I Felt Brave Saturday...

and decided to take the littles to Earlyworks all by myself...

it was lots of fun...but i had a hard time getting good pictures without daddy's help;-)

Frontier Days

What fun it was to visit frontier days last weekend.

We drove over two hours for this event...but we are coming up on this time period in history...

and these two boys love history...so the trip was worth it;-)

One of the re-encactors let the boys hold his gun...

Feel how heavy it is...he asked them

With very serious faces they let me us know it was not too heavy for them.

We moved on to Fort Toulouse were we watched them cook, fire a cannon and looked at weapons.

The little ones could hardly contain themselves this was a perfect place for a game of defend the fort.

 Here are the girlies sitting on a bench overlooking the Coosa River

Daddy and four of the five little stair steps...

Here is Tiny Miss wedged in the wagon for the ride back to the van...

Fun on the Farm...

Yesterday we enjoyed a day on the farm

Peinhardt Farm Day was back this year and lots of fun!

We began with a tour of the East Pasture...

ole time woodworking

chair caning

soap making

candle making

trapper association display

log cabin construction

medicinal wild plant display

sling shot shootin'

We then moved on to the petting zoo

(feel the horns Little Bitty)

quilt making

and wagon ride to the field for...

cotton picking 

 sweet potato picking

mule driving

 sugar cane tasting

Back up the museums and old school house for...

apple cider tasting

grist mill

blacksmith shop

sack races

marbles

walking on stilts

What a fun day!!!

 

October Fieldtrip

We were so blessed to be a part of a great field trip last week.

A fellow homeschooling dad who is studying under the herbalist

Darryl Patton

who studied under 

Tommie Bass

offered to host a field trip on his property.

For a couple of hours, we were able to take a tour of his property.

We stopped and talked about trees, flowers and plants.

He identified the plants for us and discussed their medicinal uses.

Anyone who knows me...

knows this field trip was more fun for me than the kids.

I loved every minute of it...

and when he offered to host another walk...

I was ready to sign up that day!

Here are some of the fascinating things we learned...

Smart Weed

pink and white variety

an herb to support the kidney's

good to combine with sumac

asks as catalyst for other herbs

sumac berries

can use to make homemade pink lemonade

boil water first...add berries...let steep

helps treat bladder infections

(white berries indicate...poison sumac)

Goldenrod

make a tea with flowers

supports kidney/bladder 

Wood Sorrel

see the heart shaped leaves...three leaves in a cluster

Add to salads...High in Vitamin C

used to treat scurvy

(although too much can result in kidney stones)

yellow dock

large leaves in center...

cooked or raw

liver herb

Spurge

Hard to see here...but when you break the stems open a white latex liquid oozes out

the liquid is caustic

good for warts, moles, skin cancers

Loblolly Pine

pine needle tea

High in Vit. C

resin acts as an antibacterial on wounds and also seals it.

 

mimosa "flower of happiness"

mood elevator

tea from blooms for 4 weeks or more

Isn't this all so fascinating?

 

Train Depot Fun

After Earlyworks we headed over to the train depot.  We took a tour of the building itself.  The building was captured by Union forces during the Civil War and the top floor was made into a prison.  There is still graffiti that the confederate soldiers left while in the prison on the top floor.


After the tour we took a trolley ride, looked inside a locomotive, passenger car, boxcar and a caboose.  We also played at the Little Toot's Depot and explored a garage with old cars and a fire engine.  We loved our time at the depot and we will definitely be going back on a cooler day so the littles have lots of time to play outside.

exploring the locomotive...lots of things to push and pull...makes real train sounds too

Earlyworks....Fun...Fun...Fun

This year we decided to visit some places around home when Chris was off of work for vacation.  I had heard about Earlyworks when I taught school but I had never visited before, so we decided to take the littles one day. We bought a year membership because it would have been more for our large family to just visit for the day.
We went back for our second trip Saturday and we had so much fun!  Chris and I love love love these museums and so do the littles.  Here are some pictures of our fun time...

There is dressing up...log cabins...a wagon...boat...dollies

tree house...water play...general store

Daddy did a great job with the pictures...the black and white shots were perfect

and finally....

Strawberry Pickin' Time

Friday the littles and I took a trip to a friend's strawberry patch.  My grandmother came along to hold our newest addition.  We were able to pick 10 gallons of strawberries before the rain.  Here are a few pictures...

Miss LouLou was keeping a watch on the storm clouds that were brewing.  She felt like it was her responsibility to instruct mommy to pick faster...fill my basket up to the top mommy...hurry mommy...it's about to rain...make my basket heavy with berries mommy...here is one for my basket mommy...all of this encouragement for me...yet she only picked about two berries the entire time:-)

and of course Little Bitty ate all of the strawberries she picked

Bo was a great helper...He picked about three gallons for me.

Boo was a great helper too...He picked about three gallons also.

Now we have 12 pints of jam and 6 quarts of berries in the freezer...
We ate one gallon and gave four gallons away...
Next up...blackberries