ANNA TELLS OF ELMER'S LADDER AND JOHN & SARAH

To continue Elmer's letter a bit, the day after Elmer's Birthday, we went over to Kevin's where Kevin and Michael were finishing up a job for someone and thanked them for the new ladder.  I gave them both a hug.  To be honest, I really thought if Elmer didn't get a new ladder pretty soon, he would fall off the old one and break his neck or something else.  Of course, Kevin and Michael said it was nothing, but it was to both Elmer and myself.

I found Elmer on the roof of the house later in the day.  Asked him what he was doing up there as we have a new roof on our new house.  He said he just wanted to make sure the ladder worked.  Also, he used it to the roof of the barn.  I will be so glad when he takes it to his job on Monday (I am sending this Sunday) and leaves the old one home.

On October 26th, Bishop Eli, published (announced) at church, Sarah and John's wedding on November 14th.  As is custom, John left right after it was published to go to Sarah.  In the back of the church a few of the boys had smiles on their faces and a couple of smirks.  The shock was on them after church.  When we got to church Elmer told John where he was parking our buggy and told him to take it when he left.  Elmer and I would bring his courting buggy home.  So when church ended, the boys went out expecting to see John there correcting what they changed on his buggy.  They were very surprised when Elmer came over and told them what he and John had done.  Elmer told the boys to get the buggy back the way it was suppose to be as he and I were taking it home. When we went to leave a couple of hours later, that buggy was in perfect condition and had the right horse on it.

Elmer and I enjoyed riding in the courting buggy.  It brought back memories of when we were courting years ago.  When we got in the courting buggy after church some people stared at us, but most knew why we were driving that one.

That evening we had Sarah, her parents and family to our house for dinner.  We really enjoyed it.  Sarah's father is better than he was, but Elmer still has to help at their farm.  Sarah and John went to singing that evening.  Elmer warned them that the boys were really going to get their buggy now after what happened at church.

John thought he was safe as he and Sarah parked the buggy in the barn at their house and walked the rest of the way to singing.  Somehow some of the boys figured where it was.  They went over there and took a couple wheels off the buggy.  Took John's horse and put another in the barn and did some more things.  So when John and Sarah got to the barn, John had to get the buggy back together.  He even hooked that horse up to his buggy, took Sarah home and brought it to our house and put it in our barn.  He knew the next day someone would be looking for it and bring his horse back.  Sure enough, the next day one of his friends showed up with John's horse and they switched.  John did not get upset about these actions as he knows it comes when the wedding is published.

As John and Sarah are getting married, his courting buggy will go up for sale.  Jean's sons Thomas, Edward and Michael are all courting age, they are interested in purchasing John's buggy.  So we will see how it works out.  The problem is there are three young men and one buggy.  Of course the boys say it is better than what they have now which is none/ Jean and David have buggies, but no courting buggies.  Another thing is the Amish courting buggy is different than the Old Order Mennonite buggy, but Michael says he can fix that, but I'm not so sure of that.

Kevin told Michael if he wants a courting buggy, why doesn't he just make one.  With all the jobs Michael has learned working for Kevin - that would be the ultimate test.  Also, Kevin feels that they could find a lot of the material around the shop.  Whatever else they need they could find or buy. We don't know if Michael is going to do it or not. Elmer and David were talking and knowing Michael as they do, they feel that he won't tell anyone until he pulls in the driveway with it some day.  Only Michael and Kevin would know he was working on it. I asked Michael if I could say this and he said go ahead.  That's all he said.

Most of the work is done at Sarah and John's house.  We still have some furniture being delivered and  as it gets closer to the wedding, Sarah's Mother and I will get groceries to stock up their house.

Now, we are working on the wedding.  We are renting a couple of extra freezer drawers at Jean and David's so we can bake some food ahead for the wedding like pies, cookies, etc.  That will give us more time to prepare the dinners and cake.  Time is sure moving fast toward that day.

Trust God's Wisdom,
Anna

ANNA will not be on next week as next Tuesday is Veterans Day and she will be busy with John's wedding.  Next time she is on she will tell us about John and Sarah's wedding. She will be back on November 18th.