FARM PLOWING AND MORE

I took these pictures, in June, in an Old Order Mennonite and Amish area.  Aren't sure if the plow is Old Order Mennonite or Englisher. I thought the local garden would be interesting.

JEAN'S MESSAGE - AND EASY REFRIGERATOR PICKLES

  As Marilyn wouldn't say this, I got Michael to go to the computer in the library with me and get this message written and send it to Marilyn.  She wasn't going to put this on New York State of Mind so I threatened her - not serious.

I know none of you asked Marilyn or Richard to put New York State of Mind on.  But Richard made up New York State of Mind and Marilyn has provided not only my posts, but Elmer, Anna's, Martha's and more.  She has traveled to get pictures to put on here.  You have been following New York State of Mind and are greatly appreciated.

To take these pictures and go to these places cost money for gas.  The day of the Fair, the camera died and no longer works.  Marilyn took it to her camera repair man and it can no longer be repaired. It is just worn out.  Marilyn does not have the money to replace it, at this time.  So she can't take any new pictures until she gets another camera.

Marilyn lives on Social Security.  She has a part time job but she only gets paid if she fills in for one of the bosses which only happens once or twice a day per month.  This pay is very small.

What it comes down to is - would anyone consider donating to a fund that would provide her with money for gas and maybe replacement of the camera.  She is not looking for a big fancy camera, but one that would take pictures and has a zoom on it.  If you can not afford or do not want to donate, we understand that, but if you could spare a few dollars, it would be greatly appreciated.  She would set this money aside for New York State of Mind.

This is the reason we were thinking of starting the cookbook.  We thought that maybe she could make some extra money for New York State of Mind expenses.  Right now we are trying to figure if the cost of printing, etc. would leave a profit or not.

So to start this off, I am going to donate to Marilyn.  If you would like to donate you can send to Pay Pal on mab112148@yahoo.com

Believe me it would be greatly appreciated.

My recipe is below.

Thank you,
Be With God,
Jean

EASY REFRIGERATOR PICKLES

7 Cups unpeeled, clean, thin sliced cucumbers
1 Cup thin sliced onions
1 Cup thin sliced green peppers
2 Tablespoons salt
2 Cups sugar
1 Tablespoon celery seed
1 Cup vinegar

Mix salt, sugar, celery seed, and vinegar until dissolved.  DO NOT COOK. Add onions, and green peppers.  Pour over cucumbers.  Refrigerate at least 1 day before eating.

ELMER TELLS OF THEIR NEW HOME

As you have been coming on here, you know this is not our new house.  But, as Anna said, we are in our new house.  Let me see describe the house to you.

When you walk in our front door, that faces the road, the living room is on the right and the kitchen is on your left.  It is a rather large living room with sliding walls, so they can be opened when we have church at our house.  Behind the living room is a bedroom, bathroom and second bedroom.

When you walk through our kitchen on the left is the mud room, the washer room,  Anna's sewing room, a small bedroom (my train room) and our master bedroom with a bathroom.  In the back of the house across from our master bedroom and the guest bedrooms is a little room that we made into a smaller living room.  Just large enough for a couple of chairs, and end table.  We like to call this our living room where we can sit when we don't have guests.  It can also be used when we have church to give us more room to serve the meal.  We can sit more people at one sitting.

On the outside of the house there is a porch on the front that faces the road.  There is also a porch off the back where we can sit and look out over our lawn - then the fields.  Anna is going to put her garden to left side of the back porch and flowers around both porches.  We can go out on the back porch from both our little living room and our bedroom.

As Anna said, our basement is cement block with a walk out.  You have to take stairs from the house to the basement, but in the basement you can walk out the door.

Our new barn is to the left of the house.  There is a lot of room between the house and the barn.  We will have our cows, horses, farming equipment and carriages in the barn.

I didn't think I would really like a one story house.  But, as Anna said, I don't have to go up and down the stairs to the second floor, which means a lot to me.  More than I thought it would.  We are really enjoying our new house.

Anna was telling about the stone counter in the house.  Before I had it put on, I asked my friend, Bishop Eli, if it was all right.  He had a meeting of the deacons, minister and himself.  I was there, too.  When he explained what I was asking for, one of the deacons said: "You mean we aren't suppose to have them?".  Eli said it hadn't been decided and asked why he looked so shocked.  The deacon said he and his wife had just gotten their kitchen done over and had stone counter tops put in.  After some discussion it was decided that stone counter tops were all right as long as we put it just on the counter and not on the walls.  Deacon and I were very happy.  The deacon said all he could think of was going home and telling his wife, he had to tear her new counter out.  But that was not necessary.

Anna didn't mention that our son, when he made our bedroom suit, he built me stairs to get into the bed.  Anna has no problem getting into bed, but it was high for me.  As the bedroom suit was in a different wood than our old bedroom set, he made the stairs.

I bought us a new mattress and box spring for the new bed.  We hadn't had a new one in a long time and thought that it was time.  When we got in our other bed, we seemed to meet in the middle.  On the new mattress,  we are both flat and level.  We only meet in the middle, if we want to.

Our son also made the recliner for me that is in our living room.  It is smaller than most recliners, but is perfect for me.  He measured me before he made the recliner which I thought was a bit funny.  Our son wanted to make sure it wasn't too tall or too short for me.  I even got to pick out the material for it.

Someone asked if we had indoor plumbing in our new house and yes, we do.  Our Old Order Amish, allow us to have indoor plumbing, but we are not allowed electric.  So we have regular bathrooms with a sink, bath tub, shower and toilet.  In our kitchen we have faucets in our kitchen sink.  We even have hot and cold water.  Our hot water tank is run by gas.  Not all Old Order Amish allow in door plumbing, but our group does.

Now Anna wants to know if I have any money left in the account I had been saving money in for the furniture.  Yes.  She said we have everything - what could I be saving for now.  I told her a new buggy.  We have a buggy that has a back seat.  We needed it with our family.  Years ago, we bought that used.  Now that John has moved out of our house, we should give him that buggy and get us a new one just for the two of us.  Of course, John may buy his own buggy before we can give him ours.  We have a way to go saving for the new buggy.  This time I want a brand new buggy, built just for us.  It would probably be the last buggy we would ever buy.

After we got settled into our new home Eli and his wife invited us to his house for dinner.  I knew something was wrong, we he asked us to step in his office before dinner.  Also, had an idea about what the problem was.  When we sat down, he said we had been good friends for a long time, but he was also our Bishop.  He didn't want to ruin our friendship.  I told him go ahead, I think I know why we are here anyway.  What it boiled down to is I use the cell phone to much and in public yet.  Some people had seen me use the phone, not in an emergency.  They were right.  In fact I used it at the barn raising instead of going to the phone shanty.  Eli said the telephone was allowed to me and a couple of other Amish people because we belong to the fire department.  It is to be used for the fire department and emergency only except, he has given me, permission to give Marilyn our posts on it.  If we continue to use the phone all the time, he will have to take not only our phone but the others, too and he doesn't want to do that.  I admitted I was wrong and I would use it only when necessary.  As we were leaving his office, Eli got a smile on his face and said remember this isn't Pinecraft.

We had a nice dinner and afterward as we talked, Eli said, we didn't know how hard it was, for him to call us in.  I told him, he is our friend both personal and Bishop wise.  He was in the right.  There was no problem.  He is still my friend.

Now that we got our house and barn done - it's time to go over and work on John's house.  I told him to let his lady plus her lady friends get together to decide how she wants the kitchen and living room.  Also decide what bedroom they want for the master bedroom.  We do the rest.  It is August and that house has to be ready by October or November - they don't have much time.  We have to get rid of the electric, check the plumbing, windows, etc.  Also have to make sure the house is insulated and it needs a new roof.  That is just the start of what he has to do.

Funny, we realize it is faster to build a new house from the ground up than it is to remodel a standing one.

Trust God's Wisdom,
Elmer

ANNA TELLS OF THEIR NEW HOME

Elmer told me to go first this week, so here I am.  He will be on tomorrow.  He and I were sitting on the porch of our new house, sipping iced tea when I realized in April we were talking of turning our house into a Bed and Breakfast and today we are in our new home. What a change it has been in a few, short, months.

First off, I want to thank everyone that helped in the moving especially Grandmother Olive.  We couldn't have made it without her.  Also to Jean for taking me to her house to get food and rest.  I feel bad that I wasn't there at the moving, but maybe it was the best.

I guess you know that Elmer had some surprises for me in the house that I didn't know were coming.  Back when we first got married, we bought some used furniture for our house.  Elmer said some day he would buy me the beautiful new furniture that I wanted.  At first, I looked forward to it, but as the years passed I thought Elmer had forgotten.  He hadn't.

When I walked into our new house after being at Jean's, I looked into the kitchen and there sits a beautiful new dining room set with a matching china cabinet .  This was handmade by David, Michael and Edward.  It seems Elmer had ordered this over a year ago.  He was going to wait until our 30th anniversary in November, but thought with the new house, it would be nice now.  Also, in the kitchen was a stone counter top and a new wood burning stove.

Glancing in the living room I saw a new couch, coffee table, end tables, rocking chair and a new recliner.  Also, in there was the rocking chair that had been my grandmothers - it was refinished.  Elmer had ordered all except my grandmother's rocking chair several months ago from a local Amish man that made furniture.  The rocking chair he had refinished by Kevin and Michael.  I use the rocking chair most of the time and the new recliner is Elmer's.  His old recliner had seen it's day and needed replacement.  I am so glad Elmer bought something for himself.

I thought that was the end, but Elmer took me into our bedroom and we have a new bedroom set handmade.  Although the others were special, this is extra special because our son had made this.  Elmer ordered this a few years ago and our son had been storing it.  There is a beautiful bed with flowers and every other house we lived in carved in the headboard.  Also there were two night stands and a beautiful dresser.  He also caved in the pieces beautiful flowers.  Elmer took the bedroom set that had been in our room and put it in one of the guests rooms. As well as I know Elmer, I had no idea he was planning all this.

This had been so busy, so when I went into my sewing room, yes, now I have a sewing room, I noticed the sewing machine and stand looked different.  Elmer said he had sent the machine to Kevin's to get it cleaned and decided after all these years the stand and chair needed refinishing - so he had that done.

I told Elmer, this must have cost him a lot of money - maybe emptying our savings account - he said no.  He had been saving up for this day for many years - back since the day he told me some day we would have these nice things.  He had an account at the bank, he would put money in every month or whenever he got some extra money from doing special work or selling something or harvesting.  At first, he thought it would be our 50th anniversary before he would have the money, but he made for our 30th.  So, he said when our 30th anniversary hits in November, we were eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches instead of going out for dinner.  He is kidding - I hope.

Oh, I almost forgot.  Elmer took me into our basement.  It is a cement block walk out, which I knew.  All I could think of us was my canned goods were in boxes down there.  Moving day, Bridget, Kevin's wife, had been down planning on unloading the boxes, but there were no shelves.  She caught Kevin and Michael before they left after delivering my grandmother's chair and my sewing machine.  Bridget told them they had to do something about the basement.  The men went off and came back with Erin and his wife, Lovina - and some wood.  They build shelves for my canned goods in the basement.    The shelves are built up a bit in case the basement is flooded, the canned goods won't be damaged.  We shouldn't have any floods in our basement as we are set up too high, but with the rain we have had, they felt they should build the shelves up - just in case.

When the shelves were done Bridget and Lovina unloaded the boxes of canned goods.  Fruits all in one section, vegetables in another, and meat in still another section.  They labeled the shelves so I know what is where. We offered to pay for all the work, but none of them would accept it. Like everyone else, it is so kind of them.  Bridget and Lovina reminded me that we were at their houses when they moved in - so it was right that they should be at ours.

Elmer sealed all the windows on one side of our house while they built our new barn.  Oh, that reminds me, I laughed when Marilyn said Elmer had been in the bar instead of barn.  That was funny, but I am glad she corrected it.  Anyway, sealing the windows didn't stop the dust.  Took two days to clean the dust, but am so glad the barn is up.

I still wake up and think I am in the old house.  When I took around, here we are in a brand new house.  Even Elmer admits this house is much easier for him than the old one.  No more climbing stairs all the time.

I will answer the questions that were asked about my herbs.  Sorry for the delay.

Trust God's Wisdom,
Anna

ST. DOMINIC'S CATHOLIC CHURCH, SHORTSVILLE, NEW YORK

Welcome to St. Dominic's Catholic Church which is located in Shortsville, New York.  I could not find a history on this church although I do have a picture of the 1900 corner stone.  The next to last picture is of the activities building. I have been there to many rummage sales and clothes sales.  When I took these pictures it was in the high 80's.  It is nice to know that St. Dominic's is air conditioned.

SPRING AND SUMMER FLOWERS

Took these pictures of flowers a little while back. The top three are from along side the road.  The fourth was of an Old Order Mennonite stand that was selling flowers and plants.  The rose was found behind our tower building across the street.  There is a walk way there and roses line the way.  The dandelion, I found outside my door one morning.  All the other dandelions were long gone, but this one popped all my itself.

WOLVES FROM WORLD WILDLIFE EDUCATIONAL ENCOUNTERS

The large wolf came out fine, but the little one gave them a hard time until he carried it out.  They are beautiful animals.  Years ago, I used to sell at Rock and Gem Shows.  These was a couple, who were also dealers, that lived full time in their motorhome and they had a wolf.  He lived in their motorhome with them.  They had a license and everything.  He could be brought out on a leash and even let people pet him.  That couple said he was better security in their motorhome than any dog.  Hope you enjoy these wolves.