Amish Country, Ospreys, and Gettysburg...and a pretzel factory!

Hey everyone!  Yeah, we're still at it.  Haven't been able to find reliable wi-fi for a few days so sorry for the delay in updating you on the Ogles Family traveling roadshow.

We spent several days in southern Pennsylvania.   While we were there we saw a number of neat things, missed some things we wanted to do and did some things we hadn't planned on doing.  Isn't that the way with vacations - you plan and plan - and then the reality of the dream isn't quite the same as the dream of the reality!  What did we miss?  a couple of tours - like the Harley Davidson factory in York (they wouldn't let kids under 12 tour and all of our littles ones are under 12) and an ice cream factory tour.  No big deal.  What did we get to see?  A tour of an Amish dairy farm led by an Amish girl (Miriam) who told us a great deal about their way of life and how they originated.  Very neat and interesting!

The girls in pink is Miriam, our tour guide for the farm tour.  She was very knowledgeable and open about the Amish and customs - because she is Amish.

It's hard to describe how calm and peaceful this area is.  There are several hundred Amish farms in the area.  There are also Mennonite farms nearby.  They refer to themselves as "plain people" because of their dress and customs.  They originated from the Anabaptists in Europe.

Yes, they still travel by buggy.  They have had to install lights for safety.  In some areas of Lancaster county, there are buggy lanes on the road as well as automobile lanes.

 The farmhouse.

 This calf was only a few days old...












...and had be bottle fed.  It was not as easy a you might think.  He didn't cooperate very much!













The Amish don't use electricity - all of the equipment in the milking area was run by vacuum that was powered by two diesel generators out back.  They even powered the refrigeration this way!

Donna checking on the new baby rabbits.

 Look closely at the timbers in the barn.  This barn was originally built in the 1860's.  The beams are joined with wooden pegs!  There was one 65 foot beam in the barn!

 Petting time!

Lizzie liked it that the calf licked her!  But Emi didn't think that was cool.

The children of the farm.

Emi made some new friends in Midnight and Doc, the two horses that pulled our wagon on the tour.

We went to Gettysburg and found out that the girls are not quite old enough to appreciate it yet.  But we did get to see the new visitor center and see some of the museum.

Anyway, we camped at Codorus State Park, part of the PA state park system.  All in all, it was a nice place to be for the few days we were there.  Camping north of the Mason-Dixon line is different from down south.  Many facilities such as state parks don't have water hookups because of the freezing weather in the winter.  And there just aren't that many places to camp overall.  I'm not knocking it, but we're not KOA or Jellystone (a brand of campgrounds like KOA) folks.  When we camp, we like to be AWAY from crowded places for the most part.  So, we naturally look for state parks, forest service campgrounds, park service campgrounds and the like. Sometimes you even have to forgo even the electric hookups to get away.


And you don't have to worry about entertainment when Lizzie is along!  Here's her rendition of one of her pre-K songs.


















She also serves as our resident "powder monkey", going into compartments where none other can go!








Emi and her apple!

Abi taking a short break from riding her bike, "Rose".  The helmet is in case she wants to go right back to it!













Little girls who play hard need lots of rest!  Abi is no exception - she cal out-sleep both her sisters.













A sailboat out on Lake Marburg, a 1275 acres man-made lake in the middle of the state park.










Thanks to a presentation we went to - we now know this is a red-eared slider turtle!  Yes, he's having a bird for his lunch.

See the white pole in the left of the picture?  Atop that pole is an Osprey nest.  We got to see the mom and dad come and go from the nest several times during our brief watching episode.  Three little girls tire quickly of watching through binoculars.

Last but not least - we got to tour the Snyders of Hanover pretzel factory.  It was a fun and interesting tour - but they wouldn't let us take any pictures inside.  It was sooo hot outside all we wanted to do was get in Alice and cool down!




 oh yeah - they have the largest solar farm in solar energy system in Pennsylvania with over 15,000 panels spanning twenty-six acres.


More next time from the DC area!