Winter on the Farm

Wild horses thrive out west, even in the worst conditions. Yet, people worry about horses on a farm getting cold. Horses are as tough as deer or buffalo. They have it made on a farm where people are providing food and shelter.

Up until around 1920 almost everyone depended on the horse for transportation year around. The Amish help us "Englishers" get an idea of what our great-grandparents lives were like. It wasn't quite like... getting in a warm car, in a heated garage, and jumping out to run into the mall.  Someone has to harness up a horse and hitch it to the buggy before going anywhere. Those buggies don't have a heater in them either.

When you get home, no matter how late, someone has to un-harness, brush and feed the horse. Wintertime is get-by mode on a farm. Amish are hardworking people, who are rarely caught unprepared for cold weather. Barn full of hay, crib full of corn, pantry loaded with canned goods, woodpile heaped up, they are ready for whatever winter brings. When the weather is really bad, chores can take all day. 

You might have to use an Ax to chop open the water tank. Spend extra time bedding down livestock with a fresh layer of straw. Plow snow or shovel the walk. Imagine how nice it is, to finally get inside after fighting the cold for hours, and then sit close to a wood burning stove with the smell of homemade bread circling around you like a wreath. 

 In the picture below, you can see that we have a few Amish homes in Kalona. The city is accommodating for Amish, even providing a shelter for tying horses while shopping.

James (pictured below) is using a team of draft horses to plow snow out of a drive. He is 16 and not sitting on a couch, playing video games, or texting his buds. It was -4 when this picture was taken and this young man is getting a job done. Molly and Mary (his team of Belgians) are more-than-likely happy to have something interesting to do, rather than standing around looking over a fence.

Photo courtesy of Laurie Erwin Gabbert
Interested in reading about Draft Horses and Amish? Read my novel...
Under the Heavens

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.

Amish School

 I took a drive through our local Amish countryside the other day and passed by two one-room school houses, both having recess.  This scene is almost identical to what my grandparents would have experienced one-hundred years ago, yet it is alive today.  That is what I love about the Amish, they take us back to our own past. This is also why I choose to write novels about the Amish; my stories end up with an old-fashioned feel, and yet, are contemporary at the same time!

 It is hard to see but there is a Native American style TP right behind that buggy.  I'm not sure, but my guess is they are studying Native Americans and this is a teaching tool.  Looks like they have fun, eh?

 This group of Amish children are playing a game of softball.  Doesn't their world look so peaceful, clean and wholesome?  Somehow, it makes me sad when I see this and think of what our modern children are missing, growing up too fast, weighed down by images modern media exposes them to. Just standing in line behind Amish families, checking out at a grocery store, I've felt ashamed of magazine covers near the register.

 As you can see pictured above, several students and the teacher drove buggies to school, being to far from home to walk.  I snapped a closeup shot of a pony, wearing harness, grazing the ditch while waiting for his young owners to finish school.

If you enjoy the sentiments I shared in this blog, you might want to read the Amish Horses Book Series.  Here is an Amazon link: Under the Heavens, Amish Horses Series

Kalona Fall Festival

Fall in the Kalona Iowa area

(notice the dragon fly in the clouds) 

Fields are turning golden, nights are cool, mornings brisk and apples are perfectly crisp.  The Kalona Fall Festival is set in this perfect time of year.  My daughter and I were having a conversation about all of our great Fall Festival memories, most of them include food.

Natalie, my daughter, told me that she can't wait to have some of that home-made apple-butter.  That got us started talking about Apple Fritters, those perfectly fried, cinnamon-sugary doughnut  hole type things.

Then we remembered the Hand Made Soft Pretzels! What could be better on a chilly fall evening than biting into a warm, salty pretzel dipped in melted cheese.  You wont find any of our local Amish at an event like this but as you can see from the picture of the Pretzel booth, there are plenty of Mennonites.

I haven't even started talking about all the wonderful music and entertainment, ranging from our local school bands and choirs to Bluegrass bands with a flare for humor.

All of us locals have a great time visiting but there is plenty of room and food for anyone that wants to join the fun!

Pictured above, faculty and staff from Iowa Mennonite school are having fun making Apple Fritters.  My son graduated from there last year, so it will be my first Fall Festival in a while that I'm not working in that booth.  I'm still buying and eating my share though!

Stop in the Mennonite Historical building and be amazed at all the artifacts and history in there.

Be sure to look inside of the little village buildings while your there.  An old train depot, a cute little Amish grandpa-house, store, log cabin, and country church (the place where my wife's grandparents used to go.) And plenty more, including a building and tents overflowing with arts and crafts for sale.  I will also be there selling and signing copies of my Amish novel, Under the Heavens.  Stop by and see me in the main office.

My Amish Horses Book Series takes place in a fictional town but if you stop by Kalona you'll see that I didn't have to dream up a lot, I had a perfect pattern right in front of me.

Amish don't go to the State Fair

 I asked this gal how she got the job of policing the State Fair on horseback.

She said a rodeo friend got her the job.

 This is a, sign your name on the "State Fair Horse!"

I spent the whole day at the State Fair and didn't see one Amish person.  Check that, I talked to one guy that grew up Amish and now drives a six-horse show-hitch. (that is common) Sometimes I see Amish people at Fairs and other public attractions but not often.  The Amish friends I know, wont be a part of any type of competition, including 4-H shows.


These sheep are all cleaned up and ready for the show ring.




I grew up in the 1960s, when there were still "Old McDonald" farms around.  I miss the glory days of the old-fashioned farm, when everyone had diversified farming practices.  That is what sparked my interest in the Amish... they are still farming that way and I love it!

 Every child should get a chance to try milking a cow by hand!  The Iowa State Fair offers that opportunity... the only charge is that you have to wait in line.

Here are a few more random pictures from the Iowa State Fair.  I bet these manure carts have been in use at this Fair since before I was born in 1961 what do you think?

If you click on these smaller pictures, you can see them full size.

Of course, I motate to the horse barn!

No visit to the Iowa State Fair is complete without seeing the Biggest Boar and Biggest Bull.

On the Road

 This young guy is around 12-14 and barefoot, driving a big team of draft horses

In the good-old days, young people were often sent out to do big jobs by themselves.  They were trusted with livestock that could be dangerous and farm equipment that was expensive.  It was expected that they would work hard, because everyone had to contribute to keep the family farm afloat.

A teenage boy coming in from the field, with a horse-drawn sprayer

It is so common, in our modern world, to let our teenage children hang around all day and play video games, or mess with smart phones.  Mom and Dad are both working forty-plus hours and then having to split household duties when they get home.  If you don't think things have changed much in the past couple generations, go visit an Amish farm.  You will get a chance to see what things were like for grandpa.  And I think you'll find that it was a very happy, healthy lifestyle.

Three early-teen girls pass our house one fine afternoon

Even if were not planing to make our families return to "the way things were", I still feel it is an education to see what it was like and reflect on what life could be, or should be.  It is too easy to let life happen and then try to figure out what went wrong, with our home, family or marriage.  Maybe we should take a few lessons from hundreds of generations of families that went before us.  We can hear them speaking from antiquity ... through those who have not left the past behind.

Garden Spot of Iowa

In my mind, Kalona is the garden spot of the state of Iowa.

Most of these pictures were taken in the past few weeks. I love fresh garden produce and enjoy driving past Amish farms and looking over their huge gardens.  I am always impressed when I pass an Amish farm (on my way to work) at 7:00 a.m. and see teenage girls already working between the rows.  On my way home, someone is usually working in the same garden.

In my novel, Under the Heavens, I mention that an Amish garden is lived in as much as any room in the house.  That is probably an understatement.

Amish farmers near Kalona still plow up fields, making them appear like huge gardens. In the old days, all of Iowa was plowed, gone over with a disc and harrow, until all soil was neatly combed.

Most farmlands in the U.S. now fall into the category of no-till.  Once harvest takes place, remaining stems and root systems are left in place, keeping soil from eroding.  This is good for the soil but not as easy on the eyes.  The farmlands surrounding Kalona still look garden like.

Garden tea is a delightfully fresh drink, it tastes like summer in a glass, and is a staple in almost every Amish home.

I highly recommend taking a leisurely drive through an Amish/Mennonite community and noticing their gardens. Many Amish families sell fresh garden produce for a living.  Stop in and let yourself go back in time, to a place where food was anything but "fast", and almost everything is healthy and tasty.