Holmes County Garden Tour by Every Woman’s House
Earlier this week I saw a post on Facebook by Beth Beechy, of Winesburg, regarding this year’s Holmes County Garden Tour. Beth is one of the founder of Circle of Friends and has a blog on the organization’s web site at Beth Beechy – Confessions of a Peace Lover. So early this morning, before the tour began, I headed over to one of this year’s tour locations near Mt. Hope, Ohio. [Read more…]
Dinner in an Amish Home with All Things Amish
Last night was our 2nd annual All Things Amish Reunion. The Facebook group ‘All Things Amish’ was co-founded by Sherri Genung and Dianna Reidenbach Bupp several years ago. Attendees were from Kentucky, Florida, Boston, and of course, Ohio. We arrived at the home of an Amish family, Jonas and Betty Yoder, near Charm, Ohio at about 5:30. Lavonne Debois, owner of Amish Heartland Tours, started us off with a quick tour of the beautiful countryside down around Becks Mills, Ohio. [Read more…]
Rush Hour in Mt. Hope, Ohio
Mt. Hope, Ohio is very small time with lots of activity. This pic was taken at the square, the intersection of State Rt. 241 and Holmes County Road 77.
Holmes Country Trail in the Winter
Yesterday and today finally warmed up to about 30°F. With almost no breeze and plenty of sunshine it actually felt quite warm today after so many days that hovered around 0°. Here an Amish horse-drawn buggy pulls onto the Holmes County Trail. The trail is part of Ohio’s rails to trails where old rail lines have been converted to hiking and biking paths. The Holmes Trail is unique in that it has been designed to accommodate horse and buggies in addition to pedestrians and bicycles. The trail is twice as wide as most. Today was also the first day that I took to the trail to walk this year. Lovin Holmes County Ohio.
Berlin Amish Country Half Marathon – Nothing Like It
This morning, my day to sleep in, I crawled out of bed at 6am and went to unlock the gymnasium at church for a basketball tournament. When I got home I thought I’d head on over to Hiland High School, just west of Berlin, Ohio, and take a few pics of the start of the Berlin Amish Country Half Marathon and 5K race.
I love to go on walks and ride my bicycle, but I must confess, I’m not inclined to run much, especially when it’s 20 degrees F outside. I know some people who like to run and it seems to me that they really like to run, like you could maybe call them fanatical (you know who you are).
There were a whole lot of runners and well-wishers around and you could feel the excitement building as the start of the race drew near. I caught the fever pretty quickly and hung around for a whole lot more than the start of the race; the half marathon started at 8:30am and I didn’t get home till around 11am. The race is touted as being “designed for runners by runners”. That’s all well and good but Holmes County is not flat. I was right there watching the runners chugging up the long steep hill just east of Charm, Ohio, on County Road 70. There was a whole lot of huffin and puffin goin on. [Read more…]
Amish Buggys at Mt. Hope Horse Auction
Today was a busy day in Ohio Amish Country. The twice annual big horse auction is going on in Mt. Hope Ohio. It was a beautiful day but a bit muddy as you can see from this photo. The sale runs almost the whole week and ends on Saturday. I picked up an Amish man this morning about 7am and drove him up to the auction barn. He is from Canastota, New York, from a single church district Amish community, consisting of about 12 Amish families. All the familes living their are originally from the Holmes County Ohio area, but there is one family from Indiana that is going to be moving to Canastota. He came here to see if he could find a better deal on a pair of Belgian work horses. Where he lives in New York, about thirty miles from Syracuse, there are not very many horses for sale at auction. [Read more…]