I also live on a farm

“Are you a farmer?”

I was waiting in line at the Amish building supply business 20 minutes from where I live. I’d stopped to pick up some lumber for the new root cellar I’m building and it was lunch time.

He was Amish. In fact, everyone in the room was Amish except me. The two girls who work behind the desk were Amish. They were sitting outside, quietly talking German when I pulled up. Both of them were barefooted. One of them (Naomi), started to get up, and I told her, “I’m not in a hurry. You’re on lunch break. Take your time.”

I love going to this Amish lumberyard when it works out. Their prices are 20 to 25% less than the other lumberyards in the area. We’d stripped concrete forms that morning and I was covered in dust and diesel fuel. It gave me a scruffy farmer vibe 🙂 I know that’s why he (the Amish man in the chair) had asked me if I was a farmer…

photo compliments of Google

I said to him, “Well, not really. I have 20 apple trees and a few chickens. Used to have 100 apple trees, but they’re semi dwarf and only have a life expectancy of about 20 years”

So for the next 10 to 15 minutes we talked about life….

David (the young Amish man in charge of the store at that moment) asked me if my wife M had ever started driving for the Amish?

(Earlier this Summer he and I had talked about what was involved if she wanted to start driving for the Amish.) No I told him. “Just not enough money in in.”

I asked where Mike their delivery guy was today?…

Well, he taken his son to the airport. He (the son) was flying to Virginia, (or North Carolina) to see a girl he’d met on line. (and meet the parents) It seems his girlfriend whom he’d met on line, and flown to Davenport Iowa to meet this young man, without telling her parents…she’s called her parents once she got here, and if I got the story right, had lived here for 8 months before going home. So the young man was nervous..going to finally meet the parents.

I asked David and the other guys sitting there eating lunch if they were planning to go to the Amish fundraiser that night? Didn’t sound like it…
(Once a month the Amish community hosts a fund raising dinner..

Sometimes the proceeds go for medical bills, and other times, (as I understand it) goes toward their school expenses) The menu that night was something called a “haystack”, that and grilled chicken, home made pies, home made ice cream.

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M and I had already made plans to attend the Amish dinner that night. We were planning to go with my mom and another couple, but in the end it was just the two of us.

When you walk through the door into their large community center the serving line starts just to your left. You drop your donation into a box, and then walk through the serving line. There are 10 to 12 young Amish girls in line doing the serving. I recognized Naomi and Rosanna from the lumberyard. I called them by name, and told them I wanted to introduce them to my wife M.

Both of them lit up. (I love learning the names of the people I interact with on a regular basis) (It’s a habit I picked up after reading a book by Dale Carnegie…)

“Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language…”

“Respect and acceptance stem from simple acts such as remembering a person’s name and using it whenever appropriate.”

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So, what is a farmer? (I’d love to hear your thoughts)

I would say, I (DM) am a lover of the soil.

I still have 9 Americana Breese laying hens and a rooster. You absolutely need to read this post if you haven’t already…(It casts a long, long shadow over my life) .

We live on an acreage with several out buildings….but am I a farmer? I’m not sure how to answer that.

“You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of a boy…”