10-16-13

Me: This morning we drove by Stephanie, Brent & Carlie's farm. Stephanie is Charlie & Karen's daughter, Brent their son-in-law and Carlie their 19 year old grand-daughter. Carlie is a lover of animals, been active in 4-H and currently owns and cares for 15 horses, a couple turtles, wild turkeys, a python and a few other reptiles that I can't remember. Carlie is a nursing major but we all think she should be a veteranarian. :-)

Then Charlie, Karen, Bob and I trotted off to Harrison County to see the Amish farms and eat Amish food (we're really not in that buggy). :-)

Horse & buggies and quaint farms everywhere.

The Amish generally don't want their photograph taken so I tried to be discrete and snapped shots from our car window. It was nice to get a bit of history of the Amish from Karen and Charlie. Karen went to school with some Amish children and Charlie has worked with Amish over the years. The Amish married men have beards but no mustaches. Single men have no beard. They don't use electricity in their homes but can at their work place. They do seem to find loop holes in some rules. Like using gas to power their appliances, sometimes they have motors on their farm equipment and many own cell phones now (but have to charge them at their work place). Apparently there are differences between the various Amish communities too, depending how lenient or not their Bishop is.

Walnut Creek is a favorite stop of Charlie & Karen's. It's one our favorites now too!

We picked up some goodies from their market, ate lunch and indulged in yummy home-made ice cream.

Even though we were stuffed, we couldn't pass up the Coblentz chocolate shop.

Wow, the choices!

A little rain didn't bother our touring or the Amish at all.

Horse & buggy parking lot. :-)

Picture perfect farms.

Amish girl just getting off the school bus.

Can't resist photos of a horse & buggy or Fall trees.

Karen's childhood home in Baltic, OH. Baltic is in the middle of Harrison County (Amish Country) and her brother, Don still lives in this cute town. Enjoyed touring some of her history!

This shed was Karen's play house when she was little.

Scenic around every turn.

This is a farm just outside Baltic and recently featured on 

DIY television. Vanilla Ice has a show that remodels homes and he did a series in Amish country. Karen had recognized this farm on TV so we drove by it (we even saw the taped show last night - it's good!). Anyway, Vanilla Ice remodeled their whole kitchen and it turned out awesome. When we drove by the farmer was working on his tractor so we pulled up to say hello. He was friendly, funny and talked about his families experience with Vanilla Ice. The farmer knew Karen's brother and by the time we left we got a tour of their kitchen and met his wife, two daughters and grand-daughter. Neat experience!

Our favorite photo of the day!

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Thanks again for a wonderful day, Karen and Charlie! And thank you, Stephanie, Brent and Carlie for meeting us for supper. So nice to visit with you too!