RussLeona Trip 10/11/12 Amish

We are in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which is home to many Amish.  We took a drive through the beautiful farmland.  The farms are small but very neat and well kept.  Many have dairy cattle.  We took a 4 1/2 mile buggy ride through the countryside.  We had a great driver that was Mennonite.  He grew up in this area and understood the way of life very well.  The Old Amish don't use tractors but will use auxiliary LPG or diesel motors to run their balers or other equipment.  They have diesel or LPG generators at their farms for their milking machines and to run an air compressor.  The houses don't have electricity.  They use LPG or naphtha lights.  An air line from the barn compressor runs to the house.  The housewife has mixers and other kitchen tools that have air motors and run on air.  The men wear dark clothes and a straw or felt hat, the women wear conservative blues and whites and always have their heads covered.  They don't drive cars, only use horses and buggies.  You see many buggies traveling on the roads, sorry I didn't get a good photo as I wanted to be respective as far as pictures.  The kids can't have peddle bicycles but two wheel scooters.  The young Amish live similarly but will use tractors and some have solar generators for some equipment but still don't have electricity in their homes.  It has been very interesting.  We didn't realize how many Amish lived in this area.  We were told that there is 18,000+ in this county.

A covered bridge out of Lancaster built in the early 1800's.

Beautiful countryside.

Our tour guide and the horse and buggy that took us around the countryside.

Amish horse and buggy.