We know many Amish folks, and some of them very well. Amish people can be just as good, as weird, as contradictory, as hypocritical, as racist, and as bad as other people.

I know an Amish guy who has a microwave oven. When he goes to work at “English” people’s homes he takes it along for the crew to heat their lunches. It is acceptable because he built a plywood box around it and when not in use the cord is hidden inside, and they use someone else’s electricity. That makes it acceptable.

I know an Amish guy who is a VERY serious trophy hunter. He has a tandem axle trailer 7x16 that looks like a work trailer. He finished and customized the interior to be about the nicest and coolest hunting cabin I have ever seen. He hires one of his employees to drive him and tow his trailer all over the country to hunt elk, mule deer, bears, antelope, and whitetail deer.

Another Amish tradesmen owns two F350 4wd diesel crewcab trucks. He hires an English worker for each crew to also do the driving. He drives his trucks off road, because that is not really driving.

They have many different contradictions. I probably have some too.

Yes, nothing says they can't own one, just can't drive one!!!

My Great Uncle asked an Amish Elder friend if he could convert and become Amish. The Elder told my Great uncle that they don't take in converts. Uncle Lester said to him - you know what happens to your cow herd if you don't throw in a new Bull every once in a while don't you?

Saw an Amish guy riding his bike during deer season with a Browning semi-auto slung over his back. They hunt and trap a lot up in our country.

Zim

lots of them here.amish boys put a new metal roof on my house, their dad was at lake erie walleye fishing! he had just bought a new f-350 to tow the trailer and work crew with.
looked at a amish house one time, commented on how hard it would be to hook up water there, dutchy walked down into the basement, pushed on a swinging panel and walk into a electric room and turned on a breaker to start the pump. said it was hooked to septic also!

we live among the Amish here. Get along good with them. Do a lot of bartering with a couple. The most of them have sawmills. I bring them logs every so often to cut. Usually don't charge very much if anything.

Have a lot of them around here. They don't seem to cause trouble. If ya get too close, they do have a foul odor tho. Rumor has it they got bought out in PA and moved here with a decent chunk of wealth. I think they work hard tho. They sure seem to have a lot of kids.
It's funny...sometimes my neighbor puts stuff out by the highway by his driveway. Not uncommom for the amish to scarf it up.

I once asked about marrying an Amish girl and was told "we try to discourage that."

I live in an Amish house. It was built by the Amish and it was home to 4 different Amish families before we bought it. The last family to live here has visited a few times over the years. I think they have 6 kids now. You can tell that they really miss this house and they love the improvements I have made over the years although they couldn't really live here anymore after what I have done.

they buy english houses all the time here now and move in. They just disconnect the electric etc

It all depends on the sect and what the Bishop allows them to do.
The thing I will never understand is that they make their own "restrictions" to live by and yet, at least around here, skirt their own restrictions all the time. They get away with what they can. If you want to live by your own churches restrictions and live the way they do, I say fine. I even find it somewhat commendable. However, if you self impose these restrictions and push the boundaries into grey areas all the time, then why have the restrictions to begin with. I'll never get that part.

our sect is old order....swartzentrubers...no electric inside houses...no phones. I had a good amish who worked for me....he moved because his order was too strict and the bishop was his father in law

Was his name Perry Gingrich?

funny u ask..no...but we had a gingrich who moved here from indiana around 18 yrs ago...a crook!! Bishop near us in a beeche

The only interaction I have had with the Amish is when I did the trapping convention circuit, especially PA and Ohio. The boys would steal anything they could. Usually worked in a group, one would distract you while another would grab whatever was there. Always had to have 2 people at the table, one to sell and one to watch.

This Gingrich is a cabinet maker. Can't use electricity but has every modern tool imagineable in his shop...powered by hydraulic motors...in turn powered by a gas engine out back that runs a hydraulic pump!

I sell logs to them a lot . the ones I deal with are great people . others not so much .just like anybody else . I love the engeneering that goes into their modern steel wheels and their extensive use of the line shaft in their mills .

I agree with the grey area. Some Amish moved here the last several years, New to our area. Saw one towing a gas powered wood-mizer down the road on a steel wheeled wagon by a team of horses. At another house, a guy was out pull starting a gas engine on his well casing to pump some water. I don't get it.

What’s so amusing about that? They use gas motors for just about everything. I have an Amish friend that has a table saw run by a gas engine. It’s pretty slick how it works. He told me an Amish guy makes those tables I asked him how much one would cost, $800

There is no method to their madness...of course we are the "English" to them the devil's spawn.