The Amish are kind of a hard bunch to figure out. They live so differently than what we're used to, and most have never been to an Amish farm. I see them out and about quite a bit though. They seem friendly.

I hate to group all people but they put a bad taste in my mouth. They will get a slew of them on a boat and fish all day and I mean all day, they will keep everything they catch. Literally fishing out Great Lakes. Trespass and shoot everything. Building a cabin right now and you know how many people have said get Amish builders, I say why are they better than English builders? Of course some are and some aren’t. You see Amish made or Amish baked, so the freak what, do we have English made or baked signs or are we not as good? Buddy did rough carpentry for 20 years then Amish crews started showing up, literally one dad and 6-7 15-20 years olds, would cut his price in half and rough a house in a day, put him out of business. I go out of my way to not solicit them in any way

It never fails. Whenever the topic of Amish comes up it turns to ridicule and bashing.

I know there are different sects/orders of Amish and Mennonite. You folks seem to have consistently met the worst of the worst? Or maybe you all just watched one too many episodes of the Amish Mafia?

The Amish I know, and I know a lot of them, are honest hard-working folks, especially the Old Order Amish.

Housing development has been running rampant in my area for thirty years or more. With the exception of a few holdouts, many of the Dutch farmers sold their farms to developers for whatever they could get and retired. No Amishman that I know or heard of has ever sold his farm to a developer. In fact they buy farms from the few Dutch farmers who don't want to see their family farms developed. The Amish buy them and give them to their sons to farm.

If not for the Amish around here, the entire area would be one giant, suburban development with McMansions every three acres! Also, I have never, not once, been turned down by any Amishman when seeking permission to hunt or trap on their property.

I'm thankful they are here, wish there were more of them.

Well said Lugnut.

~X2

Had 2 Amish loggers mark my timber for a bid. During the 2 days it took to scale the trees we talked quite a bit. At one point one of them made a comment to me that lost the logging job for him no matter his bid.

The comment was " It is the dishonest man that gets ahead these days. " they were very mannerly and even humorous. They would make you laugh while they cut your throat so to speak.

During our time together I quizzed them on thier ways. Asked them how they washed themselves. They said a kettle on the stove. I asked if they ever had a shower. They said they were on a log job at a fairgrounds and it had showers. Felt pretty good huh? I asked.

They were fun to spend time with so I sent them home with a hind quarter for thier time. He never called with a bid. I believe he knew I figured his game out. I also marked timber that was not to be taken after the comment of the dishonest man. Don't think he liked or ever saw that done on a bid before. I also knew quite a bit about timber.

They are hardworkers. I wonder if OSHA ever shows up on some of their jobs. Some of those kids do work that seems crazy to the average person.

The local fur buyer used to have a couple Amish kids to skin, flesh and board coon. They would do a few hundred a day.

having never met or likely to meet a Amish person all I can do from reading the posts on hear is they sound a lot like the travler/romany gypsys we have, nice to speak to but will take the shirt from ya back and the lace from ya boots!lol

And the science world is still trying to figure out how Stonehenge and the pyramids were built. I'm gonna throw in my vote and say the Amish were involved.

Nice people as far as the ones I've met, and I agree with Lugnut's take on it.

I will say that Amish made is not necessarily synonymous with quality. A group of young Amish guys framed an addition on an old pressure treated deck. I looked at the job myself and refused to build on the existing deck. It just wasn't framed appropriately and it would cost too much for me to redo it rather than just ripping the deck off and laying a block foundation.

Anyway, the amish framed it and under roof in 2 days. They made no plans for electric, insulation, HVAC, plumbing, or even tying it into the house!
The home owners begged me to come back and finish the job, which I reluctantly did on a time and material basis.
Every single step of the way I have been battling with extremely poor craftmanship. Just shear laziness on their part. It's not square, plumb, flush, or true........anywhere. It's just awful.

I have a surprisingly large number of Amish peoples' phone numbers in my cell phone. I wished I had some Amish living closer to me. They mostly have a very good work ethic and I would hire some to work on my farm.

I have a friend, Sam, who used to be Amish, He left when he was 15 and got a job as a horse trainer in Kentucky. He may be the hardest worker I have ever seen. He quit school after 8th grade and got a full time job working in a saw mill. He got a second job cutting firewood from when he got off until dark. His parents got all the money from Sam's full time job. Sam used the money from his second job to buy a lot of car batteries and a CD player, which he kept at a non-Amish friend's house. He would play CDs in his buggy. His parents found out and started taking the money from his second job too. Sam got mad and left. His father was the bishop.

One Amish man I know, Junior, was talking about how to sex pigeons. He asked if I ever used a gold ring on a string to sex pigeons. I told him I did not believe that it worked. He then told me he used to do it but found out it was a form of divination started by an ancient Egyptian witch. He then went on about a 20 minute rant about witches. At first I thought he was kidding. but soon realized he is thoroughly convinced that witches are actively using witchcraft to harm him and other people daily.

Keith

It’s funny to watch them fish at Pymatuning. You can tell when the walleye bite is on....they show up in droves and the campgrounds fill up with their families. They’ll rent a pontoon boat for $100 for 8 hours. I’ve see them packed with 12-15 people of all ages.( remember, a 3 year old can legally posess a limit of 6 walleye too). The last two years I’ve noticed many Amish women looking at cell phones in the boat, paying more attention to them than their fishing rods.

I think it's probably quite rare for them to leave.

There was a young couple that lived up the road from me that was Amish that turned English. He drove tractor trailer. There were some young people around here that turned English so it’s not surprising to me at all. My father was Amish and turned English when he was 17 and joined the Army. His brothers and sisters followed as well as my mother.

Same thing at Chataque and Clendening, they keep everything that comes in the boat.

I agree and said earlier I hate to lump them all together but here in Ohio is different you will not get permission to hunt their farms and any quality piece that goes up for auction they buy, fork out a cool mill for 250 acres like it’s pocket change and bam that piece might as well turned into a allotment. I will say I am with Lugnut on the development stage. We’ll have a strip plaza half empty and they’ll clear woods and fields across the street to build another, crazy

Yup, if you have a radio, you can hear them on it speaking their language which is a cross between German and Dutch I believe. They will tell the others where to fish and what they are biting on but use their language so the English won't know. I've seen that happen a lot up on Pymie

I have no problem with the Amish or anyone else keeping legally caught and legal limits of fish.

Keith

Simple math displays that the population ofthe U.S. will be majority Amish some day. They outbreed us. Muslims outbreed us, too. I wonder if Amish will step up to defend our freedom from Islam, or will their pacifism be our demise?