4 Things We Learned This Week (Firefox, Pets, Amish, stress)

Friday Fragments is hosted my Half-Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post. Here we go:

1. Video Lag in Firefox

   Sometimes we have trouble with viewing YouTube videos using our Firefox browser. They kept stopping and stalling. Hopefully the solution I found at The Older Geek: How to Stop YouTube Lag in Firefox Browser, will solve this problem. It's just a matter of changing frequency Firefox saves the open tabs for restoring.

2. Pet Ownership

   American pet ownership has declined since 2006--the first decline in dog or cat households since 1991! Here's a link to the USA article: Pet Ownership Declines, but More Households Loyal to Dogs.

3. Amish Tidbits

   When reading "The Face of Heaven" by Murray Pura, I learned that the Amish do not wear wedding bands--it's not their custom. Single women have black knapps and married women have white ones.  (UPDATED 8/12/12:  Don't know if the knapp thing is really true or not because at the zoo Saturday we saw some little Amish girls with white knapps--I'm sure they weren't married!)

4. STRESS!

   I'd say 99% of my stress comes from computer wars. Now I lost my Flash Player--here one morning, gone by afternoon! Trying to reinstall it but having difficulty. ARRRGH! I need this to play video and my computer games! Oh, how annoying!

Here is the pet Olympic schedule of events for this weekend:
FRIDAY, AUGUST 10
Snoopendous Sniff-A-Thon ~ http://lunadogslife.blogspot.com/

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11
The Great Tennis Ball Tournament ~ http://kwing-dogeared.blogspot.com/

SUNDAY, AUGUST 12
Closing Ceremony ~ http://finnhoward.blogspot.com/

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6 Friday Fragments (funny, Google, Graduation, celebrities, job, beards)

Friday Fragments is hosted my Half-Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post. Here we go:

1. Senior Moments

   Jodi's Journey had the funniest post I saw this week with this funny video about Senior Moments. Fortunately, I'm not this bad off yet!
   

2. Google Search

   It was nice to know someone actually did find our blog through a Google search. It was nice of them to leave a comment letting me know too! They searched for "how to fold a napkin" and did the crown fold using the instructions I shared!


3. Graduation and Certified

   The highlight of our week was with Abby completing her advanced training class at PetSmart and passing her Canine Good Citizen Test. We are so proud of her!  Of course, her diploma is displayed on our refrigerator!

4. Andy Griffith R.I.P.

   
   
   I was sad to learn Andy Griffith died of a heart attack at age 86. I was surprised to see he was divorced twice and was on his third marriage. I was also surprised to see he never won an Emmy award but Don Knotts did for his role as Barny Fife on The Andy Griffith Show. My dad always enjoyed watching him on "Matlock" too. He loved his hometown in N.C. and even has a street named after him! I learned all this from an article on Yahoo News (sorry, I didn't get the link). I enjoyed reading The Way Back To Mayberry--Lessons From A Simpler Time by Joey Fann.

5. Cat Sitting

   Remember when I wrote about My Dream Job? Well, I actually get to take a crack at it during my vacation week coming up the week of the 16th. A friend has asked me to take care of her two cats and two birds while she is gone and I am excited!

6. Beards

   
   
   When reading Gone Missing by Linda Castillo this week, I learned that in an Amish community, men who are married have beards. That is definitely more noticeable than a ring! I wonder if this is actually true. My review of this book will be posted tonight on our book blog if interested.

(We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during June and July to The Wounded Warrior Project which helps wounded warriors and their families returning from current conflicts.)

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Shopping at Three Amish Stores (Part 3)

After our house tour, we went into town and enjoyed some shopping.

First Stop:  Hershberger's Farm and Bakery Ltd.  Wow, lots of animals, even a goat on the roof which I spotted as soon as we entered the parking lot.  They had a petting farm area with more farm animals out back and a bakery and store with all kinds of things but I didn't buy anything here.

big horse you could pay to ride

Biggest horse in Holmes County

Goats to pet

pony rides

Zork--a mix between a horse and a zebra

They had lots of animals which is where I spent most of my time visiting at this stop. They even had a zork which I've never seen or even knew existed. It's a mix between a horse and a zebra. It looks like a horse with stripes! Have you ever seen one? They also had pigs, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, goats and lots of animals behind the petting farm. Off the store was an area for adoptable puppies. They had hand sanitizer available for those who wanted to pet the doggies, of course I did. The cute fluffy St. Bernard sneaked out the door, but was quickly retrieved.

St. Bernard--So Cute!

Puppies for Adoption

Second Stop:  Heini's Cheese Chalet

cheese fudge

This store was so charming and fun! The cheese section was very big. They give you toothpicks and have samples in a tub nearby some of the cheeses.  I sampled quite a bit of the cheese way at the end of the row and thought it tasted like fudge!  Then I looked at the label and saw it WAS cheese fudge. I was very tempted to buy some, but we already had lots of bakery at home so I didn't get any. They had chocolate mint, chocolate peanut butter, chocolate with nuts, and coconut. I loved them all! In addition to the cheeses, they also had a candy area where there was some more fudge and an area of small gifts. This is where I made my first purchase, a nice souvenir that I thought was so cute:

My souvenir of my trip to Amish Country

The cat looks like my Manny boy and I laughed when I saw this--the cat seeing a tiger in the mirror!  I hung it up in my kitchen as soon as I got home.  (Manny loves it!)

At this stop we discovered our bus had an oil leak but fortunately, God provided someone who had the small part that was needed to fix it and got it fixed for us.  Most of us weren't even aware there was a problem until after we loaded up to go to our next stop and the Pastor told us what happened. 



Stop 3:  Ashery Country Store

That yellow is my lemon ice cream cone I bought here--delicious!

It was a great day but long.  We left at 8:45 a.m. and got back at 6 p.m.  I sure hope I get to go again some time! 

I hope you will go look at Parts 1 and 2 of this series about my trip too if you haven't seen them yet!


(50 cents per legitimate comment during May goes to Joni and Friends for family retreat scholarships for those having special needs children.)

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My Visit At An Amish Home (Part 2)

The Garage Where We Ate--Dining Hall

When we arrived at the Amish home, the first thing we did was get in line for the restroom. We had a group of 42 seniors and so we ate in the garage which was one big huge room (bigger than the floor plan of our whole house).  I wondered how many potty breaks we would have and as it turned out, we had an opportunity to use a restroom at every stop we made.  I was so glad to hear that this particular family didn't mind having their picture taken and we were encouraged to take pictures.  There are different "levels" 1-10 of Amish, the lower the level, the more strict and simple.

Kitchen in Garage--Our Amish Couple Tour Guide seated on left

My plate was full--Delicious!

The garage dining hall had a good-sized bathroom in the one corner and a whole long counter with a stove, refrigerator, sink and an answering machine. This house was a stop on Amish Tours and they regularly had groups in as their business. When we were there, the son and husband were working so we didn't get to meet them. However, the mother and the three daughters served us a very good meal and answered our questions.  I was surprised it wasn't set up as a buffet; instead, they served drinks individually and passed the food all the way down both sides of the two long tables. We had home-made bread, home-made peanut butter, salad, mashed potatoes, green beans, chicken, beef and noodles. For dessert, they had three pies: strawberry, chocolate and rhubarb. They made it easy on us and didn't make us choose--they let us have a slice of each! Everyone had a chance for seconds on everything too! No one left hungry and when we passed a Burger King, no one wanted to stop there.

Amish House--Huge Rooms

After we ate, we were permitted to walk through the house.  I was surprised at how big the rooms were and the modern looking kitchen they had.  I was also surprised that the kids rooms had clothes all over the floor and most of the beds were not made.  I'm not sure why they didn't have things put away better since they knew we were coming, but maybe they wanted to show us that the Amish children are not so much different than the non-Amish.  I would not want to be Amish simply because the women and girls are expected to wear dresses all the time.  Even if they go horseback riding, they still wear a dress over pants.    This particular family had a generator for electricity.

The Youngest Girl and Her Pony

The family we visited had two dogs (that I saw) and horses.  The youngest girl even had a pony and she was giving buggy rides.  Riding with her was a lot of fun because she did not want to go slow and got that pony moving.  We zipped around that farm and turned so fast I thought it was going to flip over, but it didn't.  That 10-yr.-old girl knew exactly what she was doing and made sure everyone got a ride who wanted one.  Too bad I don't have a picture of me riding, but I felt dumb asking someone to take my picture so just took a picture of someone else in the group getting a ride with her.

One of the Horses That I Pet

This was so much fun and so worth the $25 it cost me to go.  From the house, we stopped at three Amish businesses and yes, I did buy something.  To be continued tomorrow!

Their dog biting the Horse's leg

(50 cents per legitimate comment during May goes to Joni and Friends for family retreat scholarships for those having special needs children.)

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My Trip To Amish Country--Millersburg, Ohio (Part 1)

Cows and sheep

Last Tuesday I went with our senior group from church to visit Amish country for the first time and enjoyed every minute of it!  It was a two-hour bus ride there so I spent most of that time reading Never Fall Down.  Here are some pictures that I took from the bus using the sports setting to help cut down on the blur:

Horses

Lots of fields

 We saw lots of horses and some cows along the way in wide open fields where all you could see for miles was fields. I wondered how they possibly could take care of such a large area and so many animals! It was fun seeing a whole different culture just two hours away.

Horse pulling a buggy

Thanks for driving, Pat!

Along the way we saw several horse-drawn buggies but it was hard to get a good picture because we were moving pretty fast and by the time I saw the buggies, and got my camera ready, they were out of view.  At one point though, there was one on the road just ahead of us and we passed it up.  I was surprised the big bus didn't scare the horse.  I'm also surprised there aren't more buggy accidents since they plod along on main roads.

Even windmills

We also saw some windmills on the way which surprised me. I wasn't expecting to see those! We stopped at a cheese shop to pick up an Amish couple, Jonas and Edna, who shared some things about the community and its history with us and also came along with us to the home of an Amish family where we ate lunch and several stores that we visited during our trip. More about our visit at the Amish home tomorrow.

(50 cents per legitimate comment during May goes to Joni and Friends for family retreat scholarships for those having special needs children.)

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