LOL, around here they act like gas is still $0.29/ gallon...

I had an Amish fella do a concrete pad for me. He came and looked at the job with the fella he gets all his concrete from. One of his sons came to dig the footings and set the forms. He was driven by a fella with a nearly new truck & trailer to haul the bobcat. Two more of his sons came to finish up the forms and pour the concrete. Different driver with a fairly new truck and enclosed trailer to haul the needed equipment.

I spoke briefly with both drivers. Did not ask a lot of questions but it was obvious that this was a full time gig for both of them. They helped load and unload and held string or tape measures and did errands but that was the extent of the work they did.

The Amish knew what they were doing and were very efficient getting the job done.

So they won't drive, but will operate the bobcat?....

Each communities elders/bishop decides what technology they can use. Community 15 minutes away is pretty basic and virtually no technology. Community one hour away have cell phones (can't bring them into the house) and every farm has a skid steer(Bobcat).

Two seperate communities near me that are seperate by a state highway. The community to the south Have phone shacks out by the road (like a bus stop for the kids) they have some equipment but they can't sit on it. The other community on the north side of the highway can have there phones in any building except the house. They can run any equipment that does not require a license to operate. The south hires the north to run equipment for them. ( but they do not own it. An English guy owns a lot of equipment and trailers and rents it to them.

I'm not far from you and get $1.50 pulling their trailer

Know a few Amish, and they will wait at certain road junctions , for a ride.
I really don't know where to, but see them standing there, and know one who said he was waiting for a ride to Wooster.
How they know ??????? have no idea.

The ones I knew that were taxis for the Amish are no longer with us.
But they had bigger vans, more like mini busses.
Seen some that I don't know, parked in a Walmart parking lot, waiting for the Amish to gather for pickup.

Never made a lot of sense to me......cant own something, but its ok to use it..

LOL So true, they won't except a ride from someone like me, as a friend, but use a taxi.
Strange, but not going to condemn them for it either.
Some sects allow flashlights, but only 9 volt AAA batteries .
Others allow cell phones.

Around 6 years ago, I was at the Mt.Hope Swap Meet and bought some good pheasants from Amish teenagers who rode around in a solar golf cart. Another time I had to pickup an Amish man at a school, in Sugarcreek, who I was buying pigeons from at a Halloween party. They had kerosene lamps in the school, but had solar lights in the nearby, detached bathroom. I have phone numbers for about a dozen Amish people in my phone.

Keith

The local Amish reach out on occasion for me to haul for them. I have a crew cab dually and a skid loader trailer. Hauled ice houses ( ice storage ) metal lathes , diesel motors , farm machinery etc. I typically trade for labor or custom sawing. Just last week they re-glued four kitchen chairs for us and wouldn’t take a dime. Like others mentioned they are quick to buy lunch and I have eaten my share of Caramel & Cinnamon rolls.

Ice Houses? So you have been to Agusta Wi.

Been a few years, but think maybe this past winter the Amish cut pond ice for their ice houses.
It's amazing to watch them cut the ice.

Many years ago a Amish logging crew was taking out some trees on my boss' property out behind the barns. One of them put a chainsaw into his leg. They came across the field with the horses and found my boss feeding cows out back and wanted to use the phone to call a ambulance. He pulled out his cell phone and they refused it. they insisted on wasting time to go out front to use a land line to call. Sometimes their priorities are a little out of whack.

I'm in the heart of Amish country here in Millersburg, Ohio. They all have cell phones. That plus I think that those E bikes have almost replaced the horse and buggy. Sort of funny seeing the old grandpa's and grandma's pulling little carts behind there bikes into Wal-Mart.