As a writer, one of my favorite things to do is to meet other writers at the various cafes or independent small restaurants in our surrounding area. I took this photo Thursday, June 20th, at a small, independent restaurant called “Hayloft Ice Cream”. They have delicious ice cream, milk shakes, and soft pretzels, as well as quite a few tasty hot food items. The decor and atmosphere are clean, welcoming, and comfortable. The most unique thing about this establishment is that the workers are all “volunteers”. They do not get paid for their work. Hayloft Ice Cream gives all their proceeds to support a local year-round wilderness camp for troubled boys. That is another reason I choose to patronize this local business. It is a blessing and a ministry. To find out more, visit their website: https://www.haylofticecream.com/

I live in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where there are many Mennonite and Amish people. Therefore, seeing horses pulling what we call “buggies”, which are small enclosed carriages, or open wagons like the one in the photo above are quite common.

You can’t see it clearly in this photo, but if you look under the front wagon, you’ll see the thing beside it only has two small wheels. It’s a sulky. Sulkies have become quite popular among the plain folk in our area over the past 5 years or so. They have two wheels and a single seat.

The thing I really want to draw your attention to in the above photo are the horses — especially the horse in the forefront. I took the photo because I noticed that particular horse. Looking at the photo, you can see that the horse next to him cannot be seen, except for its back end, which is farther back than the front horse’s. You cannot even see the ears of the other horse because the one in the forefront is so much taller than the other. Most of the horses we see around here are very similar in size, except for the large workhorses the local farmers use to work in their fields. Therefore, the size of this tall horse took me by surprise and captured my interest. Therefore, I took this photo.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post, which featured both a “place” and an “animal”.