Swartzentruber Amish Pt. 3 - Christmas and shunning

I have always seen quite a few Swartzentruber Amish in my home office.  They would hire a driver and come up to our home.  It would be about an hour and a quarter each way.  Needless to say, they weren't very good about coming for many visits.  The drivers were just too expensive.  Now I am at least 30 minutes closer.  Close enough that some could even make a day trip in a buggy for their appointment.  They seem to be happy about our move.  On Monday,  four different families came up.  It was a busy day.

Baby is unwrapped as our house was warm.  They only use a carseat if the driver insists on it.  This driver did.  Baby has a cap on and a scarf over it. Everything is pinned on and together.  The pacifier is part of the uniform.

The interesting thing was that I also had a patient come who had left the Swartzentruber Amish.  Since Shunning is still practiced a lot in this group I wasn't sure how the encounter would go.  I didn't want anyone to be uncomfortable, so I brought the Amish lady in the house (She had to wait two hours for her driver to come back) while the other person had left.  It turned out it would have been OK as they were related and there weren't any other amish around so they could talk.  If other amish had been around, they would have turned their back to her and her children and not talked to them.  This is called shunning.  They are not allowed to talk, eat with or ride with someone who has left their group. So awkward.  But it did work out.  They each asked about the other and wanted to know how things were going.  They were friends before and still cared about each other.

Adult Swartzentruber Woman's going out covering to go over her cap and cape, made from a wool blanket that would be safety pinned on.

I ask a lot of questions while I am giving adjustments.  I learned there are three different types of Swartzentrubers in our area.  The lowest level are called"Weavers", because their bishops are from the Weaver family.  It was interesting to  me that the other swartzentrubers look down on them for being dirty and disrespectful to the English, because they won't put a disposable diaper on their babies/children when in English homes, offices with carpeting or padded furniture.  Frequently, when I adjust their little ones, I do end up with a wet lap.  These levels of legalism also carry over to their education.  The more legalistic the group, the lower the educational standards.  All amish do stop formal education after eighth grade.  They do not spend much time learning history or science.  They have very little knowledge of the outside world as they do not read regular newspapers, only their little amish papers.  The men do buy the newspapers to  learn of sales, and they then will peruse the rest.  I get lots of questions from them about different current events.

Swartzentruber lady's bag.  It serves as both a purse, diaper bag, and snack bag.  They all look the same so all of them have the owner's name on the inside. 

Amish do celebrate Christmas.  But they don't do any decorating, and they definitely don't have a Christmas tree.  The children will do a gift exchange at school.   Parents will make or buy gifts for the children.  Cousin's will often do gift exchanges as well. They may sing carols, but not with any instruments.  It is a quiet day and they will have a big meal.  Something special.  One of the families was going to have 'Haystack' for Christmas dinner.  That is a favorite amish meal.  They often serve it at big gatherings.  Someone will make a big pot of rice and then all the guests bring toppings.  When I have had it, it was almost like a taco dish.  Cheese and meat and tomatoes and onions and veggies and whatever else.  It is tasty.  During the holiday season, there is much visiting back and forth in the evenings.  They can prolong it from Thanksgiving until the middle of January.  It is a great way to break up the winter doldrums.

Swartzentruber baby dressed to go out.  This is not seasonal.  This is how they go out summer and winter.

A Swartzentruber woman's life is very hard.  They are not allowed to use even a wringer washing machine, like the old order do.  They will heat the water outside and boil their clothes.  They have to hang them to dry.  This takes a long time in the winter or in the summer humidity.  The large porches on their houses gives them a place to hang their clothes when there is bad weather.  Some people will leave their clothes hanging for several days, but the neighbors start to gossip and talk if you do it too often.  All cooking is done on a wood or coal stove.  It is so hot in the summer!  There is no refrigeration so anything you want to store long term must be canned.  There are no freezers either so meat has to all be canned too or kept cold in the winter.  They use a lot of traditional methods of food storage that don't require cold.  All the gardening, milking and food storage and preparation falls on the women.  There are no electric kitchen devices, mixing, blending and shredding all have to be done by hand.  Amish men (almost never) help with 'women's work'.

Amish Church is held in people's homes rather than in a specific building.  Every family has to take their turn at hosting church once or twice a year.  They are also responsible to provide a meal for after church.  Your house has to be spotlessly clean for church.  The US Navy's white glove inspection has nothing on the Amish.  Women have to clean for weeks to get ready for church. Ceilings, walls, floors, and everything in between have to be impeccably clean. Families will often get together to help each other get ready.  The meeting may be held in the house or the 'shop'.

Blackberry Pie gifted to me from an Swartzentruber patient

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Thanks for reading my blog!  Feel free to leave a message.

Christmas Weekend

Yesterday, we woke up to a cloudy sky and rain.  Later in the morning,  the sun broke theough for a few minutes.  The last bit of ice (you can kind of see it on the right hand margin of the pond) melted.  The temperature got up to 60 degrees.  We were beginning to think there was no chance for a white Christmas.  But, this morning the temps are down to the low 30s and there is a little snow in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow.  Yeah!!  Hopefully, it will cover the ground.

Last night was the christmas program at church.  There were some young people that played or sang hymns.  They all did a great job.

Grandma read a poem.

Mr. Morris played Simeon in the skit. He did a great job.  The traditional nativity scene was told from the perspective of Simeon.  He reminisced through the Scriptures, thinking of different Bible Stories and how they foretold the coming Messiah.  He started with Adam and Eve after they were kicked out of the garden, and then went to...

Abraham and Sarah talking about how God had provided a lamb to take the place of Isaac as a sacrifice.

The third part, was Moses (played by Mr. Pile) leading the complaining children of Israel out of Egypt.  The kids loved getting to fuss and complain.  They did a great job, you might have thought they had been practicing for years.  (LOL).

They all got bit by snakes and fell down very sick.  (The kids seemed to like this part as well).

 

Then Moses tried to convince them to look at the bronze serpent and live.

Then the young children came out and did the traditional nativity scene.  Gabriel was an angel. Very appropriate.  We had a very active lamb who ran the entire time he was on stage.  (Phillip) and an angel who waltzed and danced while she was up there.

The end of the skit came when Mary (Reagan) and Joseph (Ian) presented baby Jesus to Simeon.  It really hit home to hear the words of Simeon presented.  It was excellent!

On our way home we stopped at a house that has really gone all out decorating. We have been seeing it from the highway when we would drive past, but I decided to get off and see it from the front.

Despite all the glitz and Santa's and reindeer, they did have the true meaning of the season front and center.

Random Thoughts

This post is about life on the farm and what we have been up to...

This is what it looked like TWO days ago.  The snow was lovely and white.  Everything looked beautiful.  Then the temperature warmed up and the rain started and things changed!  Some pictures below will show you what I mean.

Elizabeth found a book on Irresponsible Science Experiments and being a good home schooler she decided to try some.  This was the one where you turn a rubber glove into a balloon filled with carbon dioxide.  Pretty Cool!

Meanwhile T-Bob was making Tuna melt nachos for lunch.  They were really tasty!  That is cheese on top.

We did get the Christmas tree up and decorated.  It looks really nice.  We have it in the living room.  We thought about putting it in the family room where it would get more viewing, but decided to put it a bit out of the way.  It fell down the first day, but it is better secured now.

Elizabeth has had a tummy flu and has been sleeping a lot.  She seems to be feeling better tonight.

Michelle decorated around the fireplace.  It looks so nice when it is burning.  We really enjoy sitting around and looking at it.

This is what it looks like today.  If this rain had been snow we would have about two feet of snow and not be going anywhere.  I am sure the merchants are glad it is rain and not snow.  There is a lot of shopping going on.  I only made one trip to the mall this Christmas season.  The weather has made the chickens happy.  They are once more outside looking for bugs.  (I know this is really random!)

The other evening we had the cousins over and Elizabeth did a photo shoot with the kids without any help.  T-Bob and the Car are buddies!  T-Bob went and put on a matching shirt to the little guy for the pictures.  T-Bob also did the Car's hair so he could look like a cool dude like T-Bob himself.

Elizabeth tried to take pictures of the cuzzes together, but that was a real challenge.  They were not super cooperative, but they had fun.

They liked doing silly faces better.

The Car kid decided to call for a ride and leave, so I will end these ramblings here.

Swartzentruber Amish Pt. 2

Probably, the easiest way to tell a Swartzentruber Amish person, is by their appearance.  The men all have untrimmed beards and a 'dutchboy' haircut.  That is essentially a long 'bowl haircut' with the face cut out and bangs.  Swartzentruber men only wear royal blue long sleeve shirts for everyday and white for dress.  They usually wear a jean vest also.  Swartzentrubers only use straight weave cotton cloth, no knits or polyester for clothing.  They also don't use any elastic in their clothing.   This eliminates many things that the rest of us consider essential.  They always wear black boots, but  they don't always buy black boots.  If another color boot is on sale they will purchase that color and black leather dye and voila you have black boots.  Thriftiness is such a big part of their culture.  They wear amish cut jeans with triple weave material, unless they are going to a wedding, funeral, or church and then they wear black.  The Swartzentruber  men wear broader brimmed hats than other amish men, but this is a pretty subtle distinction unless you are around the amish a lot.

Swartzentruber ladies wear dark color dresses, either navy, forest green, deep maroon, or black.  They wear black high topped boots and knee socks.  Their cap has many tiny pleats.  They put them in with starch.  They have to redo it every time they wash them, I have watched them and it is a very tedious chore.  The women all use royal blue strings that they make to put up their hair.  It is amazing to watch them do it.  They tie it up rather than using lots of pins.  They wear black capes rather than coats in the winter.  When they are out in public, they wear a hard black shell cap over their white cap.  It has deep sides so that you can hardly see their face.  They carry black bags with handles that they make themselves.  They usually have baby stuff and snacks in there.

Swartzentruber field

Swartzentruber children dress very much like like their parents.  They wear black high top shoes and outfits like Mom or Dad.  The girls dresses are simpler than their mom's.  They are like little gowns.  Boys have suspender straps on their pants.  The Swartzentruber's (children and adults) go barefoot most of the year, unless it is cold and they are outside.  ALL Swartzentruber babies wear dresses, whether they are boys or girls.  Little boys don't move into pants until they are potty-trained.  So don't assume the little one toddling around in a dress is a little girl.  Swartzentruber children spend most of their time helping their parents with work around the farm.  Little boys follow after Dad and little girls help their mother.  They are not allowed to have bicycles or other riding toys with wheels.

Swartzentruber house

Swartzentruber Mom's keep their babies well swaddled.  They make all their own baby clothes.  The little ones wear long sleeve t-shirts, and a dress.  They are not allowed to put pampers or pre-folded cloth diapers on their baby unless they are going to a doctor's appointment or to an english house.  At home they wear a flannel single layer diaper without any plastic covering.  When a child wets the diaper it does run through on whoever is holding them or on the floor.  Diapers do get changed frequently!  When they are going out with their new babies they wrap them in a thick black wrap and put a black hard shell bonnet on them, with a black gauze over their face.  They almost always will have a pacifier pinned to their babies outfit.  All the baby clothes are also made of straight weave material.  No soft cotton knits allowed. For a baby toy, they string little plastic beads on an elastic string shaped like a necklace.  This is a common baby gift.

NOT Swartzentruber Horses

Now, you should be able to look at an Amish family and tell whether they are Swartzentruber or not.  Amish, except for the new, new order, don't want pictures taken of themselves.  I try to respect that,  so I am not able to show you photos of them.  I hope you are able to picture in your mind what I am talking about.

Swartzentruber Amish

Lane in Amish country

As one drives down back lanes in amish country and see the farms and fields, many wonder what it is like to be amish and what their lives are really like.  As I drive around making house calls, I get the opportunity to be in their homes and get to know the amish personally.

Swartzentruber fields

The Swartzentruber Amish are the least modern of any of the amish.  They still live the life of "Little House".  They resist using any modern or manmade products.  You will not see generators or motorized machinery on their farms.  They still use reel mowers to cut the grass.  They try to live as people have lived up until the late 1800s.

Swartzentruber Farm

If you are driving you can pick out the Swartentruber farms as they are the ones with brick red barns.  You will also see many of them with houses linked to houses.  They look like small compounds.  With everything having to be done by hand, it takes many hands!  Most farms have a "Dawdy Haus", a house where the grandparents live or if they are not around, they will let a young couple live there.  It is common to find several related families on the same farm.  The farms tend to be self-sustaining.  They will raise everything they can that they eat.  They will have their own dairy cows, chickens, fruit trees, and gardens. They have to milk the cows by hand which limits the number of cows they can manage.

Swartzentruber field with machinery

The Swartzentrubers still do not use any indoor plumbing or have any kinds of refrigeration other than ice houses.  If you go into their homes, you will find a dry sink and maybe a hand pump in the back hall.  They heat their homes with wood or coal stoves in the living room.  They keep their homes very warm!  They laugh at me when I come and complain about how hot it is.  They will sometimes wait until I leave to stoke the fires, or they will open a window.  I am not used to temps over 75 degrees in the winter.

Swartzentruber Barn

The houses have minimal decorating.  The houses are painted according to their churches regulations. I have seen either all white walls or  gray on the bottom like wainscoting and gray trim with white walls.  They are not allowed to have pictures on the wall or books other than the Bible, Prayer books, and a Hymnal.  The only thing they can have on the wall is a calendar. Most have wood floors or occasionally I have seen a few with linoleum.  I have heard that there are still some houses that have dirt floors, but I have not seen them.  They do take out the big stove in the summer as it takes so much room.  They do not have any 'stuffed' furniture.  They just have wood benches around the walls and usually two rockers in a central place.  This is where the parents sit in the evenings or where a Mom will sit to nurse the baby.  They will also have a twin bed in the living room.  This is where the babies nap during the day or someone might lay down to take a nap.  They will have a desk in the living room where they store their important papers (checkbook) and a dresser or two.  They hang their clothes on pegs.  Their wood furniture is always beautiful as it is the girl's job to give it a coat of varnish every year.  They paint their walls every year or two.

Swartzentruber farmer 

The kitchen has a wood or coal stove to cook on.  I have seen one house that had a stove with propane tanks, but that was unusual.  The kitchens get VERY hot in the summer.  You may see a small ice box in the kitchen but never a refrigerator.  There are no faucets and not every home has a hand pump in the kitchen.  They wash their dishes in a dry sink.  You will see the girls working on dishes from a very young age.  The boys do the chore work in the barn, and everybody helps with the milking.  If they want to bathe, they have to haul their water in and  heat it on the stove and take a bath in a large metal tub.  They have a looser standard of personal hygiene because of the work involved.

Took this picture in front of our farm. This was a Swartzentruber buggy.

You can tell a Swartzentruber buggy in Ohio as it won't have an orange triangle on the back. They line the outside of the back of the buggy in gray reflective tape.  They are very difficult to see.  They do hang a small kerosene lantern on the side at night, but it doesn't give much light.  It is dangerous!  They also don't have any windshield in their buggies.  The front is wide open.  They are very cold in the winter. If you see a buggy with two horses that is also probably a Swartzentruber family.  The Swartzentrubers are well known for using their buggies to go long distances compared to other amish.  They will only hire a driver to go to the doctor or hospital, usually.  Their world is pretty small.

I will continue talking about the Swartzentrubers in another post.

Basketball Times - Game 3

Yesterday, T-Bob's basketball team had another game.  The guys all gathered for prayer at the center court before the game.  Sportsmanship is really stressed in this league.

 T-Bob got to start again. He is becoming a good defensive player. He is the leading rebounder. 

Coach was not happy because the team was playing poorly.  They looked like they were sleepwalking and they kept turning the ball over.  It was pretty pathetic.  They didn't even get to take more than a shot or two in the first quarter.

The score at the end of the first quarter was 6-0.  They were losing.

The guys picked up the pace and at half time they were tied.

The other team had a lot more players, but that didn't make a difference as they still only had five guys on the court at a time.  They were a well coached team.

At the end of the third quarter the score was 22-21.  We were behind by one point.

My mom and dad came to the game.  It was nice to have some fans there!

Trevor was back from his trip and it made a big difference to have him play.  He is a good player!

 In the final quarter, the guys picked up the pace a bit more, started taking the ball to the hoop and making some foul shots.

Josh had a good game and made a few free throws.  Trevor fouled out half way through the fourth  quarter.  The other guys kept going and....

they ended up WINNING 35-29.  Everybody was very excited!

It was the first victory of the year for the team! Go Warriors!!!

You can tell that this little one has spent lots of time in a gym.  The noise doesn't bother her at all.  A full tummy and the quiet of JoAn's arms and she went right to sleep! (hey Sis, notice the sweater in this picture?!)