Tourist Activity 3a: Annin Flag

Yesterday was quite a tourist day. We visited the Annin Flag Company right here in Coshocton, took the behind the scenes tour at Pearl Valley Cheese, and then finished out the evening by going to an Amish farm for a home-cooked meal with their family.

Annin Flag
Annin & Company was founded in New York in 1847 and has been making United States flags continually since then. One of their main production plants is located just a few blocks from our house. It was our first trip there but it won't be the last. We were very impressed with the company, its people, and its product. Manufacturing a flag is quite the process.

Annin is the largest producer of American flags in the nation, its flags have played parts in major historical events (an Annin flag is on the moon), and they are a major supplier for the US military. It's nice to know that if it's Annin, your American flag is made in the US, by US workers, using American manufactured raw materials which is no longer the case for many American flags. The next time you shop for an American flag, check the label, and look for "Annin".

The first step in flag production is cutting the large rolls of flag material into "stripes". They use a large, computerized machine to slice the material into the appropriate size stripes for the customer order. After cutting on the machine the stripes need to be separated and sorted.

Separating newly sliced "stripes"

Our tour guide explains how the stripes are individually sown together to build "sixes" and "sevens" (groups of six and seven stripes).

The blue fields are then sewn to the sevens.

Then the sixes are attached.

After that, the reinforced edge strip is attached and, as these flags were being produced for the military, they were placed in individual boxes and packaged in larger cardboard crates for shipment.

Annin also produces "whole cloth" flags of all sizes from 3" x 5" to 3 feet x 5 feet.

It's amazing to see millions of American Flags waiting for shipment in the Annin warehouse!

It was a great tour. Maybe someday you can join us on one!

Pearl Valley Cheese & Dinner with the Yoders
Stay tuned...this post is a three parter!

Tourist Activity 2a & Fall Colors 3

We had another great day in Amish country yesterday. We spent our morning in and around Charm, OH visiting quilt and fabric shops, a boot and harness shop, and Keim Lumber. After working up an appetite with all that walking (with a limited amount of shopping), we chose to eat lunch at the Carpenter's Cafe inside Keim. The "Carpenter" referred to is Jesus Christ.

Keim Lumber is staffed primarily by Amish and Mennonite employees and has a worldwide clientele/customer base. They do it right at Keim and provide an open witness for Jesus Christ as a foundation for their business. Keim Lumber is a massive venture in the middle of nowhere that ships everywhere. As you would imagine, customer service is #1 at Keim. What a refreshing experience compared to other lumber yards and home improvement super stores.

And by the way, the meals at Carpenter's Cafe taste great and are a good value, too.

From Charm we headed out Highway 70 for a few miles and returned to The Farm at Walnut Creek. You can enjoy our previous posts about that here and here. The weather was perfect and we had a small group on our wagon ride through the exotic animal enclosure. The ostriches were totally rude, the Highland cow was still a vacuum cleaner for animal feed, the llamas would run along side the wagon, and all the other animals were glad to see us. Feeding and petting the giraffes is usually everyone's favorite activity. As usual I may split the photos into two different posts. I think I'll focus on some Amish scenes and fall colors shots in this post.

Amish corn shock, Coshocton County, OH

Amish farm, Holmes County, OH

Some trees along the wagon path at The Farm

Another wagon scene with Gus and Pearl doing the pulling

Then on the way home I snapped this picture from the car at Chestnut and 3rd Street in Coshocton. Whether out in the country or back in "the city" the colors are vibrant this year.

Courthouse Square, Coshocton, Ohio

Today we're off to tour Annin Flag, Pearl Valley Cheese, make a stop at MMS Aviation and then this evening travel to an Amish home where we'll be guests at their dinner table. Perfect weather predicted today as well. Wish you were here...

July 4th, Amish Country and The Farm (Part 1)

Karen and I enjoyed a mini-vacation" today. We left the house this morning headed for Charm which is in Holmes County, the heart of Ohio's Amish community, and thought we'd start the day at Miller's Bakery which has the gooiest, biggest, and fattest home-baked donuts this side of Heaven. But the bakery was closed for July 4th. We then thought we'd try Carpenter's Cafe inside Keim Lumber (also in Charm) but it was closed, too. So we settled for breakfast at Grandma's Homestead Restaurant. Not a bad compromise.

After breakfast we walked across the street to Charm Boot & Harness shop. If you're tired of shopping at Wal-Mart and want a GOOD pair of boots (work, casual, dress, western, sport, safety) this is THE place to go. Trust me, the Amish know their boots. The variety is somewhat mind boggling.

And for all those ladies out there who are wondering if we stopped at the Pottery Niche (also in Charm) to browse some Polish Pottery...well no, we did not! That'll be a different trip.

So, there we were in Charm (and I've pretty much listed every building IN Charm) so we headed up Holmes County 70 and decided to check out The Farm just outside of Charm which didn't cause any harm (all of a sudden I feel like I'm in The Princess Bride making rhymes...)

Okay...this is IT. You have got to go to The Farm! I'm serious. We had a blast petting zebras and feeding giraffes, ostrich, buffalo, crazy Highlander cattle and Rambo the Elk while riding on Noah's Wagon, as opposed to his Ark, all right there in between the Amish barns and buggies!

Here are some pictures!

A Red Kangaroo from The Farm's walk-through zoo.

Here's Noah.

Here's Noah's wagon.

Zebra

Rambo the Elk.

Karen feeds a buffalo.

Karen feeds a Highlander cow.

Karen feeds a giraffe IN OHIO!

What fun way to spend the afternoon. Noah was a great host and knew a lot about all the animals. Go figure!

Thank you for making it possible for us to have some fun while we serve Christ with MMS Aviation. May God richly bless you as He continues to richly bless us!