a magical birthday

Devin, my cousin Joe's son, turns eight with a party at the church hall.

Strengthening exercises for casting out demons.

Cousins' coiffures.

Poof!

Feel the magic

boo!

We all headed off to Jamestown Settlement and the boys climbed the face of this monument marking the landing here 400 years ago of the first Virginia Company settlers.


The museum is broken up into a native american village, european settlers' fort and replicas of the 3 ships that brought them here.

The inside of the wigwam had oodles of details -- and pelts galore.

Outside each wigwam was a hollowed out tree stump for grinding corn. Lucia hit every one.

On our way into the fort, we saw this chick knotting a fishing net. But the main attraction at this area was a rooster and his ladies. And boy did he have some nasty lookin' spurs!

Joseph and Dante listen intently at the armory. And then everyone goes outside and puts on some armor. I'm not sure the settlers had walkie-talkies though.

I'm thinking it's a little heavy for Lucia...

Ahh, sitting in the sunlight, sans armor. Much better.

Down by the ships, the kids find the anchor the most interesting thing in the area.

Cousins in Colonial Williamsburg

Mark, Pat, Joseph and Porter met us in Virginia for a few days -- the kids were so excited to see each other and had great fun playing the whole time. The place we stayed had a pond out the back deck, on which oodles of migrating canada geese were flying in and out of constantly. And ducks. And one night, a group of deer visited as well until we made them nervous and they ran off.

Chillin' on the couch the first night together.

Lucia hugs her doll, and Porter hugs Lucia, who is almost doll-sized for Porter.

Every man's dream -- two girls at once!

Where are the stocks designed for children? They can slip out of these too easily!

There we go...

Do you like my hat?

Everyone goes for a carriage ride at the end of the day. Lucia almost missed it due to a trip to the restroom, but I managed to hunt them down and toss her aboard.

we're baack!

Back from our trip to Williamsburg, stopping at the Landis Valley museum for their Harvest Days in Pennsylvania Dutch country. The kids had a great time -- they got to make a rope, grind corn, wash up both near the soap lady and again at the town pump, make sauerkraut, etc.

In the first house we walked through, the two women were stuffing ground up pig into it's own intestines -- mmmm.

Next we wandered out into a courtyard, to watch a man bake pies and bread, taste heirloom varieties of apple and visit the nut man. This guy had the coolest gadgets to help gather nuts. He showed us how to open and what to do with black walnuts, as well as many other tree nuts. Dante and Luke ended up buying one to help get the crazy amount of acorns off our lawn since the squirrels seem overwhelmed this year.

While they were mesmerized by the nut man's gizmo, Lucia and I watched this woman stir her cauldron of soap. She was not alone in walking about barefoot -- many of the interpreters were. Something about saving their shoes for the winter.

Here's Lucia washing up with a sample bar of this woman's soap. I also offer this as a before shot to what comes later in the day. You see, before we left the house for vacation, Dante came running into the kitchen to inform me that Lucia was doing strange things upstairs with the hand soap in the bathroom. Busy packing, I didn't do much of anything about this, figuring as long as she wasn't eating it, what harm could there be? Well, as it turns out, she was applying said soap to her hair as "gel". Where she gets such a thing, I haven't a clue. I don't think we're know as big "product" users.

So anyway, with about a half a bottle of hand soap in her hair, she looked like she hadn't washed her hair in weeks. So I put it up into a little band and hoped for the best. As I sat on the hay bale shooing flies from the her apple dumpling, Lucia spotted the water pump across the way and made a beeline. I turned to check on Dante's place in the ropemaking line, and looked back for Lucia only to find that not only had she doused her head in the pump, but she now had a head full of suds. Much to the amusement of the people around the pump, who all seemed to be wondering where the obviously neglectful parents were.

Squaring my shoulders, I made my way to her side to inquire if she needed help. Some of the other kids were delighted to pump the water while I held her up underneath and washed the soap out. The paper towels from the nearby restroom didn't go a long way to drying her squeaky clean mop, but they gave us an excuse to bow out of the spotlight and let the witnesses disperse.


This guy told us all sorts of stories from his childhood on a farm as he taught us about corn and its many forms: shelled, cracked, meal, flour, etc. He had cool gadgets as well, and the kids got to try each step. Here Dante struggles to turn the cracked corn into cornmeal.

Autumn hoppers

Our friends Sabrina, River and Gatlin stopped by the other day, and while the boys were in the woods setting snare traps, my neighbor Lynn called to ask if I'd go down and hang out while her son slept until her older son Keith got home from school. So we all tromped through the woods to her house, where she told us she'd set up some saddles on bales of hay so the kids could "ride" and to go up to where the hay is stored in the top of the barn. The barn that her husband built by hand -- cut down the trees, milled the wood, poured the foundation, etc. It's beautiful. The boys had a blast hopping about from pile to pile.



They joined us again today for a hike for the elusive autumn olive -- missed the trail so we never made it, but we did find this wood frog along the way. Until they move, these guys are hard to spot on the leafy forest floor.

Olden Ways, Olden Days

We went to Old Sturbridge Village this weekend for their agricultural fair, and the night before we camped out at Wells State Park nearby. Dante made dinner -- built and started the fire with his milkweed fuzz and flint, chopped the veggies, opened the can of beans and tended the chili.

Mmmm, smoky black bean chili.

All snuggled up in the tent. Poor daddy ended up with an nice rock jutting up into his spot.

Next day at OSV, Dante and Lucia churned butter. We stayed in this kitchen for about a half hour so they could finish it.

Next up, they put an apple in the mini-mill and ground it up to make cider.

These buckets are heavy even without water.


Dante plows the field behind the ox.

Next, he threshs the rye they harvested in July.

Separating the rye from the chaff.

Time for play!