Living 40 Hours with the Amish： What They HAVE That We Lost

Rebecca and I and two of our kids are moving in with the Amish for 40 hours. Meals, farm tour, buggy ride, off-grid power systems tour. They got it down. And more. Most videos about the Amish tend to talk about what they don't have. Horses and buggies instead of cars, using lanterns instead of electricity. We're gonna talk about what they do have. I found eight. Things and many if not most of these things are things that we've lost. We used to have them don't have them anymore Where's the fire? Oh, it's gas It's oil, yeah. Oh, fine. Did y'all do just batting insulation here it's not terribly thick must be good though, huh So you have four walls. Yeah. These are your horses. These are my horses. You just got two? I got two. Cool. It shows how important they are. They're right here in your front yard. Yeah. Yeah. What's the best thing about being 30? Hmm, I don't know. Living my life right now is really good, so yeah. What's the best thing about having all these children? It gives me purpose. Yeah. Yeah. And what's the biggest struggle? Having three little children. Being a good dad to them, yeah, to me. That's good, that's good. Thank you very much. To you, what is a good dad? What does a good dad mean? Well, I think to me, I'd like to offer my kids a stable home life, yeah Yeah, and that to me is pretty critical. Yeah, and what does stable mean? Stable means that you have parents at home, helping them along. Okay, okay. And I struggle with that, you know, due to everything else that's going on. Yeah. So I'm sure other people... Work? We're talking about work, being gone a lot. What do you do for work? I do sales for a construction company. So I do that and then I just travel around the area and help where I'm needed. What are you going to do tomorrow? Tomorrow I have off, so we can do whatever we want. This is our bedroom. Okay. Cool. I can show you your bedroom. Okay. Bedrooms. Yeah. This is real open, I imagine, so the heat can come up? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Cool. This is your office? This is my office space. Okay, nice. This is their clothes, or is this extra clothes? That's just, that's the kids' clothes. Yeah. That's cool. I love that. we have no uh closets upstairs okay so that's one of the projects cool so you got a hunting room yeah this is my hunting room wow what's the last thing you got uh the one for the come show me we'll point out the clock okay Where was that at? Ohio? That was in Ohio, yeah. Okay. Seven points. Which one's your prized shoot? That little one. Yeah, why? The smallest one. Why? What was the struggle? We went down to West Virginia with my friend. Okay. Who was like a grandfather to me. And we spent a couple weeks in the mountains of West Virginia, the hills, right? And, um, it was just, it was my last time hunting at his place before he died. And so, I just had some fun with this one, yeah. Okay. Was he an English friend or Amish? He was English. This is the room that we were kind of hoping you'd stay in. Yeah, okay. Okay? Look. This would be great. This is going to be different, right? No outlets. Yeah, it is. I know. One of my kids said, is he on the internet? Or light switches. No. So these are our lights. Do you need to charge your phones or anything? Because we have inverters that we can use. That's cool. Maybe I might. I have one battery pack that will charge our phone. Is that a Pennsylvania Dutch Bible? No, I don't think so. Or do you guys do German? Yeah, do you speak German or no? Just Pennsylvania Dutch. Pennsylvania Dutch is all right. But we can read in German. Do you learn German in your schools? Okay, like to read it, not necessarily to speak it. But I see you have an English Bible, that's okay? Okay. You read the Bible in English? I do. Okay. You pray in English or Pennsylvania Dutch? Sorry what? Pray in English or Pennsylvania Dutch? And also German. German. If that's what we want, right? Whatever fits the occasion. Oh yeah, so you think Gideon and Henry are laying here? Wow, another room. Another option. If you get really warm upstairs, we can come down to the basement and cool off. It's cooler down here. Yeah. Yeah, wow. What do you use this for? We do our home butchering, cutting on here. I got this from a friend. I learned that. Grew up in a butcher shop setting. Her father and uncle made this in the early 1900s. Woo! Wow! I think it was around 1902 when this was made. That's so big. It's a big chisel. You'll see tomorrow what we do with them. Oh good. This is a draw shave. Yeah. Draw shaving knife, whatever. What you getting ready to do? Make a kindling? No, I'm just going to show them how we work on these. Benches. Yeah. So my foot, my foot works this clamp. Nice. Okay, then we take this knife, right, if we want to whittle things down, we just shave it down to the size we want, right? So I make wooden paddles, wooden spoons, different things to use around the house. so where is one that you've done um the boys broke the last one that i did so it's it's in half but it's upstairs how long does it take you to make a spoon a couple hours okay wow that's simply how we use that to take the wood down to the size we need yeah of course your boys want to get into this this is my little sloyd knife this is what i use to carve all the spoons and everything cool so This is handmade. This knife is handmade. They carve out the bowls of the spoons. You made that too? No, no. So I bought this from a guy who hand makes these. Wow. First meal in an Amish house with an Amish family. Right off the bat, the first thing they have that we don't have that I think actually is going to be the most profound impact on me. ...was what they called silent grace. You'll have to tell us how to do a silent grace. We don't know how to do that. Okay, so we just bow our heads and pray to the Lord. Okay, to ourselves. To ourselves, we tell them thank you. Okay. Amen. Oh my gosh. I think this could be one of the things I've been looking for for years now. We haven't prayed before a meal. I mean, I've gone through a Christian coma. Perhaps I'm coming out of it. I'm not ready to pray yet. And maybe I won't be. And maybe there's something to this silent grace. Saying a prayer to yourself, if you want to, if you don't want to, and it's just between you and God. I really liked it. And this quarter is made by my aunt. So how do you store this meat if you don't have a freezer? Okay, we have an icebox with blocks of ice in it, like the old timers used to do it. Then we buy just enough meat at a time to keep it. And it'll keep a couple weeks by the ice, even though it's not frozen. And we've discovered if we take the meat out of the package and soak it in salt water, it's good meat. next up farm tour yeah just just recently recently yeah what are we gonna do i gotta move a fence here for the fat steers oh good open a little section i like the shade shelter Sure. that's simple it was in one piece until the steers got a hold of the shade cloth and uh they were playing with it and just tore it to shreds that's just some old cartwheels yes is that the water for them too on it yes we can go so one day i had a calf that his tongue was all swollen up in the sun and i just put this up really quickly nice yeah drinker hooked up to the hose this is how this is how So, when this gets down to a certain level, that lifts up? Actually, no. They press their noses against this. They learn to do that? They learn to do that. What's the name of that? This is a durable drinker. It's just a... I'm not sure what the name of the float or the valve is. And it's for cows? Cows and horses. Okay. Oh, okay. Durable. Horses will learn to do it, too? Yes. Will sheep learn to do it? I think they will. Okay. You moving them every day? Yes. Multiple times a day. Where are they going now? So, over here. Okay. I just give them short sections. Okay. Or small sections. Strip grazing. Yeah. I've got such few head on this little parcel, and it's just really tough to do any good grazing with only a few head. Yeah. How big is the little parcel? This little parcel is an acre. Okay. Notice in the farm tour, Willie is starting regenerative farming. Now, wait a minute. He's starting it. Don't assume all that, like I have in the past, that all the Amish are doing this naturally and regeneratively. They're not. There's actually a movement in their community, like there's a movement in our non-Amish community, to get back to the land, to get back to natural. And they as Amish can do that. They have a lot of individual freedoms in that way. Willie can be farming regeneratively while his neighbor, Amish neighbor, is farming conventionally. How do you know when they're finished out? So we go off of the brisket, tailhead fat, back fat, and just general body condition. But those are the three main points. Oh, nice. Yeah. Those are filled out. Are those finished out? No, they'll not be finished until this fall. Okay. Especially with the grass that I have. Okay, okay. All right, we going to do anything with the chickens? No, just checking their feed and water. it's probably all wet and mushy how do you keep them out of your garden i have a little fence a chain link oh okay woven wire fence okay i've got all these ducks and this is my uh footer drain so it's just runoff water okay and i came out here this spring with a hand shovel and i dug this in three hours so it's two feet deep and it's has stayed full so far My ducks love it. That's the only problem I've got. Here's your side. Yeah that's nice. You know how to peen them? No. Okay. So I'm learning. We're going to have to learn that. We're both going to have to learn that. I just got these sights. It's neat to see Willie learning things. I'm learning things. We're just connecting in this way. Guys the Amish are just people like you and me. And by the way they're very welcoming. I think it was in my head that the Amish were shunnish to us. What we might call the English, they're not. They're very welcoming and accepting and friendly with us. It's amazing. I love this. I almost feel like we're at home. It's 8.30 at night. We've been traveling. We're so tired. I feel like I'm in a race to go down. Before we have sundown. We'll warm up top. It's gonna be 50 degrees here tonight. What a cozy house. What a gracious host. Lily would like that view right out our window. She would. One really cool thing that is very much like what we do at home. I guess we're Amish in the evening. They don't turn on any lights. There's no lights in the room. I mean they do have battery-powered lights. We took advantage and did not use those. Put our eyes down with the sun. It's the circadian rhythm. It's the new cool thing. The Amish were doing circadian rhythm before it was cool. We're feeling right We're going right at home. Kids are going to bed the old fashioned way. Just go to bed. Hey, turn the audio book way down. Get in, why don't you bring that fan to your mom and I? Battery powered fans. Get in, I want you to put that on something. Don't play with it and break it. The second thing that the Amish have that we don't, that we've lost is this ability to communicate and enjoy each other without distraction. So without the phone. Okay, I'm saying something they don't have, aren't I? But what they do have, because of its absence. When we had supper with Willie and his family, they had some friends, or no, it was more family, come over towards the end of our meal and just stop by. And we just sat around the table and told stories and just talked and it just seemed like people, because we've been so long with phones now, 10 years-ish, I kind of forgot what it was like. People focused and paid attention and we weren't wondering this or that. There was no TV, there was no phone. They have this ability to entertain and learn from each other and stay in this present world because If you didn't know something, if something came up and you wanted to know it, you just, everybody just gave it their best shot. It wasn't like, hold on, let me look it up. There was something to just having this little world. They have a little world, and that's a good thing. I'm gonna shut the windows. Last night, I captured it. How'd you sleep last night? Good. Why'd you come get in our bed then? Mama said I'm sleeping in our bed. There's not much room, buddy. This is a dumbbell. Yeah, that's a whole lot of room for mom, uh-uh. It's a good amount of room for me though. I guess. It didn't matter, last night I just came and relaxed, laid by the window just to watch the buggies. Next thing I know I'm passed out, clothes and all, and then I come in here to the boys' room and mom's just passed out amongst them. Look at the beautiful sunrise. Hey hey, you're burning daylight Gideon. We're going to have to find out how he charges these batteries. How'd you sleep, Dara? I actually slept really good. Well, I fell asleep when I was putting Henry to sleep. I fell asleep, too, for like an hour and a half. Yeah. What's your impression of the Amish house so far in life? It is, it's really very normal. I feel like in some ways it's really very normal. It's actually so refreshing. My impression was last night is that we, people came to visit. Them, his sister, Willie's sister, and her husband came to visit, and it was just so lovely. Like, it reminded me, it was like almost 90s, you know? Like, they just showed up. They're just like, hey, you were just down the street, and we wanted to say hi. It was very 90s. Everybody was paying attention to each other. Yes, like, nobody was on their phones. Everybody was just, like, focused on the conversation at hand. It was lovely. It was just, like, it was just very lovely. I really, really, really enjoyed it. We kind of do some of the things we like they didn't obviously they didn't turn on lights last night because they don't have them I'm pretty sure we're Amish in the evening. We're very close Very close. What's it like playing with kids that don't speak English? Didn't even notice These young kids they speak they understand English. They have enough exposure, but they their heart language is Pennsylvania Dutch I got one for you catch up Today, at least a carriage ride in his brother-in-law's building and construction business, Amish style. Likely the most exciting part of the video for you guys. Off-grid living. Oh my gosh. The Amish have been doing it all along. They are freaking good at it and I've learned on this trip they have mastered it and they have the amenities. Hot water, running water, and all kinds of other things. Check this out. This is it. This is the well. Okay. This is where we're. Yeah I understand We're standing well, alright. We have an airline. Running from the barn to this well, and then we have the air line and water line going into the house, too. It pushes the pump, and that's what pushes the water up to the house. I have a very... So it's air pressure? It's air pressure. I have a very makeshift system here. We have it on the motor here with an air compressor here, and that pumps air into a thousand gallon tank on the outside. It goes right down through here. and then the air comes over in here these are my pressure gauges this is where i set the so you're good right now you have a lot of i do you you adjust this i do if i if necessary there's some good off-grid tools right here william yeah i gotta learn how to do off-grid for our Um, hospitality business. Cabins. Do off-grid cabins. So, this doesn't have to run all the time. No. This just has to fill up the tank. That's correct. Just with air. With air. What? I didn't know about air-powered energy. This is the tank. Yes, it's hidden. And how long will it last? This will last a day or two. It depends on how much water we're drawing. We're using a lot of water from the animals. Irrigation and things like that from the house. Okay. it'll last a day a day and so you go start this up every day we start it off every day yeah when are you going to start up next uh when the pressure goes down Okay, I'll go. 120, I'd like to start it with you if I'm around, okay and what's all the what are you doing? You checking the pressure? I'm checking my switch, okay, this is my air did you install this yourself or have someone help you install this? So my father and I installed this. Nice How'd you learn how to do all this? From my father? Yeah, my father's a really really good handyman And your father has this system Yes, or something similar. Okay. What's the battery for? That is my storage, my... that's where I house my energy from the Sun Okay, from the solar, and then that's running your energizer My fencer, yeah, my energizer And then that's running your what's this? That is the controller for the Solar panel going to the battery Okay, and what else is that powering? That battery, this battery I use This is my storage battery. I use this for charging up my battery lights for the house. Okay, that's where that came from Where... where the... we tap an inverter onto the battery? Okay, and this gadget is to charge big 12-volt batteries. Where did you get all this stuff? Oh, from I... a place called Yoder Solar in Middlefield Okay, and how did you learn how to do all that? from them Okay, good. Plugged in right here, and that's your... Yes, that's my battery charger. And this is my portable phone I use for construction work Is that how you call me? Yes. Oh, and how does that work? Just like another phone. Look at that. It's just an old cell phone It's an analog, yeah, an old cell phone. And you get cell phone reception. Yes. So we actually have a reception box. It's with Verizon Uh-huh. It's just a reception box in here. What's a reception box mean? It has your... computer chip in it that is connected to the Verizon wireless network wow okay you pay them every month for this i do okay is it expensive oh not necessarily it's worth it for your construction business it is so our um so this is where you called me i did okay yeah cool so i i can take this wherever i want right oh so this doesn't have to stay plugged in so whoa now it's a unit Wow, that's like the old car phone. Yeah That's how it was when it first started out. That's how we had to do. In my construction business, people are like, man, you got a dinosaur there. I don't care. Okay, so do you get on the internet? No. You don't even use it? I don't. Not even at the library or something? No, I don't. Okay, all right. There's ways to do business without internet. Yeah. Yeah. Do you feel like you're getting left behind? No, I do not. Okay. Do you feel like you have plenty of business without the internet? I have more than I can... Then you told me you're a year out. Yeah, that's great. So I don't want to be that busy Okay, because I know I want time with my family and I need time to grow my things here at the house my food Okay, so I'm usually busier than I wish I would be okay And I'm really glad I don't have internet because I have a lot think a lot of things going on Yeah, did you buy this at Yoder's? I did not so where'd you buy this i had an amish guy who does welding who welded up the frame for me and then he mounted the whole motor and the um okay air compressor kit so this is uh this can't be bought and this is custom this is custom okay but is this a thing yeah if we go off grid and we're under the farm we don't have to get inspections Oh really? Agriculture. Yeah. Do you have to get building inspections here? Not for agriculture. Okay, yeah. The water line goes from the pump to the house. Okay. And it gets distributed from... a little room where we have our wood right okay see the connection okay i'm sorry about that that's okay it splits and goes to the house and then goes back out to the barn okay and uh that's how we get our water from the barn you know for the barn oh you have some water pressure in there too huh okay how do your neighbors yeah let's see how do your neighbors feel about this is this everybody's on board with this yeah this is standard okay did the church community Did you decide this was okay, or did everybody have their own choice on that one? So we all voted on it. Okay. And everybody was like, yeah, this is fine, right? So that was years ago. Did you all vote on the internet, and everybody said nope? That's right. We did. Okay. So we decided that we don't want it to preserve our lifestyle. Okay. There's some churches that say it's okay, right? That's correct. So every church is different. That's correct. All right. So this is my... Wow. Water for the, you know, for the barn, whatever. What's up with abandoning that paint? Just easy to get to when we have to replace things. Just so you don't have to dig it out. That's right. Yeah, look. Look guys, he's put it in a 50 gallon barrel. I bet you have to go what, down three feet here in Ohio? Or more? We've got to go down 40 inches to get to the little frost line. It's 18 inches where we are. We're spoiled, aren't we? Really? Yeah, I've got water going out to the pasture for my, isn't that great? Look at all these hoses you can't keep those hoses like that in the winter though, no I have to undo them, I have to take all the water out of the hoses and then we just haul water by hand. The horse calmed down, Willie, oh yeah his wife said the horse was wired this morning but you had to give her a ride so we don't go on a wild ride, it wouldn't have been a true wild ride it was just not the stability, oh okay okay, all right, all right, all right, he's particular about his horses, he trains them, I trust you, this is our horse, this is going to be our first Amish buggy ride that's why I took the kinks out of the horse's, okay, okay, good, we're gonna have the extra special experience, what's all the wood for? That's going to heat our hot water, okay so now we're going to talk about hot water, yeah he's got a got a pile of wood you can see little little kindling type wood part of the process, the water comes in and then it gets piped up into these filter systems, okay, it's softening and filter systems, okay, then it gets piped right back into the basement, okay and that is so that when we heat the water it has less mineral in it so it doesn't corrode my water heater okay so you haven't heated water yet this is just the filtering systems and how did you learn how to do all this so i did okay good yeah so there's hope for me you don't know how to do this but you made it happen yeah that can do the same thing yeah so what is this again this is the rusting the rust filter Okay. and then these are the sand beds where okay the water gets filtered down even farther okay so yoder helped you with this or your dad knew how to do this who helped me with this okay and what's the battery for it's running this little running the controller so how often do you have to come and replace the battery to charge it once every three weeks okay this is pretty turnkey once a day you're starting the compressor once every three weeks you're changing that battery that's it and never otherwise you just lift up the handle and water flows once a day we start the hot water heater once a day you start the water hot water heater okay this is the heater okay okay this is the fire box fill this up with wood okay so this is the hot water heater this is the hot water heater you you do this every day fill this up with wood yes you need to put some wood in there and start it not yet why not we're almost there oh this is so this is at 115 when do you need to put it in there pretty soon this morning before we start washing clothes what do you like to get it up to 140 how long would i hold it 140 uh depends on how much we use okay it's based on you know how much we're going to use so yeah you might empty it yeah and then have to heat the all oh i see more more more cold water keeps coming in as you use it okay that's what cools it off okay so this is filled with water this is a double wall right yeah so this is filled with water you can feel it it's still a little warm okay look at all these canned goods Willie that's what makes a poor man feel rich yeah it is where do you get all this kindling wood from your construction sites All right. No oil. I hired, I contracted this from a molding place, so once every six months or so they come and dump a load of wood. So there's a lot of things that I could do myself that I don't. Because it's like, am I going to spend my time doing this or can I use my time better somewhere else and I just buy this in. But I try to source things from the community where it's going to help that community. Yeah, that's good. Is this a help to the community to buy this wood? Yes. You got a little starter cube. I use those. Just lighten the fire. That's it. When are your kids going to be able to do it? So Willie is five and he's starting to help. And obviously we don't want him getting burned. So we are a little cautious. Yeah. This fire. How many times do you have to load this in a day today? So this once. Okay. You know, we're all here. We're all using it. This will be a hot car in the evening. No, this won't. So that's our insulated storage tank up on top. Okay. So that'll keep the water from cooling off. Okay. This is already insulated. This is. Okay. That's it? What I'll do now is I'll get a couple chunks of solid, like large wood, hardwood, so that it'll keep fire a little longer. So this is the stuff that gets really hot, and I want something that'll last longer. Okay. I'll grab it. Well, maybe, maybe... Where we going? I'm just gonna go grab a few chunks of firewood. Oh good. Maybe for our off-grid cabins, maybe this is part of the experience for people. They get to load the wood stove. Interesting. Right? Yeah, interesting. I know, right? You've lived this your whole life but you don't understand. People pay to come and do this now. You understand that, Willie? Yeah. Does that make any sense to you? I guess it would if I think in their context. I see the life that's lived that's not off-grid. When I'm out doing stuff for work, so I kind of get it. You seem to have all the amenities, but have not connected to the grid, which is awesome. And it doesn't seem that hard. Go start your air compressor, load the hot water heater, change out the batteries every week to three weeks other thing we do daily is we charge our little small tool batteries okay yeah yeah are we doing that right now we should see that you charge your battery that ran my fan last night don't you yes okay how I like cooking off-grid baby it's just like cooking at home right but look so i'm going to show you this so you light under here oh wow and then there's their kerosene's over there so it's cooking on kerosene wow yeah isn't that cool well i had my solar panels up on the roof yeah and this winter we had a really nasty storm and it blew off whoa so i had a frolic to change my roof okay because it was leaking in the barn right yeah and so when we had installed those somebody didn't install them properly and you know what i forgot to check it oh no so i found out it was installed properly that morning when i came out and it was laying on the yeah you found out the hard way and properly but still working isn't it it is yeah but you'll have to fix it by winter won't you i will so now that i only have one more I have one more business to run, and I won't be able to do it. how many businesses are you running right now just one just one at the time but you were running two i was running three three yes okay that's what you do that's what we do it's just standard okay yeah So the inverter gives you an outlet that you can plug into. It changes the 12 volt to 110. So it's really not that complicated, huh? No, it's not. This is just connected to the battery. and now all of a sudden you have a plug okay they're calling us to eat Is this the icebox I mean it looks just like a freezer yeah it's converted fridge okay so show me how this works this is where we keep our ice so all you do is just put a chunk of ice in there yeah that's it and then yeah that's it and it drains the melting ice it does so we can see Oh cool Whoa, like cold goes down. It's keeping all this cool. Yes, and this is the pan where it drains down into and then there's a drain Going out the back side. No shortage of eggs here. Where's the pan? Right here. Oh Wow. Yes. Oh, yeah, and I see the tube back there And where's it go? Outside? It goes down outside, yes. Okay, well how nice is that? Turkey sausage, canned. Y'all made that. Greek yogurt, eggs, and milk. And then Gideon asked for a buggy ride. Can we do it? Really? Can we have a buggy? We're gonna have a buggy ride. We're going on a buggy ride. Amish buggy. I never knew I would be on that side of the buggies. I never dreamed I'd be riding an Amish horse and buggy, but here we go. Beautiful horse. Of course. Of course. she knows what's about to happen doesn't she she does she like it you think yeah she loves going out there running yeah i raised this horse from a colt yeah so you trained her yourself i did wow she's not nervous with any of this activity around not very much no look at her backing up how do you teach him to back up I'm pressuring and releasing at the right time okay this horse speaks also Also English, and her second language is English. Obviously, yes. Who made these straps for you? A local harness shop did. Okay. So this is where we hook it up to pull the buggy. Mm-hmm. That hooks up to the collar. And this is the back hold. We snap to this. This keeps it from pushing onto the horse? This one? Yeah. So this is the back hold. This is just to kind of keep the horse. It steers the buggy, too. Okay, okay. This back hold keeps it from going faster than the horses. Yeah, because that could happen. Yeah. Especially when it goes to stop. Now, she was already in her strap. Did you strap her up this morning? I did. So I got her out to the pasture and she was a little bit fired up. She wanted to run. Yeah. So I took her on a little run to take the kinks out of her legs. Yeah, okay. so that's what you have to do to a good horse okay that's kind of a joke that we have so we've got lazy horses we've got horses that have tremendous work ethic you know and just this is one of those ones that are not lazy okay gotta get the energy out we have to i had to burn off excess energy okay so now she's good okay you ever rode in a horse and buggy no No, this is a good experience for you. I'm very nervous because Lily once drove me on her buggy with her pony, which her pony was a lot more feisty than this one, but I literally was like the whole time, and my daughter says to me, she goes, mom, if something happens, don't scream, it'll just make it worse. And I was like, I don't know, it was like a, it was a really little buggy, like it was not encapsulated at all. It was like just a seat. That horse just knew. You didn't even have to do nothing. It just stood there and waited. And then you got in and it's like, let's go. Good job, Willie. You've trained this horse nice. Did you also train your dogs? Because your dogs are very well behaved. Yeah, so we trained them to listen. And they don't jump on me? They don't bother me? Oh, they will if they have a half chance. This is very smooth. And it's very methodical, like, I don't know how you could be upset doing this, you know what I mean? Like, it just feels right. It's not all the same. So it depends on the child. It does. What age did you learn? I learned at age 12. You ready to drive a buggy? Ha ha ha! Do you have a little bit of a break for the horse? No. That helps it? That helps it. No, it's not. It just doesn't, that keeps the pressure off the back end. Okay. Okay. Willie wanted to take us to one of his friends doing regenerative market gardening. Check it out. We stopped by this little farm. I know, this is really beautiful. Looks like a regenerative, yeah, organic, beyond organic farm. Well, look at this. Look at these tomatoes, right? I know. Well, this is definitely the, Um, but like. but look, they have the wheat and they talk about. He grew that wheat? No. Surely he bought that wheat. so there's groups he crushed it that grow this week okay okay they're probably picked this morning yeah hey we're gonna get an impromptu tour of this farm do you have a heat going in here no this is just all solar okay you have a big uh wood heater i put the wood in from the outside okay this is your office yeah that's my greenhouse office yeah you got lettuce along the Pathway. Tomatoes, can you move all this stuff? Do you like to plant your kale and your onions together? No, I just fitted the onions in, you know, where I had space. I see. I was trellising these cucumbers. They were a couple weeks old. Yeah? You know, that I transplanted. Why didn't you do the weed fabric on the cucumbers? Well, actually, I would have. I had green beans in here. So after they were finished, I mowed them with a flail mower, PCS and a flail mower. And I didn't even work my soil. I just plant it right into the bed so I probably should have because you see all the weeds coming I know it's hard to keep up with the but I'll probably just mulch it with alfalfa yeah okay all right we're back on the road willie says the horse is excited he's going home how can you tell by the way it's performing i'm having to hold it back now see that she's ready to go home why do you think she wants to go home just like we all want to go home yeah just everything you thought it would be Hi Josh. You guys like this. We're going fast now. It feels fast. She's carrying a cart. Five humans. Oh wow, we're going to pull in. Here we go. Whoa. Wow. What's she eating? Nothing. Nothing. She's just licking her mouth and just working her mouth after the bit has been in there. Are males or females better for this? They're both well suited. Okay. I prefer a female simply they seem to have a little bit more stamina. Okay? Yeah, you know something so a neutered males what we call a gelding. Yeah, okay It seems like some females are better than the gelding simply because of their endurance level however if you have a non-neuter male like a stallion pulling a buggy you can also have the same stamina you can go the distance you know without them wearing out okay i prefer the female because they're easier to work be around okay are these the horses that were out last night yes okay so they get some time outside So they spend most of their time outside and I only bring them in when we're going to be working. Okay. With them. Okay. And so when I bring them in, so I don't want them to get sour, right? Okay, yeah. I feed them a sweet feed. Okay. So they know they're coming in, they're getting a sweet feed, right? Okay. That's all they're focusing on. Okay. All right, good. So the Amish even have tractor toys. Yeah. The Amish little boys like tractor toys too, huh? Yeah. We buy these for my sister both days. Yeah. Let's play with this one. He tries one of those. Who? He tries one of those. Yeah. And while we're visiting friends, why not go see his timber framing buddy friends? And I would say that's something they have. They have these old-skill schools. Although, I think this guy had to learn it. I don't know. It's just conducive for their lifestyle, this timber framing. It's a cool thing now. It's trending now. But how conducive is it to their lifestyle? Pegs. And not power tools. They're taking advantage of that, and that's great. Oh, this is timber frame. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. this is a really simple timber framing species in here okay all right and this is this is the tenon this is what's inside there actually it's right here this is how you tie it together yeah so this this is actually because you're not using screws or nails no this is actually in there like that okay and then you actually offset the hole a little bit when you pull that peg in, it draws it together Okay, and he was telling me you put this up green. Yeah, you do that. If you don't, you get, well, just like a lot of this has heart. The heart is in there. So you have that, like that crack over there. So this happens later, which is okay. But if that happens before, all of a sudden all your corners are out of square. And this face is round. So that's very difficult to mark a joint out and make it precise. Okay. So you build it green. You have it dry. If these would be dry, you almost would have to cut them. So what would you do? It's just difficult. What would you do if you were going to draw all this? Would you wait until here? You know, a lot of times you want to see the timbers anyway, so they were Yeah, that's true. Studying in between and you know, you want to see those. So if you wanted to insulate this, what would you do? Well, see, this is insulated. Oh, it is? These are insulated panels. Oh. So these work perfect for this. It's actually a commercial. panel like seconds. You can open everything if you need a whole lot of framing here. Okay would this be good enough for a house? It would be. I mean insulation? Oh yeah it's highly insulated. Okay. It's very structural that's the only support I have. Wow. This is what you call the mortise and this is the housing. Okay. So this is the shoulder okay and the shoulder goes into Welcome to the house. This gets a brace, that's where you're going to tie in, and is this a German method? Is this very German? Well, it's German, but it's all over the world. Look at him hand cranking that saw. That thing's probably 150 years old or something, it probably built many, many, many bombs. He's got it in an antique sale. Wow. It's very easy. It's easier than a halfway grill. He's not struggling. And it's strong. It's square, you know, and you're not fighting the sun. That is cool. You're making all this ready for them to be delivered on site, right? Yeah, and then we're going to install it. Oh, you're going to install it too? It goes together like... So, actually, I'll put this here so you can kind of tell what... That joint is called a tongue and fork. This is a rafter. So, being this doesn't get a ridge, this is a traditional joint. It's called a tongue and fork. Okay. So you put it together and you put a couple pegs in. Wow. But this is also gonna get a king in. Wow. And then these, these are the crow's foot. This gets some work in. This is a very intricate cut here. This gets mortised in here into that mortise. There's different ways to do it. But this, just pretend that's the king and this is gonna come in here. This can be all done mathematically. It has to be done mathematically? Well, it doesn't have to, but this actually gets put in like this. So this mortise comes out and this goes in like this. Wow. how do you dig this out? that's what we're going to do right now. all right cool. rebecca you're drilling in a six by six honey. how hard is it? it's not hard at all. am i really drilling? i guess she's doing it. do i keep going till the end? is that easy? or is it over? no. no. i don't know what i'm doing. come on come on come on come on do it there you go you sit here you can even sit in the seat Thank you. all right there we go Yep, that was really good. so how'd you learn how to do this I read books and I studied old barns and I just always took an interest in it. That's it. So that, I make those holes so it's easy to put that point in there and get it exact. So once the guy starts to drill, you know, he doesn't have to mess around with trying to get it exact. What kind of lumber is this? This is hemlock. That's the best? Uh, no. No. It's... A good one. Okay, what's in your barn? This is a total different species. Oh, that's right. You told me that. So yeah. Now the old timers, they used to use something like this and make their marks. They didn't have pencils, but they had a better one than this, like this. You can still see those marks. Somebody probably 150 years ago made this. Whoa, and they had this was done with a chisel. Their chisels were extremely sharp, which ours are too because Caleb sharpens them and he gets mad at me if I don't sharpen them. So this is an old style of building. This is, this is, yeah, this is a brace and this is exactly how we do it. Okay. Why no screws and nails? For one thing, they didn't have screws and nails back then. Another thing, this is way, way, way stronger. Is it? Okay. There's buildings that are standing that are 1300 years old, 800 years old. Wow. It's proven. Wow. But this is the traditional way. The chisel? Yeah. So when you drill, it doesn't tear out. It has a defining line there, which these drill bits are. Did these come sawn or did you saw them here? We didn't. So we have a mill, but we're usually better off just focusing on doing. But you're not drilling a hole. You're getting out that square. Yeah. So I just I just go down four inches. Look how fast he goes to get in that drill bit on there. What a cool machine. This is the key tool of the trade, huh? This is universal all over the world with all the timber framers. Is it? I have a friend who actually helped with Notre Dame Cathedral to rebuild it. And he worked with the French timber framers. He was one of the 11 Americans that was chosen to go help the French timber framers. He was there for six months. They did everything traditional and they couldn't communicate with their language But they could communicate with this. How long ago was that? That was There was a What was it two years ago when they rebuild it or something? Okay, something like that. So they would communicate So this this the old timber framers might not have been that great with math, but they were smart but they they might have not even went to school but they could do everything with this when you want to do rafters everything's here that you need because oh it is and then over here what is this called this is what we call a framing square okay i'm not sure if this has it all or not yeah right here okay this is the timber framing side okay now Caleb's getting the chisel okay that's cool this is put together with pegs there's about four pegs even the bottom is pegged what is it this is a little sandbox so you could put oh yeah have a little playhouse or you could put it up in the tree for a tree house this is all held together by pegs wow now we can't build one of these by hand and Pete we buy these from another timber framer who's set up with machinery Because a little mortise and tenon... A joint like this takes almost as long as a big one. Okay. Probably just as long because you can't get in there as good again. Okay. Does that make sense? Yeah it does. So when you have 40 joints here I don't tell this to anybody but we like to make a hundred dollars per joint yeah that's the peg this is you know there's a lot of work in there yeah yeah but if it lasts 800 years it should be it should that should be worth your investment yes it should so we tell our clients you know an 800 year warranty you know You know, tongue-in-cheek type of thing. let us know if it don't last that long yeah but we have proof that These joints do last that long. Yeah, you got some buildings that are that old. And, I mean, the buildings, you know, in England. Isn't that something? With very simple tools, anybody could build these with any type of interest in it. Okay. With some time and patience. Okay. And with somebody that you need to enjoy it or it's not going to be fun. But for me, it's... you know that's a fun thing and then it's a fun and pounding in the pegs is just it's it's the climax it's like that's satisfying that's a dopamine hit and then we got to go see this guy's ice box and he ain't playing around this is last year's cold and it was free yeah this was off your ice and we didn't and we didn't this was off your pond the gym after we were done wow and this is your ice room And that little hole is taking all this cold into your fridge. You gotta have two holes. Okay, now I got to see the fridge again. Did you build this door? No, we bought it. There's an Amish company that makes probably thousands of these. It's a foot. It's a foot in thickness. Oh, yeah. Okay. It's just coming in here naturally. Because you have a pipe up here. And there's another. Where's the bottom hole? Sorry, right here. Okay, so it has a top and a bottom. you know it's good milk that comes in jars. this used to be a nice white spring house. i saw a picture from probably 100 years ago with a little white cube. and you would put your milk in that. and this is actually where we cool our milk for half a day. oh you still do it okay and then we take it in to the ice house nice how cold do you think this is well stick your foot in there sometimes i come home from work and i stick my oh wow that's really cold so good wow it is very cold that's so cold when we got home that evening i got to see willie start up the air compressor to get that water running a little afternoon round he's gonna Start up this air compressor. Just loosen the belt tension here. Okay, how'd you do that? Oh, this is the lever. Okay. Okay. You like those Honda motors? I do. They're nice. I just choke it. They know we're gluten-free. They like biscuits and gravy. They've made us biscuits and gravy, y'all. Biscuits and gravy. And they fed us. I was a little surprised they'd have it way up in Ohio, but it was a very southern meal. So is Ohio the south? No. Because we're eating biscuits and gravy. I don't think it's sweet. And they do sweet tea. Well, I don't know. I don't know if it's tonight. No, that's not what I'm saying. They offered me sweet tea at the... Oh, at the one place. Yeah. Biscuits, gravy. What's this? It's the same salad stuff. Salad. Okay. Look at you guys. Yum. Is biscuits and gravy a staple here for you? Not necessarily. I didn't know... We probably eat a lot of it. Okay. It's not one of those things that we really, really go for. Yeah. They offered me sweet tea this afternoon. And now biscuits and gravy. Are you sure this is not the South? How is it Bek? It's delicious. Ohio biscuits and gravy. Yeah, two thumbs up. Happy day. I'll tell you why. This Amish lifestyle, it's a lot easier to rise down. The sun, there's no temptation. There's no Wi-Fi. In the morning, we get up with the sun. We're out. You can hear Rebecca and William talking and laughing, looking at the horses. Just... Getting that morning light in our sun, I mean our eyes. William's got a little bit of a homestead, but contrary to popular belief, not every Amish is agrarian, and certainly not every Amish is sustenance farming, meaning, They're growing all their needs and supplies within even the direct community. They're bringing in lots of items as supplemental items in modern conveniences. But Will and I were talking last night. The modern conveniences, whether you're Amish or English, comes with a bill and sometimes other prices. So you have to weigh whether it's worth it or not because everything has a price. Even conveniences, there's an inconvenience hidden somewhere. And sad to say... We have to leave our friends behind. Cindy, thank you very much. Wonderful meals, wonderful hospitality. Here are our thoughts as we leave. See if you guys can relate to some of these after your experience through our eyes and them. And let me know what you think. Is the Amish, is this what you thought the Amish would be like or not? What part were and what part weren't? Just left the Amish. What an experience. Is it everything we thought it would be? And more. I was going to say more. It was weird playing with the kid that didn't know English. Yeah. How did you figure it out? I'll just say okay. Okay. We have more in common than we have not in common. And we have a lot to learn from anybody. Especially from them. Okay, what of the Amish are we going to apply to our own life? You know, in the evening we just sat on the porch and talked with him. There was that one evening where visitors came and there was no phones, no Wi-Fi. Just everybody sitting around. Talking. Talking was the entertainment. I really did like that. I don't know how to apply it to life yet. As hard as visiting other people and... Well, you kind of have to have a community to make that work go ahead. Well, I was going to say, we're going to have to have other people who want to do that. But remember at Polyface, we learned from Daniel Salatin, somebody has to be the first generation. Yes. Now, that was speaking about land, but it could apply to that. Another health thing we learned at the health event at Polyface was it's better to be on the Ethernet. Yeah. We need to get it. We need to get it. We have it. If we had less Wi-Fi, I think we would all be more present and available. Yes, I agree with that. And I would like that. Yeah. So I think there would be added benefits besides the health detriment of Wi-Fi radiation. Yeah. It's like the community aspect. It's like they look to other people for information and entertainment. And now we look to this for our information and entertainment. The other thing is that they all had a lot of books. Okay. When we visited Yuri and his family, there was a lot of books at Williams and Cindy's house that they were currently reading. They just had them out on their table next to their chair, you know? thanks to Willie, Cindy and his precious family and everyone we visited you guys have been so kind and amazing and hopefully we give a glimpse to the world of who you really are thank you happy day