The Farms at Walnut Creek

While on our trip to Ohio I had one of the best experiences of my life.

Seriously.

I know that’s a pretty bold statement, so let me explain – we went on a wagon ride on a working Amish farm in Walnut Creek.

Doesn’t sound like it should get on a person’s life “best of” list?

Let me break it down…

We arrive in the area and see horses and buggies all over the place.

We are loaded up in an open wagon in the snow by an Amish man. Then we are driven all around the farms and get to see all sorts of exotic animals.

Are you getting the awesomeness of this????

Let me paint a picture for ya! (imagine me telling you this next part by counting off on my fingers for emphasis or using the word BAM as each picture is shown… I’m a dork)

Buggies ALL OVER the place…

  

A blanket of new fallen snow covering the farmland… random haystacks by the side of the road… no power lines…

     

Clothesline laundry blowing in the winter wind…

Amish kiddos frolicking in the snow at recess (yeah, I said frolic!) in their sweet black coats…

    

A gnome-like man helps us onto a horse-drawn wagon.

The gnome-like man is Aden.

Aden with a Swiss-ish German-ish accent.

Aden with 13 children!

Aden is awesome.

Did I mention there were sleigh bells!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!??!!!!!!!!

We are all bundled in these thick (quite luxurious) blankets…

As we come over the first hill we see deer in the distance.

Beautiful deer from all over the world.

And we fed them.

By hand!!!

Off in the distance amongst the new fallen snow were zebras.

ZEBRAS!!!

It felt like we had entered Wonderland.

REALLY!

 

And llamas.

And alpacas. (Just like the infomercial!)

We fed those by hand too.

We pull up to a big barn and Aden shoos away the water buffalo…

He leads us into a barn.
It was like 90 degrees inside.

It was dark and quiet. (The thought did cross my mind that we were being lured into some horror movie plot – it was that surreal!)

Our eyes are getting used to the dark barn.

We follow the barn cat deeper into the hot shadowed barn. (Not a rabbit chanting “I’m late” but still very storybook.)

Then what’s around us starts to become clear… 

Giant giraffes.

Like inches away from us.

INCHES!!!!

George, Martha, Freedom, Lucky and Liberty were their names.

We fed ‘em!!

It was crazy rad.

Crazy.

Rad.

Oh, and there were parrots that talked and monkeys…

Then we hopped back on our wagon and fed an ox. It had long horns that could bump you in the head. It was kinda scary.

 

Then it started to snow.

We sang jingle bells..

Yes we did.

Then we were dropped off at the main house where hot cocoa and homemade cookies were waiting.

HOT COCOA AND HOMEMANDE COOKIES!!!!

I also had a strong desire to can…

The whole day was amazing.

A.MAZ.ING.

If you ever find yourself in Ohio you have to go to The Farm at Walnut Creek.

Details:

The Farm at Walnut Creek site

The Farm at Walnut Creek facebook page.

In case you have ever wondered how Amish peeps, who don’t use electricity, have a site or a facebook page OR suddenly become obsessed with Amish people (ahem!) then here are a few other sites to check out…

Amish America (like a million questions answered)

Amish.net (FAQs)

You should also watch my mom’s all time favorite movie, Witness, starring the haute Harrison Ford.

Happy weekend.

Do you like this smaller font?

I have the cutest crafts to share soon!!