Farming
 

Some people think farming is just a bed of posies.

Just broad vistas and fresh air.

But they don't know how much crap comes with it.

But at the end of a hard day, when you get home.

Sometimes there's time to flock around.

Very nice sir. (soybeans?)

Wow. I feel majorly peace and bucolic.

Thanks Bruce, I needed that!

And corn.
I'd bucolic you anytime, Doctor.;)

Sunday afternoon I ran out to Lancaster County to take cellar member HiTech some books. She's recovering from knee surgery and bored to death. The week before it was sunny and beautiful but I was in a hurry so I didn't take any of the many great scenes I saw. You know, the mental pictures that you kick yourself later for not taking the time to capture. This week I made myself take some. Next week....well, that's the future and the future is unwritten. :D

peaceFUL and bucolic.

NOTE TO SELF: be extra careful when posting immediately after reading long posts by Billy.

I myself would like either the trees and countryside of Olympia, WA, ye olde state capital, or Eastern Washington. EW has a southwest deserty vibe to it. Very nice. 100 degrees in summer, 0 degrees in the winter. Dry as a bone, and you can see for days.

Ah yes. nothing like the Hanaford glow to warm the heart.;)

The smart ones stay upriver and upwind of Hanford! :D

After reading that first caption, I was expecting more of a pun in the second one. A bunch of women doing some farming-ish action to the fields, perhaps.

Cool photos, though, once I stopped looking for the humor in each one.

My reputation has preceded me?
Skunks the humor is very subtle. Farmers inside jokes.;)

More beautiful than my home town
 

We have no so nice green grass.

Much of that green is food, either for people or cattle, which is indirectly for people. These pictures are of Amish farms. The Amish people generally don't use chemicals but rely on old fashioned methods of farming. They use horses and mules rather than tractors. They also shun automobiles and electricity unless they generate it themselves. They have their own schools, don't go into the army and do not participate in the social security system. They live among but separate from the other people in the area with little friction. Their religion/lifestyle is allowed to function separately because we have freedom.:D

This house and barn was built about a year ago, near the edge on a Mennonite farm. The barn is just big enough for the horses to pull the buggy and a kennel for a bunch of Golden Retrievers. You can just see the orange safety triangle on the back of the buggy in the barn.
I've been by here at night and they use kerosine lamps in the house but there is electric lines going into the barn.
My guess is that this couple retired then built this house when the oldest son took over the farm.

On the farm,

things slow down

or at least move inside, in winter.

Spring

has sprung

Tools are ready

Critters are comfy

Mmmm, mint jelly.

Almost summer.:)

It looks good, feels good and even smells good, right after the rain.:)

Wow, I'm feeling all bucolic all of a sudden.

I can help with that,......and make breakfast.;)

I'll be right over ...

Over, under, ladies choice.:)

OK, so I'm a hick at heart. :p

He looks real friendly.

Does anyone know how, exactly, the Amish distinguish where the 'line of technology' falls? What, exactly, is the objection to power equipment? I mean, they're okay with a mechanical scythe/windrower as long as it is powered by animals...this confuses me tremendously.

Why *some* technology, but not *all* technology?

The other thing about this thread is that, every time I see it, I've forgotten what it was about, and I keep clicking on it expecting to see tire tracks through someone's expensively manicured lawn.

Yeah, I was looking for the broads in that vista too. I guess they were inside the jokes with the farmers...

Stop me now.

The "over, under, ladies choice" is the end of a dialog with wolf on the previous page. :p
Els, it's long and complicated, I'll try to explain a little later, when I have time.

That's a great question. Wasn't it some 20 years ago that the Amish were allowed to own and drive cars? As I remember at that time, the cars had to be all black.

There aren't too many right around here so I don't know what the rules are nowdays.

I did, however, see the movie Kingpin. :3eye:

This article explains.

Good article, Jinx. The focus of the article was on phones and therefore missed some points.
The Phone Company and electric company, work on Sunday. The Amish won’t deal with any business that doesn’t observe the Sabbath. That includes stores and gas stations. Some Mennonites will however.
There are several sects, including house Amish, that worship in homes or a rotating basis and church Amish, that build churches to worship in. The River Brethren are so ultra conservative they wear only one suspender, as two would be unnecessary embellishment.

No baptized Amish drive cars, only gray buggies. Mennonites drive black buggies, black cars with the chrome blacked out, black cars with the chrome or regular cars, depending on the order they belong to.
BTW, those buggies have lights, hydraulic brakes, cigar lighters and were $5.000, thirty years ago.

The reason so many Amish have gone into woodworking is they tend to have large families(no TV) and when dad retires the oldest son gets the farm, although the livestock and machinery are sold to pay for Dad’s retirement. The other children get squat, so most have to work at some job until they can someday, if ever, buy a farm themselves. Woodworking is taught to all the farm boys and it’s a business that can be run primarily wholesale which limits contact with the “English”, that’s a good thing.

There are different kinds of Amish ...