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Monday, September 7, 2009

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Where the people are busy but time stands still

By HEIDI LAKE

Staff Writer

BERTHA - Visiting the Amish community near Bertha is like stepping back in time.

Scattered amid the dirt roads and farmlands are the homesteads of about 22 Amish families. An occasional horse-drawn buggy carrying people dressed in homemade attire - usually dresses with aprons and bonnets for women and girls and button-down shirts and pants complete with suspenders and straw hats for men and boys.

There is no electricity. Only a couple families have telephones used mostly for business purposes. Families are large and children go to Amish school - resembling a typical old-time country school building - until eighth grade. After that they help their parents at home until they turn 18 and get jobs. Adult men or adult married women without children who are interested in education teach at the Amish school, which has about 20 students.

A horse pulled a buggy up a hill on a dirt road in the Amish community near Bertha where about 22 Amish families live. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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Amish life may be vastly different than what they call "English" life, but the Amish business world is very much the same. They're feeling the economic pinch just like everyone else and are trying their best to overcome these financially tough times.

Alvin Yoder's lumber mill has four employees - all family members - that work year-round in the mill, which is behind Alvin's house.

"I used to work seven guys and could keep everybody employed, but now I'm down to four," Alvin said. "We aim to work 40 hours a week, but right now we're working 30 hours a week."

They use diesel-powered machines to make pallet boards and do some custom sawing for things like fences and hay wagons. Orders have been cut by more than half recently and Alvin is feeling the financial strain.

An Amish family worked in their garden near Bertha. The Amish typically grow their own vegetables and preserve them for future use. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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"The markets have really slowed down," he said. "It's a struggle for us to keep going."

Alvin, 46, and his wife have 11 children ranging in age from 18 months to 24 years. They rely on their garden and raise their own beef, pork and chicken for food. They don't buy groceries often, but when they do, they buy things like flour and oatmeal.

When Alvin's not working, he farms, growing oats and corn, and cuts hay to feed the family's animals. In his spare time he enjoys taking his family fishing.

Ivan Yoder also enjoys taking his wife and 14 children fishing. They picnic in a park and he takes his sons and even some of his daughters hunting from time to time. They've hired a driver to take them site-seeing in Duluth for a family vacation.

Ivan, 45, was born in Ontario, Canada, and grew up in Wisconsin before moving to the Bertha area 35 years ago. Ivan said the family moved because the hilly Wisconsin land made for difficult farming.

The Amish rely on horses for farming and transportation since they don't use automobiles or tractors. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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"It was too hard with horses," he said.

Ivan now works for a nearby "English"-owned dairy farm where he milks cows and cleans the barn. He also has a garage behind his house where he makes and repairs Amish buggies on the side.

"I can't make a living at it," he said.

Ivan makes about two buggies a year, but keeps busy repairing broken buggy and wagon wheels, especially during the winter months. Ivan sells a typical three-person buggy for about $3,600. He said most Amish families have two buggies.

Ivan also makes custom wood furniture, including hutches and head boards and works on broken lawn mowers to make extra money as well.

Working outside the Amish community isn't uncommon for men, who often take jobs at nearby farms or businesses.

Erv Yoder made a living working as a job supervisor for Kueper's Construction, but was laid off in February after working there for 12 years. Since the Amish aren't allowed to own or use automobiles, Erv would ride to job sites with a co-worker who lived nearby.

Since being laid off, Erv has applied for jobs at other local construction companies, but has found it difficult to find work.

"I'm just putzing around doing this and that," he said. "It hasn't been too (financially) tough on my family. I actually kind of enjoy having time off like this."

An Amish woman and her children sold handmade baskets in the Dairy Queen parking lot in Staples. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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Erv enjoys spending time with his wife and five children, but hopes to find a job before winter.

"I've done structure work all my life," he said. "I never went to school about nothing. I just built."

Even getting a job doing things like picking rocks for farmers has proven difficult, Erv said, because even they are cutting back.

Perry Yoder knows the feeling. He's worked at Minnesota Log Home Parts making log home kits for the last 12 years. Normally, he said, they make kits for two houses each week. This summer they've been averaging one kit per month.

"There's been a lot of time off this summer," Perry said.

His family - he and his wife have six children - is feeling the financial pinch.

"We've cut back on overall spending as a family," he said, not traveling or fishing as much as they used to.

Perry, born and raised in Wisconsin, moved to the Bertha area in 1993. His extended family lives in Wisconsin and Iowa, and Perry tries to go back to visit occasionally.

Family is extremely important in Amish culture, as is making money. Hard labor doesn't seem to exist, it's just a part of life. Men work while women raise children and maintain the household.

An Amish man cultivated potatoes while a little girl watched. Amish families rely on their own crops and livestock for food, only going to grocery stores for necessities they can't provide for themselves. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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One Amish woman who agreed to be interviewed but didn't want her name used, spoke out about her life as the mother of 11 children.

She typically gets up at around 6:30 a.m. and makes breakfast for her family. She spends most of her day cleaning the house, baking and cooking for the next meal, gardening and canning. She also sews and does laundry using a gas-powered washing machine and irons using a gas-powered iron.

"There's always lots of things to do," she said. "We do what we have to do to get things done."

The woman said her older children help out with the younger ones and some of the children do chores like tending to the family's animals.

"The kids aren't hard to please," she said. "They enjoy doing anything."

HEIDI LAKE may be reached at heidi.lake@brainerddispatch.com or at 855-5879.

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