Wife and some of our kids brought dinner to the Amish family that owned the horses lastnight. Sunday I had made a huge crock of Chicken Corn Soup, which is a favorite among the Amish. Also brought a fresh garden salad and a bunch of home made brownies.
Basically just a night to sit down and get to know each other. It is kind of unusual for an English family to sit down with an Amish family and share a meal. Mostly because people don't realize how friendly they really are, too many people think they're aloof, and they're just not.
I had spoken with the father on saturday when he called and told him we wanted to just drop off some soup, but he insisted that we stay for dinner. I told him we would and to tell his wife that she didn't have to worry about dinner that night, and I knew that would make her happy.
We got there around 5:30ish and introductions were done, they have 7 kids, no I don't remember their names, I barely remember the names of my kids, we have 6. His wife quickly heated up the soup while I showed the kids and her the video of the crash, and pictures of the damage and the pictures of the truck I'm buying. He told us that they found a hole in the fence in the pasture, but they don't know how it got there.
It was a fun night, lots of laughter, my youngest was playing with their kids. My oldest daughter was talking to their oldest daughter. Their oldest son (11) ate 6 brownies. The amish generally don't let their kids eat sweets before bed, but lastnight was an exception apparently. In typical Amish fashion they looked at the good that came out of this. They made new friends. While the horse that was killed was his team lead, he sees that as an opportunity to train a new lead as well as teach the boys how to train a horse.
They enjoyed the soup, and were surprised that I made it myself because Amish men don't cook unless it's grilling meat. His wife asked us for the brownie recipe, which is a great compliment. She wouldn't ask if she didn't like them. She also asked about the "rivals", otherwise known as dumplings, in the soup. The amish don't do that, but I was taught to do that. She really liked them too, and asked how I made them.
After dinner I sat down with the father and we talked about settlement. We settled on an amount which is enough to buy a truck that I found, including tax. We'll have that check in a couple of days.
I told them that if they need to get somewhere or something hauled after I get the truck to give me a call. My family actually lives our lives very similar to the Amish, but we drive cars, have TV's, 3d printers and computers. But we can our own food, make most of it from scratch and try to live practical and pragmatic lives. We'll also be dropping off Christmas cookies for them. We do that every year, but not just for family friends, but I drop them off at businesses we frequent. Which has been a plus, one business gives me discounts now.
Last year we made about 36dozen cookies.
A great night indeed. While we were talking we discovered that they know a lot of the same Amish families that I know, including the family where we got our puppy.