Amana not just for Radar Ranges

Once we left the Johnstown area we went to Van Wert, OH to visit friends from one of our Florida resorts and had a ball visiting with Charlie and Debbie. Although we had a great time visiting I will not bore anyone with details.

Once we left Ohio we went to Shipshewana, IN for a few days. Our first stop was a really large flea market that took a better part of a day to go through. After flea market we stopped at the Shipshewana Harness Shop to buy hand made belts for people back home. These belts are so nice and I doubt that anyone would ever wear one out, but if you did it would be replaced free of charge. Next we went to an Amish factory that manufactures RV furniture. Since the sofa in our RV is taking a dump we pulled the trigger to buy a new sofa and will stop in on our way back east to get it installed. I will post pictures once it is installed. While in Shipshewana we learned of a place called the Amana Colonies in Amana, Iowa which has been a Midwest treasure for over 150 years. The colonies were a communal setting of 7 villages where all of the property was owned by the founding church, at least that is what I heard, until the properties were sold off in the early 1930’s. There are several old buildings to visit and some pretty interesting shops. Although I have never made a quilt there is one store that had more material than I could imagine and several quilt kits for sale. The store is, Fern Hill Gifts and Quilts in Amana IA. They do have a website and the address is fernhill.net.

Another interesting thing to see in Amana is the Mini-Americana Barn Museum. This is the largest known collection of 1/12 scale models built by one man. There is supposed to be over 200 pieces and trust me I believe it.

After leaving Amana our next stop was a one night stay at Stensland Family Farm for the the night and it was so interesting. This dairy farm milks almost 200 head of cows and there isn’t any human contact. The cows stay in a really large loafing shed that provides them with everything that a cow might want. They have water beds to lay on, there are large brushes that they can use to scratch their itches, a feed trough that almost always has silage in it and they can get milked when they feel like it. According to the lady who was our guide the cows get milked three times a day. I was so impressed with the technology being used in the robotic milking stations. The farm only had three stations but it operated around the clock.

This farm was so organized they have a delivery barn for the cows, the calves have their own loafing area and the cows that are dried up awaiting their delivery date get to roam around a rather large pasture. According to our guide they have a new calf born every other day.

I know that we are really behind with this blog but strong wifi is so hard to find but I will keep plugging at it.