Frontier Culture Museum-part 1 (and to think there were even MORE pics and I lost them!)

I'm bummed because I can't find the pics from our drive to Staunton. Cole and Emily took some funny pics of each other and I deleted them off my camera before realizing I didn't have them on here. Dang.

The first farm we saw upon arrival at the Museum was the early-American farm of 1740. It was a log cabin crudely-made and without the mud filling. Outside was a man splitting logs and Cole and many other boys sat patiently waiting for their turn to hit with the hammer. Don't have pics of this. :(

And then a woman dressed in the 1740s era attire, told us all about living in the backwoods of Virginia at that time and the threats and dangers, especially for a woman who is left home all day. She then gave us a musket demonstration showing and telling us the correct way to cock a rifle and use gun powder. Her presentation (as well as ALL those that worked/volunteered there) was very interactive. She asked many questions and it took quite some time for things to build up to her actually firing the weapon (even though it was a blank). Fun and very informative for the kids.

We then headed over to two other farms; one from the 1820s and another from the 1850s. We were surprised at how things had progressed in the short time period between 1820 and 1850. A lot of advancements were made in farming in that short period. This was the first time the kids were able to participate in cooking over an open hearth and helped roll egg noodles (made of simply eggs and flour..and a bit of salt). They LOVED doing this! They were also able to carve wood and pet the sheep and smelly pigs. Emily especially loved the animals. Sweet girl.


















We stopped in and had a 10 minute "school lesson" at the old school house. This time they did a spelling bee! Cole and Emily both missed the word "dodge". Oops. But they loved it and lined right up again for their next word (can't remember what it was..).

After that we headed over to the big barn of the 1850 farm and house and Cole couldn't keep his hands off all the tools. On the front lawn area of the home was local and semi-local merchants from the area there for the Oktoberfest festivities. They were dressed in old-time clothing selling things like hand-made guns, lanterns, gun powder horn muskets (made of cow horns and deer antlers), hand-made knifes, furs, and animal traps.

As you can see in the pics, Cole was ALIVE with interest. He couldn't stand still for a minute and was even reprimanded by the man who made the animal traps for not listening after asking a question. It was good, though, because after that Cole was polite as ever and stood still and

kept his eyes on the man. I love the pic of Cole wearing the muskrats hat (I really don't even know if that's what they are). He looks so young and innocent.

I can swear that my mom had a muskrat hat or shawl that she kept in the Halloween box and I was always so grossed out by it. Am I right, mom?

After spending more than enough time there (as Emily can attest to), we headed to the car for lunch and then after eating, we went to the West African Farm where the kids took part in Puddling (turning clay into mud to build homes). They both told me that this, along with watching a cow urinate, was their favorite part of the trip.

Nice..