A Natural Home

One of the things I really enjoy about working with the Amish in our area is working with the women. Take Ella for instance, she has such a great sense of humour.

She loves to play ppractical jokes on her friends and family.  Once she took some organic cotton fluff and dipped it in melted chocolate and gaveit to her sister Naomi to eat.  Of course Naom thought it was candy and bit into finding a lump of organic cotton under the chocolate.  Although chocolate is great, and so is organic cotton, I think I will pass on the combination.

When I worked with the Amish over in Holmes county, none of the women would talk to me. The pretty much had no idea what Iwas doing there,and if I had questions they had no answers. If their husbnads were going I could forget trying to get answers, as I was not going to get any. I am not sure why the woman were so backward, I was friendly and I came there more than just once.  Eventually after months of coming there, the women would talk to me a little but never about work.  It was strange.

When I started working with the Amish locally about 6 years ago, I found a change in the women. They were active in the family business. Many of the companies had the husband and the wife on the shingle.  If I walked into a shop and the husband was not there, the wife knew what he was working on and how much longer he had untill it was done.

It was refershing.  Sometimes I would walk into a woodshop and the wife would be there working right along side her husband, and I was surprised.  In Holmes county the women did not work with the men, and I felt like I was back in the dark ages in a weird way.  Here, in our area the women were active with their family business even helping with things that the men were usually doing.

Naomi, wife of Andy, works in the wood shop along side her husband. SHe is adept at the machinery as he is and after 16 years of marriage she is just as active in the shop as he is. Naomi can tell me what is going on there and how much is done etc.  I fell really comfortable around here, and it is fun to work with her.  She is very confident and seems happy working in the family business. I really wondered if she was an atypical amish woman, but I was going to find out that the families that we were going to come in contact with were much more active and friendly. More to come….