Lehman's Country Life

Today was a productive day in the Buggy Barn.  Roy and Rex, our matched team of belgian Amish workhorses are begining to take shape!  The store was busy with lots of visiors into the Buggy Barn.  Everyone was energized and in a good mood in part I am sure to the spring like weather we had today.  The man who sells homemade ice cream in the parking lot across the street opened for business today signaling spring is on the way!  Another favorite spring sight of mine around the Kidron area is seeing the beautiful work horses, like those in the mural, plowing the fields.  I do hope when the mural is finished people will  take their picture standing beside the horses and get a sense of how big, strong and steady these animals are!  Speaking of draft horses you may want to mark for July 5th to see the Horse Progress Days in Mt.Hope on July 5th.  Draft horse people stop by and see how I did on the mural! 

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Lehman’s very own Vice President of Marketing, Glenda Lehman Ervin, was recently interviewed by the crew of Designing Spaces. The interview featured Glenda’s home and how she has outfitted the home with accessories, available at Lehman’s, that are new but look old-fashioned. Also in the segment is a short history of Lehman’s, a tour of Glenda’s Home and Lehman’s web site (http://www.lehmans.com).

The video is featured on Lehman’s You tube channel (http://www.youtube.com/lehamnshardware). Thanks to Designing Spaces TV for the video.

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Recently Galen Lehman took several weeks off from his job as president of Lehman’s. He spent this time visiting suppliers and other businesses he knew and admired. The companies he visited ranged from 1 employee to 300 employees. Most were owned by Amish or Mennonite families. At each stop, he asked, “What is the secret of your success?” This is one of a series of postings about what he learned.

The smallest business I visited had one employee and two horses. Ok, the horses weren’t employees. But, they very definitely made their presence known. The shop reeked from the smell of their urine in the stalls next door. My breath caught in my throat as we stood in the shop and talked that cold February morning.

I found the maker of our Popular and Favorite Clothes Dryers down a curvy country lane deep in Pennsylvania’s Amish country. Even finding this place was an adventure. I drove by the farm twice because there was no sign or any indication of that manufacturing was happening there.

When I went to the door, I felt like an intruder from another planet invading their privacy. They greeted me with the typical reserve many Amish have for outsiders. Even when I introduced myself by saying, “We buy your dryers,” they didn’t immediately warm to me.

Ultimately I did get a tour of the shop with its antique equipment stretching out in a row along the line shaft that powered it. A single gasoline engine drives the shaft. Pulleys every few feet along the shaft send power from the engine to each piece of equipment.

Before long, we were engaged in good conversation filled with the regard and genuine interest I often see from my Amish friends.

The owner started making the dryers at an age when most men retire. He inherited the business from his Dad, who had been making the dryers for us from 1970 until his death last year. His father died while at work in the very shop where stood just a few days short of his 90th birthday. This led to an interesting conversation about success.

“I’m a farmer,” he said, “I’d rather be outside. But, at my age I need something slower to keep busy.”

Success doesn’t always have to involve a lot of money or prestige. But, everyone needs to feel productive. “Keeping busy” really means “being productive.” Sometimes, we end up doing things that aren’t our first choice. But, the feeling that you’re making a difference is often enough to make it all worthwhile.

My desire to make a difference is what gets me out of bed every morning. I hope that in some small way (whether you are an employee, customer, friend, family member or acquaintance) that I’ve helped make your life a little better.

Am I doing a good job of making a difference? What are some of the ways you try to make a difference?

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The transformation has begun!  I began work in the Buggy Barn on Lehman’s  life sized hitching post mural.  The mural will consist of a Lehman’s sign, a hitching post and a team of Belgian horses.  I am getting the background, sky and horses roughed in at this point.  To give you an idea on the size, the horses will stand 17 hands or 68 inches at the withers or shoulders.  This is about the size of an actual Belgian horse.  Hands are the way in which horses are measured and goes back to when people would measure a horse counting the width of their hands from the ground to the withers. One hand width equals 4 inches.  An average riding horse measures 15.2 to 16 hands while draft breeds are often 17 hands and above.  Draft breeds also are considerably heavier.   So these guys are BIG! 

I enjoyed talking to some customers at the store visiting from N. Carolina who have draft horses. I even got to see some photos of their spotted draft colt who is already bigger than a riding horse!  

While I was putting in the chalk outline of the horse I asked a couple Amish men who were in the store if they thought I got the height and size right.  They said it felt just about right as they made the motion to throw a harness on a horse.  This is the kind of stuff that makes this a really fun project!  Thanks for stopping by!   

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Planning a trip this spring or summer? Discover northeast Ohio, which offers some of the best scenery, local culture, shopping and food in the Midwest. Watch Lehman’s video, along with others about local family owned businesses. We’re proud to be a part of the Best of Ohio’s Amish Country.

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“…It takes time to grow food. You can’t grow food in a panic. It takes planning.”

So said Michael Levenston of City Farmer, on the eve of the year 2000, otherwise known as Y2K – the year of panic.

That wisdom is just as relevant now as it was then, although perhaps in a slightly different setting. We don’t expect (at least most of the time) to wake up tomorrow morning to a world that’s suddenly reverted fifty years in technology.

There are other concerns right now, though. One would have to be blind to not notice that the price of groceries have gone up drastically over the last few months.

We can’t control the price of food, but we can control how much of it we buy. A home garden can make a definite difference in how much you need to buy.
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It was thirty-five years ago; I had an eighteen-month-old daughter and was newly pregnant with my second child. Husband Norm and I had just moved from Rapid City, South Dakota to Australia and were settling in. Norm was a teacher; I was a homemaker and didn’t know many people at all.At a teacher’s evening get-together, one of the wives asked me if I liked being in Tumut, the town we had moved to. I replied that I loved it but was bored, as I didn’t know many people. She, Margaret, asked me what I liked doing and I told her that I liked crafts like sewing and embroidery.

Margaret, who later became my closest friend, told me there was a guild that met every week that perhaps I would be interested in checking out. She offered to babysit my daughter, Joy, while I went to a meeting to see what was going on.
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It never fails — no matter how early or late it happens, that first moment when I see that flash of blue…hear that soft, watery warble and finally register that there are a dozen or more Bluebirds in my front yard, for a split second, I can barely breathe.

Journal Entry – February 1st ‘08

The Bluebirds are here! This is the earliest they’ve ever arrived and the ground is frozen! I need to get a rush order placed with Grubco and run to Petsmart for a couple of little cartons of mealworms to tide us over!

Last month, I wrote about “new traditions,” and although I still think of “deep winter” in terms of things I grew up with many miles north of here, there is no denying that here in the Mid-Atlantic, the arrival of the first flock of hearty little balls of winged blue fluff has become part of February into March that is a testament to the natural knowing of animals. Whether they read signs that point to winter ending soon can only be conjecture; but it’s been proven that Eastern Bluebirds do know, from one season to the next, where they can expect to find safe nesting places and where there is likely to be food. In the seven years I’ve owned this land, the collection of nest boxes has burgeoned from one to six, and in the months when they arrive while the ground is either frozen or covered with snow, there are emergency provisions offered up in ceramic plant saucers that are always emptied by day’s end.
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The final touches of paint were applied today to Bess so she is now a permanent resident of Lehman’s Buggy Barn. Bess and other furry and feathered friends make up the indoor and outdoor farm animal murals. To see work in progress pics go here: http://countrylife.lehmans.com/author/suesteiner/ or click on the Mural link on this blog. I will begin work on a mural of a hitching post with a team of Belgians so check back often!

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Family businesses succeed in the second generation only if they become professional businesses.

Recently Galen Lehman took several weeks off from his job as president of Lehman’s. He spent this time visiting suppliers and other businesses he knew and admired. The companies he visited ranged from one employee to 300 employees. Most were owned by Amish or Mennonite families. At each stop, he asked, “What is the secret of your success?” This is one of a series of postings about what he learned.

Like the first generation businesses I visited, businesses now owned by the second generation had many common characteristics.

Founders of successful businesses usually create their success from thin air based on intuition and a Midas touch. But, as the business grows and moves onto the next generation, they have to learn to trust statistical analysis. Flying by the seat of your pants usually stops working. For the owners, “work” no longer means getting their hands dirty in the trenches. Now they must create

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