Working with the Amish on an Artificial Insemination Ranch (3/3)

Besides getting to know the Amish a bit, I did lots of non-Amish things too. Went fishing on the great lakes (however, I spotted an Amish family on the shore, having a picnic – they seemed to be everywhere); went river fishing for pike with the guys from work (with standard deck chair, cap and crate of beer); attended a wedding shower (where the women friends of the bride get together - I was the only man present); attended a wedding (where some of the women, as part of a certain American folk tradition, tap these little puppet-like dolls on the floor along to the Appalachian-like music); painted a garden fence bright white (for the wedding); and finally managed to, permanently, lose part of my eyebrow after the telescope-thing of a rifle shot back into me after I fired a rifle (at some squirrel-like animal I was told was good to eat).

Anyway, quite a lot more happened during my visit to this part of Ohio Amish country . But going to end here. I was sad to leave. Unfortunately there were no spectacular finales or farewells when I left – instead the most dramatic thing or things that happened on my last day of being with the Amish was getting lost in Chicago airport (after flying there from Columbus); then arriving late on the plane with a few people toot-tooting at me for, supposedly, delaying the flight; followed by a storm during the flight that was even more spectacular, to say the least, than the storm on the farm). However, I went, one last time to the Amish restaurant where I had been almost everyday and where there was a certain Amish girl in her early twenties who would lay down a pint of freshly-made lemonade (alcohol is prohibited) on my table with the sweetest of smiles (and a plate of food normally with lots of sweet-corn on it). She smiled at me one last time. Then an Amish woman, who I had got to know, gave me a lace cap for my mother. And, finally, the Amish man who I had first seen after waking up from conking out on the sofa, gave me a light wave and a cheerful smile from the distance. And then I was off for my next destination: to work on ‘Leprechaun Farm’ on the west coast.