Letters From Ohio – Winter 2023

A Note from David:

Greetings. Christmas Season is past and we’re having typical Winter weather. On Dec. 23 it got very cold and windy. A lot of Amish people harvested 6” to 7” of ice off their ponds or shallow pools. This ice is stored in a special room and used to keep our food refrigerated during the Summer months. Christmas always brings a lot of joy but almost always sadness too. Our former employee, Ammon Yoder’s 9 year old, Lori, died on Jan. 1 from the flu. She was seemingly a healthy girl. Please keep them in your prayers.

David's shop builds our popular Glenwood Dining Table

Notes from Ervin:

Another year has come and gone, and one thing that is certain is that change is constant. We are implementing the Lean/Six Sigma Basic training into our manufacturing and finishing facilities. Lean is helping us make our processes more efficient and gaining capacity all while speeding up the process. Six Sigma is helping us create processes that are nearly flawless in terms of defect, higher quality, and removing variations in product as much as possible. Last week our dedicated crew hit a new record in production so we are treating them to pizza and ice cream to show our appreciation.

On October 4 our son, Andrew, got married. He is the first of our children to do so and although it was a new experience for us we found it to be a real blessing. He and his new wife, Barbara, are living about 5 miles from the shop.

Also in October my wife Mary and I took a 9-day trip through the Western United States by train. We thoroughly enjoyed our time and want to express our thanks to our team for such a wonderful gift. We enjoyed seeing the mountains and specifically traveling through the Rocky Mountains, God’s creation is truly wonderful.

Ervin & Aden build our popular Abbington Live Edge Table

Updates from Aden:

It’s hard to believe that another year has come to a close. We had a lot of nice weather this fall and really didn’t have a lot of cold weather. We had some very nice rains, so people’s springs and water supply should be good in this area. As I again reflect back over the past year we have many blessings to count. Orders have slowed down some allowing us to focus on working through our back log. At the start of last year we were at 30 weeks lead time. Lead times have decreased but we would still like to see them come down even more.

From Nelson:

After going through a tough couple of years with all the business ups and downs from lumber pricing to supply issues on parts, we are glad to see things getting to the possibility of a more normal. Yet we have so much to be thankful for, a God that helps us through it all, good customers, employees, family, etc. We’ve all been touched by losing someone from Covid or other causes in the last few years which helps us appreciate our health also.