Our day started and ended at the Kalona Historical Village. Ms. Nancy arranged our tours for the day and Mr. Daniel guided throughout the community visiting a dairy goat farm, a buggy shop, Amish farm, an Amish grocery store and enjoying a HUGE, delicious meal in the Amish tradition.
Dairy Goat Farm-Wirlein
Today we were with the Amish getting to learn about what they do and how they work things. To me it was very interesting getting to see their point of view on things and how they work with what they have, the horses and buggy's were so astonishing you don't see that often. While other students focused on certain parts of this blog I had to do the dairy goats.
Goats are kept in a barn, or an outdoor space being able to free-roam and eat whenever they want. These goats have plenty of hay, specifically alfalfa from Wyoming.
In the barn there is a belt that runs throughout the whole thing, in which the hay is weighed out and put out for them to eat.
There are approximately 330 goats. One man works with them 2x a day, or his wife can help him out. While the goats are in the barn he works on setting up the milking parlor similar to the one in a dairy cattle farm.
When getting the goats ready to go into the milking parlor they drop feed and they each go in a separate stall to get milked in. The milk flows through pipes and goes into a cooling tank where the milk is kept and stored at 36°. That milk is later taken by the "milk man" who takes the milk to be processed and turned into cheese.
The amish breed their goats naturally with their 8-10 bucks. All kid does are kept while bucks even day old ones are sold and raised for meat. The kids (baby goats) are then given free choice milk from a "box" like structure that have nipples attached. They are weaned at 5-6 weeks old. The goats are also kept and used for breeding for 5-6 years, then later on are retired. They had all sorts of breeds such as Toggenburg, La Mancha, Alpines and some crosses.
Buggy Shop - Annaliese
We visited a buggy shop and got to learn about how the Amish build them. It takes 3-4 hours to fill out paperwork for the buggy being built that then gets sent to whoever purchased/ordered that buggy.
Mr. Elson Ropp explained to us that he started building buggy’s at ages 13-15 and is now the oldest person who works in the buggy shop. He said it takes 100 hrs to rebuild a buggy and 150 hours to make a brand new one. A new buggy costs around $10,000-$11,000. All the buggy’s are custom made by order and they all have a pulley system that is pulled by horses. The horses are Standardbred and raised by the Amish.
Mr. Elson said that all the tools used to build the buggy are run by compressed air. He says that in the workshop it is a very busy place as to all the workers have jobs like wood working, painting, welding, wiring, etc. I really enjoyed visiting the Amish community and learning how they work things around their homes and farms. It really shows you how many things are different compared to us and that not everyone lives the same day to day life. In my opinion, The Amish are very cool people and I love how they do things in their own unique way and that they have their own systems and ways they do certain things.
Amish Country Farm - Abby
Afterwards we went to a local Amish farm owned by Mr. Paul. There he owns 120 acres and grows organic produce as well as grass fed beef. At his house he has a big windmill that, through the pressure of the wind, pumps the water from their well into a big vertical tank outside their house. On the inside of that tank hangs a big milk jug that is attached to a rope hanging on the outside; without looking in the tank, Mr. Paul can tell how full the tank is by looking at where the marker is on the side of the tank. They use this water for everything: washing clothes, taking a shower, watering the crops, watering the livestock, and any other needs that require water.
Mr. Paul has many buggies, which he uses to get around town pulled by horses. He was kind enough to let us sit in one of his buggies to see what it is like inside. The buggies used by most orders of Amish have steel wheels, while some order of Mennonites tend to have rubber wheels, or use vehicles with rubber wheels (such as tractors, cars, trucks). He then led us inside of his barn where he keeps one of his many horses. His old barn used to be used for dairy cattle, but he renovated it for his own use to house his many horses.
In the attic of the barn many, many stacks of hay (coastal and alfalfa) are stored which he uses to feed to the animals. The hay is put on a conveyor belt which is then dumped into the attic from the top window.
Lunch experience - Anais
Yesterday for lunch we were in the Amish community and had the pleasure to eat a traditional Amish meal. Ms. Ida sat us at set tables with water and tea and a huge salad in the center of the tables. Next came out the bowls of sliced homemade bread with butter and jam. After that came the main dish, egg noodles, corn, mashed Potatoes, green beans, and baked, breaded chicken. The food was so good and filled us up until we felt there was nothing more we could possibly eat. But that wasn't the end, trays came out with strawberry cream pie and apple pie. Even the desert was great. We are so thankful to have had this experience and good food.
It was very interesting to learn about how the Amish live their daily lives, without a lot of the modern conveniences we are used to.
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