Thursday, November 19, 2009

19th century farm life

Today we took a field trip to Shelburne Farms to learn about life on a Vermont farm in the early 1800's. Our day started off with a little play.

This woman was waking up on a farm in the 1800's:
This woman was waking up in her room in 2009:
The kids learned about all the chores that were done on a farm in that time period. One chore was making butter. So, we made butter while singing a song to pass the time.




Next, it was off to visit the animals.




The goats enjoyed the brown November leaves.





We headed back into the barn to grind up some corn for the chickens.




And then enjoyed feeding the chickens, picking them up and collecting eggs.








B almost picked one up-maybe next time!






After lunch we made beeswax candles. J and B took their candle making very seriously and ended up with perfectly tapered straight candles. They smell so good!







Here they are with their finished candles.
We also carded wool and spun it into yarn. A perfect November day! Oh, and did you see that the coats were off while we were outside? It was almost 60 degrees and sunny here in VT.











5 comments:

  1. Looks like a fun trip! We love so many of those activities. It's so important for kids today to have a connection to how things used to be done. I love it!

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  2. That looks like such a great place to visit! If I'm ever in Vermont, that farm is on my list. ;)

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  3. How I wish we could visit some where like that. More to the point I fantasize about a life like that. Perhaps I wouldn't like it in real life though.
    What a lovley day.
    Blessings

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  4. I love trips like these ~ so much to see and do.

    Your kids look like they enjoyed the chickens!!!

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  5. What 6o degrees in VT in November? Weird! What a great farm, I really like the comparison shots of the then and now.

    lisa

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