Over, under, ladies choice.:)

OK, so I'm a hick at heart. :p

He looks real friendly.

Does anyone know how, exactly, the Amish distinguish where the 'line of technology' falls? What, exactly, is the objection to power equipment? I mean, they're okay with a mechanical scythe/windrower as long as it is powered by animals...this confuses me tremendously.

Why *some* technology, but not *all* technology?

The other thing about this thread is that, every time I see it, I've forgotten what it was about, and I keep clicking on it expecting to see tire tracks through someone's expensively manicured lawn.

Yeah, I was looking for the broads in that vista too. I guess they were inside the jokes with the farmers...

Stop me now.

The "over, under, ladies choice" is the end of a dialog with wolf on the previous page. :p
Els, it's long and complicated, I'll try to explain a little later, when I have time.

That's a great question. Wasn't it some 20 years ago that the Amish were allowed to own and drive cars? As I remember at that time, the cars had to be all black.

There aren't too many right around here so I don't know what the rules are nowdays.

I did, however, see the movie Kingpin. :3eye:

This article explains.

Good article, Jinx. The focus of the article was on phones and therefore missed some points.
The Phone Company and electric company, work on Sunday. The Amish won’t deal with any business that doesn’t observe the Sabbath. That includes stores and gas stations. Some Mennonites will however.
There are several sects, including house Amish, that worship in homes or a rotating basis and church Amish, that build churches to worship in. The River Brethren are so ultra conservative they wear only one suspender, as two would be unnecessary embellishment.

No baptized Amish drive cars, only gray buggies. Mennonites drive black buggies, black cars with the chrome blacked out, black cars with the chrome or regular cars, depending on the order they belong to.
BTW, those buggies have lights, hydraulic brakes, cigar lighters and were $5.000, thirty years ago.

The reason so many Amish have gone into woodworking is they tend to have large families(no TV) and when dad retires the oldest son gets the farm, although the livestock and machinery are sold to pay for Dad’s retirement. The other children get squat, so most have to work at some job until they can someday, if ever, buy a farm themselves. Woodworking is taught to all the farm boys and it’s a business that can be run primarily wholesale which limits contact with the “English”, that’s a good thing.

There are different kinds of Amish ...