https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GS7r1PUSeE
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Too cool for words!.
Very much so!
Just out of curiosity, what brought the Amish millers together with the steam tractors?
I am not sure where the Amish enters into this. Of the numerous people in the video there is one person who might pass for Amish. This is a relatively modern sawmill being ran with steam power which while not common is done in many areas in the Midwest throughout the year. There a couple place within 90 mile that do it near me. Cool video but nothing about it indicates Amish.
Actually, I saw several people who look like Amish men, both married and not. Keep in mind that the men don't grow a beard until married, so that lack thereof doesn't mean not Amish. The clothing does match an Amish style, as do the look of the children watching. While using steam tractors for this type of tasks may not be terribly common in the Amish, using belt-powered PTO from tractor's is very common for this and other tasks (conveyors, silage grinders, and etc. to name a few).
My wife came over to see the video and her first comment was "I was curios if it was Amish (confirming her thought, no longer questioning it) when I told her I was watching a steam-tractor powered lumber mill. That endorsement wouldn't mean a lot from most wives, however, my wife grew up Amish, until she left the farm at 18. We still spend several weeks a year with her family (who remain Amish to this day) out on the farm in Ohio. Anyways, that doesn't make either of us right, and in the end, it's still a cool video either way!
Great video.....Stay away from that blade...
PS The hats are a tip-off
After looking at this again I agree some are indeed Amish. However this is at the Northeast Indiana Steam and Gas Show. This isn't an Amish sawmill but there is a large concentration of Amish in this general area of Indiana. I think they were helping with the operation. I stand corrected that there were Amish involved. There was an articulated rubber tired loader, a semi trailer, and a spare tire/wheel assembly visible. The Amish I live around don't and won't own rubber tired equipment. However they will operate it. When they built a pole barn for my father they had no problem running his tractor and loader. They just won't own one. They have modern square balers with steel wheels on them and similar implements. Always cool to watch a sawmill in operation and a sawyer who knows what he is doing.
I may be wrong but the boiler looks wrong. It looks like it has no insulation and you are seeing the pressure vessel not just in the smoke box area. I think even the firebox is exposed.
Bill D
I have all my lumber dried by the local amish people. On my way to have some lumber dried I seen one of those big tractors being hauled by a semi. It was huge. I had to pull off the road so he had enough space. I was amazed at how big the tractor was.