SUE ANN - DEAR NEW YORK STATE READERS -

I am doing a picture post this week, so you can see where I live in Ohio.

The first picture is looking from our street, up the drive to the house. We have a 300 foot driveway-I walk it twice a day for sure, to get the mail. You also see the front ,by the road, and the beginning of our woods. Many , many people drive right by our house and have to turn around and come back- you cannot easily see us from the road.

The 2nd picture is a little ways up the drive, and you can see the hill we have, for walking, and mowing the grass, and see a bit more of the woods.

The 3rd picture is our raised beds, one is for strawberries, one for asparagus, one is rhubarb, and the 4th one is for our greens. If you look to the far back of the pictures, and  where the grass meets the hay field, that is our back property line, and in that green grass next year, I will be adding a larger vegetable garden,things that do not need as much daily tending, as the raised beds do.

The 4th picture is the raised beds again, but at a different angle,  you can see the grape vines in front of the garage,more of the woods...

The 5th picture is a look down into the woods, from the drive.

The last picture is from last Winter, and you can see how we cover the rose bushes, and other flowering bushes, to protect them from the deer, and the wind.

A fun and easy, quick recipe:

                    "Hole In One" Breakfast Fun

Butter a slice of bread on both sides. Place on skillet, cut round hole in center with a cookie cutter, cook cut-out slice next to the slice of bread. When bread begins to fry, crack and egg in the hole. Cook until the egg is set, flip over, and cook til done, how you like it.

You can add a slice of cheese to this right before you take it off the skillet. Quick and fun for breakfast or anytime!

JEAN ANSWER'S SOME OF YOUR QUESTIONS

It is time I answered some of the questions that you asked.  So here I go.

What do we think of musical instruments like the piano or the organ?  We consider them ways of the world. Children are not allowed to learn how to play the piano. Once in a while a young man may play the harmonica at young folks singing to get them started off in tune, but that is even looked down on.  We don't have any musical instruments in our meetings (church).  Music is just for singing and to Praise the Lord.

We do not allow clapping in our meetings although young folks sometimes clap or stomp their feet at their young folks singing.

If someone is an artist in our group, they are allowed to paint.  I don't know if they would be encouraged or not.  We consider artist painting the same as house painting - you don't do it on the Lord's day (Sunday).  But if someone was an artist and wanted to do it in their spare time it would be allowed.  We do not allow peoples faces to be in pictures - hand painted pictures included. Edward is an artist and paints pictures.  He has even sold some of his paintings.  As long as he doesn't do it when he should be doing school work or chores or prayers, we allow him to do it.

The school is one large room.  It is not divided into separate room for each grade.  All the grades are in one room.

Susan and most of the children enjoy the school.  There are some students that would rather be doing something else than going to school.  They feel they learned all they need.  The school has to measure up to certain achievements set by the state.  Children take state tests a few times a year to make sure they are measuring up.  These are the same tests the public schools take.

Yes, we do send cards for birthdays and anniversaries, etc.  We don't send cards for Halloween, or send a lot at Valentine's Day.

Children start dressing like adults at a very young age. Men do not always wear their black suits to such places as auctions, Farmers Markets, etc.  When going to auctions or Farmers Market they mostly wear jeans and light blue striped  shirts.  They do wear their straw or velvet hats.

In our family, we do celebrate birthdays with cake, ice cream and gifts for children and adults.  If we are having friends or family, we do not decorate the cakes with flowers and design.  It is just a cake with frosting. I say with friends and family as Susan likes flowers on her birthday cake, but we only have that cake just for our immediate family.  It is our ways not to have cakes with fancy decorations on them.

I hope I have answered some of questions.  If you have more questions, please ask.

Be With God,
Jean

MARTHA HAS A POST THIS THURSDAY ABOUT LIFE SINCE JOSEPH BECAME BISHOP.

JEAN HAS SOME GREAT NEWS IS NEXT WEEKS POST.

WEAVERLAND MENNONITE CHURCHES

Weaverland Mennonites dress the same as Jean and David do, but drive cars.  The top three pictures show the name of the church, the office and the church.  I got the two Bible quotes from in front of a Weaverland Mennonite Home.  The name of church is the top picture of the second church, a picture of the church and the building that houses the lawn care equipment.

AUTUMN LEAVES ARE REALLY BEAUTIFUL IN NEW YORK STATE !!!

Sue Ann suggested that I put a post on of leaves and here it is.  I took pictures of leaves at all the places I traveled this week and some in my home town.  This is a beautiful time of year.  Enjoy them.  Soon they will be gone.

THERE IS A NEW POST FOR TOMORROW AND JEAN ON MONDAY.

THE ALLING COVERLET MUSEUM - PALMYRA, NY

The building that the Alling Coverlet Museum is in, was originally owned by Senator Henry and his wife, Agnes Griffith, for the Palmyra Courier Journal Newspaper.  After the Senator's passing the paper merged with another paper and Mrs. Griffith donated the building to the Palmyra Historical Society.  I remember, as a child in elementary school, having a class tour through the building when it was the paper.

The Alling Coverlet Museum was established in 1976 by Historic Palmyra, Inc. to house the coverlet collection of Merle Alling.  In the early 1980's, descendants of Ira Hadsell donated to the museum diaries and account books which provided a unique look into the life of one of the more famous nineteenth century weavers.

Since it's founding many quilts and coverlets have been donated to the museum.  I donated the one and only quilt that my Mother made to the museum.  As there are so many quilts and coverlets in the museum they are rotated or changed every once in a while so they are all shown and appreciated.

What is not shown is the kitchen and conference area that it is the back of the museum.  In that area is their annual books sale, Christmas Sale, lectures, and more.  Most of the activities are used to raise money to support the museums.  Also not shown is the store that is in front of the Alling  museum where you can buy books, postcards, and more to take with you after the tour.

THERE ARE NEW POSTS FOR SATURDAY AND SUNDAY.

DOREEN HAS A POST ON COVERLETS FOR OCTOBER 18th.

ELMER: OCTOBER IS NATIONAL DWARFISM AWARENESS MONTH

First of all, I would like to say a belated Happy Birthday to New York State of Mind for it's one year on this blog.  I appreciate being let to put posts on here.  Marilyn was looking for a special post this week and in knowing me, you know I can always come up with something to say.

Thought you might be interested in knowing something about myself.  I was born with Ellis-van Creveld Syndrome.  I am a dwarf.  That is why I titled this post as a reminder that October is National Dwarfism Awareness Month.

People are considered dwarf if they are between the heights of 2 feet 8 inches to 4 feet 10 inches. I am just an inch shorter than 4 feet, with my boots off.  When I have my boots on, I stand 4 feet tall.  The chance is 1 in 150,000 that a child may be born with dwarfism.  The chance is higher (1 in 5,000)  in Old Order Amish because of intermarriage (someone marrying a distant cousin).

They believe this dwarfism can probably be traced to one Sameul King and his wife (who were Amish) who immigrated to the United States in 1744.   In tracing my genealogy, we found that we are distantly related to Sameul King who had brought Ellis-van Creveld into our country. In tracing genealogy of both my parents, it was found that both sides of the family were distantly related to Sameul King.

People come up to me and ask if I would like to be called dwarf, small person  or midget.  I tell them, I would prefer to be called Elmer.  If describing me, I prefer to be called small person or dwarf.  Dwarf people do not like to be called midget.

Both of my parents are average height.  In our family of 10 children, I am the only living child that's a dwarf.   As I got older, my parents told me that before I was born, they had another son that was born a dwarf, but died a few days after his birth.  When I was born, I had an extra pinky finger and toe, which were removed as a baby.  I had a great deal of problems with my teeth which ended when I had them removed and got dentures. Fortunately, as yet, I do not have heart problems which is in about 60% of the children born with Ellis-van Creveld. In obtaining the death certificate of my dwarf brother, I found the cause of death was heart. My parents were afraid that I, too,  would die of the same thing at a young age.  So far, thanks to the Lord, they have been proven wrong.

Regarding Anna and our children, we do not have any dwarf's among our children - they are all average height. Anna is also average height.   All of them and our grandchildren, so far, there are no dwarf children.

This leads to the question I was asked what does one of my son's do.  He has a furniture store, but he also has a store where he makes and sells items for dwarf people, as myself.  I remember when he and I went to a Dwarfism Convention and saw this little dwarf boy in this big wheel chair.  They make wheel chairs for average people and big people, but what about small people.  So my son got these people's name and after a lot of measuring the boy and figuring back home, came up with a wheel chair for the small person.  Word spread.  Small people wanted chairs, dining tables and chairs, bedroom sets and more.  Now, with the new box springs and mattresses beds being really high for us small people so he built me stairs to get into the bed.

Ellis-van Creveld Syndrome is not the only one. There are other syndromes that cause dwarfism.   Also, I want you to know that dwarf's, depending on what their church allows, are: farmers, accountants, doctors, teachers, actors and more.

Hope you have found this interesting and understanding of dwarfism or small people.   Have you ever met a dwarf and wanted to ask questions, but were afraid to ask?  This is the place to ask the questions, I will answer them in another post.

Trust God's Wisdom,
Elmer

THERE ARE NEW POSTS FOR FRIDAY, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY.

KEEP QUESTIONS FOR ELMER COMING.  ELMER WILL ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS ON OCTOBER 28th POST.

JEAN'S WALDORF SALAD

JEAN'S WALDORF SALAD

2 medium apples, diced (about 2 cups)
2 medium stalks celery, chopped (about 1 cup)
1/3 cup coarsely chopped nuts
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup miniature marshmallows
1/3 cup raisins
lettuce cups

Toss apples, celery, nuts, marshmallows, raisins together with mayonnaise.  Spoon into lettuce cups.  If you like, you can garnish with maraschino cherries.  Makes servings for 4 to 6 people.

TOMORROW ELMER TELLS SOMETHING INTERESTING ABOUT HIMSELF.