautiful in that area. And yeah, the view was really limited from the buggy, that is why it was so scary crossing roads.

Gail - they had some of those miniature horses too, they are cute.

Carla said...

Great idea. We never do touristy stuff in our city either. I wonder why that is?

That floors me that they still use animal power for harvesting, but I guess that makes sense since they don't use gas powered vehicles for traveling.

Looking forward to your pictures tomorrow!

linda m said...

I also loved travelling through the Lancaster area. It seemed so peaceful and serene. There is a lot to be said for the Amish way of life, but the religion thing always gets to me also. Good pictures!

Wendy said...

If you haven't, you should read Eric Brendt's book Better Off.... It was about his year living in an Amish/Mennonite community - very interesting, and his (new) wife even delivered their baby with the help of an Amish midwife.

Maile said...

There are a lot of Amish not too far from Nashville in Kentucky. Some of my friends go see the mennonite doctors for supplements. Very interesting stuff.

When you come visit, we can make a road trip. I would like to go see Kentucky anyways, and see the Land Between the lakes.

Christy said...

Wendy - I read that book a few years ago, I really enjoyed it.

Maile - Yes, a visit to the Amish would be fun. I'm not sure when I'll make it to visit you.

Leanne said...

There are also Amish in southern Tennessee. We birthed at the Farm in Summertown, TN, and my poor husband was trying to avoid the buggies as he raced there with me laboring in the backseat! Hope your move goes well. I'm in central Alabama so we'll practically be neighbors!

Anonymous said...

I live in Richmond, KY and have been hanging out with many amish in the Crab Orchard area for years now. I am not Amish myself but know a lot about them. I have been dating an Amish man who is 24 and lives out of his parents house. He lives with his two brothers. They now have electricity, televison, etc. They wear their Amish clothes to work in, but then change into what they call their "english" clothes after work.
My boyfriend is planning on getting a truck and leaving the Amish. Their are already a couple of other men in the Amish community who have done this. The Amish I know may not be perfect Amish or anything, but you can tell they were raised the right way. They are extremely hard working and alsways respectful even if they do play video games now.

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