The humidity eased off a bit last weekend so we decided to take all 4 kids to a pioneer and haypress demonstration at a nearby state park. We got to see all kinds of fun things, like a cooper working:
And the inside of a pioneer cabin. I told The Mister that it made me want to start reading all of the Little House books again with the boys! We've read the first 4 so far:
We also got to see a summer kitchen, a (non-working!!) outhouse, and a blacksmith's shop. All of the kiddos seemed to have a good time, with unfortunately the exception of one. Bean told me that we always do "lame stuff." Her misery is a bit palpable here LOL:
The neatest thing about the day was seeing the park's 1850 haypress operate. My littlest boys were very impressed by Mark the ox:
But before we saw Mark go to work, we got to see The Mister go to work! He was picked as a "volunteer" (without having his hand up...haha) to demonstrate how oxen are trained with a yoke and stick. I wanted to take the yoke home but unfortunately they wouldn't let me:
We got to see Mark turn the haypress, then The Mister took the kids upstairs to see the men forking hay into it and eventually the bale pop out:
Afterwards we went through the nature center and stopped off at the pond behind it. We hadn't been there since the spring, so it was neat to see how much it had changed. The pink lotus flowers were beautiful:
I even love the seed pods that are left behind once the petals fall off:
I also love forcing my eldest to put his arm around me and pose for a picture. :)
