POST 582: 03/27/12: LAURELVILLE - MT. STERLING, OHIO

Today began before sunrise.

Was out the door of SPIA by 7:00 am / dark, and headed west on Highway 56.

The night had been very cold, requiring all of my duvets to keep warm. It was well below freezing when my walk started...at least is seemed that way to me, so I bundled up and decided to do a long early morning trek.




Hwy 56 crossed over the local river as we walked out of the town of Laurelville, Ohio, heading for Circleville, Ohio, some 20 miles distant.





My shadow to the left out in the field. The sun has just risen.





Passed by a number of full-size homes of the above construction.

Looks well built, but a bit pricey @ $5,500.00.


A school set among the surrounding farms...not hear any town.


Except for those distant hills, the landscape of this part of Ohio (25 miles South of Columbus, Ohio), is relatively flat.

Many lovely farms. The advent of the new technology grass cutting machines has encouraged huge lawns for most homes...some covering many acres.


There are some hills, but few and far between.

Recent mountain walking has totally changed upon leaving the Allegheny Mountains behind. Now, I can really step out, taking longer strides and speeding up my cadence. This allows me to cover more miles than I did on the mountains, but it also introduces new stresses on muscles and tendons.

Today, I did two sets of 16 miles. The result is very sore ham strings and considerable fatigue...i.e., my body is objecting to the increased stride length and speed. It will take a week or two to get into condition for the new mode of walking.



Was already past these beautiful animals. I heard a wee dog bark, turned to look at it, and was presented with these four steeds in traces walking toward me. I could see no one around, but they came right at me and stopped beside the plow sitting next to a partially plowed field of corn.


I had to move to see that there was indeed a man guiding that team of work horses.

Without a word - that I could hear - he maneuvered the team to the front of the plow,


...land proceeded to hook the plow to the pulling bar hanging from the horses harnesses.


The entire operation was silent...no noise...no fuss.

He climbed onto a seat atop the single plow blade, maneuvered the team in alignment with the furrows already cut into the soil, and off the team went...still not a word spoken loud enough for me to hear.


Then, the man stopped the team, got off, and walked over to me.

Please say HELLO to Wilmer Beachy, AMISH traditional farmer.

Wilmer declined to have his photograph taken, but did allow me to film his team and he at work.

I made a couple videos, but my camera/computer still refuse to upload them...in fact, my software even refuses to allow me to view them (must find someone to reset/update my software).

Wilmer and I chatted two different times...on my walk out and again on my walk back to Laurelville.

Wilmer is married, with two (?) girls and lives a traditional Amish life. While we chatted, his wife drove the girls up to the school in her Black Amish cab-like Buggy. I did not get to meet Mrs. Beachy.


If you click click the photographs, they will enlarge to give more detail.



The farms - all of them - in this part of Ohio are neat as a pin and pristine clean.

A real eye treat.




The furrowed plot of ground at the bottom-right of the above hill belongs to Wilmer Beachy.







This heavy duty tractor has dual tires on all four corners...


...it is set up with the above disc attachment. The side units raise and lower hydraulically.

In work-mode, the side units are lowered to result in a swath about 16 feet wide.

The rollers sticking out follow the disc, breaking up clods of soil into fine grains.


To find VERIZON signals to complete our blog, I had to drive an additional 5 miles to the town of Mt. Sterling, Ohio. In the morning, I must walk BACK those 5 miles before continuing west on Highway 56 toward the state of Indiana.

I Bee-sting right arm is giving me fits. The swelling is NOT going down and the entire arm - elbow to wrist - is itching me as though it were Poison Ivy.

Very uncomfortable and quite weird.

EDITORIAL NOTE: The blog of yesterday, # POST 581, now has images posted. Please consider looking once again at POST 581.