September 24, 2009

Today we drove about 75 miles to Shipshewana, Indiana to have lunch with my brother Bob and his wife Janette. They are enjoying their recently purchased fifth wheel trailer in beautiful Indiana's Amish Country at one of Shipshewana’s campgrounds.


We had a family style lunch at the Blue Gate Restaurant near the center of town. The food was plentiful and very delicious. We had a salad with homemade dressing, a small loaf of bread served with apple butter and Amish peanut butter, fried chicken, roast beef, green beans, noodles, corn bread dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy. For desert we had pie with ice cream. No one left the restaurant hungry.

After lunch we visited an Amish farm to meet friends of Bob and Jan. We met Freda and two of her grandchildren and then went to a neighbor’s farm to watch area men working to fill a silo.

The farm owner sent us to the cornfield to see Bob’s friend and to watch the cutting, binding and hauling process. It was interesting to see three horses pulling a binder for cutting, binding and lifting corn stalks to a horse drawn wagon for transport to the chopper/blower at the silo. There were two binders working in the field. The pictures below are of Bob’s friend Sonny, on the binder and his sons John and Larry on the wagon loading the corn.

Today we witnessed labor as it has been performed for hundreds of years. It was great to see the interaction of men and horses while accomplishing one of the many tasks on a working farm.

We had a great day and it was exciting to meet Amish families and visit two different farms. Thanks Bob and Jan for a wonderful day.