Fishing Trip With The Andy's

The Andy's, that's what you call the Hershberger's if you are referring to the family...the Andy's.  I like it!  So we have had this fishing trip planned for a month or so.  I have been counting down the days!

Lizzie had sent me a letter and gave me written and drawn directions to their secret fishing hole.  I was to meet them at 10AM at their favorite fishing hole  at Rocky Fork Lake.  I was there just a few minutes early and they were no where in sight.  So I decided to drive to the farm to make sure they were still coming. (We communicate the Amish way...thru letters in snail mail or notes in the CSA boxes). What do I see when I turned down the main road...a wagon full of Amish.  Passing I noticed that it was Andy.  It threw me because they usually have Merl harnessed to the wagon but today it was Dan.  (I know my horses). 

I made an illegal U-turn (I'm such a law breaker) and hightailed it back to the buggy that was moving downhill at the top speed of 15 mph.  Andy pulls to the right side of the road and slows down like the Amish do when they hear a car or truck behind them.  I just stayed behind the wagon.  Lizzie turns to look and recognizes me and smiles that big smile of hers.  She tells Anna to look.  I wish I had a picture of her big smile.  Then Lizzie turns Lovina around for me to see her.  So cute dressed in her blue dress and black bonnet. And of course barefoot. All of a sudden Dennis jumps up and turns to me and is clapping as fast and as hard as he can.  I thought my heart was going to explode!  It was way past happy!  Next thing I know Moses has taken off his straw hat and is climbing between Lizzie and Anna under the buggy seat.  And he is waving like there is no tomorrow!  I can't take pictures so the next best is to call someone and tell them what I am seeing.  I call Mark.  While I am on the phone with Mark, Andy is making fun of me by pretending he is on his cell phone...ha ha, he doesn't have a cell phone.  He enjoys making fun of me and my English ways!

It took them about an hour to bring the buggy and it took me a little over an hour in the van.  I think I'd like to go in the buggy.  It wouldn't matter to me how long it took.  Well, maybe is the weather was really bad I might that to think about it a little while.

We stopped at the little bait shop so Andy could get some wax worms.  I told him that I had night crawlers and crickets.  Nope, not the Amish way.  "These are Amish fish and they like wax worms" he tells me.  I said we will just see about that!

We got to the secret fishing hole and Andy unhitched the horse and tied him to a tree in the shade of the woods.  Then we all unpacked the wagon...three fishing poles, a tackle box,  a huge watermelon, all the fixins' for a picnic, a box of wood, water jugs...and who knows what else.

Andy and I got the poles ready for fishing for the kids to fish.  Then Andy goes one way and Lizzie, the kids and I, head for the dock.  On the way there Lizzie asks if I can swim.  Yes, why?  Because if any of the kids fall in I was to jump in after them.  Great!  Andy yells and tells me not to worry it isn't that deep.  Yes, but it would be cold.

Lizzie sits and one end of the dock (the shallow water end) with Lovina between her legs and she is holding Moses by his suspenders.  Anna and Dennis are with me at the deep end of the dock sitting criss-cross applesauce in the middle of the dock.  I catch the first fish and decide that will be all for me and help the kids.  They get bored pretty quick and start moving around.  That's when Lizzie decided that is was snack time...back at the picnic table on dry land.

Andy is still fishing like there is no tomorrow.  If I had used the Amish part of my brain (because Andy calls me half Amish now) I would have realized that, yes this is a fun family day of fishing but the fish we caught will be used for food on the table.  I told him about a catch and release pond where we fish at Unity Cabins in West Union.  I told him about the big bass we caught.  He told me that he would really have a hard time releasing those fish if we ever went there.  He said it would be like taking food from his kids.  Wow...different way of looking at things for use.  Food for thought.

Lunch is next on the agenda.  I ask Lizzie what she is going fix.  BBQ chicken.  I'm think smothered in Montgomery Inn sauce.  My mouth starts to water!  There was cheese, heirloom tomatoes, and watermelon to go with it.  I had some Kosher dill pickles (my very own canned and very delicious if I may say so myself), an orange, an apple, and two PBJs.  And a little surprise from dessert. So Lizzie pulls out the wood and starts to build a fire while the kids and I snacked on pretzels.  Come to find out BBQ chicken is just plain chicken (neck included) cooked on the BBQ grill.  What a let down for me.  The Andy's were thrilled with it.  And I was happy with my PBJs.  On the way I had stopped to get my fishing license at Walmart and I saw that the Hostess chocolate cupcakes...the ones with the little white swirly thing across the top...were back on the shelf.  Had to buy a box...something from my childhood to share at the picnic.  Which the kids loves.  Andy and Lizzie made fun of me because it was store bought.  I don't mind...they were go good!  But not quite like I remember them.

The baby was getting really fussy and since we only had about 5 fish, Andy decided to take the older two kids to the spillway (about and hour away) while Lizzie and I would take the younger ones home for a nap.  On the way home we saw one of Lizzie's sisters walking up the lane toward Cedarmore.  She was coming to help Lizzie do whatever she needed help with.  That is the way that the Amish girls learn the skills they will need when they get married.  They help out with the babies, do laundry, can...everything that Lizzie would do on the farm...sort of an apprentice job.

While Moses was playing with the kittens and Rachel was giving the baby a bath, Lizzie and I canned peaches.  Lizzie called them company peaches.  They were peach halves.  She was impressed with my knife skills.  She had bushels of peaches but went through them and picked out the ones that were ready to can.  Said she would do the rest later.  That was fun for me and once again I learned things about canning that I didn't know.

Everyone was so tired.  I decided that I needed to get home to can my own peaches.  On the way out I caught a chicken hawk in trying to find some lunch.  Literally under the egg mobile chasing chickens.  And there were two more in the sky.  Like a crazy woman I chased them away and drove back to the house to let Lizzie know there was trouble on the horizon.  She said that they had already caught one in a  live trap.

Andy and Lizzie never let me go home empty handed.  This trip I got a cantaloupe, some of Lizzie's peach pie filling and a huge watermelon!.  Not to mention a basket of heirloom cherry tomatoes that are so awesome.  I have eaten most of them but I am going to save the seeds from a few so I can grow some next summer.

I wish I was one of those writers that when they write every word describes things in a way that you can feel it with all of your senses.  I want you to feel the way I do about the farm and the Andy's.  I want you to feel the love on those little faces.  The hot smelly dog breath of Sem. The gravels hurting my feet and I try to keep up with the kids on the way to the barn.  And the most delicious cold well water as it travels down my throat.  Cedarmore Farm is truly heaven on earth for me.  It is my happy place.  And I am so very honored and thankful God saw fit to make our paths cross that cold winter day when were  looking to find a CSA.  Blessed beyond measure for sure.

UPDATE from Lizzie in the CSA box last Tuesday....First thing she asks me is if I got my peaches canned. Then she tells me that she had done another 30 quarts.  And some peach butter.  Andy caught 32 more fish at the spillway.  So since it was an off Sunday (no church service) they were able to sleep in and have all you can eat fish for breakfast along with some coffee soup (coffee, milk, and torn up pieces of bread that soak up the coffee and milk.)  Not only do they have to worry about the chicken hawks...the cat had gotten five of the two week old turkeys.  Good news is that they still have 11 turkeys left.  Lizzie says, 'bad cat'.  That cat better not get my turkey!