Old Sturbridge Village

A few weeks ago I went to Old Sturbridge Village with my friend Austin. This village is kept and run as if it is their daily lives. We got to take a step back into history and see what life was like during the early 1800's.

 This is the Presbyterian Chapel.  

 Me!

 It was agricultural weekend so they brought out all the things they do in the town. These are rugs they made by hand.

Wool mittens

 Shawls

 The church organ. 

 Cheese and butter

 Many fruits and vegetables that were grown on the farms and gardens in town. They use everything for the consumption of the employees but they don't allow guest to consume any of the produce or food items they make. The villagers said they enjoy being able to consume the fresh milk, cheese and butter they make daily. 

 The inside of the chapel. 

 Austin playing one of the games they played in that time. 

 Me playing too. 

Austin wanted to have a race from one side of the play pit to the back up the hill (that you can kind of see behind me) and back to the start and see who can do it faster. I said "we have to go up the hill" Austin said "yes we can do it" So off we went I struggled the first try up the hill but the second one got my wheel up the hill and back down and to the start. I turn around to see where Austin was and he was barely to the top of the hill. I think I creamed Austin at that competition. It was fun.  

View of the village from up on the hill where they kept the powder house which is where they would keep all of the ammo and gun powder for their guns. 

 Powder house

 Austin

 Town garden

 A couple of boys hard at work chopping wood. 

 This is the cooper. He is the person who makes the barrels. 

 Off we went to learn about plowing fields with oxen. 

 We got to try our hand at plowing as well. Austin went first and started to plow a row. 

 After a while he ended up in the furrow that had already been plowed and he couldn't get it back out so his row only got half way done. 

 Hard at work. 

 When the people asked me if I wanted to try it and I told them yes they were a little shocked. They said girls won't do it for some reason. I was one of the first to plow the field. 

 They told me that I did a great job on my row. It wasn't completely straight but they said for my first row that was pretty darn good. I did at lease finish my entire row. :) It was a little hard to steer because when you move it to the right it goes left and when you turn it to the left it goes right. It was hard to remember that when you wanted to straighten out the plow a bit. It wasn't as hard to do as I thought it was. You have to push it forward into the ground to keep it cutting the ground but it wasn't to bad. I am sure it would be more tiring the more you do. 

 This lady was making cheese. 

 The cheese is in the process of curdling 

 The pottery kiln

 The pottery maker. It was fun to watch him make this cup. It brought back memories of when I made some pottery in school many many years ago. 

 I think this guy is so cute. He probably doesn't want to be called adorable but he is. 

 All of these were made by about 2 or 3 pottery makers. 

 This is a sand grinder that is used to grind the sand to use as a glaze to put on the pottery when it is done before it is placed in the kiln. 

 School house

 Girls would sit on one side and the boys on the other. 

 Up close look at the desks. 

 Baby oxen in training. They walk a few miles a day pulling a rock behind them to get them use to being in the yoke and pulling things. 

 The shoe maker. 

 The General Store

 I remember playing with one of these at Grandma and Grandpa Olsen's house when I was younger. 

 There were two kinds of rum the store keeper would sell. He would sell a Jamaican rum that was .06 cents per cup and it was about 180%. The other rum was .03 cents per cup which was about 80-90%. 

Chewing tobacco.

 This man was giving a demonstration of firing a musket so we could see the process they had to go through and how loud it sounds when it goes off. I sure would not have wanted to use one of these is a war. It took a while to get it loaded and ready to fire. And many times it would fire so you would have to do it again and hope it will go off. 

A few wooden toys. 

 Me and a couple of the villagers.

 The desserts for a party.

 How would you like your carpet to be this colorful?

 A big bed, a crib bed and a doll bed under the crib.

 This room has partitions in it which allowed them to open up the room so they could turn it into a dance floor.

 They just painted on the walls rather than putting up wall paper.

 And they painted on the ceiling as well.

 A little toy horse.

 These ladies were making butter and they had just finished up and were cleaning up as we came down.

 The things in the back are cheese presses.

 This is the butter churner.

Stable and Barn.

 This lady was making yarn from the wool of the sheep.

 Colored yarn.

 They cook the yarn

 Soak the yarn

 A Ram

 Look at that cute little rabbit.

 Stage Coach we got to ride the stage coach and it was really interesting to see what it was like to ride a stage coach. We only had a short ten minute ride and we didn't go very fast but boy would it be a bumpy ride over many miles and at top speed to get across the country.  

Covered Bridge.

 Saw Mill.

 This is a water wheel where they ground the grain and corn meal for the village.

 The wheel on the outside turned slow this one directly on the inside turned a bit faster than the first.

 This one turned even faster.

 This was interesting so I hope you can read it.

The grinding stones up top turned even faster. It was really interesting to see it in action.

 The Black Smith shop.

 Look at those big bellows up top.

 This is what the water ends up looking like after the use it time after time in cooling the metal they are working with.

 It really is true rocks grow in New England.

 This is what one of their beds looked like. That is just rope to hold the bottom and then a mattress of hay or straw would be put on the base of the bed.

 This is where they would make apple cider. Their apple cider generally contains alcohol in it. They put it in the thing that will mash up the apples the skin core all of it.

Then it is brought over to this machine the next day and it is pressed. It is placed under the hay and the press is dropped down on the apples and it will run down the edge and into the bucket in front of the press.
It was really interesting to visit Old Sturbridge Village. It was a lot of fun and was neat to be able to see life in a new view. I am glad I got to learn about the games they played and to try my hand and some of their hard work. It makes me appreciate how easy life is for us in our day.