Saturday, June 25, 2016

Sauder Village, Part 2



So many beautiful quilts at the Sauder quilt shop!




I just adore the colors in that one, above, as well as the wavy quilting.




The intricate piecing on these makes me dizzy to think about.





Evan begged and begged to go the the grist mill.




All the kids were mesmerized by the water wheel turning to power the grinding stones.  Inside, the kids could try grinding some corn with a mortar and pestle like the Native Americans did it, and then they could watch the corn being ground in the water-powered mill.





Baby Levi was enthralled with the sheep in the pasture behind the mill and was quite angered at being moved away from where he could see them.  So I parked his stroller in view of the pasture while we explored the mill.

I noticed this beautiful hinge in the door of the mill.





These yarn skeins are homespun and dyed with natural dyes and alum and cream of tartar for mordants.





Spinning that yarn takes a lot of practice, but was an absolutely essential skill.  I, for one, am extremely thankful that I don't have to spin or, above all, wear that homespun wool.  I don't think I would ever get used to the feeling of that on my skin.  I'm kinda wimpy that way.

A pioneer, I am not.






We went into a house that had actually belonged to a settler family.  It was 172 years old, and even the floor bricks were original.  The woman who lived there had 6 children when her husband died in a farm accident.  She married again, and went on to have 9 more children.  When she died in her 80's, she had out lived two husbands and two of her sons.  She had 101 grandchildren and more than 300 great-grandchildren!  The house was quite a small space for that family of 11 to live and work in all day, every day.  I have felt like my house is small for the 7 of us, but it's all perspective.





We went into the replica school house where the children worked long desks along the two side walls that had only grease-paper on the windows.  They went to school for 3 months in the winter, only, so I imagine it could get chilly.  (They could continue those 3 months per year until they turned 21.) They had these little oil lamps hanging along to help lighten the dim interior.





The school house had a fire-place, of course.  Again, in the absence of ample stone and brick, they used what they had-- wood.  The chimney was made of wood and propped up with a long log.  When the wooden chimney inevitably dried out and caught fire, the biggest boys were sent out the kick over the log prop so the chimney would fall down and spare the rest of the school building.




This little garden has a "waddle fence" made of woven sticks and branches.  Even the pioneers had trouble with their fowl making a mess of the gardens.





This garden had a slightly more sturdy fence.  Cow-proof, I guess.





I always like interesting metal things and I thought this door handle was quite unique.





For sale in the General Store were lots of interesting metal things.





This weather vane needs to be in my yard, or on my barn...





The whole day was fun and interesting.  The kids also played in the "Little Pioneer" settlement where they could play at farm work in the barn and pretend to cook stew or wash and iron clothes in the house.

We came home tired, and plan to go back again soon.



6 comments:

  1. More fascinating crafts. AND thanks for including the history snippets.
    Are those bells for sale or just decoration?
    And that door handle is marvellous.

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    1. The bells are for sale, lots of shapes and critters adorning them.

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  2. It looks so authentic and fascinating. I want to go there. I'd probably spend a lot of money at that General Store, though...

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    1. Yeah, it's a temptation... You can buy each craft IN each shop, so you're standing there watching it being made and then the natural next step is to buy one. Also, they have a large artisan furniture store which is also wonderful. "Sauder" furniture is a big thing around here.

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  3. The quilts are gorgeous. Some look machine quilted, which is the way everything is quilted these days, but done very well with those patterns.
    Great photos of everything, it looks like a really fun place.
    Pea Pie!

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    Replies
    1. Pea Pie the Stroller Sheik.

      If we had more time when you're here, we would take you there...

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