INSPIRATION ~ VISITING THE ONLY COLONY OF OLD ORDER AMISH IN TEXAS

From time to time, I'm going to post what I'm thinking about when I garden.  What do you think about? My mind seems to ramble from one topic to another. I guess in psychology it's called free association.
Here's one example:
It's dry
~ I need to water
~ Who invented the water hose?
~ My soil has a lot of organic matter
~ Good thing
~ My grandmother's vegetable garden
~ She wore a bonnet all the time
~ She was German
~ I liked helping her water
~ I wonder if anyone still wears a bonnet in the garden ~ the AMISH farmers do.

I dream of the Amish a lot. They choose to live without the electrical devices and hectic pace that we seem to hold on to with gusto.  I've always wanted to visit an Old Order Amish community and watch them plow with horses.
I've done a lot of research on this topic and a couple of years ago found out something startling: you don't have to go to Indiana, Ohio, or Pennsylvania to find the Amish.  We have one colony here in Texas. It's down in Bee county and it's hard to find. They value their privacy and there are no signs like AMISH COMMUNITY STRAIGHT AHEAD.
We went down to Corpus Christi this weekend to visit the Texas A&M University campus. On the way home, I found my notes and charts and decided to search for the Amish colony.
They do exist, but be prepared....it's not like the pictures you see of Lancaster county. And there are no tourists.
Still, the grasslands, the windmills, and their rugged determination to make a living off the land are what inspire me to garden as simply as possible. The colony is still young (started 11 years ago), but there is one store and a growing number of  farmsteads.  There's also a demonstration farm, but we did not get to stop and see it this time.
The Amish do not like having their pictures taken, so I photographed only the buildings.

Water is life. This is the water system for one of the farmsteads. There are no large rivers or lakes in this part of the county.

A typical farmstead. Notice the windmill and the elevated water tank.

I love the prairies that are now so rare in much of Texas.

This looks like one of the newest buildings. It might be the school, but I'm not certain.

The Amish build all of their own buildings.

The combination store sells tack, buggies, and other Amish items.

                              I wanted to buy some bread, but it was too late in the day.

A buggy coming down the road.

This the only sign that gives you a hint.

The population of the colony as of 2010 is 75 Amish.

Thanks for visiting. That's it for this time.

David/ :-)

A simpler time