A visit to a frontier village

Last Friday, the boys and I took a trip back to the State Park that we visited the weekend before- had to retrieve the forgotten fishing pole.  I took my camera because I wanted to get a few photos of the frontier village that we didn’t have time to look at the day we were fishing.

When we arrived, the volunteer Blacksmith was just opening up his shop!

(this pic was taken as we were leaving the park- he had a small crowd at that point :)

We were the first to wander in as he was preparing to start his fire.  He was very nice and we got to talking.  Turns out that the man that has been the Blacksmith in that shop had passed away, and this guy was the new volunteer.  He had only had 2 lessons in blacksmithing, and said he had more questions than answers, himself!  I got to talking to him about how we were just at Williamsburg and he was interested in how their shop was set up.  I happened to have the pics on my camera still!  He was such a nice man.  The shop was so neat…

loved the hitching block and watering trough outside the door!  I just have a ‘thing’ for cut stone and foundation stones!  lol

This thing would sell for a fortune!

( I want that wheelbarrow!!!)

He was the only building that was open, but he did tell me that on the first Saturday of every month, ALL of the frontier village is open!  I am so excited to make it back down!  I couldn’t wait, and after peeking in the window of the church and messing with my camera setting, I was able to get a few shots inside of them.

Beside the blacksmith was the church.

The windows were old blown glass.  They did leave one clear pane which made it easier to see inside and take pics through.

A few pics of the Gaston’s Mill.  Can’t wait to be able to go inside this!

Front

Backside where the water wheel was…

Then we walked across the little bride and up to hill to circle around to the other buildings.

The school house

Teacher’s desk

Student desk

Then we walked back to the Williams house.

This house is shown by appointment only.  I am definitely going to be making an appointment to get inside this one!  Now remember, I was taking these pics through (dirty and fingerprinted) windows and I had to shade my camera to reduce glare, but you will see what I mean!

a sitting room

looking into the kitchen…

I had to come off the front porch to see if I could get a better look at the kitchen!  This great water pump was located off of the kitchen porch!

I looked in the back door….Oh be still my heart!!!

the ‘sink’

the stove!!!

the table and laundry area!!!…

Oh- and the floor!!!

It was seriously almost too much to handle not being able to go in and sit down to soak it all in!!

We went around the back of the house and I got pics of the other rooms.  This was the parlor?  That is the front door.  I couldn’t get a pic from the front porch b/c of the lace curtain.  The bedroom is to the right.

I was able to get pics of the bedroom from both the front and back windows.

Back

and back at the front porch to get pics of the other side of the room…

It was cute that they left the bed ruffled…like it was hurriedly made up that morning  :)

We then walked up to the Trading Post.  It had some awesome stuff inside, but also a lot of modern stuff.  I would love to go in and explore.

The porch was just awesome.

Wouldn’t you love to decorate this??

A few shots inside…

 

Next we walked back down the hill to the last little cabin home.  I can’t remember the name of this one.

Oh, I see it was the Floyd Lower Cabin :)

Just look at that stepback and fireplace!

See that fence?  That is the barrier.  It looks like you walk in the door and stand in that area to see both sides of the cabin.  All of the buildings had some sort of barrier area except the Williams house.  That must be why you need an appointment there.

The bedroom area was fantastic here too!  Pic is blurry, but on the left is a ladder to the loft and in front of the window is a spinning wheel…

I was trying to get pics around this darn lamp that was sitting in the window.

I was trying to get a better pic of the rope bed and stuffed ticking mattress.  This cabin was beside Gaston’s Mill.  This is the last side of the mill.  It has a bridge walkway on this side.

Tired of bad pics yet?  lol

Last 2 areas worth mentioning is the covered bridge and the lock bedside it.

This was the back side of the bridge.  We walked over to it after visiting the blacksmith.  He parked his truck right in front of it- lol

The lock was also very cool.

The lock gates.

Well that was about it for the window tour around the frontier village.  Someday I will make it down to actually get inside these beauties and share some better pics of them.

I’m sure most of you are dealing with the heat and humidity we are, so I hope you are staying cool!  We don’t have air conditioning in this old house, so we are ‘sweating it out’- to say the least.  I am almost ready for Fall!  I’ve been stitching up a storm and have 3 Fall themed offerings stitched and waiting for finishing.  I should have them ready for my selling blog in the next week or so.  My neighbor has been cutting down trees and I have a big bag of fresh sawdust waiting to fill pinkeeps and pillows.  You may find me sitting in front of the fan stitching today, or on the patio later on, laying in the hammock…

(That tree is sooooo  tall! )

or you might find me sitting in here with Gannon!

after I put fresh water in it :)

Enjoy your day-  I’m gonna try!