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Ranchers.net

. . . for the day to an event that many in southern Ontario mark on their calender a year ahead.

It's the annual Amish School fundraiser auction about 30 miles from here. People bring stuff they want to sell - new and used tools, both modern and horse-drawn equipment, antiques, pets and birds, quilts, sewing, fresh Amish baking, household goods and furniture - you name it, it's all there, spread out on the front field of a different Amish farmer each year.

Except for the baking and a few other things with a fixed price, everything is auctioned off to raise funds for the schools of the Amish community near us. Some goods are donated and on the rest, they just collect a selling commission.

They usually have almost 200 horses for auction as well, everything from cart ponies to riding and draft horses. The horse sale is a huge draw with hundreds of people standing or sitting around a large ring for hours watching those beauties prance to the auctioneer's chant.

The Amish organize and staff the whole thing which draws about 4-5000 people from a very broad area each year. The city folks are mesmerized by it. So am I.

There are literally about 5 - 6 acres of stuff (maybe more, the lines of stuff seem endless) set in rows with up to 7 auctioneers going at one time.

There are always some amazing finds. Two years ago, I bought an extremely old hand-cranked corn chopper formerly built in Toronto. I had never seen one before. An old timer explained to me that it was used to chop the cows daily supply of corn fodder from the stack of dried corn stored in the mows above the stable.

Upon getting it home, I tried it out with a few stalks of green corn from the field. I grabbed the crank and got it up to speed thinking this wasn't too bad. Until the cobs hit the knives - ooofff! I then decided that it was probably more fun to look at than use! In it's day, men were men. Or had 10 kids . . .

Sadly, it was among a number of other antiques that I had stored in our old barn when it burned.

It's a great, entertaining day out but there is really one compelling reason that I go. It's the donuts. The Amish make donuts like no one else in the world. And I buy a lot of them. In fact I've been so long typing this that I may need to buy an extra dozen. Or two. :D

They get up at 2 AM to make hundreds and hundreds of dozens of donuts for a crowd that has them bought out by 11:00 A.M.

Someday I will describe for you the experience of eating a donut made fresh by our local Amish. It's almost a religious experience and I'm a dedicated follower . . .
:)
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