Thirty-fifth

 My wife, Shari, and I recently celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary.

We spent an afternoon at Cedar Ridge Winery with our family. (I didn't post all of the family pictures on here)

Cedar Ridge has a brick oven and they make AMAZING pizza, gourmet style.

I couldn't help but take a few photos of the vineyards and I wanted to share them with my blog friends.

There is something so beautiful about a vineyard even in the winter months. All the more in spring and summer.

Easy as Pie

 I never knew my wife's grandmother, but I have benefited from her cooking and baking skills all of my married life.

Grandma Katie Kinsinger grew up Amish and became a Mennonite when she and John got married in 1918. Her daughters learned how to put on a great meal and back it up with amazing deserts.

  My wife didn't polish her skills until after we were married. Fortunately, her mother Ruby and Aunt Mildred were more than willing to share their secrets with her when she was ready to learn.

Mildred, Ruby, and my wife Shari, all three have had the ability to make pies that melt in your mouth. And the crust is never left on the plate. I don't know how, but their crust is so good you could eat it without filling!




Mildred and Ruby, have both gone to be with their Lord. As two of my favorite people I've ever known, I named and modeled characters in the Amish Horses Book Series after them.

 They, all three, have always taken extra care to make their pies beautiful, even though they know that we are going to devour these works of art.

They, all three, also are famous for apologizing about every item they bake. "Oh, did I put too much salt in that?" or "Sorry, the crust is a little crumbly." or "Oh dear, is it overdone?" Meanwhile, we are all perfectly quiet... unwilling to stop eating long enough to answer their ridiculous questions.

My wife often puts crumb topping on one pie, because like her mother and aunt before her, she is worried that someone may not like her two-crust pie. Oh well, I will clean up whatever is left over either way!

As far as I can tell, the only thing easy about pie is eating it. And that is VERY easy!

 Oh, by the way, don't bother to ask for the recipe, they are old family secrets. You young girls may have a chance to get in on it if you marry my son or one of my grandsons.

My Favorite Picture

 I was sitting in the parking lot of an Amish bakery shop eating an amazing doughnut while my wife picked up a few more items. This little Amish boy climbed out of the buggy parked beside our car and stood next to his family horse. He called to his brother who had walked over to the wash-line yonder.

Later when I looked at my phone to see the picture... the young guy seemed to disappear right before my eyes. At first I was really disappointed, because I was sure there was a boy in the picture, then all at once he appeared again. That is when I realized I had two pictures, one with a boy, one without.

If you are ever in the Kalona area, make sure to stop at the Golden Delight Bakery. I'm convinced they make the best doughnuts in the whole wide world! The bakery is located about a mile north of Kalona on a gravel road. Watch for the sign along highway 1 north of town.

Quilting Day

 My wife grew up in a quilting community. When a good friend told us about a quilting frame his great-grandfather had made by hand, we couldn't wait to see it. Johannes Jonasson, a Swedish carpenter, migrated to Burlington, Iowa from Sweden in 1882. He crafted this quilting frame around the turn of the last century. My good friend Jim, and his sister Susan, decided to gift this family heirloom to us, because they wanted it to be in a home where it would be used to make quilts.

As you can see, this frame came to us in pieces and I had to assemble it. Everything is handmade, even the wooden pegs that hold the parts together, and the sprockets that are used to keep a quilt tight. We took a quilt that my wife's great-aunt Merle owned, and placed it in the quilt rack to try it out.

While I was putting this together, my wife reminisced about "quiltings" she has been a part of over the years. She remembered that when her mother "put in" a quilt, she would invite ladies from her Mennonite church to come help. They made a social event out of it. They used a slightly different style of frame, that would hold the entire quilt wide open in a large square. The first day 10 to 15 women would sit around it on all sides quilting. When the edges were all finished, fewer quilters would have a place at the quilt. On a second day, maybe only 6 ladies would be invited to come help. When the quilt was nearly all finished it would look like this picture below, and a woman may finish quilting it herself. Or, she may have a daughter or two help.

I remember stopping in to pick up my wife and seeing the ladies all working hard. I also remember them laughing, telling fun stories, and having plenty of good food around, also.

My wife also has had the privilege of being invited to several Amish quiltings. She told me that it seemed somewhat more business-like at those gatherings. She remembered that they were making quilts for "a cause" but she doesn't remember what. Maybe it was the Mennonite Benefit Sale, where everything is auctioned off and the proceeds go to Pleasantview, the Mennonite retirement home in Kalona. She said that they wanted women who could quilt at the same "quick" pace to sit on the end, so they didn't have to wait for a slower worker to finish before rolling the quilt. She remembered that our Amish friend, Alma, had to help her finish her section to keep the others from waiting.

A very special "thank you" to the Olson family for entrusting this beautiful artifact to us.

Old Amish Games

Dutch Blitz

This card game is in every Amish and Mennonite home. 

I passed by an Amish school a few days ago and saw a big crowd of children out in a nearby field. You can see in the picture above, the school is on one side of the road and the children are playing in a field on the other side. They were playing a game of Red Rover, at least that is what we called it when I was a little boy. The children up on the hill were all holding hands in a line. They would call a name of one of those below and that child would run up the hill and try to break through the chain. If they break through, they get to stay up on the hill and those whose hands didn't hold the chain, had to go to the bottom.

This is another Amish school only a couple miles from the top picture. You can see a few "scholars" (that is what Amish call school children) out behind the school. I don't take pictures close up because I know they don't like it. When I passed by both groups, the children looked at me and waived. I didn't want them to see me snapping pictures, some of them know who I am and recognize my pickup truck. A group of young girls were standing right behind this school house. They were in a clump visiting (couldn't help wondering what they were talking about) , and a few boys were chasing each other in circles. I believe they were playing an old game named, "Fox and Geese"  In this game a pattern is stomped out in the snow, like a plus sign with a circle around it. The Fox (the one who is "it") has to try to tag the Geese. They can only move about on the tromped out paths in the snow making it more complicated and fun than "tag."

When I married my Mennonite wife 34 years ago, I found out that Dutch Blitz would be a permanent part of my new life. Amish (as far as I know) won't use "Face Cards" that the English use, but they love this game! Each of 4 players pick one stack of cards, (Plow, Bucket, Pump, or Buggy) I always choose the "Buggy" stack. Then, you lay out 3 single cards in front of you, face up, and a pile of ten with only the top card's face showing. That is your Blitz pile. The rest of your stack is held in your hand. At the signal "Go!" everyone is free to lay any #1 card that is face up in front of them, and then proceed to going through your stack by 3's searching for a #1 card to lay out or a #2 of a matching color to lay on a #1 already laid out, and so forth until you use up your Blitz pile. The first person to empty their Blitz pile and yell "Blitz!" wins.

My wife is a master at this game and I've only beat her at it a handful of times. A couple of my daughters take right after her, with quick hands and a sharp eye. We have played this game with many of our Amish friends and my wife has some real competition when we do! Our Amish friends have large families so we sometimes play in teams of two. That way eight people can play at once. It is a fast game and everyone is laughing before it is all over.

This game (Dutch Blitz) appears in my first novel,

Under the Heavens

This is a game board for "marbles" my wife's grandpa made, it is

played like the "store bought game" Aggravation.

Of course, the best game of all, for Amish children, is riding ponies out in the pasture!

A couple of makeshift jumps and let the games begin!

Horse Barn

My wife's grandparents moved to this farm in 1918, when they got married and left the Amish. They became Mennonites, which was not a very big jump back in 1918.

This building is actually a corn-crib. We are not sure when her grandpa built it but it seems by the type of structure, that it must have been in the 30's or 40's.

My wife's parents moved into a small house out back when they got married in 1948 and farmed as partners with their parents for a number of years.

My dad-in-law tells stories of the two couples working together, milking a dozen cows by hand. I can just imagine that scene. He said that he would sit on one side of the cow and his new wife would milk from the opposite side.

Like most farms in 1948 they had 12 cows and 12 sows.

When my wife and I moved here in 2000, I converted this corn-crib into a horse barn. My dad-in-law was also a plasterer for a living. He stuccoed the outside of the crib making it very tight and useful as a horse barn.

I store hay in one of the cribs and made a hallway out of the other. You can see my horses reaching their heads into the feed bunks in the hallway.

My sweet little granddaughters love our draft horses and beg to sit on their backs. Karm and Coke don't seem to mind at all. In fact, I believe they love all the attention my five grandchildren give them.

The Christmas Pony

The Christmas Pony

(There is an audio version at the bottom of this post)
Start the audio and read along... or you can watch the falling snow while you listen.

              Viola skipped toward the barn. She held her hands up as though holding the reins of a pony while moving in a loping motion. Her brother Aaron called, “Viola, get off of your pony and do your chores.”
Viola dismounted her imaginary pony and tied it to the hitching-rack next to a real buggy horse. Snow fell quietly, covering her family’s Amish farm with a fresh, white blanket. Chores needed to be done on Christmas Eve morning just like any other day. Viola got to work mixing up powdered milk for calves that bawled loudly for breakfast. Two younger sisters came to help. Mary was eight, two years younger than Viola, and Katherine was one year younger than Mary. Katherine asked her oldest sister, “Viola, why don’t we have a real pony?”
“Because they cost a lot of money. Dad says that he has been watching for a cheap one at the horse sale, but he doesn't want to buy a mean one, just because it’s cheap.” Her answer seemed to satisfy her little sister. Her own heart still ached, wishing for a real pony.
When the baby cows were finally all fed and quiet, Viola untied and climbed aboard her pretend pony and clucked. She skipped off between the barn and chicken house dashing through new-fallen snow. Her rubber boots sloshed with a rhythm similar to that of a pony. She rode her imaginary horse out to a field entrance, her little chore-dress flapping in time with her apron. The little Amish girl pulled open a large metal gate and let a herd of cows out to graze on cornstalks. Huge black-and-white Holsteins lumbered through falling snow, nibbling on brown corn-stubble that stuck up through drifts.
Viola tightened her black headscarf which matched her heavy coat. She lifted her arms, feigning the motion of turning a pony, and loped back to where her little sisters were. Mary and Katherine were gathering firewood from a massive stack that leaned against the buggy shed. Viola dismounted her pretend pony and tied it beside the real buggy horse again. She didn't notice a huge milk-truck had pulled into their lane and backed near the milk-house. The falling snow had muffled all sounds, including those of the milk-house generator and a large white truck.
Milkman Tom called through the falling snow, “Viola, come here.” The little Amish girl walked from the hitching-rack toward Tom. The milkman came to haul away milk every third day, year-round. Viola always enjoyed talking to him while he drained the milk tank. He spoke with a smile, “I suppose you want a pony for Christmas?” Viola gave him a blank stare for a moment, and then explained, “We don’t have that kind of Christmas.” She looked at Tom and saw that he was puzzled. She tried to explain better, “We usually exchange a few small gifts at Christmas, not things like ponies.”
“Oh, I see. I've noticed that you have been riding an imaginary pony lately.” Viola blushed. Tom asked, “Don’t you children have a pony?”
“No, but my dad has been watching at every horse sale. He knows that I want one really bad. He said that he’s not willing to buy just any pony because some of them are mean.” Tom smiled and Viola thought that she saw a tear in the corner of his eye. He finished his work and climbed into his big truck. Viola helped her little sisters, who were loading firewood onto a sled. Viola pulled and her little sisters pushed their load toward the house.  Milkman Tom waved to them as he drove out of their lane. All three little Amish girls waved and began to unload their sled. They pushed firewood through a chute that dumped into their basement. The girls went inside and took off their chore coats and boots, heading downstairs into the warm basement to stack firewood. This was all part of what they did for chores twice every day.

The scent of cinnamon rolls filled their kitchen as the family gathered for breakfast. Their home was warmed by firewood the girls had brought inside and that their older brother Aaron had loaded in the wood-burning furnace. They were all in a cheerful mood because it was Christmas Eve day. Tomorrow, between morning and evening chores, they would spend a relaxing afternoon together as a family. During breakfast, Mother made a statement, “Girls, I believe we will make cookies today.” Viola and her sisters smiled at each other. Aaron and Dad made plans to clean out the horse stalls. The little boys were too young to help, but when breakfast was over they pretended to clean out horse stalls in one corner of the living room.
Viola, Mary, and Katherine helped their mother mix up cookie dough. They enjoyed rolling out large slabs of dough on the table and using a round cookie-cutter to make dozens of Christmas cookies. Viola gathered some of the left-over pieces of dough and made a horse-shaped cookie. Her mother smiled and said, “Let’s put your little horse on the cookie sheet, too. Tomorrow, it will be your Christmas pony.”

* * *

It was easy for little girls to jump out of bed on Christmas morning, even though their bedroom was cold. The girls ran downstairs to finish dressing near the warm stove. The whole family put on heavy coats, gloves, and boots. They stepped out into the crisp morning air to hurry through chores. Viola headed to the hitching-rack to untie her imaginary pony but stopped in her tracks. There stood a real live pony. The whole family exclaimed their surprise, jabbering with each other about where the mystery pony may have come from. Viola didn't speak. She stood perfectly still, as though one wrong move might make the vision disappear. “Daddy, did you get us a pony?” Viola finally got the courage to ask.
“No, I don’t know anything more about this pony than the rest of you.” The small, light-brown pony had big, dark eyes. Viola and the pony stood looking at each other until Aaron said, “Look, there is a note tied to the pony’s halter.” He read the note, slowly, because it was still dark out.

        Merry Christmas,

My name is Ginger. Last Christmas I was a gift to a little girl who was very sick. She loved me a lot and I gave her rides, even though she was not feeling well. The little girl kept getting more weak all the time. She always wanted to touch my soft muzzle, even when she couldn't ride me anymore. My little girl is no longer suffering. I have been very lonely, standing in my pasture with no one to play with. Please take me for rides and pet my muzzle.

Viola reached out her hand and touched Ginger’s soft nose. The pony’s dark eyes glistened. Viola said, “If the little girl isn't sick anymore, why doesn't she play with her pony?”
Mother answered softly, “I believe the little girl is in heaven now.”

Thomas Nye reading the Christmas Pony

Click play to listen

Thomas Nye on Amazon

Mennonite Wife

My wife and I,
at Oak Alley Plantation

My wife's home frozen applesauce

Shari's home canned peaches

If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, get a Mennonite girl for a wife.

I didn't grow up Mennonite but my wife did. I don't have pictures to show you everything my wife cooks and bakes, but my five children and five grandchildren can vouch for me, she's the best!  Her homemade pies and cinnamon rolls are ridiculously amazing.  These canned peaches have ruined store bought peaches for me. I will never be able to eat store bought again.

Shari also makes homemade applesauce.  She only will use Yellow Transparent apples for her applesauce, which are hard to find. I've tried applesauce made from other varieties and she is right, they don't compare.  Homemade Bread, crescent rolls, kolaches, homemade caramels and chocolates at Christmastime, "perfect" chocolate cake for birthdays, and numerous other delightful goodies.

Home canned pizza sauce is a family favorite, on her made-from-scratch pizza dough.

You younger fellas should take note, Amish and Mennonite girls know how to bake and cook!

These cinnamon rolls, pictured below, melt in your mouth. They are best eaten right after they come out of the oven.  Just pour a glass of milk or a cup of hot coffee to go with them and you are in paradise!

Pumpkin pies for our family's Thanksgiving dessert
(note the tiny clothesline my daughter painted on our pantry wall)

My wife Shari, preparing cheesy potatoes, yum!

 Grandma cut balogna and cheese with a cookie cutter, in the shape of horses.

How clever is that? (Specially made, for our horse loving granddaughter.)

Our grandchildren often have tea parties and also get to play with this homemade play-dough.

So from my personal point of view... get a Mennonite girl to marry you!

Dogs Love Bluegrass

Dogs who live in Bluegrass homes are happier than those who live in Rock-n-Roll houses.

Our Dachshund, Lucille
(she prefers to go by the name Lucy)

Okay, this is just a theory but I'm sticking with it!  I'm also gonna guess that cats prefer Classical music, though some may love Country. There have actually been studies done that prove plants grow better in an environment of Classical music -vs- Rock-n-Roll.  Don't get me wrong, I myself listen to all kinds of music, but I was listening to some Bluegrass this morning, while writing, and my little Dachshund seemed especially happy. That's when my theory about dogs and Bluegrass was born.

One time, a few years back, I took my team of draft horses back to the Amish farm where they were born.  The Amishman that sold me the horses had asked if he could use them to do his spring plowing.  I used my brother-in-law's horse trailer and took Stonewall and Jackson to the Amish farm before heading to work at the Post Office.  I arrived at daybreak and didn't see anyone around.  A generator was running so I knew that milking was underway.  I headed into the milk-house and heard singing, but went unnoticed.  Several teenage girls were milking cows and singing hymns in German.  I stood and listened, afraid to be noticed, knowing that the beautiful moment would end as soon as they saw me.  It did.  I'm quite sure that hymn-listening cows produce much more milk than cows who are forced to listen to staticky radio. Especially a radio talk-show with some guy yelling about his views on politics.  What do you think?

I will admit that I've known some real rock-n-roll dogs, but most seem to be born for bluegrass.

Amish Girls at a Horse Show

Amish girls at a Horse Show

(this was not in Iowa)

It turns out that you will occasionally find Amish at a Horse Show.  The reality is that there are a wide variety of Amish groups, each with their own set of standards.  And within each of those groups there are individual families that are more, or less strict.  I have also found that when an Amish family is on a vacation they may go to a Theme Park, or visit a Shopping Mall, or even spend a day at the beach.  When Amish go to Sarasota, Florida for the winter they will ride bikes, even if that is banned in their home community.

I think these girls found a pretty good way to stay modest while riding horses in a dress... spandex!

These girls are sisters.  I talked to the older sister, Annie, and found out that she has a Facebook group where she sells Horse-shoe Dream Catchers.
Here is the link to her Facebook Group "Horse Shoes For Sale."  Please join the group even if you don't buy one it still may help.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/475856485884295/


 At this show in June, Annie got 1st place in Western Walk and Trot. I think she said 3rd in the Egg Race, and 5th in a "Boot Race"  I'm not sure what a Boot Race is but I've seen Egg Races before.  You balance an raw egg on a spoon and ride your horses at a walk, then trot, canter and whoever is the last one with an egg still in tact on the spoon wins. It's a challenge and there are broken eggs everywhere.

 Boot Race

 Egg Race
(notice the egg Annie is holding)

These girls, like most Amish young people, are very comfortable around horses.  Not all Amish people love horses, some only tolerate them because they have to. I can see plain-as-day that these are real Horse-girls!