Chuckwagon Adventure: Summertime In The Northeast Foothills

On June 5th, we settled in a campsite in the midst of dairy farming country in the foothills of New York State as near to my family as possible.

In the campground lives a domestic, black bunny. This furry rabbit was once someone’s pet who escaped and is now roaming freely and living happily ever after in the wild.

Unknown to us, around twenty Amish families moved into this area about two years ago which made for interesting observation throughout the summer. This particular district of Amish are allowed to have electricity to their homes, as well as to their barns. I loved passing by their farms on wash day to see their freshly laundered clothes hanging on the line. Clothespinned in neat rows were Amish garments in colors of black, white, blue or purple. Pairs of black pants and white, blue or purple shirts of various sizes swayed in the breeze alongside crisp, white aprons and dresses of purple and blue.

On Sunday mornings as we headed out to church, we often passed the Amish in their horse drawn buggies who were also on their way to Sunday service. I always waved at them and they always waved in return. On one afternoon we met an open Amish buggy full of children of all sizes. Nary an adult was amongst them. The kids were traveling alone. The driver was a young Amish lad.

At one farm, the barefoot Amish kids would often be sitting in a tight group in the grass of their front yard, and they would wave as we drove by. I still wonder what game they were playing or what they were talking about.

Out of respect, I resisted the slight urge to photograph the Amish at work and leisure. But I surely wish I could have gotten a photograph of their clothesline.

We enjoyed regular visits from the grandkids for events like canoeing,

sleep-overs,

Fourth of July fireworks,

card games of Old Bachelor and of course...

teatime...complete with spontaneous British accents all around!

Our rig got pretty crowed when the kids and grandkids were all there at once.

But it was fun for us!

Some of the summer events that we enjoyed were: Haydyn’s Moving Up Day, a picnic at our family lodge to celebrate Aunt Ruth’s 90th birthday, a picnic at Dorchester Park with a game of water balloon volleyball. There was a pig roast at the our campground, my niece Emily’s graduation party, Logan’s first motocross race, back yard Wiffle Ball and a bunch of birthdays to celebrate including Kaylee, Mandy, Corey, Chuck, Austin and Duncan the Westie’s.