You don't see this sign anywhere near Spokane, Washington! The Amish driving their horses and buggies can be seen quite frequently in the area. Most of the main rural roads have wide shoulders to accommodate the buggies.
May 12, 2019 - The second-largest New York Amish community is found in St Lawrence County, near the town of Heuvelton, NY. (Not far from Massena.) It’s somewhere between 1,500-2,000 people in size. This Swartzentruber Amish community is home to a highly conservative group of Amish.
The community was founded in 1974. The motivation for the move, like that of many Amish migrants, was affordable farmland. The hair of the men is longer than that of other Amish, and women’s clothing is heavier. The men typically wear beards. Homes are typically sparsely decorated and follow a standard design plan. When it comes to technology, battery-powered flashlights are permitted, but most other forms of power, including hydraulic and air power, are not allowed. The homes do not have electricity and Amish farmers do not use any kind of gasoline powered farm equipment. You can see their horse and buggies all over the area – they do not drive automobiles nor trucks.
The practices and orientation of Amish can differ widely among different affiliations. Amish families can be found throughout St Lawrence County.
Karen at Pickens General Store in Heuvelton, NY which sells Amish products like quilts, jams, straw hats, homemade toys, furniture and many other crafted items.I think that I would look pretty dapper in an Amish straw hat - problem is they might make me actually work if I got one!!! What do you think? Should I spring for one? I didn't buy one this day.Small world story: Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz of American Pickers stopped in Heuvelton on May 8th - just a few days before we stopped. They came to visit local antique collections. American Pickers is a documentary series that explores the world of antique ‘picking.’ The show follows Mike and Frank as they hunt for America’s most valuable antiques. I used to watch their travels on their show - I would have loved to have met them. (And give them a Book of Mormon, of course!!!)Our Elder's Quorum lesson today was on President Russell M Nelson's conference talk that he gave in the Priesthood Session of April 2019 General Conference: We Can Do Better and Be Better.
I found a good summary of questions that helps us focus on the lessons to be learned from President Nelson's talk: We Can Do Better and Be Better:
Questions to Ponder - (Thanks to Craig Conover for these great questions.) Why is it important for everyone to repent? Why does repentance feel like a punishment? How does repentance help us to look to Jesus Christ? How does looking at repentance as "change" cause us to look at it differently? How can we repent and change the way we love? How can we repent and change the way we think? How can we repent and change the way we serve? How can we repent and change the way we spend our time? How can we repent and change the way we treat our spouses and others? How can we repent and change the way we care for our bodies? How can we make repentance a regular, daily focus in our lives? How can we teach our children to repent daily in their lives? In what ways can we better allow the Savior to transform us into the best version of ourselves? How are purity and power connected? How does purity empower us to help in the gathering of Israel? What stands in the way of your repentance? What is one thing you will do today to eliminate what stands in the way of your repentance?
I encourage you to read and study President Nelson's talk - his message is vital to our well-being.
Carrie, Cecil, Karen and Barbara - We enjoyed a great dinner of toasted cheese sandwiches which were made from some very yummy Canadian cheese. We also sampled cheese curds from Canada which I had never tried. Karen was familiar with this yummy form of cheese. After dinner we tried our hands at a very competitive game of Canasta.Now, I'm not one to make accusations, so you draw your own conclusions: First, if you look closely, you will see some playing cards secreted in Barbara's purse...I can only think of one reason that she would be hiding cards!!!! Second, she was trying to slip me some money to swing the game her way!!! (In reality, I dropped my cards and some of them went in her purse and she was taking her money out trying to search for the cards that had disappeared into her purse!) Great, fun night. No, I didn't win, but I did beat Karen!!!Mother's Day dinner with Everette, John & Karen. Everette and John are two of our stalwart Priesthood brethren. In fact recent convert, Everette, just received the Aaronic Priesthood today! It was a great day.Denise and her mother Joyce. As a Mother's Day gift to recent convert, Denise, we took her to see her mother in Lisbon. They had not seen each other for a couple of years.Spring has brought the birds out at the Nature Center. If you look close on the upper left by the brown feeder, you can see a Rose-breasted Grosbeak. And on the right by the green feeder, you can see an American Goldfinch.Close up pictures of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak and the American Goldfinch.Eva who is the Kindergarten teacher we help on occasion, lives on a 461 acre farm that has been in her husband Bob's family for a long time. They have it for sale, because Bob has had a stroke and can no longer take care of the farm. We stopped by to meet Bob and just visit with him. We were able to also provide some additional help by going to Malone to pick up a prescription and drop off a check for Eva to pay a bill that critically needed to be paid that day.There are several islands in the St Lawrence River - on Preparation Day, we decide to explore one of the areas of the Robert Moses State Park and had to cross this suspension bridge to get there.Robert Moses State Park - Thousand Islands - we are hoping to have a Branch BBQ on the Barnhart Island area. Check out the red text - we hope to access the Pavilion, beach and playground for the Branch. One of our Branch Mission Plan goals is to have quarterly activities where members of the branch can invite family and friends.It's still a little early for the beach area, but it's a huge, beautiful beach and will be great for the youth and kids to enjoy.There is a great play area for the kids. (We also are going to have to get Jessy and her family back up to enjoy this beautiful area as the weather warms up.)They have some nice cabins to rent - we're definitely going to have to get Jessy's family back!! I'm trying to get Karen to take a "vacation" with me - I told her we could spend the night in one of the cabins and still get up and do our Missionary work - but it would be like we took a little vacation!!!The Long Sault Control Dam is at the West end of the island. To help control the flow of the St Lawrence River, this dam forces the water around to the main power dam - this dam does not produce any power it just helps control where the water goes.When we were leaving the park, all of a sudden it was like a total traffic jam - this is a quiet back road with absolutely no traffic, so we were very confused. Then we figured out that it was shift change at the power dam and all the workers were heading home at the same time.Another ship was passing by as we were headed home. (This is about a block from where we live and we can see the ships when we drive by.) And how can we go a week and NOT have a picture of a ship on the St. Lawrence Seaway???Spring is coming - this is the road that leads to our home.A beautiful sunrise from our bedroom window. We live in a beautiful area.
We hope each of you had a good Mother's Day. We both miss our Mother's so very much. We long for the day when we can embrace again and see their sweet smiling faces. I am grateful for a wife who has been and continues to be such a wonderful example and mother to our 5 children and an awesome Grammy to our 17 grandchildren. Yes, families are forever and we love our precious family.