We spent day at Old Sturbridge Village with our cousins Kristine and Elizabeth.
First up...getting into character with these old cutouts. I love it!
Next up, they tried milking a fake cow. We sadly misses the real milking demonstration during the day. Now THAT wouId have been fun!
They got into character again with dresses and went to work churning butter and sweeping the hearth. Gage loaded the fireplace up with fake wood.
Sturbridge village is as authentic as possible. They had beds made with pillows and straw so the kids could see just how lumpy and uncomfortable beds were a few hundred years ago.
They also got to check out the outhouse and learn about what they used to wipe with corn cobs, leaves, and rags.
After seeing the stage coach go by they went nuts!! This was a stagecoach that ran between Hartford Ct and Worcester MA. It traveled at 8-10 miles an hour and took 12 hours for the trip!
We had lunch under this gorgeous grape arbor. Gage tried out a tiny sour grape and decided it was "disgusting" :-)
Savannah and Elizabeth - cousins and pals :-)
One thing we loved about OSV is that the buildings are all original and have been relocated to the village. This was the Freeman farm.
The village has workers who dress in costume and act in character. This was a farmer who told the kids all about how children would help on the farm. One of the kids jobs was collecting eggs. So...they got to do that (well, he wrestled the eggs from beneath an angry chicken) and then being them into the kitchen inside the farmhouse.
This is an old covered bridge that was relocated from VT about 60+ years ago. In 1955 it came loose in the flood and started floating down river. Some workers tied it to a tree to save it, and they later skidded it to a new location after the river froze. We took a different horse drawn carriage through the bridge, and then rode on a riverboat. Love this pic of the girls.
Since we were the only passengers, the captain let all the kids take a turn driving the boat. We saw some water snakes and a big blue heron.
We stopped at the blacksmith, the general store, the printer, the schoolhouse, the meeting house, the sheep farm, grist mill, the beekeeper exhibit, watched then dyeing wool, pumped water from a well, etc etc etc!
We even played school yard games, like jump rope, Jacobs ladder, and a bunch of old wooden "catch the ball" type games.
It was a long and full day. And...there was still a lot we didn't see! A great, great day, though.
Here is my favorite picture of the day...
