Retirement

Cliff and I love the freedom that retirement gives us.  Today, for instance, we decided on the spur of the moment to go to Jamesport to visit an Amish store and eat at a Mennonite restaurant.  Dear Lord, can meat loaf and fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy get any better?   

We looked at Amish-made quilts for $499, and I told Cliff they were worth every penny of that.  

We saw lots of horses, with buggies and without.  

I bought some cheap candy.  Also some cheap popcorn that actually POPS when you want it to pop, and some cheap pinto beans.  Oh yes, and a pint of sorghum, because Cliff has to have it once in awhile when I make biscuits or corn bread.  
All the time we were on the road I read aloud from my latest John Sandford book, and time flew.  We cruised through several used tractor lots and visited my cousin Gerald in Cameron.  
It was a good day.

Lovely day for a ride

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?
  

Moving right along...

Actually, I don't have much to blog about; I just figured it was time to move the toilet paper on down the page.  You'll notice that nasty fingerprint is still on the lens of my camera.  I've tried and tried, but it stays there.  I don't know how it could be on the inside, when it wasn't there originally.  I'm hoping to replace the camera before Cliff retires.  

Yesterday we went for a motorcycle ride.  

We took the long way, through Chillicothe, the home of sliced bread.  

There are signs that let you know you're approaching Jamesport.  


We shopped in several Amish stores.  I bought a tomato-slicing knife in one, and some banana chips and a pint of sorghum in another.  

The horses the Amish use strike me as homely and skinny, but they sure do get down the road at a good clip.  

This was outside one store.  

We found a nice park in which to eat our sardines, but we were tormented by a luscious-looking cake a nearby group had sitting out in the open, tempting us.  You'll be able to see it on the left of the orange cooler, if you click on the picture to make it bigger.  

We rode through downtown, but didn't stop.  


We made this trip two years ago; I blogged about it HERE.  You can read more about the Amish community in Jamesport HERE.