Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Homestead Heritage

School just started but we were both very grateful for a long weekend. It was fun and relaxing but by Monday, I had to go "do something". After some debate, I decided on a trip to homestead heritage. It is only ten minutes from the house but not too popular but I had heard about it from a professor so we headed out around 10:30am.

The idea of Homestead Heritage is educating on self sustainability and community. You can take a tour of the homestead. There are a few houses and barns that are for specific trades. The first one we went to was a gift store. Everything they sell is made on site. There was soap, furniture, quilts, jams and a whole bunch of stuff. There were some ladies working on a quilt. They STITICHED EVERY SINGLE STITCH BY HAND! That is way more patience than I would ever have. Of course, they were beautiful quilts.

We also visited the woodworking shop and the pottery barn. The pottery was beautiful. From start to finish, they do it all.

There was a grist mill that was really cool. It was really intricate and very involved.

There was a textile barn were they make towels and clothes and scarves and stuff.
I like these simple spools placed on top of the support beams like a piece of art.
Oh ya, I forgot to mention that we happened to be there on the 2nd busiest day. It was the annual Shorgum syrup festival! The busiest time is Thanksgiving weekend.

They had some samples of the syrup and they worked whole process. It looked something like this:
First, a few guys cut up sugar cane stalks and put them into this grinder.
Then, the horses walked around causing the grinder to grind. (as you can see, I am not well versed on the process)
One of the men caught the liquid portion in a small bucket and transfered it to this huge open oven where a bunch of women stirred it constantly. If it looks like its hot, thats because it is. It was about 95 degrees out and the stove was heated to about 250! Then they filled every jar!
There was music, homemade ice cream, a restaurant, farming, and BBQ. We even visited a restored barn that housed Washington's horses. It was taken down piece by piece and rebuilt on the farm. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun.
Hope you had a good weekend too. The next one is almost here already!

Dad and Megan are up for a football game this weekend....there will be pictures.

2 comments:

  1. What great pictures you take, Margo. Thanks for the tour through the Homestead Heritage. What a fun place! When I was growing up they had Quilting Bees and that was the only way they made quilts! The sorghum brought back memories of my Dad who liked it on pancakes. It was too strong for me. Thanks for sharing. Sounds like you had an educational and fun day. Grandma B.

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  2. Wow! I didn't think there were anymore of these places still around. It never seems to amaze me of all the nice places, shops and vintage stores little Waco has. Maybe dad and I can go there sometime. Uncle Daniel and John would love it.
    P.S. I love the picture of Neil (ready for the kill) Love You! Mom Moran

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