The rest of Amana

After leaving the kitchen we had a glimpse of one of the gardens. Each kitchen had a boss and the kitchen boss had a sub-boss that was the garden boss. The garden boss was responsible for producing all the vegetables used by the kitchen. These gardens were rather extensive to provide for the year round feeding of 25 to 30 people per day.

Then we boarded the bus and headed for West Amana and the Broom and Basket Shop.

The attraction here was Iowa's largest rocker which is almost as significant as the world's largest ball of string.

And of course some of the folks had to test drive it .

The dimensions are Paul Bunyon like.

They also had a like dimensioned gum ball machine.

And the carvers had been busy with another rendering of a rooster.

and a bear.

A couple of other notes about the Amana way of life. The church was the focus of life in the Colonies. Church services were held 11 times during the week and in a style similar to the Quaker religion men and women entered the chuch by separate doors and sat on separate sides of the aisle. Additionally there was no talking while in church and no musical instruments were allowed. The cemeteries were also interesting and looked like military cemeteries with row after row of identical headstones reflecting that no one was above another. On death you were given the next available spot in the row, there were no family plots.  If your spouse died ten years later they might be five rows away from where you were buried. I've found the time here in the Amana Colonies very insightful and have affirmed this would not be the life for me.

Today looks like a rain day, but it will give me a chance to plan the next move while enjoying the good life.