So 2 days ago Tiffany and I had the experience of a lifetime!
The day started with us waking up at 5 in the morning and hauling the loads of peaches we had picked the night before onto a trailer and taking them to the farmer's market. Since they are the only peach orchard for miles there were people waiting for us when we pulled in and parked. Well over half was sold within a few hours and once the crowds had slowed Luke decided it was time to take the rest of the peaches to an auction out in Amish country. The drive out there was full of corn fields, (as previously discussed). We pulled in to a huge empty lot with a large covered loading platform in the middle. We backed the trailer in and started loading the peaches onto small 5" x 5" movable pallets. (Apparently after dropping off your good at this auction, you can just leave, and the organization will just send you a check once the auction is over), so after signing in and lining up all the peaches in a neat row next to all the other venders goods it was off to our next destination.
After about 20 minutes of driving, we pulled onto a small dirt road and drove up to a small house in the woods. Luke and Rosi surprised us again by taking us to a small, independently owned vineyard for some wine tasting! Tiffany and I were blown away by how delicious all the wines were that we tasted. After trying about 5 or 6 different wines, they let us pick the one we liked best and purchased it for us. The owner was extremely kind and really seemed to love his job. He told us all about the ups and downs of the Wine Making business, as well as other places of interest in the area that we should visit while were in town. After that we headed back back to the farm, but not without first stopping at a wonderful Amish family's farm to buy some raw milk and a pound of freshly churned butter.
Rosi and Luke had been planning on going up to Indiana for a get together hosted by a homesteading magazine called "Country Side". They hold the event once a year over 4th of July weekend and have people camp in their property and have demonstrations on all different kinds of things (self-sufficient related). Rosi invited us to tag along so we packed some water bottles, piled in their 4-door, and started the 2 hour drive through the country.
Once we arrived at our destination, we got out of the car, stretched our legs, and walked up to the house. Making our way past the saw mill, the tents, the motor homes, and between the house and the garage into the back yard, we started to see all the people. People set up with blankets on the ground giving demonstrations, children running around with their dogs, and people sitting on picnic tables sampling homemade soups. Everyone looked like they were having a great time, and everyone seemed very interested in everything everyone else had to say. After Luke and Rosi found someone they knew to talk to, Tiffany and I wandered until we found someone giving a demonstration on how to make your own arrowheads. Sitting next to him were a few arrows, with arrowheads that he just made, and we walked up while he was making a spearhead. We sat and listened for a while, as he honed and sharpened the spearhead, and answered questions that people had. After that, we sat in on a lesson in pressure canning.
The highlight of the trip occurred when we were asked by the owner to tour the the property. It started out with a tour of "The House That Junk Built", we were shown the kitchen with the free cast iron sink dragged in from the woods, and the free kitchen cabinets reconditioned from a tear-out job from another house. Than it was on to the master bedroom trimmed with paneling and framework and wood flooring given to them from another tear-out job. Upstairs we toured the hole in the wall pantry complete with all the canned food to last a nuclear holocaust. After the house we were shown the beautiful garden complete with lettuce, okra, beans, raspberries, blackberries, cabbage, corn and everything else you could think of.
They had an outdoor shower heated with copper tubing coiled thru a trashcan filled with water sitting over an open fire, and cold water pumped up from one of the many ponds surrounding their property. They had raised garden beds made out of old hollowed out tractor tires, an herb drying station heated by a single light bulb and fan, a wine making station where they utilize a garbage disposal to puree their grapes/apples/peaches or whatever else they wanted to turn into wine, and a meat smoker made out of an old 2 door soda cooler. The best part of the tour was when we reached the garage. Sitting in neat little rows were about a hundred 2 gallon jugs filled with spent cooking oil that they've collected over the years. After sitting for a while, the oil separates into 2 parts, they turn the bottom half (the pure fat) into soap, and just inside the garage, was a 500 gallon tank filled with the top half, (Pure vegetable oil) which they use to power all the diesel engine vehicles on their property, as well as an air conditioner taken off the back of a refrigerated semi truck. All ran completely on the free vegetable oil they've collected.
The tour we took was a once in a lifetime opportunity, full of information and examples that we will carry with us for the rest of our lives, and eventually use to build our own house one day. This couple has finally reached full self sustainability. And can now life fully off the land without the necessity of depending on society for the things they need. Tiffany and I now know that one day we will be able to live like this ourselves. And that is our goal. Freedom can be achieved. We now have proof.
After we left, Rosi and Luke took us out to dinner at a country buffet called Moonlight BBQ, They had the most amazing ribs on earth. And supposedly President Clinton once ate there, Which is pretty cool.
Needless to say, after such a full day, we slept good that night.
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