It was a great morning, and I found out Larry is a man of many talents, not the least of which has been organizing an annual two-day bluegrass music festival called Larryfest on his 60 acres for more than a decade.

    “I didn’t name it,” he said.

     It has drawn as many as 1,200 people, but he said they scaled back to just 700 tickets for this year's show, held in mid-August. The porch of his cabin serves as the main stage for the event.  You can find out more about all of that at www.kvama.org.

      On the way out of Larry’s drive, we passed The Blue Goose, a restaurant.
   You can find out more about it at www.bluegoosepizza.com.

      “They have great ice cream and great pizza, and all the business they can handle,” he said.      
    Unfortunately, they were closed on the Thursday I visited, something that was to be a recurring theme, although in this case it was because the owners were on vacation.  They are usually open on Thursdays.

      But I digress. 

      We headed to a place that Larry billed as “the Amish Walmart,” the Trails End store operated by Atlee Yoder on Little Ridge Road.  Here’s Atlee’s card:

    And if you read the items he lists, that’s just a start on the uncountable variety he offers.  I asked whether he knew what everything in the store was used for.

     “Most of it,” he said.  “Not all.”

      Some of the surprises included a power washer, rolls of used wire, kids’ toys, the list goes on and on.  The store was closed on this day, but because of Larry’s acceptance in the Amish community, Atlee readily let us look around.  And he was willing to let us make a couple of purchases.  It was an irresistible opportunity.

      One of Atlee’s sons calculated what we owed, including the state tax.  While we waited a little girl in a green dress and a black bonnet came running down the lane barefoot.  In the distance, a man was cultivating corn with two horses. 

      Visiting Amish country is a little painful for anyone with photographic sensibilities, because the people are so much a part of the story and so colorful.  And they don’t want you to photograph them, although you can take pictures of things that are part of their culture.  So, to any readers, I just say: you have to go and see for yourself what the Amish people are like.  Their friendliness and intelligence shines in their faces.

       We couldn’t spend all day at Trails End, but I will be back, hopefully with one of my brothers and his wife, but on my own if it has to be. I think the bake sale on Friday and Saturday will help me persuade someone to come with me.

     Next we visited the farm of Neil Kauffman, who operates Kauffman Country Cabins.  Like all builders, his business has slowed considerably, but he was working on a couple of cabins that day – one for a man with property in Michigan where the cabin will eventually be moved, and the other on spec.  He also had a $35 bird feeder on display that was a bargain that was hard to pass up – but he also had a backlog of orders for it.

      The cabins he builds are mostly for shipment elsewhere, which the Amish of course must contract out, although they will build on site within a roughly 10-mile radius of Kauffman’s farm – if it’s practical to get there by horse and wagon. 

     Kauffman’s Country Cabins is located at S1080A Parker Rd., Cashton.

     Our next stop was at Monroe Miller’s farm, home of Irish Ridge Vinyl Windows, which was a total surprise to me.  But, like most everybody else, the Amish are about making money, about making a living.  Monroe has found his niche making vinyl windows to spec, and he has been able to win bids against the likes of window-making giants like Anderson Windows.  
    His business is at S688 Irish Ridge Rd., Cashton.        
    Larry also took me to the Growers’ Produce Auction building, where staring in July they will be having auctions Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  He warned me that if you go, you have to be at the top of your game and listen to what is being offered.  You might be buying 10 boxes of something if you’re not careful – when maybe you wanted only one.  I’d like to go to watch, and maybe take part after two or three visits.
    There were numerous other farms in the area that we could have visited, but our time was running short and we made a couple of other quick stops at farms where the owners made custom-built mini-barns and specialty candies.  It was just a quick taste of Amish country – and a tease to return soon and learn a more. Plus, there's that Blue Goose pizza and ice cream that Larry recommended.