A Hidden Gem

This afternoon we headed over to the Littleton Historical Museum. What a neat place and I had no idea it existed until Aidan's class traveled there earlier in the school year for a field trip and it's only about 5 minutes from the church building I used to attend when I lived here as a kid.

It contains real working farms dated from the 1860's and 1890's, plus an old schoolhouse, old farmhouses, and a blacksmith.

Aidan in the blacksmith shop brushing a "rose"

Kellen's turn brushing the rose

Kellen petting one of the many farm cats...this one is Sasha

Inside the kitchen of an 1890's farmhouse kitchen.

We sure are lucky to have such fabulous houses in the 21st Century. This house was pretty nice by 1890's standards. It had heating (wood-burning stoves/furnaces in 2 of the 5 rooms.) The house consisted of a kitchen, dining room, 2 bedrooms and a living area. Where is the bathroom you wonder? A nice little outhouse with a wood path leading from the house. Can you imagine if you had to go to the bathroom when there was a blizzard? Yikes. Thank heavens for plumbing, right? But I have to admit it was kind've cool to see how simple life was. When people weren't working on the farm during the day I'm sure they spent their free time together. Not many other distractions we have these days...Wii, TV, computers, telephone, etc.

Notice the boys are only wearing sweatshirts and it's February? We've been enjoying great weather.

Why a peacock? And on a farm dated from the 1800's? The blacksmith told us farms during those times had lots of peacocks. They were/are the best "watch dogs". Have you ever heard one of them squawk? A lot louder and more alarming than a dog's bark, right? Pretty interesting tidbit of information we thought.

Couldn't forget our little cutie patootie. As you can tell he enjoyed the view from my back. Although he looks like he's wondering what the heck I'm doing with my camera.

Even though we've had great weather it does still get pretty cold at night.

An 1860's schoolhouse. Notice the little outhouse?

Aidan inside the schoolhouse. He doesn't want to have school there on a daily basis he told me.

Kellen with his Daddy

Preparing a typical 1860's supper

Preparing an 1860's meal. It was really cool. We learned these people helping prepare the meal actually signed up to do this. You prepare the meal as they would in the 1860's and then you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. I would love to do this, but it's a long wait list. The lady in this picture told me she signed up last summer. So about a 6-8 month wait...yikes. It's on my to-do list one of these days.

Creating a butter mold. We had missed them actually making the butter.