I'll Try to Blog Again

We had a fun week with both Holly and Josh, along with Lincoln and Crogan.  We started the week with the Guernsey Ice Cream, all you can eat, last Friday in Mercer, PA.  Josh posted pictures on Facebook.

The weather was decent allowing us to play outside most of the week.  We had rain for most of the month of June, so hopefully the remainder of summer will be more normal.  Holly brought some outside games with her and I bought some, like the bean bag toss that we play.  Lincoln favorite is the frogs in the little pond we have from the spring up on the hill.  Of course both Lincoln and Corgan helped pick blueberries and raspberries.  The raspberry crop is running over this year.  With all the rain we got last month we have a  bumper crop.  I am begging people to come and pick!  I already made 2 batches of jam.  I plan to make a batch for Holly to take home.

Holly and Chris took Lincoln and Corgan to Niagara Falls for several days.  I am jealous, it would have been so much fun to go along!  (Of course we have the dog, that takes some doing to have him taken care when we leave the farm.)  So I'll be anxious to see pictures of there trip to Canada.  Holly is a great planner, making sure they use their time wisely.

Love Living on the Farm!!

After living in the city for many years, I didn't know if the adjustment would be easy or hard. I miss having a library the most. But not having close neighbors is great. Our last place, we lived for many years!

We lived at Ed's brothers house the summer and fall working, painting, trying to get people to work. Just about impossible to get anyone to work on Fridays!  I think both of us enjoyed building. Having "the Amish" (my brother-in-law and his crew) build was great too. It's hard to believe we will have lived on the farm now for five years!

I had a nice garden this year. Gardening is hard work. I have the same plot of ground used for generations!  Maybe for ten years the space has been only weeds, this summer started out with keeping the weeds in control. When harvest starts, I didn't do much weeding.  The garden will be finished up next week. I want to plant garlic and pick the peppers and get them pulled. That will end all the vegetables for this year. My freezer is full and the jars filled!

Finding Stuff after Moving

Ed and I have been looking for this basket we had on top of our kitchen cupboard in Sheboygan.  We knew that it got moved, but couldn't place what we did with it after the move.  We talked about this basket every now and again, but just couldn't find where it was!  I knew I had seen it and Ed did too. 

So I was getting my clothes together last week to get dressed.  I took a basket off my closet shelf, when I looked at the basket;  here it was all along!  So I brought it out to where Ed was sitting to show him that I found the basket!  I bought several square baskets to put small stuff to have my shelves more organized, but needed more storage space, so gathered baskets that weren't being used for the closet!  So another mystery solved!

We had company several months ago and they wanted to see some pictures of my in-laws;  do you think I could find the pictures?  Nope!  We lived in one house for thirty some years and of course I knew where to find the pictures.  I needed to downsize and put the pictures together in this new house and use the book case in the living room for storage.  I need to take the time this winter and re-organize our pictures.  Now we store them on our laptops and have been doing so for maybe ten years? 

Salvation Coming to the Amish

Now that we live close to Amish neighborhoods.  I saw a newspaper article advertising "Steve and Jake Lapp", Amish brothers sharing how they were excommunicated by leaders of the Old Order Amish.  That's what happened to my parents, so of course I was interested.  They continue to dress like the Amish, live in RV's and travel across the United States, speaking and giving Seminars.

After the service closed they wanted to pray for the sick "by laying on hands".  Wonderful!  The leader said he broke his pelvis after falling out of a barn, he was miraculously healed by the power of God and became a born-again Christian. 

My family became born-again Christians after I was prayed for.  I fell at school and injured my leg,  it was black and blue, swollen and painful.  Mrs. Clark was visiting our home at the time and felt that God wanted her to pray for me.  The first time she prayed for me, nothing happened, the second time she visited, she felt led by God to lead me in the "sinner's prayer".  I repeated the prayer she ask me to pray.  The next morning I was pain free!  I didn't understand being born-again. 

God started working in my life and my parents.  After a year of prayer and God speaking to my parents they decided to be water baptized by immersion.  My mom experienced healing, my dad was smoker and Mrs. Clark asked him to seek God, God came to my dad in a dream and he quit smoking and became born again.  My family started attending a spirit filled church and were excommunicated and shunned!  I realize now that this must have been a hard time in my parents lives, but to experience God's peace and forgiveness of sin is wonderful.  Knowing that Jesus died on the cross to set us free from sin in the best Christmas message ever!

Looking back on this time of our lives I am so blessed that the Holy Spirit through the Word of God started speaking to us!  According to God's Word I have eternal life!  To have the peace of God is so wonderful!  During the Christmas season this is a time to reflection and blessed that God sent his son Jesus to be born of a virgin Mary.  This is only the beginning!  God is always speaking and working in our lives.  We need to take the time to listen to hear the voice of God!

We have New Order Amish living in our neighborhood.  They have electricity, farm with tractors.  When driving past their homes it looks like any home.  They dress plain and use horse and buggy to go to church.  They have a church building to use for their services.  They preach the salvation message! 

Thanksgiving

Now that I am living in Pennsylvania, much closer to my siblings I try to remember to look at Amish when I see them out shopping.  Just the other day when I was grocery shopping, I saw a lady that looked familiar so I got closer and said "hello", here it was one of my older sisters! 

Several years ago when visiting this area, when shopping in one of the "big box stores", I heard a laugh that sounded familiar so I went to the aisle I thought I heard the laugh, yes, it was another of my sisters!  It was so nice to meet up with her too!

Growing up Amish I didn't get to shop very often.  Our family was large and I think my mom wanted the time alone when ever she could get it.  Very few times in my growing up years did I get to shop or go out with my mom.  It was always specaial whenever I got to go to town!

Now that I drive a car its not a big deal to go to town.  Plus in the winter the car is nice and warm!  Compared to the buggy and horse, even though they close the buggy up, its still cold!!  They have a wool lap blanket they cover there legs while traveling.  We were always squashed into the back seat going to church, I don't remember the cold.

The neighborhood I live in now has "New Order Amish".  They use tractors for farming.  The houses and barns have electric so driving past the farm, you can't tell the Amish from the English.  They use horse and buggies to drive to church on Sundays.  They ladies dress plain and wear a little white cap.  Last summer a lady ask me why I didn't dress plain, even though she assured me she didn't believe her clothes took her to heaven. 

Thanksgiving Season 2013

We have been living in our new home for about 2 years.  I still love the life that comes with living here.  The house is off the main road, the lane keeps going on and on!  Several people trying to find us have commented on the long lane.  In fact it used to be a County Road.  They gave Grandpa Homer a grader to keep the lane up and he named the lane Homer Lane.

Our garden did well and our freezer is full and the cupboard is filled with jars.  I bought a bushel of peaches from neighbors and canned them.  I froze some for cobblers, etc.

Growing up all of our meals were cooked from "scratch".  So that's how I learned to cook.  When we retired I decided I could cook our meals instead of eating our meals in restaurants.  This saves us money and the food is better for us too.  It takes some doing to not overeat!

The orchard from the farm produces every other year and this was the year we had/have apples.  We started with Transparent Apples this summer.  I asked Josh to pick them when he visited and I made apple pandowdy from them and applesauce too.  This fall the Spy's ripened and I froze several pies and made several other apple dishes.  The canned applesauce is also very good!   I dried apples too!  The trees still have apples on them, I wish I could climb trees like I used to when growing up!  Well, not really but I loved climbing trees and that's where the apples are still hanging!

Every year my goal has been to blog more often.  Maybe this will be the year that it will happen.

Christmas 2012 Wish List

Here is my latest Wish List for family.  

2012 Christmas/Birthday/Holiday List - Margaret


Panasonic SD-RD250 Automatic Bread Maker with Fruit/Nut Dispenser
(I would think a regular bread machine would work too)

Amazon Gift Certificate  - Kindle Books
(Love my Kindle!!!)

Popcorn popper   (I keep thinking if I had an airless popper it would be healthier?)






Gardening shoes/gloves/gloves
Anything related to gardening

Lilac bush - spring??

Summer of 2012

So here are some of the vegetables I grew in the garden this summer.  I froze beans, extra squash and zucchini.  I made pickles that keep in the fridge, plus we bought some fruit and I canned applesauce and peaches.  I canned tomatoes and also made blackberry jam.

I am looking forward to eating the stuff in the freezer and what I canned this winter.  It will give me a clue what we like and don't like.  I have both strawberry plants and blueberry bushes in the garden.  I didn't plan to well but it should work out OK.  The strawberry plants are on the east side of the garden and the blueberry bushes are on the west side of the garden.  So the tractor will need to be careful to not dig or cover them but it will limit garden space for the next several years until we move the strawberry plants.  I am thinking both will need to be covered from animals and birds.

My garden experience this summer has been that I need to plant enough for both us and the animals.  When we dug up the sweet potatoes last week we found baby mice.  I noticed the tops of the sweet potatoes were eaten.  So then we found the mice . . .  yes, we let them live.

We hosted my family reunion this summer.  We actually need to call it a "gathering" for the Amish.  We cleaned up the garage and put the food, etc in the garage.  We had flies, but food shouldn't sit out for hours in the summer, so this made sure the food was put away after we ate.  We didn't have home made ice cream this summer, none of the younger people came and the older ones decided they didn't want to crank the freezer.  The ladies helped get the food put away and stuff washed up.  

The ladies played cards most of the afternoon and others played washers.  This takes 2 teams of people.  I practiced several throws and discovered I could hit the holes, so I played washers.
 

The Amish come early and stay late!  Since Ed and I are early risers, we were dressed and ready for company!  The day wasn't too hot which would have been hard to sit on the patio.  We have seats on the screen porch and people could sit whereever they wanted.  Everyone sat in the garage for the most part.  I got benches from the Amish.  I stopped in at my brother Emanuel's place to ask if we could use benches from him.  We had extra chairs to move around and the benches were mobile too.  Steve, my younger brother brought them and took them home that night.

All in all we had nice weather for the day.  Since we still had mounds of dirt it was nice that not many small children came.  One of my great-nephews sat on top of the stone wall with his feet dangling down the steep side so I called his mother!

I am so thankful for our large family and that we have these gatherings several times a year!  God has been good!

2012 Garden

I have a garden! I planted peas, lettuce and onions today! I am excited! It finally happened! Paul, my brother-in-law plowed the plot several weeks ago then came and disk the garden yesterday, and it looked pretty good after he went over it several times. This plot hasn't been used for at least ten years! I didn't take the top layer off so the dirt is full of roots and what not. Our kind neighbor Forest came soon after Paul left with a rotor tiller on his tractor! He went over the ground at least three times, so the dirt is pulverized! I plan to fill the garden space this summer, planting tomatoes, several kinds of peppers, pickles, squash, carrots, more onions, more lettuce and maybe even sweet corn. We'll find out if the wild animals will stay out of the garden! Paul's dog and that's her name too, has been coming to our farm for several days and now we don't see any ground hogs. Yeah! The empty house next door had several living under the front porch. It was Sunday, our dogs daily entertainment.

I found the farm has several big patches of daffodil along with several types! I am getting excited to get our water feature completed along with the stone wall rebuilt, get our patio poured, etc. Our farm house has ivy that I want to pot and let it creep over the stone. It will help soften the appearance of the stone.



I am hosting "Sister's Day" next Saturday, so they will get to see the house, several for the first time. Well, we only moved in several months ago! We are pretty much unpacked, the boxes are out of the farm house where we stored the stuff we moved out of our Sheboygan home. Yeah!

Its February already! I keep saying I thought I would blog more often! We are getting settled in our new home. We started moving stuff to the farm around 3 years ago so we have all those boxes to unpack. We put up some Christmas decorations this year. It was fun to put up a Christmas tree again after all these years! The stuff we didn't use this year we moved and put in the attic.

Our boxes of books are open and put on the shelves we had built for that purpose. They are deep in both rooms so several layers of books can be stacked. I continue to be amazed at how much the book cases can handle. Thank God for Josh; while visiting over Christmas he organized the bookcase so it looks wonderful. We keep finding stuff and are able to find a place for it. Otherwise we plan to sell what we can't use. Thank God for flea markets!

I need to start painting again. Maybe we'll have some sunny days coming up in March. I want to be done giving all the trim work its paint. at this time I don't plan to change any wall colors. The bathrooms are white . . . so maybe after this summer I'll have some fresh inspiration and come up with a color to paint them. They need another coat of paint, so we might as well wait and see if we want to keep them this color of white.

Now that hunting season is over we are seeing deer again. Sunday, our dog starts to bark, but after dark we can't see anything. When we walk to the mail box in the morning I see deer tracks out and about so she must have been barking at them.

Both Ed and I are so totally enjoying living out here on the farm! I didn't know how this would play itself out but so far its really been fun. We still don't have any curtains up . . . that has really been nice. I know the sun will start shining before I am ready to get up so I am thinking about some window coverings. When summer is in full swing our dining room will get hot so we will need to put something over those windows too.

Our children gave us this Homer Lane address for Christmas. We will hang it on our house around the front door somewhere. So cool!

We Moved to PA

We moved the first week of December 2011. This year has been the most work in my life! I feel like I painted and painted and still not finished! We painted enough to pass inspection. Thank God we hired a crew of Amish men to give our house the under coat of paint. All we need is to give everything the last coat of paint. Plus paint all the trim, doors, we have many windows which all have trim! Baseboards all around!

We hired my brother Stephen to do our carpentry work. When he saw what all needed to be done he asked if his son Stevie could help us. So, along with Ed's brother Paul, we got finished. Paul hung all the doors, put on many or most of the handles. My brother sprayed all the doors and trim. He finished all the doors. (Some of the frames were an off white that I painted). All I need is to give the trim its final coat of paint which is a big help. I quit painting until maybe February?

We painted most of the walls a sunny yellow. Without furniture it looked like it could overwhelm everything. Since we moved in with our furniture it is blended very nicely.

We had a big bookcase built right into the living room which helps with our books and trinkets. Its amazing how much went into the bookcase! We are still finding books and finding places to put them in the bookcase! Josh spent several days of his Christmas vacation helping us get organized. He worked at least a day on organizing the pantry! Thank you Joshua!!! I am starting to find things without spending lots of time looking!

The bookcase looks great thanks to Joshua spending several days working on it. We still haven't put up any curtains. Its amazing how much light we are finding living out in the country without curtains! I am sure we'll want some before spring when the sun rises early in the morning!

I am thankful for all the help we had moving both in Sheboygan and PA! We had so many people helping us in Sheboygan, it rained and so the people they lined up like a brigade which helped. Thank God for Ed Horvat, he's a professional mover and volunteered to direct the loading of the truck. It took several hours but we got the truck loaded with more stuff then we could imagine! Our new church provided 4 men to unload which is an easier job by far! By noon the truck was unloaded! Thank God for the church!

Getting the House finished

We are working to finish the house before the snow flies, before winter! The trim is getting done, slowly, one day at a time.

We planted a garden this summer and enjoyed eating fresh vegetables. I had to use the recipe book since I haven't canned for several years. Its been interesting and I am looking forward to enjoying "the fruits of my labors this winter".

The windows and doors are getting framed. Most of the doors have handles which is exciting. Some doors even have locks.

The fill around the house is getting worked on a little at a time. We can walk into the kitchen and use the front entry, completed with cement steps.

Josh came to PA and installed some of the kitchen cupboards which helps to make it look like something that can be lived in. Anyone wanting to see what the house looks like can look at all the updates and progress by going to dodyhouse.blogspot.com/

I hope to be more faithful to this blog and continue posting the progress.

Finishing up our new house

Ed and I are working on the house trying to paint and get everyone working. The floors are going in. Its looking good!

Hopefully next month we'll get the fill done around the house and put in the septic too. We need to get the water turned on, the well and soften is in place. Everything has taken a looong process. We were in PA for most of July and are going back next week. Hopefully we can finish up soon.

Josh is taking a weeks vacation from his job to come and help out. Maybe I'll have a kitchen when he gets done? Looking forward to putting in the hardwood floors too.

I'll try to post the slate floor that's getting put in. I forgot that the pictures are on my IPhone and I don't know how to get it on my laptop. Maybe when our sons come to PA I can learn many new things . . .

We have a house!

We have a house! The roof is there, the garage has a roof! Yeah! These guys are great! My posting hasn't been about Amish/English lately, but today I will talk about the house I grew up in.

I was born in a single story home, at least a hundred year old house. I was the 6th child and this house had only 2 bedrooms with a little room at the end of the house used for storage, without heat too. I was going to school, I am guessing 1st grade, my dad had a frolic and put the 2nd story on the house. They work during the day and I was in school when it happened, it was a big surprise when I came home from school, and the 2nd story was framed in.

Pictures you can see out and about from Amish having frolics look awesome. I don't know how many men were at our house that day, some ladies come to help in the house with the noon meal, they eat well too. We are paying for the construction of our house, not a frolic, but its so much fun to watch the house getting built, they are all workers and every day we see what they get done. Soon they'll start working on the inside, but they'll still be working hard.

When we were in PA we bought them donuts for 2 days.

Its fun building this house, more fun then I could ever imagine!!!

New House

Ed and I took a quick trip to PA to celebrate his sister Sharon's 75th birthday this week. We also got to see our house you can see posted here.

These men start working before 8:00 a.m., so while there we treated them to donuts, which made them happy.

Two semi trucks arrived with the house. My brother in law told us, here's your house!

Can you tell we are excited? Yeah! I am sure you'll be hearing from me more often now that the house is really happening!

Happy New Year 2011

Time keeps moving, it doesn't stop for anything or anyone! Our house has started in PA. We're going to see if we can build living 5 states away. The basement should be brought to the house site Friday.

We are driving to PA to celebrate Sharon's 75th birthday. The party will be given by her daughter Candy flying to PA from AZ. Ed & I are driving Sunday & Monday, hopefully arriving early Monday afternoon.

We are going to leave my car in PA so Josh can drive back & forth taking care of business. I need to remember when anything comes up to take a deep breath and not stress out. Hopefully we'll get enough pictures to remember.

I am sure this winter will go fast for both Ed and I. We are still driving to Watertown every Sunday serving as interim pastor.

Now that the house is getting built I can believe God for the next step in our lives.

Thanksgiving 2010

We had family (Brent, Tracy & Andrie, Ernie & Dodie Blok, Al & Ellen Wanek),and friends to share our meal. We had a wonderful day sharing with family & friends.

I have much to thank God for this year. We hoped to have moved to PA by now, but we are still in Wisconsin. Winter has started, its in the 20's this weekend. Today the sun is shining so the will be good. Both Ed & I are healthy and stay busy. We are interim pastors at Watertown Assembly, a great group of people given to hospitality.

Several things are highlighted for me this year. 1) I worked at the Compassion Clinic Praise Fellowship hosted again. 2) My husband is an executive board member for Teen Challenge in Milwaukee, they invited our former president George W. Bush to be our speaker for their fund raiser banquet this month. Ed & I had our picture taken with the president!!! The entire evening was one I will forever remember!!!

God has been good to me. Growing up Amish and Thanksgiving meals with my family. We raised turkeys on our small farm for several years.

Our customers came from nearby cities. They would place their orders and mom, along with my older sisters would butcher these turkeys for Thanksgiving mostly. The most I remember was having an order for 100 turkeys for one day. Mom asked a neighbor to come and help. I went to school so escaped lots of work!!! My job was to feed them daily which I mostly enjoyed. (Of course I am sure I did lots of grumbling too!!)

Christmas 2010

Its hard to believe Christmas will soon be here! I promised my family that I would post my Christmas list. I don't have many needs so its hard to get a list together. There are several things that might be nice.

1) Victoria Secret gift certificate
2) Pizza Stone
3) 6 qt over the sink colander (oval)
4) Microwave Bacon Plate (really want this!)
5) Marcus Movie gift certificate
6) Good smelling candle
7) JJill gift certificate
8) Measuring cups (with straight sides)
9) Flannel PJ bottom (any color - size L or M?)

That's all for now.

If anything more comes to mind I'll let you know.

Family Together Again!

Family - its so important! My family is planning to spend a long weekend together in Sheboygan. We have 3 children and 3 grandchildren, yeah! (5 children!) Growing up, after we left home and would come home for a visit, my mom would always cook our favorite meals and look forward to spending time with us. I would notice that mom would slave over the hot grill, etc. So one day I had a wonderful idea that would give mom time to spend with her family. Our family started buying chicken and chip in to help pay for the meat. My family continues this practice to this day.

I have a cute picture of us together at Steve's house, with mom in the background enjoying all of us playing together. Will that be my future? :-) I continue to tell my sisters that I am not old!!! :-)

Now as I am getting older, yes, I am getting older every year!!! I am the one in the back ground watching our children sharing family together and playing, chatting together. I will love this week with our grand children and children!!! Several years ago when Chris & Holly came to Sheboygan, we didn't think ahead and ask Josh to come home. So we plan to take a family photo, hopefully on the shore of Lake Michigan. This should be a great memory maker with the lake as the back ground.

Check back if I'm not too tired I'll blog about how our family spent time together and interesting events that took place. Did I say it already? I can't wait until tomorrow!!!

Holiday Celebrations

Growing up we didn't celebrate many holidays. I don't remember ever acknowledging Father's day or Mother's day. I love both Father's day and Mother's day celebrations which I have always enjoyed since becoming a parent. I have a birthday in April and Mother's day in May so these 2 special days in my life sometimes feel like they run together, but that's OK too.

Growing up Amish, as a family we had a big meal for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Easter is a Church event; I don't ever remember eating a big Easter dinner. The Amish have a special membership day in the spring and fall, which sorta takes in Easter.

Before the Amish have their fall membership, teens around 17 - 18 years of age take a membership class during the summer, then join church in the fall when the church serves communion. The people get water baptized (they pour a half cup water over their head while kneeling; the bishops wife holds the girls cap and helps put it back on her head.) I was always fascinated by all of this, and never got to participate because my parents left the Amish before I became of age.

The membership take communion in the spring and fall. The members fast the Saturday before this service for the first half of the day before participating in communion. A regular church service is 4 hours long, when they serve communion the service lasts at least 5 hours if not longer. Its a long day as I remember it. The entire service is orderly and very religious!

The girls before they become members wear a white cape and apron, along with a black pleated cap. After the girls become members, they start wearing a white cap. The men are supposed to start growing their beard, which they continue to trim with scissors until they get married.