Over the weekend Bracken and I went with friends to the Living History Festival at the Singing Creek Educational Center. The description said: Enjoy hands-on family fun and I loved how they made things interactive for the children. We took a hayride along the creek to the pioneer homestead where we got to touch animal furs and watch nails being made. (Can you imagine how much work that would be to make all your own nails? We learned that pioneers sometimes burned their houses to the ground when they moved so they could collect all the nails and bring them along for their next home.)
Bracken and I have been reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books together for quite some time, and it was fun to see that world come to life before our eyes. (Just like my mom read to my sister and I when we were little, and my grandma read to my mom and my uncles. We’re carrying on the family tradition. My great grandfather would be proud.) The children got to help with weaving on a loom. Corn husk dolls were made, clothes were washed pioneer style, and the kids even got to make their own soapstone bead. We heard fiddle music and we visited the schoolhouse where we got to watch wool being spun into yarn. We couldn’t have had a more beautiful day for the festival.
Taryn, you know, don’t you that your great, great grandfather was a blacksmith? He had an anvil like the one you took a photo of. I don’t know what happened to it.
That is so cool!
We have ‘Blanford Nature Center’ here in our city. When my kids were little, they had 3 weekends of ‘Harvest Days’ with many of these same activities. The last weekend was always a Civil War re-enactment. How we enjoyed all of it!
I forgot all about that! Thanks for reminding me. Love you!!
washing clothes on a washboard and hanging them on the line is my kids favorite thing to do. They could do it for hours.