What I did on my summer vacation

Anyone else remember going back to school and having to write a story called "What I did on my summer vacation"? Mine was always fairly drab. We lived in a very small town (population about 900), and there was nothing exciting about it. My stories usually consisted of me telling about riding my bicycle everyday, reading a ton of books in the summer reading program, going to the fair for one afternoon and maybe going fishing at the lake in the nearby town. I always hated writing about it because it seemed so boring. We never took family vacations like so many others did. But that's ok, I am not scarred for life over it. Looking back, they were really good summer vacations. I read ALOT, I got plenty of exercise and got to fight with my sisters everyday! To top it off, my mom was home with us everyday. Sounds like a really great childhood to me!

Anywho, we took a short trip to Ohio Amish country for our summer vacation this year. We didn't go to gawk and exploit the Amish. Seems alot of people do. It has become SO touristy in some areas. I don't like that. We stayed between Sugarcreek and New Philadelphia at a place called Clara's Country Cottage. It wasn't fancy, it felt like home. It was in the middle of the countryside and very cozy.

While over there, we stopped at Lehman's. Lehman's is a non-electric hardware store. The place is HUGE! It has become quite crowded with people since I was last there about 7 years ago. That was a bit dissappointing. We managed around the crowd and picked up some needed (and wanted) items for our home. Here is a wall oil lamp we put in our living room:

We have this in our living room and do plan on using it. We also stocked up on lamp oil and wicks for this lamp and for our table oil lamps.

I have been wanting a wooden clothes drying rack to hang the smaller laundry items on, mostly for our winter drying. We line dry all of our laundry year round. During the winter, it is hung in the basement. I have already used and really like how much fits on it. This will free up alot clothesline for things.



Lehman's also carries lye for soapmaking. I searched everywhere in my area for it and cannot find it. They sell a 10# jug of it.

Next on my list was bulk food. We found a great place (non-touristy) in Baltic, Ohio. It's called Baltic Mills. Stocked up on various flours, sugars, yeast, oatmeal and spices. We also stopped in Sugarcreek at Swiss Village Bulk Foods. Some things were more expensive in Sugarcreek, but not by much. An example of the Baltic Mills prices are: hard red and white wheat flours were $0.85/lb, and whole wheat pastry flour was $0.68/lb. Picture of some of my bulk food storage:


On Saturday, we visited The Farm at Walnut Creek. It was a nice place to see exotic and domestic animals. Our daughter really loved it. Here she is feeding a goat:


That was our summer vacation! It was very relaxing since we didn't do a bunch of running around. We were gone 4 days and the above is all we did. Of course we ate some really delicious food! Mrs. Yoder's Kitchen in Mt. Hope is SO good!