The last bit of December's snowfall was still evident on January 1st at this Kalona, Iowa area barn. The December 19-20th blizzard was this region's only snowfall this season - so far. Last week's January thaw melted most of the snow in eastern Iowa. Sounds nice but we need more precipitation. Bitter cold air is predicted for this area on Monday. How many days until Spring?
Simplicity exists in 2013. East of Kalona, Iowa, in Amish country, a functional one room schoolhouse shows buggy marks in the snow and decorative snowflakes on the windows.
On New Year's Day the building was closed for the holiday while a mile or so north a group of Amish children played Ring-Around-a-Rosie outdoors in the near 20 degree weather.
Ironically to document this simplicity, a digital SLR camera was used to photograph the scene (aside from the travel technology used.) Then the file was uploaded to a PC, then sent to an online photo editor and later housed on Flickr. Ultimately the blog was assembled on blogspot and published. Simple.
Amish farmers near Kalona, Iowa looked to replace a family's barn in the 1990s. When my in-laws were selling their farm properties near Cedar Rapids, Iowa a deal was struck. The Amish would hire a driver, vans and wagons, come some 40 miles north, tear down the barn and reassemble it a few miles northeast of Kalona. The tear down phase took just a few days and involved a small army of Amish men. They drew a schematic of the barn, labeled everything (in pencil) including the oak pegs that held wooden beams together. Today the barn (center in photo,) originally built in 1916 by a relative, sits on a rise overlooking corn and hay fields. The new owners who have had the barn now for around 15 years have improved the structure by adding a new roof and updating some of the side walls. Hundred year old barns don't always come on the market. In fact the Amish are currently building a new barn just right of the photo on a neighbor's property.
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The first Monday of the month brings a well attended horse sale at the Kalona Sales Barn in 42N country's Kalona, Iowa (41.48N, 91.70W.) This past Monday being Labor Day, and a perfect weather day, both combined to attract hundreds of people to the sale ring. Horses of many breeds and ages were auctioned as well as a wide variety of gear such as saddles, bites, ropes, blankets, feed, and what not.
Kalona is home to a large Amish community. They were represented at the auction as buyers, ring workers, cooks, and sellers. Plenty of Amish horse and buggies were also present at the facility in between the pick ups, cattle trucks and livestock trailers.
Highlights of the auction included a longhorn steer bull who sold for $800. On the horse side of the sale many working and hobby breeds sold. A brother-sister pair of work horses, ages 6 and 7 years old respectively, circled inside the sale ring together. The winning bidder had the opportunity to purchase both horses at $50 a piece, but after a long pause following the win decision she elected to only purchase one horse. Some people in the audience did not like that decision, especially a certain news person making her first trip to a livestock auction. Know that.
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