Gabby in Ohio

(by Gabby) Amish Paradise

Last Thursday I left with my grandparents to explore the largest Amish Paradise yet in Ohio. The day we "explored" we toured an Amish house built in the 1800's. It was small and 1 story. They had a small foot pedal sewing machine int he living room a couch, a rocker, and a couple of homemade rugs. The Amish would take their old clothes and cut them into long strips and the braid the strips into rugs. Next to the older house was another Amish house except it was newer. Inside of the newer house the living room was much like the old one except bigger and had a few toys, a desk, and a LAMP WITH A SWITCH!!! The lady (who was Amish and and who showed us the house) made it seem that we should be very impressed that it had A SWITCH! There was a running bathtub, a kitchen, and the parents room in the bottom story. The top story we learned that girls who had been baptized could sleep in the room especially for the older girls somewhere in their teens. The older girls room was decorated with lavender curtains, lavender rugs, lavender comforter, chair, and the dresser which was white and lavender. The littler girls room was pretty but plain, and it had a few beds in it. It was the same way with the older and younger boys. After the children were baptized they didn't have to sit with "mama" any more they got to sit with the older girls during church, another privilege. They met every other week for church (something that surprised me) AT Church They sang the same hymns since when they first came to America, and they meet for three hours every other Sunday. The Amish owned a lot if bakeries and stores. Including a chocolate shop, a restaurant, bulk food store, gift shop, and a few other things. We saw a lot of horse and buggy carriages that went rrrreeeaaaaallllyyy ssssslllloooowwwwwwww. We had a nice time at the Amish Paradise.

Random Pictures

Ian 8 Aidan 2

Coaxing Jack to come off the porch
he was scared going down the steps

Caelin 10 Ian 8 Morgan 6 Aidan 2

Aidan, Warrior 2 1/2 Years Old

Gabby and I surprised Morgan with one of

her favorites, pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream.

You can tell Aidan is going

to enjoy this present!

A recent picture of our garden

Whoa! This is what being 6 years old does to ya!

Caelin

Making Our Garden (Gabby's Homesteader Journal)

On September 4th 09, we tilled our very dry, and rocky soil for the first time. Every day of the week we worked "THE BEAST" with the exception of a very restful Sunday. One of the older members of this falmily would till, while the rest raked rocks in piles, then filled our wheelbarrow to haul the rocks to our driveway and dumped the them into the ruts. We ended up tilling the ground around 8 times. Phew. It was very good nad hard work. Even the littler members picked up big rocks to put into the wheelbarrow. By the the ninth, we began making mounds stretching across the rectangle of our garden. Earlier when we first got to Centerville Morgan and I raked up a huge crate of hay. It's purpose was to spread over each mound of dirt. By next year we hope the hay will succesfully turn into a layer of dirt. Each row was about 20 ft long and the width of the garden is about15ft wide. Within only a week we had some lush green plants shooting up towards the sun. The best way to describe them is glorious. Such hard work they won't support the smallest family but it will be ours. The best part it cost very cheap!!!

This is the first deer we have seen.

Such beautiful creatures.

Wow! Only a little over a week ago did
we plant this little seed!

Our radishes

Our New Addition