We're Back

We got back last Sunday evening from our trip.

We had a really good time and have so many memories to share.

But as usual it is really good to be home again :)

When we got home we were pleasantly greeted by a job well done at home.

The gardens were freshly tilled and weeded (thanks to the Penner family) The lawn was freshly mown and all was kept up very well on the homestead (thanks to Joshua and Rebecca) I can't tell you what a blessing it was to have all those things done so that we could concentrate on unpacking and the other things that needed our attention. While we were gone it was so nice to be able to keep in touch at home and know that things were being taken care of. Thanks again Josh and Rebecca. So even though there were so many highlights of our trip we will try in the next little while to give you a taste of our favorite moments.

I have always been fascinated with the Amish way of living and have always wanted to get a closer look at their lifestyle. Well we had a chance to do that when we visited the Amish village of Arthur, Illinois.

We went to the Amish Interperative Center and when asked what we hoped to accomplish in Arthur we told her that we wanted to understand that Amish and their lifestyle better. So she suggested that we hire a guide to come along with us in our van to tour the area. This sounded like a great idea to us and so we hired sweet lil Josephina. She was the sweetest little lady and we had a great time with her. She grew up in this Amish village so she had lots of helpful information for us.

It was so interesting to see the mix of both worlds driving around. Buggies were everywhere driving in and around vehicles.

In the town of Arthur at most stores they had places for horses to be tied.

Some even had covered stalls.

In this particular Amish village they were allowed to ride bicycles and we saw lots of them.

All of their houses and barns were white. The reasoning was so that they were not to flashy.

One thing that was really neat about the Amish people is their obvious effort to do things together as a family. You would rarely see just adults in a buggy, there were usually children with them.

Since we are farmers we were glad to be able to get a look at how they do haying.

Each family was allowed to own 2 diesel motors. This farmer was using a motor to run the baler. Supposedly the motor was used so it would be easier on the horses. The motor is on the wagon that the man is standing on.

This Amish village was allowed rubber tires, although I don't think all Amish villages are. They could also hire in tractors, vehicles to drive them around and other things, just as long as they weren't the drivers.

It was also very common to see children driving their child sized buggies. It was so cute :)

At the end of our tour we visited an Amish man's yard who made buggies for a living. It was interesting to see that there were even top of the line buggies with all the gadgets. Even though they tried so hard to stay simple, their buggies witnessed the fact that materialism creaped in here too. This particular buggy, which Josephina called a teenagers buggy, had a speedometer, clock, LED lights, blinkers, brake lights, and a battery gauge.

This one was a more simple version but bigger.

This is just a small sampling of all that we saw. Click here to see the whole album.