Pioneer Weekend-Sunday

We all slept much better Saturday night and Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny and I again hurried out to get some sunrise pictures. Since it was September 11^th I took some pictures of the flag flying over the ball diamond.

The sun was really strong and I got some really nice shadow pictures on the Octagon House.

When I got back Dad had the fire going so I got to work making our breakfast of fried mush, bacon, eggs and potatoes. Before the crowds came for the day we had to clean out our ticks.

Dad then decided to break out the scythe and mow down the pig pen. I love the look on Dad's face in this picture. Watch out for the piggies!Then we had to make our way over to the Brooks Grove church for a short service. Here's Kyle, Don and I dressed in our finest. When we arrived at church, we were asked to sit up front and Don muttered “We’re Burns’ we never sit in front”. He was overheard so then we were allowed to take up our usual place in the back pews to keep with family tradition. Sitting in the back is such a well known family tradition that at Art Burns’ funeral the pastor made a joke that this was the first time she’s ever seen a Burns in the front of the church.

After church, all 5 of visited the tinsmith where we learned all about the history of tinsmithing. The tinsmith was a great educator and I really enjoyed my time there. I had never really thought much about the art and importance of tinsmithing and I learned a ton. We even got to try our hand at making tin ornaments! Then it was Don’s turn at the blacksmith until lunch. We all reconvened for a delicious lunch of chicken soup and crackers. We couldn’t completely forget the 21^st century though as the bells rang at 1:00pm for a 9/11 moment of silence. I then got my turn at the blacksmith for the afternoon. The blacksmith was a wonder and had so many stories to tell and we all learned so much. Apparently women were very good at patience and detail work and therefore made excellent blacksmiths. I however, possess neither of those qualities and did not excel at blacksmithing (it didn't help that I kept alternating between my left and right hand). Kyle and Don stopped by to help me out though and between the three of us we made a beautiful S-hook.There was still some work to be done so I also helped Dad sift ashes in preparation for dripping lye.Finally as the rain moved in on Sunday afternoon, it was our time to leave. Here's us kids below with all our crafts and Aunt Marie. We bade goodbye to our wonderful Aunt Marie, shed our 19^th century garb and stepped back into the 21^st century. We were all very sad to leave as we felt like we were just settling in. I feel like I could have easily adapted to this lifestyle. We all had an awesome time, thanks to all the wonderful staff at the Museum. Every person was so nice and accommodating to us. The knowledge and passion everyone has for the Museum and its mission is wonderful and we are all very appreciative to them.

Here's the link to the application if any of you want to experience this amazing adventure with your family! http://www.gcv.org/historic-village/pioneer-house/

Pioneer Weekend-Saturday Part II

Throughout the day our family and friends stopped by to come and visit us. Amber was on her way to a bacheloretette party while I was off to my dowdy duties. Oh how the times have changed in the last 150 years!

For lunch we had purslane salad, pickled eggs, pickled purslane and leftover cornbread. After lunch we got to see the new oxen Buck and Dan who are currently in training. They are adorable!They will soon grow up to be bigger than Dan and Mike! BTW I won a first place ribbon in the Museum's Agricultural Fair for the picture below :)In the afternoon we got the opportunity to tour around the village and try out some of our areas of interest. The boys made the rounds at the blacksmith shop and M and I checked out quilting, weaving and spinning. I got to try my hand at quilting which I really liked since I will be quilting my National Park project this winter. It’s amazing how difficult weaving and spinning are!The loom was the hardest. So many steps and a lot of hand eye coordination is required. Makes me really appreciate store bought clothes!
After working up an appetite trying our hand at various trades, we reconvened for an amazingly delicious dinner. We had roasted chicken, potatoes, maple glazed carrots and biscuits. The chicken had roasted all day by spinning on a string hung from the ceiling. It was all scrumptious but my favorite were the maple glazed carrots. I could have eaten a whole pot!

After dinner, it was off to our own private barn dance! I had a great time and haven't laughed so hard in a long time. The Museum’s dance troupe kindly stopped by to teach us some old timey dances. What we lacked for in ability we sure as heck made up for in enthusiasm. Earlier in the day we had Ma and I had made soda crackers and Don had managed to snag some cheese so we even had a nice refreshment table of cheese and crackers. It tasted delicious after all that spinning and sashaying and dipping. We also had switchel aka haymakers punch. Switchel is a drink made of water mixed with vinegar, and often seasoned with ginger and molasses. It is very tart and certainly not for everyone but I thought it was delicious. We danced til the sun went down and we still weren’t tired so Kyle and I once again headed out to get some pictures by the light of another gorgeous moon. Upon coming back to our candlelit cabin, us kids moved all of our straw ticks inside because we didn’t want to bed down with the noisy geese again. My favorite moment was Saturday night when all us kids brought our ticks in from outside to sleep in the cabin. As we all curled up on the floor, it really hit us that this was exactly what life was like for Joseph Felix Burns, 150 years ago; up with the sun, down with the sun and work hard all day in between with complete reliance on your family for support.I missed having my family around when I lived in Colorado and we haven't spent so much quality time together in I don't even know how long so it was really nice to have this weekend for all of us to spend together. Someone even commented that we work very well together as a family and I was very honored to hear that.

Pioneer Weekend-Saturday Part I

Since Ma and Pa had the roped bed inside the cabin, us kids decided to spend Friday night out in the barn on our ticks. It was a terrible choice. We shared the barn with several sheep and a gaggle of geese and ducks who did not quiet down the whole night. This video from Kyle describes it best:

Just at the point when they would drive me nuts and I would want to go inside, they would quiet down again. I don’t think I slept more than a couple hours total the whole night. I was surprisingly comfortable and warm enough though. Saturday morning came very early as the rooster crowed about 4:15. Kyle rousted me about 6:15 to head out for some sunrise pictures since the sky was streaked with orange and purple. It was so quiet and peaceful.After taking a bunch of pictures, we headed back for breakfast which I cooked up over the hearth. It consisted of cornmeal mush (sprinkled with some delicious maple sugar) and scrambled eggs. It’s so much fun to cook over a hearth with an old fashioned receipt book because there’s really no measurements or explicit instructions so it's all just a guessing game.

After breakfast, it was back to work as Don continued doing some digging in the root cellar while Kyle and Dad continued on their woodworking and Mom and I cleaned up the cabin. When Aunt Marie came Mom and I got to work on preparing the days meals while the boys stayed down at the barn and built a cabinet. We had a nice break from work when the gunsmith stopped by to demonstrate black powder shooting. We each got to fire off a shot from a rifle musket. The thing was huge and heavy and I marvel at the fact that it can be shot with any sort of accuracy.It was really fun through to go through the whole process of tearing off the paper with my teeth and then pouring the powder in and then tamping the paper down in. Dad actually knew our shooting instructor as he used to work with him at Lapp!After shooting, I was tasked with going to the garden and gathering up purslane for salad. I had never heard of purslane but once I saw it in the garden I realized that this plant is the same weed that I am always pulling up in our garden at home! Purslane contains more omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy vegetable plant. It also contains vitamins (mainly vitamin A, vitamin C, and some vitamin B and carotenoids), as well as dietary minerals, such as magnesium, calcium, potassium, and iron. Who knew!

Pioneer Weekend-Friday Part II

After our delicious dinner, we all ran around, trying our hand at a little bit of everything.
Ma washed the dishes and cleaned up the cabin.
Dad stocked up the cabin with wood.

Kyle whittled some new bed pegs.
Don found several different ways to shape wood.


I had to act as a heavy weight to hold down the wood for Kyle and Don.

Dad moved on to whittling.

We were also given a quill and ink and a journal to document our experiences. Kyle drew a beautiful picture of the cabin with his quill.

Mom tried her hand at weaving

My activity consisted of bonding with the Jersey cows. I’m not usually a big fan of cows but I love Jersey cows. I think they are so precious.

I also tried my hand at using a crook for the sheep. I don't think I had the technique down.While Don, Kyle and I were exploring earlier we found a croquet set so we took Ma and Pa over to play a round of croquet while the sun set.

I ruined the ambiance by trying to cartwheel in front of the fancy Hamilton House. Cartwheels are not easily done in a skirt.We then took a stroll through the village. It was so weird to walk around and not see another soul.
Since it was such a gorgeous night with an amazingly bright moon, Kyle and I played around with the camera and tried to get some neat night pictures.
Here's the Great Meadow at sunset.
I like this one because it looks like the Indian is shooting the moon.Don is a living sculpture.
I also really like this photo with the bears.
The temperature and the moon were so perfect that we didn't want to go to sleep. As we were sitting around outside the cabin, we saw some lights and heard some voices. We assumed it was security but as it got closer and louder we realized it was a gaggle of Girl Scouts! They were on a nighttime tour of the Museum so Dad told them about our family's history and let them explore around the cabin and barn.