Since we rode the Gold Wing yesterday, I figured today was a day to get some things done.
I sorted laundry and threw a load in the washing machine.
I skimmed the cream off three gallons of milk and put it in my Dazey churn, which I bought off Ebay years ago, and is about the same age as I am. I figured after Cliff and I took our walk, I'd churn butter.
As we were getting ready to go for our walk, Cliff listed several things he could do out in the shop, then said, "But I'm seriously thinking about going for a ride to Jamesport; the Amish might be harvesting corn now."
I took the top off the churn and covered the jar with foil. I hung out the load of clothes I had washed. I made a picnic lunch and made coffee for the thermos. I went out and milked Bonnie-the-Jersey-cow.
I left the piles of clothes on the floor and away we went.
When we stopped by our favorite orchard just the other side of Lexington, the early Fujis they had were in ten-pound bags, and they didn't have any seconds. $7.50 for a bag.
"There are other orchards up the road," Cliff said.
So we went on to Waverly, where nothing was labeled as #2, but all the Fujis looked terrible and could have been graded as #3: sunburnt and cracked and ugly! I worked at an orchard for many years, and I know what a good apple should look like. They wanted $7.99 a bag, the same sized bag that Rasa Orchards were selling for $7.50, but their apples were good.
Well, we weren't going to be coming home the same way, so I bought some ugly, overpriced apples. But NEVER AGAIN!
We did have a lovely ride up 24 and 65 highways.
There are lots of towns with buildings that look like this.
We picnicked in Chillicothe, and then went to Jamesport.
When we saw a lady driving a horse-and-buggy, we knew we were almost there.
We saw some Amish fellows getting ready to pick corn, but Cliff didn't stop to watch, even though there was a place near this where a car had pulled off the road. Oh well, you aren't supposed to take pictures of them anyhow, so this one will have to do.
Here you see a parking lot for horses. All that dark stuff? Horse poop.
We did some shopping at an Amish store and came on home by a different route, Highway 13.
We spent $21, but there's lots of good stuff here, and it was all much cheaper than in the store: garbanzo beans, black beans, split peas (I'm making split pea soup tomorrow!), several different kinds of spices, popcorn, dried banana slices... I bought some of those last year, and loved them.
Cliff says next year when we go up there, we're taking the motorcycle trailer.
So, after a nice ride, I came home and looked at the clothes on the kitchen floor and decided to leave them there for tomorrow.
I sat in my easy chair and churned butter.
I got out a cookie sheet and measured out 1/3 cup servings of butter and a single one-cup serving that I'll use in baked goods of some kind. Butter made from unpasteurized cream doesn't keep as long as store-bought butter, so I am freezing it in small amounts to keep it fresh.
So, that's how my day went. How was yours?
Never have I seen more perfect weather for a motorcycle ride.
The clouds were breath-taking.
Missouri's rolling countryside was as verdant as though it were June, rather than August.
We took the long way home, and twice our blacktop turned to gravel. We turned around both times; a Honda Gold Wing doesn't do well on gravel.
Heading toward home, I began to wonder if we were going to get wet, but soon the sky became clear again.
Near Jamesport, home of an Amish settlement, we met this buggy filled with teenagers out for a Sunday afternoon ride. The driver of the rig, seeing I was taking his picture, put an imaginary camera to his face and clicked. Hey, I don't mind having my picture taken, even with an imaginary camera.
Cliff and I recently went to Jamesport, a town about 100 miles from here. That's me sitting on the porch of the oldest house in town; a lady has set up sort of a museum/information-station there. We watched a 45-minute DVD telling about the "plain people".One thing we learned was that all Amish teenagers are set free at a certain age to do as they please. They are given an older, used buggy and a horse, and are allowed to party in any way they see fit. According to the mini-movie we saw, they're liable to be seen with boom-boxes in their buggies blasting out hard rock music. They can drink and smoke. I suppose they can watch TV, if they can find one to watch somewhere.The amazing thing is that 98% of them return to the fold to live out their lives in the same simple way their parents did.Here's the question Cliff and I had: Do many of the girls end up getting pregnant? It seems like they'd all be with child when they returned home after living the wild life.
