It is truly wonderful to learn new things and skills as I grow older; there is nothing in the world that I ever do (except for loving and being loved by Maria) that keeps me younger.

I’ve become the go-to guy for Amish families that need something quickly that can’t be found around here or is too long a carriage ride away in recent weeks.

Thanks to my work at the Mansion and Bishop Maginn High School, I’ve become a whiz at online shopping.

I know where to find the best bargains, the lowest shipping costs, the fastest deliveries, and the best quality.

I never shop anywhere without comparing prices, checking customer service, looking at all customer reviews.

I have never been an efficient shopper until now, and these days I pride myself on my efficiency and savvy. I am actually learning to be cost-conscious without getting obsessive about it.

Jacob, Moise’s brother-in-law, came to me a week ago and said he urgently needed a soap slicer; he couldn’t figure out where to find one around here. Soap-making is not simple.

His family had been slicing the soap by hand, one by one, and as the soap gets more popular, they needed relief and a faster way of slicing it.

Jacob and I got on my Iphone (he watches, not touches), and we trawled through various search engines and soap slicer companies. We had to measure the soap bars, and he was overwhelmed at first. Then we looked at some of the videos in the customer reviews.

We had to figure out precisely how many bars the new hand-powered machine can slice – it was eleven.

The Amish are careful, price-conscious shoppers and interested in precise measurements and reasonable costs. They are never impulse shoppers.

We needed to find out just how many bars the machine can slice.

Some companies offer those details, and some don’t. I find Amazon lax about details; I often get much bigger or smaller things than I imagined.

I’m finding many different sites that are also easy to use and navigate, and the prices are often better than Amazon.

Buying impulsively wouldn’t work with the Amish.  It takes some time and thought, and no decisions are made instantly.

Jacob was finally satisfied that we had found the right one, and it came the other day. He was delighted. He gave me a tour of his little soap-making factory; I was shocked to see how soap is really made and how complex it can be to do it right (it can explode if made hastily. And it can turn hot in a couple of days.)

He then asked me to find paper wrapping that can avoid seeping and staining. Much like butcher paper, I said. He nodded, We ordered some after a thorough search, and it’s coming on Friday.

The Amish families prefer that it come to our farmhouse; I’m not sure why. But I don’t mind delivering it.

I can always get a new bar of soap (no discounts.)