City of Murals

In late September when traveling from Shipshewana Indiana to Sugarcreek Ohio we stopped briefly in Ligonier, Indiana.

The murals all depict historical places, businesses, and events. No tax money has been used for the murals. All money and time has been donated by local foundations, individuals, businesses, and industries, even to the bronze plaques on each mural.

Mier Carriage

Tyler Tank Oil Company

Mier Car

Blazed Trail Garage

Ligonier 1835. (I took this one from our moving car)

There are now a total of 31 murals. Artists have been chosen from Bronson, Mich.; Winona Lake, Ind.; Goshen, Ind.; Butternut, Wis.; Kendallville, Ind.; and Albion, Ind. from the Dept. of Corrections at Chain O’ Lakes State Park.

It would have been fun to go on a hunt to spot all 31 but we were in a time crunch to get to our destination for the night. They offer a map on the city web page showing where the murals are located.

I’m linking up to Monday Mural hosted by Oakland Daily Photo.

Hope your Monday is going well.

A Church in a Barn…

When were were driving the Heritage Trail on a Sunday in Indiana it didn’t take us long to figure out that there was a church gathering happening in a room in this barn.

All the horses were unhitched from their buggies.

At one point a fussy little one had to be taken out to the buggy for something to soothe the tears.

I’m linking up to…

InSPIREd Sunday with Beth and Sally and

The Barn Collective with Tom The Backroads Traveller.

We are in the country again this weekend in Northeastern Washington State. The guys are working on finishing up a staircase project while us girls are walking and enjoying other things. The big storm that was suppose to hit the Western part of our state fizzled out. That’s okay by us. Hope your weekend is filled with peace.

Shipshe Flea Market Signs

When we were in Shipshewana we spent some time at the Flea Market and saw these signs and other merchandise.

The Time Out chairs cracked me up.

“I had a Fit Now I gotta sit” and Time Out ~ “Have Mercy on me O Lord For I’m in Trouble”

There were lots of items I wanted to bring home with me but alas my suitcase wasn’t the size of a pick-up truck.

I bought this Celebrations sign with discs and hearts to add for our family birthdays and anniversaries.

We are being threatened with a mighty wind storm and lots of rain to blow through our region. We have been busy “battening down the hatches” at this old house. We’ve mowed and cleaned out the planters and soon we’ll have more leaves to deal with because of the mighty winds. Hopefully we won’t lose power. Hope y’all are enjoying Fall!

Linking up with Lesley at signs, signs.

Neigh…

…of a horse.

While driving the country roads in Amish Country Ohio with our friends Bev and Harv we stopped to take a closer look at these noble creatures.

They noticed us and came closer to see if we had a treat for them.

We chose roads less traveled and we were rewarded with these beautiful scenes.

All these photos were taken on Wednesday September 28th in Holmes County, Ohio.

Linking up to ABC Wednesday for N is for Neigh. Thank you Mrs. Nesbitt for starting ABC and Roger and company for your hand in keeping it going.

Head over to Mennonite Girls Can Cook for my Cucumber Salsa Recipe.

Heritage Trail Mosaics…

On Sunday the 25th of September we traveled along the Heritage Trail in Amish/Mennonite Country, Indiana. These shots are from one of our first stops just south of downtown Shipshewana. This reminded me of the Goldilocks story for some reason.

We have had a soggy weekend with some sun breaks here and there. We have been quite lazy here at this old house this weekend. We were in church early Sunday morning where we started a new series on the Holy Spirit. It was a good start with more to come. After church we had breakfast out and stopped at Fred Meyer to buy some ingredients for chicken chili for our second meal of the day and it was real good. These days we are happy with two meals a day.

How was your weekend? It wouldn’t be hard to accomplish more than we did at this old house.

Monday is Thanksgiving in Canada and I wish our good neighbors a very Happy Thanksgiving Day. May God bless Canada today and forever…

Linking to Mosaic Monday with Maggie at Normandy Life. Thank you Maggie for being a great hostess of this meme.

La Grange, Indiana

I tried to get some information on this mural on line and couldn’t really find anything. There were some references to Corn School.

La Grange Methodist Church?

1st Presbyterian Church in La Grange, Indiana.

On our way to Shipshewana, Indiana from the Detroit airport we stopped in La Grange on Highway 20 a few miles from “Shipshe” for dinner and saw these churches and mural while scoping out our dinner options. It didn’t take long to decide on one of the two spots that were open. The barn was spotted on the road before we reached La Grange.

Linking up with Tom the Backroads Traveler for The Barn Collective,

InSPIREd Sunday with Beth and Sally,

and Monday Mural at Oakland Daily Photo

Combining these three memes since all these photos are from La Grange, Indiana.

Amazed in Amish Country…

E & S Sales: Come enjoy their unique varieties and wide selection of bulk flour, candy, nuts, snacks, dried fruit, baking ingredients and spices. They have cheese, meat, produce, jams & jellies, salsa, noodles and many other products. You can sit in their deli and enjoy a sandwich, salad, soup, slice of pie and ice cream. Check out their antiques on display while you browse the store and remember they are not open on Sunday!

We just kept pointing and exclaiming to each other as we walked the aisles. This is not your Costco variety bulk.

Me and my fellow shoppers.

The parking lot.

This is my niece’s mother in law. She and her hubby traveled from Michigan for our cooking show and offered to take us around to some of their favorite spots in Shipshe. I’m sorry I didn’t get a photo of the 4 of us together. Besides E & S they took us to their favorite snack spot, JoJo’s Pretzels! JoJo’s is located in the Davis Mercantile, four levels of shops with a carousel on one of the levels.

They have a sense of humor, too.

We finished off our morning at Yoder’s Red Barn Shoppes not to be mistaken for Yoder’s Meat and Cheese. I’ll save that for another post. Thank you Arden and Mary Lou for your hospitality!

We are having a soggy stay inside Saturday here at this old house. The colors are changing nicely in our corner of the world. Our Canadian neighbors are celebrating Thanksgiving all through this weekend with Monday being their official Thanksgiving Day. Here’s a photo of the back of our home with some fall color. I took this photo yesterday morning.

Enjoy your weekend everyone…

Early Fall Favorites…

We’re home from our week long trip to Shipshewana, Indiana and Sugarcreek, Ohio for the Showings of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Comedy Play. It was such an interesting area filled with things we don’t see everyday in the Seattle Area.

We were sorry to have to miss the annual Crafter’s Fall Fair that started after we moved from Indiana to Ohio. One of the nice treats on this Mennonite Girls Can Cook trip was that most of our husbands came along for the ride and it was good to have their support.

Fourteen of us arrived on Saturday night to Shipshe and on Sunday, our only full free day, we took the Heritage Trail driving tour of the Amish/Mennonite countryside. We fit into three cars for the tour and Harv and Bev came along with Dear and me. We had lots of stop on a dime moments and the cameras were snapping away.

These corn horse photos were taken at the very end of the tour after we had come full circle.

#BlueGateCornHorses

Thank you Lord for:

1. A good safe trip driving many miles in the countryside. 2. Uneventful flights to and from Detroit. 3. Beautiful scenery. 4. Our kids who dropped us off at the airport and picked us up at the airport. 5. Good times with friends during this trip.

This is a bonus thankful link that comes from Rattlebridge Farm on How to Be a Happy Blogger. I found it to be very encouraging.

I’m linking up with Susanne at Friday’s Fave Five , Amy’s Five on Friday., and Rattlebridge Farm for Foodie Friday and Everything Else.

To all my Canadian friends that come here today I’m wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving weekend and Thanksgiving Day on Monday!

Indiana Good Fences…

We were so impressed with how clean and tidy all the Amish/Mennonite farms and roads were in Indiana and Ohio.

I’ll be linking up to Good Fences with TexWisGirl from Run*A*Round Ranch Report.

Tonight our Small Group will be starting up again with some new folks we’ve never met. It will be interesting to see how God puts our group together. I’ll be doing a little dusting and tidying up the messes from emptying our suitcases. The Fall colors are really starting to show beautifully here and there in the Pacific Northwest. How are the colors in your neck of the woods?

Signs in Amish Country

While in Indiana we drove the Heritage Trail on Sunday September 25th and stopped for a meal in Nappanee where there had been an Apple Festival in mid September. These apple signs were on the streets in the downtown area.

This old bank building with Metzler’s Shoe sign on the side of it caught my eye.

One thing we learned about Amish country is that not many businesses are open on Sundays. When we got to Nappanee and decided it was lunch time we hoped to find an open restaurant. Hunters Hideaway was recommended to us for lunch and we went with the recommendation and had great service here.

It’s hard to corral 14 people and decide on a spot to eat but we were pleased to stop and be refreshed here. These are 8 of the Mennonite Girls with 6 our our husbands. Betty, Charlotte and their husbands were still on the road and arrived at our hotel by the time we finished our Heritage Trail drive.

I’ll be linking up with Lesley for signs, signs.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Indiana & Ohio