My Bus Trip to Shipshewana Indiana.

I just returned from my third bus trip. The first two were 7-9 days long. They were all pleasant in their own way. The first was to New York City with the Fond du Lac Wisconsin senior center.  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2017/10/our-visit-to-big-apple.html This trip was mostly visiting the most popular landmarks and attractions around the city. The next was a trip to Maine. http://www.thecabincountess.com/2022/10/my-nine-day-bus-trip-to-coastal-maine.html This trip was a lot of sightseeing and seeing the beauty of the state. It also included a trip to Niagara Falls. Both of these trips went to areas that would be difficult to drive to for this country bumpkin. It took the stress out of traveling for me. The trips are quite structured so if you are a free spirit and like to do your own thing, this isn't for you.

My recent trip was only three days long. It was to Shipshewana, Indiana. It wasn't as far away but also included activities I would not have done on my own. It did include a little more shopping time than I would have liked. I don't enjoy window shopping. I buy what I need when I need it. However, I did learn a lot the rest of the time.

We left bright and early on a Wednesday. The bus picked up people in two more locations, and we had two rest stops so the trip went quite fast. Since I was traveling single I had a seat mate I didn't know. It turned out to be a fun trip. She was a great person, and we had some fun conversations and learned about each other’s lives. We arrived in downtown Shipshewana in the middle of the afternoon, leaving two hours of shopping. I didn't spend 10 cents. I was under the impression this was an Amish community and the whole town was Amish stores. I was wrong. The Amish and Mennonite populations live in the outskirts. They have many nice businesses but I didn't discover any in town.

After shopping we checked into the hotel and headed out to Yoder's Family Dinner. It was supposed to be a family style dinner at an Amish farm. It actually was, but that population is very wealthy it seems. The story is that the Jayco corporation which makes campers has a big factory in the area. Many of the Amish farmers went to work there and made a lot of money. They were able to buy land and build fancy houses. I expected a homespun house with a wood stove and scrubbed wood floors. Instead it was a beautiful home on a lake. I have only seen white Amish houses with a barn and horses out back. It did have horses and a buggy parked by the lake, but it also had a big pontoon boat. They seem to be doing very well.

The meal was excellent and we all went back to the hotel stuffed with mashed potatoes, meatloaf, ham, green beans, salad, homemade bread, noodles and pie. We were miserable but happy.

The next morning we visited the Silver Star Leather shop where they demonstrated making a belt and answered questions about the process and how they started the business. The shop owner also worked for the camper factory but in recent years after Covid, the camper business is not as strong as it was. This man started the leather business and is successful enough to stop working at the factory either by choice or was forced to quit. The store was filled with very nice leather goods. I don't know for sure but I don't believe he is Amish. He sells on Amazon and has a phone.

Next was little more shopping. We stopped at a little Amish house where the woman made jams and jellies. She used white grape juice for sweetener. 100% white grape juice doesn't contain any added sugar so it was a popular stop. Then we were off to the Daniel O'Donnell show. My parents were huge fans and had most of his CD's. They listened to him everyday. I liked him fine but I really wasn't a big fan. I knew most of the songs by osmosis. I was very pleasantly surprised. He put on an amazing show for three hours. I teared up a little when he sang my mom's favorite song of his, the Green Green Grass of Home. 

Since it was a three hour show, it was dinner time when it was finished. We had another family dinner at a different farm. This one wasn't so fancy but still nice. The host was an Amish man who was about 34 years old. His little children helped him serve and collect dishes. A question and answer session afterward revealed a lot about their way of life. No question was off limits. He was very open about the way they live and had a great sense of humor. The prayer before dinner was in high German. They mostly speak Pennsylvania Dutch and English. The food was about the same and again we rolled out of there stuffed to our ears.

The next day was Friday and we were going home later that day, but before we left we visited a few more cottage industries. The first was Teaberry Wood Products. It is an Amish-Mennonite family run business specializing in handcrafted baskets, puzzles, cutting boards and other items. We were allowed make a small wall hanging out of wood in the shape of a quilt square. It was great fun.

For a short time we were allowed to go into a large grocery store that sold bulk foods as well as other grocery items. There were many Amish shopping in there. It was explained that there are Amish, there are Mennonites who can drive cars and also Mennonites who only drive buggies. So when I say Amish, I don't really know for sure. I can't tell the difference by seeing them unless they are driving a car.

 

 

It was now lunch time. We went to Ben's Pretzels. I hadn't heard of Ben's Pretzels but the owner Ben met us at his restaurant. He told his story of how he started making pretzels many years ago when he was young. He has left the Amish but some of his siblings are still practicing that way of life. The business has grown to 150 locations. They sell in many college and NFL stadiums as well as shopping malls and even Meijer grocery stores. Ben taught us how to make pretzels. I see another recipe blog in my future. He didn't share his recipe but it will be a good challenge for me to come up with one. He prepared the dough and showed us how to roll and twist the pretzel. Then he came along, picked them up in order and baked them. The warm baked pretzel we made was returned to us to enjoy eating.

 

Our next stop was an Amish schoolhouse. We picked up a gentleman who was able to get us into the school while it was in session. No photos were allowed in the dinners or the school. This was a fairly new building. There were 44 students from 1st grade to 8th. They had 4 teachers in one room. They had just sectioned off an area for 3rd grade because there were so many of them, but it was only separated by a cabinet. One of the male teachers told us all about the school system. Children only go to 8th grade or age 15. At that time they find work or help in the family business. The children were very well behaved but they are modernized a little. Some of the families are more liberal and allow fleece jackets, clogs and more colorful clothing. Actually outside next to the building were parked several electric bikes. Even though it is controversial, some families use electric bikes instead of the buggy. We also noticed solar panels on almost all the Amish homes. The school lights were battery operated. I am thinking that the homes are getting away from lanterns and have moved to charging batteries with solar power.

 

After a short tour of the countryside, the final stop was the Casket Company. It seemed an appropriate end. We learned a lot. Caskets and Coffins are two different things. Caskets are rectangular shaped with four sides and coffins are tapered at the head and usually the feet. They have six sides. This is a Coffin, but it looks like it's only tapered at the head. The craftsman builds them to family specifications. These burial boxes only cost $850 compared to funeral home caskets which can be priced in the thousands. This stop was more interesting than I expected it to be.

By now everyone was tired, dehydrated and ready to head home. The average age of my other bus tours was much younger. Many were in their upper 50's or lower 60's. Many were newly retired or still working. I think the average age on this trip was higher although it is hard for me to tell age. It was about 4:00pm EDT when we headed home. I got to my car and after a half hour drive I arrived home about 11:00 pm. 

It was a great trip. We packed so much into 3 days.

Cleaning Your Closet Leads To All Sorts Of Things

I haven't written for a while. Actually I have, but they are sitting in my queue unpublished. I have been in a "mood". It isn't a good mood nor a bad mood, but it is definitely a mood. I was trying to think of something interesting that I haven't written about before. That's a tall order considering I been writing this blog for almost twelve years. I was going to write a clever post about things rattling around in my head or things I have observed in this political climate, but that isn't what I need to dwell on. I actually did write a whole paragraph of venting and deleted it. Just writing it down released it from my mind. It's time for everyone to do the same thing. Being bombarded with so much anger is not healthy. So in order to move on with all of that, I decided to do something really important. I cleaned my closet and got rid of another batch of stuff. In doing so I found a wool sweater I have been keeping for years. It was itchy, pilling and a little snug, but I liked it even though I didn't wear it. I decided to unravel it to repurpose it. 

Even I didn't know what a sharp turn this blog was going to take, but this is what I came up with. The first thing I did was undo all the seams and remove the zipper. Then piece by piece I began unraveling the knitting. I have done this many times. Sometimes the sweater seams are sewn with a serger. This means the seam is stitched and the excess is cut off in the same process. Those sweaters can't be unraveled into a single strand of yarn. It will unravel into a piece only one row long. Usually a nice wool sweaters like this are perfect for repurposing the yarn. 

When all the sweater pieces were unraveled and rolled into balls, they were ready to use. I just had to decide what to make.

There is a lot of yardage in a sweater, so I can probably make several small things. The first project I made was a crocheted pumpkin. There are a lot of free pumpkin patterns available on Ravelry.com or Pinterest. This pattern was free when I signed up for a newsletter. I can't share the pattern but it is from Briana K Designs. Just look her up, you should be able to find it. It is crocheted in a rectangle, sewn up and stuffed. For the stuffing I used the batting in an old pillow. This project repurposed things I was getting rid of. I think it's better than ending up in the landfill.

 

This project still needs a little embellishment before it's totally finished. For the stem I just went outside and snapped the top off of one of my bird feeder pumpkins. I cut the top off of them anyway. 

Enjoy your day. Focus on the good simple things in life. Those things are the most important. 

This is my second pumpkin project this month. The first was a project I did with my daughter and her mother in law. We like to do a seasonal craft together. We folded paperback books into Christmas Trees last Christmas. https://www.thecabincountess.com/2023/12/2023-christmas-crafting-project.html

 

Using that theme we made pumpkins. We drew a circle shape on an old paperback book. My son in law cut the shape with a band saw or jig saw, I'm not sure which. Then page by page we creased the pages at the spline removing the cover. Attaching the first page to the last makes the shape of a pumpkin. A little spray paint and some decorations made a cute decoration. 

 

Preserve Peppers by Drying Them

I have a friend who is big into gardening. He starts his own plants and must have a great system because he has the biggest and most prolific plants I have ever seen. This spring he gave me several tomato and pepper plants. I don't have a garden so I passed them on to my daughters. There were many different varieties. All of the plants produced very well. I would usually get 1 or 2 peppers per plant, but these were loaded. 

I didn't want to see any go to waste so I experimented with drying some. I picked 12 small green and red peppers. I diced them with my favorite Vidalia chop wizard (http://www.thecabincountess.com/2012/12/a-day-of-recovery.html). I had exactly 4 cups. I don't have a dehydrator but I put the diced peppers on parchment paper on the air fryer rack in my Ninja oven. I used the dehydrator setting which was 150 degrees.

I dried them for 7 hours stirring every couple hours. Eventually they were very dry to the touch.

4 cups of diced peppers turned into 3/4 cup of dried peppers.

At this point I ground the dried peppers in a small grinder. I didn't quite make powder but ground it pretty fine. 

To make it simple:

12 peppers = 4 cups diced peppers = 3/4 cup dried peppers =1/3 cup ground pepper

I think it's amazing there is that much water in vegetables. I did the math and a heaping teaspoon (1.33 t) is equal to 1 pepper. It smells really good. I am not sure what I will use it in, but there are a lot of recipes that this could be added to for additional flavor.

Pumpkin Bars

 

I have been asked why I write this blog. I have asked myself the same question particularly when I write stories about insignificant topics like making cheese or chasing bees. It is pretty boring to read about someones family vacation or how to repair a coffee pot. I do it so I can find my own recipes or important events easily by typing the subject in the search bar. It's a way of organizing my life by year. But more than that, it's a way of being heard. It may not be anyone else's experience, but people don't want to hear what you have to say. They don't want details, just the cliff notes. I am an introvert so I would rather not talk then. When I write, I can include a few details. Even then, it can't be too long. People are easily bored. Every single time I post a blog, I get a pang of anxiety but I do it anyway.

The art of conversation is lost. Today's technology is somewhat if not totally responsible. Texting in incomplete sentences using abbreviations is a way of the world. Snapchat is a snap of a persons life that doesn't require a response and disappears quickly. What is the point of that? I am at fault as well. When I tell a story in person, I get tongue tied and skip to the end because I can tell I am losing their attention. Often I miss important details, so what I say is either forgotten or doesn't make sense. I can identify we have a problem but I can't fix it. 

My wish for the future generations is that they ask questions about their heritage and listen to stories their parents, grandparents and even friends are telling. I was in the car with my daughter recently and I mentioned something about my college days. She had never heard it before. It wasn't an important story but it made me realize people don't really know each other very well, even our children. We try to have family meals but even that is hard to arrange. Those times are when the best conversations occur. In the 1970's I listened to a song called Stop and Smell the Roses. We all need to start doing that.

So that being said, I made Pumpkin Bars yesterday. Type Pumpkin in my search bar, and you will see I like pumpkin. Here is the recipe I used for the pumpkin bars. Sorry there is a piece missing from the pan. I had to sample it to make sure it was good. Well maybe the truth is I was so excited to eat it, I forgot to take a picture. 

Pumpkin Bars

4 eggs

2 c. brown sugar

1 15 oz can of pure pumpkin puree

3/4 c. (1 1/2 sticks) melted butter or a scant cup of oil

2 c. flour

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

2 tsp cinnamon 

1 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Mix the first 5 ingredients together until well blended. Add the dry ingredients and pour into the greased jelly roll pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean

Frosting

4 T.  softened butter

1 8 oz. block of cream cheese

1 tsp vanilla

3 c. powdered sugar

1 T.  milk or more if needed.

 

Yellow Jackets in the House AGAIN

This situation in my life was not going to be blog worthy. I wrote about it on facebook and thought that was the end to the story. Ten years ago I also wrote about this and didn’t want to revisit this subject. https://www.thecabincountess.com/2014/08/wasps-in-house.html  Now it is between me and the yellow jackets once again. 

It all started out as a perfectly normal summer day. I was out on my deck watering plants and when I bent over to water the last plant and the one closest to the back door, ouch!!!! I got stung by a bee, then another and yet another. I ran as fast as this old body can run, but they didn’t chase me. There was no need, they had taken up residency near my back door. My concern was soothing the stings and feeling sorry for myself. I didn’t know they had moved in at the time so I let a few days pass. Then I noticed a lot of bees swarming around outside the window. Forgetting all about the experience years before, I went out to look around. Bingo, there it was, a hole as big as a dime in the chinking right next to the door frame. It was the same senario as ten years before. I thought that it was not a problem. I would just plug the hole when it gets dark and that would be the end of it. 

Little did I know it wouldn't be as easy as I thought. It hasn't been easy at all. I did go out after dark and plug the hole. There were a few sentry bees guarding the hole, but not many and I was stealth. The hole was under the curve of the log, but I thought I did a good job. I sprayed wasp spray, plugged it with gap filling foam and caulked over it. The next day I went shopping for a couple hours and when I got home, the windows near the door were covered with live bees. I got the vacuum and started vacuuming bees, counting each one. I removed 80 bees. I guess by plugging the hole, I forced them to find an exit point inside the house. The difference between this year and the past experience is I can't find where they are coming in. At first I thought they were coming in under the door, so I put a new door seal on the bottom of the door. Although they weren't coming in as fast, they were still appearing mostly on the window. My next idea was to get a couple yellow jacket traps. I went to a local store. I live in a small town without many options. They didn't have any traps so I bought some mountain dew. I know soft drinks attract bees. I set up a container inside and outside. By this time it was bedtime, so I would see what would happen in the morning. In the morning there were only two bees in the container but as the day went on I caught more, but not enough.

The container outside hadn't caught any, so scratch that idea. For the next couple days I observed. The bees were still finding a way in through the original hole and had found another crack to explore. 

I got out some steel wool and stuffed it in the gaps. I sprayed WD40 because it worked last time and sprayed a soap and water solution. I emptied two containers of wasp spray, and still they were buzzing around. Now it was war. I got out some Murphy’s Oil soap and a super soaker squirt gun I had in my thrift store pile. I am not sure I can post the picture of me in action even if it is a fake water gun, but I did look a little looney. From my research you can't post real guns for obvious reasons, but non-violent posts like this are fine. 

I filled the water gun lots of times and every time I directly hit the bee, it went down.  I’m not sure if it will discourage the rest if them but in the last three hours I have seen only two live bees in the house. There are still a few milling around outside but the population is less.  If this fails, the power washer is the next thing in my arsenal. One way or another, I am going to win this battle. 

I admit it is probably my own fault. Every year the house should be inspected and any small cracks should be filled. I completely forgot to do this, but I probably won’t forget again.

Homemade Ketchup

I posted this recipe for Ketchup more than ten years ago. https://www.thecabincountess.com/2013/05/make-your-own-ketchup-and-barbeque-sauce.html. It's good but it makes a big batch. It's way too much for me. I recently found an easier and delicious version. 

The other day I wanted to doctor up some canned pork and beans. They are so much better than straight out of the can but I was almost out of ketchup. I had to improvise which I often do. This is what I found. I am not sure where it came from so I can't give credit to the original person, but I did tweak the recipe a bit. I always look for products that contain more healthy ingredients. Many purchased ketchup brands have high fructose corn syrup. This is sweetened with maple syrup rather than the date paste I used in my previous recipe.

Just combine:

2-6 oz. cans of tomato paste

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/3 cup maple syrup

3/4 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup plus a small amount of water if it seems too thick

That's it. Just mix everything together. It's super easy, healthier than store bought and much less expensive. I know people are Ketchup snobs and will only buy certain name brands so this might not be for you, but I think it's just as good. I just put it in a Heinz squeeze bottle so maybe I am fooling myself.  I also made barbequed hamburger. I just kept adding this ketchup to browned ground beef until it looked about right. It's very flavorful so I didn't use any other ingredients. Easy and good for a quick meal.

Grass-carrying Wasps

I learned something new this week. For years I have had a bee hotel filled with bamboo tubes. Every summer several of the tubes get sealed off with plugs. I believe it's the mason bees laying eggs in the tubes and sealing them with a mud plug to protect them. This year looks different. A couple holes are stuffed with grass and another looks like the grass was trimmed. 

I reached out to our local county nature club. Some nice fellow filled me in on what was happening. I had never heard of this. "These are made by a harmless species of wasp...Isodontia. I would just leave them alone. The wasps will not harm the mason bees."

I looked it up. Sure enough, Isodontia. The common name is grass-carrying wasp. Why have I never heard of them. They can sting but aren't aggressive. I tried to get a photo of them in action, but I don't have the patience to sit there for hours. I found this public domain photo. I have seen these wasps, but I never thought much about them. They look like a cross between a fly and a wasp.

I guess we are never to old to learn new things.