Sturbridge Village, Again!

We took a field trip yesterday up to Sturbridge Village. We had been up previously: Sturbridge Village but that was a chilly rainy day. This trip it was a beautiful sunny day with a gentle breeze! We stopped by Samara's house to drag her along, leaving her parents with nothing to do but stare at the walls...

We arrived prior to the school groups, so we enjoyed about an hour of quiet as we toured the shoe maker and schoolhouse first. The school keeper, as it turned out, had worked this past weekend with a 4-H intern who lived on a large goat farm. The story was told that she amazingly knew how to capture and lead a sheep named Alabaster, who had escaped. We kind of chuckled and asked if this intern went by the name of Lara. And indeed, she did! Not even one week into her internship and Lara is already making a name for herself!! YAY LARA!!

The school groups were arriving as we left the schoolhouse. We spent the next few hours visiting various buildings and avoiding the groups as best we could. It was interesting, as we took an out of the way path through the pastures, to hear Nathalie comment to Abigail, "I am sooo glad we aren't in public school! Those kids are rude!"

We visited the farm where we saw this really interesting flytrap that wasn't ugly and didn't use chemicals. We asked several interpreters, but no one seemed to know how it was made or what was in it. We figured we would simply ask Lara to find out for us, but later in the day we found another one that was low to the ground that allowed us to get a good look. An interpreter was able to tell us that it used a mixture of molasses and yeast to attract the flies.

After lunch, we visited the Bixby house, blacksmith, church, and the Friend's meetinghouse. By this time the school groups had left and we practically had the place to ourselves. The church had a special activity where an interpreter played a few songs on the pipe organ that had been made in the 1820's. After this we headed for home, after a short visit to the gift shop for some fudge for the ride home.

Old Sturbridge Village

The public school had a field trip planned for Old Sturbridge Village for both Rachel and Samantha's classes. It was going to cost me $35 per kid for them to go! Thankfully my sister had given us a family membership for Christmas, so we took Rachel and Samantha out of school for the day and invited the Rodgers family to come along. (For what it would have cost Mrs. Rodgers to send one kid on the field trip, the whole family got in!)


It was raw and rainy as we arrived just before the Village opened (and before the buses had even left the elementary school), but we were hopeful that the weather gurus would be right and it would clear out around noontime. We visited the Small House, so named because, well, it is small. We learned that 12-13 people would live in this house that was the size of my living room!

We continued to check out the buildings and activities and the rain continued to come down. We ate lunch in the van as the rain poured down. (So much for weather gurus!) We discussed leaving early, but the kids really wanted to check out the play area that was off limits to school groups, and they hadn't seen the school kids yet. It was an indoor activity so we agreed to it.

The rain had slowed to a steady drizzle when they had finished playing, so we went to check out the school house, Freeman farm, cooper and blacksmith. At the farm we saw a lot of old 1830's tools. Most of which my father-in-law still uses when we do hay with them in the summer!

At the blacksmith shop dad got to talking with the blacksmith about wheelwrights. Turns out the two wheel stones at my in-laws house are very valuable! The blacksmith let the girls go behind the chain and pull on the bellows to build up the fire. He then told us about the Bixby family that had owned the blacksmith shop and the house across the way.

We finally bumped into the school group as they were leaving for the buses. After checking out the damage to the covered bridge caused by the high water, William had reached the end of his patience, so we opted to leave and come again another day. When it is warm and sunny, because the rain never really did end...