Tending the fire

Taken at a working farm in Southwestern Missouri.

Each Autumn, the farm celebrates it's German Heritage and recreates the daily life of early German immigrants who settled this area in the early 19th century. After having arrived, one is transported at least for the day back to life on an early farm...quite different than our farms of the day.

The air is filled with the earthen smells of fire-pits and musky leaves that had begun to fall. Everything about this life was natural...from the soap made of burnt fireplace ashes to the leather harness used for the horses at the sorghum mill. No internet here...communication was by the neighborly word of mouth. News from the outside world was delivered daily by the stagecoach drivers during their brief stopovers at the inn a few miles away.

Dan

Springtime Chores for the Amish

The peaceful communities of Cannelton and Montgomery hidden in southern Indiana become very busy places each Spring. There is the early plowing and planting of both the fields and the pristine vegetable gardens, the frequent visits among the families...catching up after the long winter and caring for the new births of the Belgian and Percheron foals...foals that will grow into productive members of the Amish community.

I spoke to the gentleman on the plow as his 8 horse team turned to head down the next furrow. He plows 40 acres with his team of Belgians. Even with 8 horsepower, he told me that he must let his horses rest for a brief period after pulling the length of the field before beginning to break the next section.

He told me that this large Amish community has been established in Southern Indiana since the 1700's. His ancestors immigrated here from Canada after they relocated originally from Germany. History has literally stood still for these families aside from the modern necessities such as the rubber tires on the plow. But the traditions of the Amish culture remain in tact and still form the fabric of the patchwork quilt covering the rolling hills of their beloved farms.

Dan