A trip to town, a table, some chairs, woven goods and dinner out

No pictures today, someone forgot the camera. That someone, would be me. Pretty mellow day anyway.

Went for a long walk around the park today and then got cleaned up and headed to Shipshewana. My sister-in-law Diane has been looking for just the right table for her new kitchen.

So we have been stopping at some Amish country workshops to find just the right one. Today we pulled into a farm and workshop and Ivan stopped working and came to an agreement with Diane to build her exactly the table she wanted. The price was really right. Looking around his shop you can see his craftsmanship is superb.

He has all the electrical wood working tools, but no lights in his shop. There are kerosene lanterns hanging from the ceiling for late work. No phone either, not in the house and not in his business. At least some of the folks have an answering service, but not Ivan.

The man is so busy he can't even start building the table until November, but Diane is not in a hurry, so November it is. I love these folks and many of the elder ones have little or no grey hair. Maybe simple really is better.

After making the table deal (which includes four locally made chairs) we stopped at another house where there was a weaving sign out front. A very young Amish woman, Irma, met us in her shop and she and Diane came to an agreement about making four woven seat cushions, four place mats - no fringe and a table runner all in matching burgundy, grey and white. A girl thing, I guess.

One of the funniest parts is when Joan and her sister tried to tell the young woman how to sew the woven items into the items they wanted. The women told Joan and Diane that she would do it the Amish way.

Not too interested in the great woven table products discussion, Denny and I stood outside and watched some Amish farmers bailing hay with a horse drawn tractor. The young man at the "weaving" house was putting together his new horse drawn buggy, which he proudly told us that he had picked up the day before.

He was installing taillights, a license plate (didn't know a horse drawn buggy had to have a license plate) and a battery to run the lights. He seemed really excited with his new buggy.

A playful little mutt was running around the yard and came up and sniffed Denny and I really good. After a short time Denny reached down and the dog snarled. It was my opinion that Denny should forget befriending the dog, but he reached down anyway and nearly lost one or two fingers.

I was kind enough not to say "I told you so."

With the table and woven items ordered we spent the rest of the day walking around Shipshewana looking at the stores. Mostly the items were "Made in China" or "Made in India" so we bought nothing else.

Dinner at the Blue Gate Restaurant in Shipshewana and then back to the trailer. A fun day. But without pictures. Woe is me.