Landis Valley in Winter

With the husband sick in bed and Zoe and I bored out of our minds, we decided to brave the cold weather and snow and head over to one of our favorite places, Landis Valley Museum. They are having their Winter Institute now so there are all sorts of things going on from learning to care for draft animals to blacksmithing. Zoe and I stopped and watched some of the students in the classes. But, we came for the animals and I got some great shots! I also got to cross off an item on my bucket list, scroll to the bottom to see!
Click on pictures for a larger view and don't forget to leave me a comment and let me know which was your favorite!

















I got to go on a sleigh ride!!!!!! Yippeee!!!

Scenes from Landis Valley

Since my father so kindly bought us a family membership to Landis Valley Museum, I thought I would try to head over there more and not just on special events. Well, the place was a ghost town yesterday despite the gorgeous weather. Zoe and I had a great time chatting with all the animals, which outnumbered the visitors. The funniest thing of all was this female turkey. The friendliest fowl I've ever met. She seemed to enjoy being petted and followed us around! In fact I think all the animals enjoyed our attention.

Landis Valley Farm Museum

On Sunday my father treated us to a member ship at the Landis Valley Farm Museum. This weekend they were having their Harvest Days which is my favorite time of year to go. It's nice to know that we can go to all the events there for a year for free! In the spring they have a great herb and heirloom plant/seed faire. They also have a wonderful event for children at Christmas and on Sundays in the summer I believe they have ice cream socials. Plus Zoe (and I) can learn all sorts of cool things like how they used to make lace or dip candles or how they baked bread in an outdoor oven. How to use oxen to plow fields, dying, spinning and weaving wool, what an old fashioned general store looked like. I find the whole place fascinating!

Landis Valley Museum

If you are ever visiting Lancaster County, please be sure to check out the Landis Valley Farm Museum. We went today to their Autumn Harvest Celebration and had a wonderful time. It's only a few miles down the road from us and we have never gone before except for their annual herb faire. I think they used this museum for a backdrop in some of the scenes of Oprah Winfrey's movie "Beloved". I had the opportunity today to photograph many of the beautiful animals - turkeys, sheep, draft horses and cows (I think I have to make a painting from my sheep photo). Zoe loved the live music everywhere we went. There were two ladies playing violin and guitar on a porch and she went up and talked to them and dance on the porch. It was so cute! Here are some pictures of our day. Click on each one for a larger view.