A Visit to Amish Country

Yesterday the Oldest, Younger Daughter, two friends of mine, and I visited an area of our state where a large number of Amish people live. None of us had ever been there before, but one of my friends had acquired a map from a friend of hers. The map was marked with lots of stores selling various things. There was no town; instead the stores were all buildings on the Amish people's homestead or parts of their homes.

This sign was next to the hitching rail in the parking lot of the "general store".


This shelf of colorful gelatin mixes caught my eye. I thought they were so pretty all lined up!


We visited an Amish furniture store, too. The pieces were all so beautiful! Oldest, Younger Daughter, and I all thought this "saddle stool" was pretty neat.


These buggies were all parked outside of the bakery we visited.


The bakery was actually just a huge kitchen and display area in someone's basement, but we had to wait in a long line for about 30 minutes before we were able to get in and purchase some goodies. It was definitely worth the wait when we tasted the still-warm donuts and cinnamon rolls we bought!


Yum!


And, yes, we did bring some tasty bakery treats back home for Hubby and the boys!

Holes and Dirt

As I've mentioned before, we're in the midst of some remodeling at our house. We're finishing our basement to add a big bedroom for the boys down there and remodeling the upstairs to have 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms instead of the 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom that it has now. Hubby is doing the work ... and I'm documenting it on my camera. :)

Because we're putting a bedroom in the basement, we have to put in an egress window. This means Hubby had to dig a big hole (4 ft wide x 5 ft out from the house x about 7 ft deep at the deepest point) in order the install the 4 ft square window and do all the drainage/grading work.

One day at the beginning of June when he was digging, I went outside to find Oldest Son had posted a warning.

(The sign says, "DEEP HOLE AHEAD.")


Too funny! And it fits in with the "Signs of the Times" theme this week at Thematic Photographic. (Follow the link to see more photographs of signs.)

Thankfully, digging of "The Hole" is now done. Most of the kids helped at one time or another with bits and pieces of the digging.


However, the 2 younger boys had more fun playing in the dirt pile than digging the hole.


When I said something about it to Hubby, he said that playing in a dirt pile was fun! I suppose I shouldn't be surprised because, when he was little, he wanted to dig holes for a living when he grew up!