Farmland Scenery from Pennsylvania

[Dusty Dan]

From the Cumberland Valley, Pennsylvania, my home. From Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where I grew up among the Amish and worked on their farms as a teenager, mostly picking tobacco in August. And, in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, the farm in winter, where I have hunted deer since 1969.

 

 

[Dusty Dan]

One more from my hunting territory,

 

Edited March 3, 2019 by Dusty Dan

[844john]

lovely photos Dan, one of my biggest wishes would be to visit the States and see first hand things such as the Amish communities, the wild west, Grand Canyon, New England.....the list goes on, unfortunately I'm terrified of setting foot on a plane (much to the wife's disappointment!) so it's very unlikely to ever happen.....so keep the photo's coming please!

[Dusty Dan]

Thank you, if I never have to fly again, it will not upset me. It is just too much of a hassel and I feel too cramped on an airplane. But if you want to get long distance , fast, unfortunately it is the best way. I have flown numerous times across country.

The Amish country, especially in Lancaster County is beautiful but things have become more commercialized through the years since I grew up there. The farms are there, and the Amish have basically learned to deal with the tourism industry, and they have benefited to a certain extent from the influx of tourists by their furniture and quilts and foods, which they produce. They make some beautiful hand made furniture of which I have purchased a dining room table and chairs, corner cabinet and a server. But, the days when they hitched their horse and buggy to a post on Main Street in the middle of town, are mostly gone. In the 1950’s things were a bit different. I try to make the hour and a half trip from my home in Chambersburg to Lancaster, at least once a year. They have some fabulous farmers markets there. Actually, there are Amish farms right here in Franklin County in the Cumberland Valley, also. I love to shop in a farmers market and buy their meats and baked goods and chow chow and shoe fly pies. 

Once the weather gets nicer and things are in bloom and perhaps even a bit sooner, my little chihuahua and I will take a ride through the country along the Appalachian Mountain chain and get some photos of the landscape and hopefully some farms. But sometimes folks are not too pleased if they see you taking photos of their farms from up close. Right now we are in the midst of a major snow storm.

 

Edited March 3, 2019 by Dusty Dan

[robbo]

I will look forward to those photos Dan, I am told that the Appalachian range is stunning and your photos may be the closest that I get to seeing them.

[smithy]

I am also looking forward to those photos Dan , not sure what tv channel it is but I often watch a program about the  Amish

[Dusty Dan]

Part of the Appalachian Trail, which runs from Maine to Georiga, runs across the Blue Mountain just north of where I lived in the Lehigh Valley, from 1961 until 2012, when I moved to Franklin County, Pa. I used to take day hikes on the trail but I never hiked it extensively. There are camp sites along the trail for people who hike long distance, such as those who hike the entire length or certain parts of it. It takes stamina and experience to make the hike from Maine to Georgia and hopefully make it in one piece. I never hiked it unless I had a revolver or a lever action rifle with me. I just felt safer that way. At my age, my hiking days are pretty much over. Actually, where I live now, the trail runs along a mountain range known as South Mountain, just to the east of my home. If you Google “Appalachian Trail”  you will read about it and see images and learn more. There are some spectacular views, especially from some of the “look out” points on the trail. There was one where I hiked on the Blue Mountain called Bake Oven Knob, overlooking the Lehigh Valley in eastern Pennsylvania. Like I said earlier, snow is coming down at about an inch an hour now.

 

Edited March 4, 2019 by Dusty Dan

[844john]

To me, what you said about feeling it necessary to carry a gun Dan really brings home the differences between our two countries and how much more remote and wild parts of the US still are, no matter where we roam over here there is no danger from attack by wild animals (some of our cities might need to be excluded from that mind!) As others have said, looking forward to more of your photos!

[Ferret90]

Thanks for posting pictures, very interesting scenery  

[Dusty Dan]

Thanks, one of these days, on a clear day and when I have time, I will take a drive out along the mountain in the valley and see what photos I can take. 

[Dusty Dan]

Look who came for a visit, behind the house, in the snowstorm, whitetail deer.

 

Edited March 6, 2019 by Dusty Dan

[Dusty Dan]

Today was not the best day to take photos, but the chihuahua and I went for a ride. It was hazy along the mountains and therefore it shrouded them. I shall go again on a clear day later in Spring. But, some farms from my home area in Franklin County, Pennsylvania and I stopped by the local John Deere dealer, took one of a rusty old tractor at the end of a lane and a few others. Some day, I shall try to get one of an old John Deere tractor that sits at a crossroad, if it is still there when I get to that town again.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 10, 2019 by Dusty Dan

[Dusty Dan]

And finally, for the time being, the Turkeyfoot tractor dealer, a few miles down the road from me,

 

Edited March 11, 2019 by Dusty Dan

[smithy]

Thanks for showing photos, there used to be a American farming program come on Sky Television over here a few years back cant remember what is was called and where it was in the US but it was interesting watching ,it was mainly corn growing but a bit of grass too   

[Dusty Dan]

Some areas are still and will always be farmland that is passed from generation to generation. Some farms are protected by the farmland preservation act. These should never fall to sub division and housing development. The Amish farms are the ones that mostly fall into that category. But not always. But some farmers have found that it’s just too hard to maintain the farm and land by farming alone. Then the farmland is sold and houses and townhouses take the place of what was once a farm. I have seen this subdivision happen over and over. 

There was an Amish family by the name of Glick with at least ten children who owned the dairy farm near the village of Leola, Pennsylvania, Lancaster County, where I lived and worked as a young boy in my early teenage years.This was in the 1950’s.. I moved away, with fond memories. My parents had to move because of my father’s job. About twenty years afterwards, I went back and drove down what was once the farm lane bordered by fields. Houses were where the crops once grew. I stopped and asked a neighbor what ever happened to the farm and the Glick family. The man said that they sold the farm and moved northward in Pennsylvania to a valley and a settlement of Amish families that lived there.

Edited March 11, 2019 by Dusty Dan

[Dusty Dan]

At the intersection of Molly Pitcher Hiway and Swamp Fox Road, in Franklin County Pennsylvania, sits an old tractor. No for sale sign. The name of the village is Marion. 

 

[844john]

Very interesting story Dan, and one that is unfortunately mirrored all too often over here as well. Many of our smaller family farms have either been swallowed up by neighbouring units or sold off to build houses on. I suppose it's progress, and I'm sure none of us would want to go back to the old days, but for me the farms back then had much more character and interest than the huge industrial units that we have today, both in the style of the steading itself and also the machinery that was used on it.....but as I say, that's progress and is an inevitable consequence of the demand for cheap food production.

Your picture of the Deere sat next to the road does highlight the difference in climate though, over here the damp conditions would be slowly reducing it to a rusting heap, but that looks very well preserved. 

Great update again Dan, keep them coming!

[smithy]

Quote

I agree with every thing you have said in above post apart from the John Deere would sit there and rust away , if it was left like that around here the white van man would soon have it gone

 

[844john]

1 hour ago, smithy said:

 

True Smithy, forgot about them!

[Dusty Dan]

I took some more today when I went to the tractor show, and the show photos I shall post under a different heading. Some of these I took through the RAV4 window because there was no place to pull over off the road.

 

 

[844john]

wonderful countryside Corky, and some very tidy looking Deere's as well!

[Dusty Dan]

Here is a photo of an 18th century church which gave me many pleasant moments through the years as it is just a few hundred yards across from the backyard of the home I just sold. It was time to downsize. Age sneaks up on you. There are soldiers buried in the cemetery there who fought in the Revolutionary War. And many of the tombstones are in German engraving. A simply lovely old church which was wooden, then stone and is brick now with a few additions through the years. It is a United Church of Christ today. 

 

 

 

[844john]

57 minutes ago, Dusty Dan said:

Here is a photo of an 18th century church which gave me many pleasant moments through the years as it is just a few hundred yards across from the backyard of the home I just sold. It was time to downsize. Age sneaks up on you. There are soldiers buried in the cemetery there who fought in the Revolutionary War. And many of the tombstones are in German engraving. A simply lovely old church which was wooden, then stone and is brick now with a few additions through the years. It is a United Church of Christ today. 

 

 

 

looks a beautiful setting Corky

[Ferret90]

Looks lovely  

[Dusty Dan]

Thanks, I miss the chimes from the steeple at different times of the day.  But sooner or later you just have to accept the fact that it’s time to move on.