Applesauce Bonanza

Applesauce apples ripen around the 4th of July every year.

Many people think of harvesting apples in the fall. This is true of most varieties of apples, but not Lodi or Yellow Transparent. These sour types create the best texture and flavor for home-made applesauce. My wife grew up helping her grandmother and mother can and freeze orchard and garden produce.

 After I picked apples for three evenings, my wife washed and cut out cores, removing as little as possible in order to increase the output. I helped by ladling cooked apples into a colander. 

We poured the strained, cooked apples into our "victorian strainer" and filled our cake pans with raw applesauce. My main job is cranking the strainer and ladling the sauce into freezer boxes. Once it cools, add sugar to taste. No recipe-- just apples and sugar. We leave it rather sour and add cinnamon-sugar when we put it on our plate, or at the time of serving.

We put up 77 quarts into our freezer. I know-- this sounds like a ton! However, appletrees have "on and off years." Some growing seasons produce oodles of apples, but you never know what next year will be like. We had a late frost this year and it might have destroyed our crop. It turned out to be an apple bonanza! I prayed for these trees when I planted them in 2002 as a birthday gift for my wife. Prayers answered: they grew and produce well. The message in her card said, "There will be two beautiful bouquets of apple blossoms every spring that say: I love Shari." (and her applesauce) 

Our children grew up eating my wife's AMAZING applesauce and now my grandchildren are enjoying the same. In the photo below, you can see our Yellow Transparent appletrees just to the right of my balding head. My granddaughter is riding on Karma, our Amish raised horse.

Our whole family LOVES Shari's home-made applesauce with her home-made pizza!

There is an applesauce apple picking story in Under the Heavens

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Plowing through a Pandemic

 Life has to go on, Pandemic or not. Karma and Karla are ready and willing to help do their part. We pulled our plow out of the barn and brushed off cobwebs. This Emerson plow is over a hundred years old. No doubt, it broke up soil during the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918. That's the year my wife's parents moved onto this farm.

 My horses and I are working to get this plot ready for sweet corn. I'll try and do more posts as we progress and let you see more of the process.

I've been following the pandemic through the news. Iowa Public Radio does a fine job of keeping us informed. Just recently, I discovered that one of my favorite radio personalities lives on my mail route. I knew the name but didn't make the connection until last week.

Another of my favorite news sources happens to be The Irish Times podcast. They do a daily Confronting Coronavirus podcast with great information. Not only do I LOVE listening to Irish voices but I find it useful to know what people outside of the U.S. are experiencing. 

Here are a few of my personal observations: We, here in Iowa, and everyone in the world are facing very similar struggles. We all have moments of fear. Only the Lord knows how this will all end. We also experience some beautiful lessons. Many of us have learned what benefits a slower lifestyle can provide. We've been made aware of the value of freedom, family, and friends. Some people are making the most of this timeout. Others are in survival mode. Most of us have a mixture of both good and bad. My Irish friends have been encouraging me to let both happen. Enjoy the good experiences and lessons without putting pressure on ourselves to be productive.

Many authors are finding it difficult to focus on writing, as I have. We find ourselves distracted. My Iowa Public Radio friends explained that the desire to watch too much news is a survival instinct. Our subconscious minds are searching for information that will take away the unknown element.

One of my daughters expressed that she had been feeling depressed lately. I encouraged her by saying, "The world is experiencing unprecedented suffering through illness, job loss, and isolation. We might not comprehend everything with our conscious mind; however, our souls feel the weight of it all."

 It got dark before we could finish on our first outing. We were able to finish the second time out. Karma grazes just outside of the fence, showing our completed plowing project. Meanwhile, we'll keep plowing through this pandemic.

Would you be interested in reading about life on an Amish farm?

Click on this link: Books by Thomas Nye

To Build a Fence

It's time for a new fence at the Nye home-place.

Karm and Karla were called on to help get the job done. I hitched the team and put them on my little hitch-cart. I bought this two-wheeled vehicle at an Amish farm sale when I got my first team of work horses. That was in 1993. It was old then, and it looks just the same as it did the day I brought it home 25 years ago.
I hooked onto a wooden sled (also known as a stone boat) rolled my logs on, and the horses pulled them.

 Karm and Karla hauled the logs and braces out to the corners of their pasture. I rented a post-hole-digger from a local rental place and made some deep holes for my large corner posts.

In the photo below, you can see my old electric fence, Karla grazing, my pickup truck, and the post-hole-digger.

Once we got our equipment in place, the horses were sent out to pasture, and I put a gas engine to work.

I now have my corner post set. If it ever quits raining, I'll get back on this project and share some finished product photos.

Thomas Nye, the Amish Horses Guy

What are Amish Horses, you may ask? I'm Thomas Nye, the Amish Horses guy. I write novels about life on an Amish farm. The shortest description of my books is this, Amish Horses. So, it became my brand.

I didn't get into draft horses to help with my writing. In fact, I was born a horse nut and when I moved into an Amish community (36 years ago) I felt an instant connection with my Amish neighbors. We had saddle horses for years before my Old-Order neighbor suggested that I try hitching up our family pony to a cart. He gave us a set of harness and off we went. About a year later, I bought a team of draft horses from another Amish farmer and he taught me more about working with horses in harness.

Mailman (me), daughter Bethany and  my first draft horse. 1995?

After 36 years of close friendships with Amish folks and 25 years of trial-and-error (many errors) with Amish Horses, I write about those experiences.

Hundreds if not thousands of Amish have read my books and all seem to think they are authentic. They do feel my books are a little "edgy." Which, if you read them it may make you laugh, as they would all get a "G" rating as movies. That is just how protective the Amish are of their children. For example, Amish in our community would prefer to not use words like, "Expecting" or "Pregnant." It would not be mentioned to a child (or to anyone in public) that a woman is going to have a baby, even when she is 9 months along. I truly respect my Amish friends and neighbors and try hard to write books they can read and enjoy.

So, now you know a little more about who this Amish Horses guy is.

Amish Horses, is my brand and a short description of my writing style. Here are a few words that may communicate more of what you will find in my books: Christian, family, farm, romance, humor, and horses in an authentic Amish setting.

Check out Thomas Nye on Amazon

Family Horse

Every child needs to have at least one great horse in their life! Our family has had a number of great horses and ponies over the years.

We have two wonderful horses at the time, Karma and Coke. They are getting older and at the point where they are perfect for children to be around. It's too hard to imagine what life would be like without them.

As you can see, they are very much loved! Our grandchildren love to come out to the farm whenever they get a chance. If Grandpa is still delivering mail they start asking Grandma, "When will Grandpa get home... we want to see the horses!"

Karm and Coke know what is coming when the children come into the barn. Our grandchildren love to pour oats into the feed bunk and then give them handfuls of hay. They love to brush the horses and sit on their backs. Our oldest granddaughter tries to braid their manes.

 We had Isaac over by himself one afternoon and he climbed onto the wagon seat and said, "I wanna go for a ride!" He knew what he wanted and didn't give up until Grandpa hitched up the team.

My wife and I had our four oldest grandchildren over for a field day before school started back up.

Shari (my wife) asked if we could take the children on a wagon ride. I had the wild idea that maybe we should have a picnic lunch with the horses first.

Karm and Coke ate hay while the children had a sack lunch. I harnessed up the team right after taking this photo.

 We stopped under our big shade tree after every round we made.

While the horses rested in the shade our grandchildren traded places. Each of the four got a chance to take a round riding up front with grandpa on the wagon seat.

Little Leo Thomas was too small to go along, so grandpa made sure to give him an opportunity to play with a toy horse. His day is coming!

Barn Sale

My wife has trouble getting me to stop at "Garage Sales" but she is clever enough to suggest stopping whenever she sees a "Barn Sale" along the highway. Old barns hold an allure that I can't resist.

This barn sale in Monticello, Indiana turned out to be well worth the stop. My wife enjoyed looking at a huge variety of antiques while I circled the barn and started taking pictures. A very friendly young woman turned out to be the proprietor of this Barn Sale and a nearby antique shop. She noticed me taking photos of her barn and seemed happy that I was so enthused. I asked if I could climb the ladder into the mow and she looked at me for a moment before giving the go-ahead. "I wouldn't let most people climb up there for "safety reasons" but I get the feeling you can handle it."

We ended up buying an antique children's swing that we hope to hang in our own barn. If you are anywhere near this area, stop in! The owners are super friendly, they are willing to dicker on prices and they have an amazing selection of beautiful artifacts and antiques. Here is the link for their Facebook page... check it out and "Like" it.      Cornerstone-Antiques on Facebook

Doesn't this barn seem to be alive? I could almost feel, years of good stories bound up in the wooden structure. Every old barn has its own personality, most of them seem as sweet and friendly as a grandpa. This old guy was built to last. I can only imagine how excited the family was when this barn raised around a hundred years ago.

It turned out that the barn wasn't for sale, or on sale, but I'm still glad my wife tricked me into stopping in!

Amish Girl / Horse Whisperer

Horse whisperer, is a title we give to people who have an amazing ability to communicate with horses. My friend, Annie, has this gift.

 Amish children grow up around horses and seem to understand how to work with them from an early age. Some just deal with it because that is part of the life they were born into... others thrive in the Amish world because they have a special bond with horses. Obviously, Annie is one of those.

I can still remember how excited Annie was, two years ago when this little filly was born, and she named her Angel. Yes, that's right, this horse is only a two year old! Angel has turned out to fit her name perfectly.

Annie tells me that Angel is just really smart. I have another theory, which I share throughout the Amish Horses Book Series: Horses thrive when they feel loved and understood by their handler.

In the photo below, Annie takes her first cart ride with Angel.

Angel is not only smart but she is growing up to be quite a beautiful horse.

I especially like this photo below. It was taken last summer when Angel was only a yearling. Annie wanted her young horse to be part of the fun, but Angel was too young to be ridden. They let her run along with the other horses while going over some jumps.

No wonder this horse is thriving!!!

Annie read my first book, Under the Heavens, and really enjoyed it. I used a photo of her going over a jump, with her older horse Copper, for a drawing that appears in my second book, Catbird Singing. The picture is at the beginning of a chapter named Dog and Pony; all about a young girl much like Annie. A horse whisperer.

There is a drawing of Annie and her boyfriend in Amish Horses Book III, English River.  I'm not gonna share that photo, yet. Book III will be out this summer and you can look for the picture yourself.

By the way, some of you will say, "I thought Amish don't want to be in photos." That is true with many Amish. Some Amish do have cameras and take their own pictures. I asked for permission to use these photos. My rule for myself is to not take any photo of an Amish person without asking permission, unless it does not show their face, or is from a distance. Most Amish don't mind photos taken of children who have not yet, "Joined Church."

Organic Farm

Aunt Bethany holding Isaac. Big sisters Lyla and Kinley close by.

Just down the road from the home-place, our Mennonite neighbor has an organic farm. He puts a lot of effort into raising livestock in a healthy, natural way.

My 2nd daughter recently had her 4th child, a new baby boy. My 3rd daughter gave a helping hand by taking her nieces and nephew on a field trip to the organic farm. Aunt Bethany asked if I wanted to come along.

Grandpa and the new baby boy, Leo. (middle name, Thomas)

Our neighbor raises a type of sheep that shed their own wool. They are a meat type and don't need to be sheered like most sheep. He also raises cattle and chickens.

 Yes, there is a lama in with the sheep. Lamas are very aggressive and are often kept with sheep as a "watch dog." They will chase off coyotes and dogs that may otherwise chase or kill sheep.

 In the picture below you can see a portable chicken shed. If you look really close you can see free range chickens near their portable home.

 We had fun visiting our neighbor's organic farm and bought a few frozen chickens and a couple of steaks. My grandchildren said good-bye to the cattle and we headed to a nearby Amish farm to pick up more fresh farm products. My grandchildren enjoyed talking with the Amish children. However, out of respect for Amish beliefs, we didn't take any pictures there. I stopped near the barn, where my Amish friend was milking a goat. We had a short chat while his children crowded around, visiting with Aunt Bethany and my grandchildren. This Amish family has a Chihuahua farm dog that was holding the other goats at bay, while one was being milked. He seemed so bold and confidant for his size. My Amish buddy finished milking and we were heading over toward the children, but we heard a terrible, "Yelp!" My friend said, "Oops, our little dog got too close to the geese!" I looked back just in time to see the poor little Chihuahua running away from a flock of geese.