Amish snowman and snow lady

What can you do with fabric scraps? Ask the Amish! You can make 110 drawstring school bags. That’s what our Amish friends did with the fabric scraps. Last Friday I joined them at the one room school house where their children go to school. I helped the Amish children, grades 1- 8, filled the bags with school supplies. The children all sang a few songs for us, followed by a snack and then a quick snow ball fight at recess. I felt like Laura Ingalls!

We delivered the school kits to Christian Ministries where they will be distributed in Haiti.

Now what kind of party do you think that is? Every couple of months we get together for a big family dinner with our Amish family friends. Saturday was the big fall dinner at my house. I spent all day, cleaning the Faux Farm and going to Wegmans market for my home cooked meal. Ok, I made brownies and a chocolate pudding pie and Wegmans made the fried chicken, scalloped potatoes and a ton of desserts. Hey wait, I made the salad too. We also invited my Amish neighbors and their four little kids to come over for a dessert party after dinner. Well, everyone showed up at the same time, the Aaron’s were late and the Jacob’s were early. So the Jaacobs’ ate a second dinner with us and then we all had dessert. In case you are wondering, families are often referred to by the father’s first name in the plural form. I guess there are more original first names than last names so it is easier to get the families straight this way.

The teenagers watched the Penn State game and the little kids watched Sponge Bob as a special treat. Nothing like going to the English house and watching TV.  The rest of us had a wonderful time chatting about the upcoming wedding. Yes, I will be doing the tablecloths. And yes the parents have the same reactions as English parents when a daughter gets married. The Dad is worried he is losing his little girl and how could everything cost so much. Mom is worried about getting everything fixed up around the house and getting the dresses ready and making sure everything is taken care of and wishes her husband would stop worrying about all the money.  I will chat more about the wedding as we get closer and I get more information. Bob and I are going to the wedding and are thrilled to be invited. It was nice to just sit and chat inthe cool of the evening on our screened in porch and talk about our different ways of like which are surprisingly similar when you dust off the fine veneer that seems to separate us.

My neighbors up the street had invited us to an wine tasting party which we had to decline, though I am not a wine drinker I would have liked to get to know the neighbors a bit better. We have owned the Faux Farm for 5 years and only know the neighbor to the right and to the left as we aren’t there all the time. So in this tiny group of 8 homes there were two parties Saturday night, one with a lot alcohol and one without any at all. But I am sure we had better desserts!

The van driver came to pick up the Aaron’s about 10:30 and they loaded up and off they went, dropping one of the teenage boys at a friends house on the way home. No different than we have done after we made our children to go a family function.

I waved goodbye and promtly went into and watched TV. How English of me!

Faux Farm girl,

Annie

photo by Bill Coleman-check out his website at www.amishphotos.com

I haven’t been out to the Faux Farm in over a month. We have been up at The River a lot and when we are back home I have been at work. I just haven’t had the time to get out there. But that is going to change. I am going out Sunday and I am going to face all the weeds in my garden. Barry, our lawn guy, does all the trimming and mowing but the gardens are all mine and I have been very remiss. I know it will be bad with all the rain we have had I am sure the weeds grew, well. like weeds.  I should have called over to Sylvan’s and asked if the boys could weed for me but I didn’t think about it until now. Can’t think of everything! And I can’t wait to get out there.

Faux Farm Girl,

Annie

I tried gardening in the rain until I was so wet and muddy that I knew it that I would be embarrassed if any one should see me. I rather liked the effect of the rain in this photo- it didn’t look quite that good on me.

I shoot this through the screen on the porch day.

And then the rain stopped just as quickly as it started and so I donned the gloves and grabbed my shovel and I went back to work.

This is my raised bed flower garden.

Flowers in front of my “faux chicken coop” that I had to have and now that I have it, I am not quite sure what to do with it! But it sure looks farmy.

My peaches. Don’t get too impressed, I had to search long and hard for one that didn’t have little brown spots on it.

Some apples from my apple tree.

And my one lonely pear. Really – I only got one pear from my one pear tree. What’s up with that?

It was a cloudy day that rained on and off all day long. But the corn sure is growing tall with all the water.

Stay Dry.

Annie