"The first day of autumn in 2024 will be on Sunday, September 22 at 8:44 AM EST. This is the autumnal equinox, an astronomical event that marks the "official" beginning of fall in the Northern Hemisphere. The equinox occurs when the Earth and sun are in a specific position in relation to each other, causing day and night to be almost equal in length."
However, I go for the Meteorological Fall, which begins on September 1st and includes the full months of September, October, and November. Though the first three weeks of September is not technically fall, it still has the look and feel of it.
It most certainly does!
In fact, I consider the fall season already here as I write this:
leaves are already falling (hence the name),
cooler nights, longer sun rays,
and
harvest time has been occurring for weeks now.
And at one time, "harvest" and "autumn" meant the same thing.
Meteorological Fall is what I follow~~~~
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Each of the four seasons shine at Greenfield Village, and for this post we'll concentrate on two of them: spring and summer.
As we Fall head-first into Autumn, for it is mid-September as I write this, let's take a look back at a few of my spring and summer visits to that place of history, Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.
I am not including Greenfield Village's Opening Day/Weekend (from April 14 & 15), for I wrote a blog post about that HERE. And I will have a few other links of certain visits throughout as well.
Also - there will be lots of jumping around, showing the many sides of Greenfield Village and the history enshrined there.
So, we'll begin in later April - the 18th - for these first few photos:
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| I took this picture of the home of Thomas Plympton on April 18 - one day shy of when this door was pounded upon by Abel Prescott, whose brother, Samuel, rode with Paul Revere (and William Dawes) the night before 249 years earlier, in the year 1775. Next year - 2025 - will be the 250th anniversary of the famous midnight ride. I wonder if the good folks who manage the Village plan to, perhaps, post a notice of some sort about this house's place in American history. I mean, I did get my information about it initially at the Benson Ford Research Center, then followed up on deeper research, all denoting the same information. |
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| And here is the inside of the house taken from the front window. It shows the house at a much earlier time - the turn of the 18th century. |
Meanwhile, it is 1885 over at Firestone Farm...April 18...
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| ...where we find Larissa preparing to cook on the coal stove in the kitchen. |
April 18
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| We then find ourselves 'neath the bright blue skies of the Birthplace/Farm of Henry Ford in 1876. Henry Ford was born in this house in July of 1863. |
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| I've always liked window shots, and this was taken from inside the 1831 Eagle Tavern. |
April 18
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| See that bottom window directly to the left of the lamp post? That's where I took the window shot from. But of a different pair of horses (they switch 'em out throughout the day). |
Of course I said yes!
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History where you least expect it: The tree my former students are standing next to is about 300 years old!!! |
I have always admired this tree, for I’ve seen it often.
Like, in fact, each time I've ever visited Greenfield Village!
But like most people, I never gave much thought to it other than it is a very old tree. Well, during a special “Arbor Day Witness Tree Walk in Greenfield Village” that I, sadly, could not attend, it was found that this oak tree is roughly around 300 years old!
Now how do they know that without chopping it down and counting its rings?
Well, as the folks that took the tour were taught (and Friend of Greenfield Village member, Bob Vincent, explained): “You can get a rough estimate of the age of a tree without cutting it down and counting the rings. The girth of a tree can be used to estimate its age, as roughly a tree will increase it’s girth by 2.5 cm (centimeters) in a year. So, simply measure around the trunk of the tree (the girth) at about 1meter from the ground. Make sure you measure to the nearest centimeter. Then divide the girth by 2.5 to give an age in years. A tree with a 50 cm girth will therefore be about 20 years old.
The rate of growth will differ according to what type of tree it is. Some types of trees, such as oak
and beech, will grow quite slowly, and so you should divide the girth measurement by 1.88. Pine
trees, however, are very fast growing, so you should divide the girth measurement by 3.13.
Other factors will affect the growth too, such as how close the tree is to other trees. If it’s on its own, it has the space to grow faster than trees in the woods. An average woodland tree will only increase its girth by about 1.25 cm per year.”
So, if this is truly the case, then this old oak tree can be claimed as a Witness Tree: “a tree that was present during a grand historical or cultural event of America. The trees got their name from being able to "witness" a historically significant event. Witness trees are centuries old and are known to be of great importance to the U.S. Nation's history.”
Did this tree “witness” a “grand historical or cultural event of America”?
Well…sort of…remember, with this tree being around the 300 year old mark, it is older than George Washington (b. 1732), and close to the same age as Ben Franklin (b. 1706)!
That is old!
But what did it actually witness?
How about the building of Greenfield Village?
How about being gazed upon by the eyes of Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, President Hoover, Orville Wright, Shelley Winters, Walt Disney, Bert Lahr, Phyllis Diller, Mel Torme, Neil Armstrong, President Ford, Buzz Aldrin, Rosa Parks, Jay Leno, David McCullough (historic author), and numerous other great and famous Americans who either played a role in the building of this historic open air museum or were visitors here?
And before Greenfield Village?
It was around during the time of the Declaration of Independence, the Civil War, and perhaps Native tribes belonging mostly to the Algonquian-language family, especially the Council of Three Fires, the Potawatomi and related peoples (before European settlement in the area in the later part of the 18th century – just after the Revolutionary War).
Witness Tree indeed! Look around – you never know where you’ll find history.
April 30th
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| Last day of April and plowing commences at Firestone Farm. Behind the Farm there you can see a large modern building - one of which I despise, for it can take away the aesthetic appeal and feel of this historic farm. It was built a few years back. Normally I "photoshop" it out of the pictures I take, but this time I thought I'd leave it in to show its domineering stature as it overrides the period being portrayed. |
So we'll skip now into early May - the 5th day of the 5th month:
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| Dinner time! Ringing the dinner bell at Firestone~ |
May 5
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| There in the distance you can see the top of the replicated Independence Hall - the main entrance to The Henry Ford Museum - and our great and majestic American Flag waving proudly. These pink flowers are known as Wisteria, and in early May they were flowing beautifully at the entry gates.
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May 5
This next building, when first brought to Greenfield Village around 1939/1940, was known as the Fairfield Rice Mill. It was originally situated on the Fairfield Plantation at the Waccamaw River near Georgetown, South Carolina, where it housed the threshers, grindstones, shafts, and pulleys needed for the miller to do his job of threshing the grains of rice.William Alston had erected this brick building 1787:
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It is now the Pottery Shop, where visitors can watch artisans complete the traditional process of making pottery, from mixing and forming the clay to decorating, glazing, and firing it in the kiln.
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May 5
The area where the Pottery Shop is located inside the Village is called Liberty Craftworks, where numerous artisans run ancient machinery and techniques to create historic items, many of which can be purchased in the gift shops:
May 5
May 5
Sadly, for some odd reason, they closed the tinsmith shop, one of my favorites to visit. It very much bums me out when they do this.
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| The weaver on a loom... |
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| ...the printer... |
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| ...and the glass blower. |
May 12
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| Meanwhile, over in the Daggett kitchen garden, We see that, after a few year hiatus, Gigi has returned! Gigi is a top-notch historical presenter, mostly at Daggett. So good to have her back~ |
I enjoyed spending my birthday - May 22 - at the Village this year.
Now that I'm retired, I can.
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| The red, white, and blue bunting is usually on the Wright Brothers porch by early May to be ready for Memorial Day and especially for the 4th of July. |
May 22
May 22
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| The green algae in the Ackley Pond. We've had a very humid summer up here in Michigan. But we're in May here... |
May 22
Thomas Edison made his first sound recordings on sheets of tinfoil at Menlo Park, New Jersey in 1877. Though we have learned that others have been able to record sound - vibrations - no one knew how to extract the sounds from the recorded vibrations. On April 9, 1860, 17 years before Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, Parisian inventor Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville made a recording on a "phonautograph," which worked by tracing sound waves onto paper blackened by smoke. However, it wasn't until the 21st century before technology was invented to play those soundwaves back.
Edison's phonograph was the first machine to both record sounds and play them back.
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| Replicating Edison's tin foil recording inside the Menlo Park Laboratory - - and it works!! The school groups loved it~ |
May 22
May 22
Bank barns were typically used for agriculture with stored hay or corn on the upper floor and stables on the ground floor.
May 22
May 29
And directly across the road from the gristmill we see the Firestone Farmers out working in the fields.
Built in 1930 in the Village, the original intention of this building was for the students who went to school in the Village to experiment in agricultural chemistry.
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| The Loranger Gristmill and mill pond at the edge of Liberty Craftworks. |
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| The Firestone ladies working in the kitchen garden at Firestone Farm with the large bank barn behind them. |
May 22
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| I was moving past the Richart Carriage Shop, and as I spied 'neath the ramp, this is what I saw. It was like a wooden frame for a picture, so I snapped it. |
I also wrote a post on a visit my wife, Patty, and I took after we visited the log cabin - click HERE
Now we'll head toward the end of May.
May 29th, to be exact:
The Cotswold Cottage, a portion of which can be seen in this photo, was built, as far as we know, around 1620. I say “as far as we know” because I heard a rumor that the house may actually be from the previous century – the 1500s. Now, I’ve not heard anything official, so no gossip please.
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| Norm walking along the back walk of the Cotswold Cottage. |
What I like about this picture is seeing an 18th century man, a preacher, in fact, strolling along the walkway – or perhaps he is visiting a friend who lives there. With the house being built so long ago – 400-plus years – it had seen many different fashions over the centuries. Whether or not the rumors of its age being a hundred years older are true, this house – this “rose cottage” (as it was originally known as when first erected inside Greenfield Village), was originally built in Chedworth, Gloucestershire, England during the later part of the Renaissance period.
Yes, the Renaissance period, which went from about 1450 to 1650! It’s really something that we do not think of the building as a Renaissance structure, but, whether it was built in the early 1600s or in the 1500s, it’s been around from that period in time! I mean, James I (“King James”), son of Mary, Queen of Scots, was England’s ruler at the time, the Pilgrims sailed across the Atlantic on the Mayflower to found Plimoth (Plymouth) in the Massachusetts Colony the year it may have been built.
To me, that’s astounding!
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| May 29 - From the Cotswold Cottage garden. Yes, there I am, looking toward my favorite house - the 1750s Daggett Farm. By the way, the Farris Windmill there is from the 1630s! We also see an Armillary Sphere - that object that so many think of as being a sundial but is, rather, the prime instrument of all astronomers in determining celestial positions. Being that the Cotswold Cottage was built during age of discovery makes it the perfect place to have the Armillary Sphere. Yes, Galileo was alive at the same time the Cotswold Cottage was built. |
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| And there I am, in the Daggett kitchen doorway. How many times the members of the Daggett family have stepped through this same door frame. |
May 29
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| Working in the Daggett kitchen garden~ |
May 29
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| With all the spring rain we had, the grass and leaves were a lush green. That is the 1750s Giddings House behind us. |
May 29
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| Whenever we visit, we always seem to grab a bite to eat at the wonderful setting of the Eagle Tavern. The surroundings, though originally from the 1830s, work very well for our 18th century look. |
May 29
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| It turned into a wet day, this late May day. But we still had a few images taken of us in front of the replicated Independence Hall. Henry Ford spared nothing for his Village and Museum. |
Now we'll move into mid-June (13th):
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| There was a time when Greenfield Village used to sell flour processed here at the gristmill. I wish they still did. |
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| Just beyond these fields we have that gray building there - The Soybean Experimental Laboratory |
It now houses many various old-time farming implements and tools such as scythes, hayloaders, harrows, handcorn planters, sulky cultivators, flails/hand-threshers, and so many more historic farming tools. Besides displaying the actual antique instruments, this building also holds a wealth of information about historic farming and the tools used according to the season of the year.
It's a frequent stop of mine.
June 13
June 13
June 13
Also, on this first day of summer...June 20
July 5
7-11
A story to tell:
June 13
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| Roy retired from Greenfield Village late last year. His last day of work was the last day of Holiday Nights. However, they hired a sort of Roy look-a-like: Rob. So now we have Rob-Roy lolol Notice the missing fence? More on that coming up - - - - - - |
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| When Norm & I visit the Village while in period attire, we stick mostly to the 18th century buildings, such as the Giddings House we see here. |
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| While seated at an Eagle Tavern table, I set up a small sort of colonial vignette. |
And next up was Motor Muster - I wrote about it HERE
Mid-June---and they were working on the Daggett Fence, for the old fence has been there for quite a long while, and it definitely needed some mending...or, rather, replacing.
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| Looks great! The only thing I would have had done differently would be to have someone like Roy or Chuck or even "Mr. New" - Rob - do the fence as a summer project. I have that complaint that the new fence is too uniform...too even and spaced perfectly. I'm not by any means saying Sam Daggett would not have done a fantastic job, it just would have looked a bit more hand done. But, otherwise, yeah, a new fence was needed, and it still looks great. |
So, yes, the Daggetts have gotten a new fence to surround the kitchen garden, and I’ve heard here and there that there are a few modern visitors who are frustrated about it, for they feel the wood being used looks “too new” for such a historic place.
At the Daggett House, it is (roughly) the year 1760, and for the sustainability of a farm, fences are considered a prime necessity. Historic almanac after old almanac starts the month of March with "Look to your fences." Basically meaning to keep it repaired, whether by slat or the entire thing.
Fences today are of little importance in comparison, for they can be bought in sections, making repair or replacing much easier than in Sam Daggett's time. Two or three centuries ago fences were critical for keeping livestock in and garden pests contained. During the early years of settlement when livestock (such as pigs) were not restrained, colonists fenced their garden plots, while these animals wreaked havoc on the open fields and any area that did not have a fence to keep them out. Therefore, Sam Daggett would keep his fence in prime condition, and replace what was needed, at times it could even be the entire fence. Greenfield Village keeps their historic structures looking as they did for the years they are representing, therefore they are not going to replace the old fence with old, worn, and beat up wood. It was/is a lot of work to replace a fence, so why erect something that will not last? Not only that, but it would not be historically accurate to replace an old fence with another old fence…or even to paint it to look old. Sam Daggett himself would do no such thing.
Personally, I think it looks great and shows history more accurately and truthfully. Besides, it will soon darken and "age."
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| Here we can see the old fence along side the new one. |
Now...let's take it a step further - - -
What a great summer project that would have been for the guys to work on!Sort of like last year's well sweep project (click HERE). With multiple guys working together (perhaps even one or two of the Firestone farmers coming over to help), they could have easily completed the job.
Just my two cents.
Another week passes and we can say "Welcome to the 1st Day of Summer!"
June 20
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| And the fence is completed! Ah...summertime! |
When I originally posted the fence photo on Facebook, someone posed a question to me:
Would they have painted (the fence)?
Here's my answer - researching it I found a few different answers, so I mixed them together where it all made sense:
"I would say most farmers had better, more important things to do than paint their fences, especially if they had a large portion of land to fence in (Samuel Daggett built this house atop 80 acres of land). I'm not saying all 80 acres would have been fenced, but the portion in which he farmed (16 acres) more than likely could have been. Even today farm fences stretching along the large acreage are rarely seen painted. I believe it would have been considered a waste of time and energy - most paints were made at home in the 18th century. Plus every time a painted slat needed to be replaced, it would have to be painted to match, and being able to match paints over time, even today, was highly unlikely.
Please note - I use terms like "highly unlikely," or "more than likely," and "could have" instead of "would have," "most," and other words - nothing is necessarily steadfast. As a living historian, we say "never say never and never say always."
Now---after all that (lol) I do believe Daggett would not have painted his fencing."
Over on the other side of the Village, June 20 in the year 1885:
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| These two shots of Firestone Farm House just have that look of summertime past, just as the Daggett House above this pic! Firestone Farm - exterior and looking out the front door from the parlor~
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Also, on this first day of summer...June 20
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| ...the ladies on the Village green at the turn-of-the-20th century as we see a Model T in the distance. |
Another week goes by...June 27
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| Rob has been transferred to work at Firestone. I'm not sure who the young lady is that he is working with, but they are tending to the kitchen garden. |
Let's jump up to celebrate Independence Day...a day early (July 3rd).
If you click HERE, you will see many photos from our July 3rd event called Salute To America. This is quite an amazing time, and my wife & I have attended off and on for literally decades. Oftentimes we dress period---usually colonial.
The following photos from that night I have not posted before:
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| Looking patriotic without wearing the red, white, and blue. With America's 250th birthday coming up in two years, you bet I will celebrate by wearing the clothing of our nation's founders! |
(Independence Day) "ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Act of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade with shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of the Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."
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| My wife, Patty. with the Martha-Mary Church steeple behind her. The bell inside the steeple was cast by the son of Paul Revere - Joseph Warren Revere - and they ring it on these Independence Day events during the finale of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Very cool. |
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| Illuminations! This is one of several similar snaps. Having our picture taken in this manner has become a yearly tradition for us. |
The day after the 4th of July:
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| I went back to the Village on July 5, which was a very hot and humid day. Yet, at Daggett, there was a cooking fire in the hearth. |
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| Town Hall was still decorated for Independence Day. Henry Ford felt the Village Green would not be complete without a church and a town hall. The two buildings were almost built simultaneously in 1929 and faced each other across the green. The town hall was a fair representation of the early 1800's Greek Revival style. |
And then, before I knew it, it was mid-July already - 7-11:
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| Here on this hot summer day we can see the 1880s General Store still decorated patriotically as a young boy scoots passed on his high wheel bicycle. |
A high wheel bicycle (also known as a penny farthing, high wheeler, and ordinary) is a type of bicycle with a large front wheel and a much smaller rear wheel that was popular in the 1880s. The first Penny farthing was invented in 1871 by British engineer, James Starley.
7-11
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| A window to the past---the Daggett past! |
7-11
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| The turn-of-the-20th century~ The house you see was the Wright Brothers family home, where they lived with their parents and other siblings. The Wright Cycle Shop was where they began their bicycle business in 1892. The building consisted of a salesroom, office, store room, repair room, and machine shop. It was in this building the two brothers constructed the worlds first true and actual airplane. Both of these buildings are the originals and were brought to Greenfield Village from Dayton, Ohio, with the full blessings of Orville (Wilbur had died decades previously). |
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| Passing the Ford Farm while on the train - - - - I did a quick zip job and put two photos together. Not my best work but I did it quickly. |
7-11
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| New presenter, Rob, has bounced from Daggett Farm to Firestone Farm and now to Ford Farm - wherever he is needed - he is getting a real agricultural education! |
And now we are already at July 17:
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| Mid-summer, and the kitchen garden needs work. |
July 17
I was visiting my friends inside the Daggett House. I don't remember which day it was, but we were in the great hall - the large room we might call our front room or living room today. So, one of the girls was bring food to the hearth to cook, and a piece accidently fell to the floor.
"Dang it!" the young lady said (there were no other visitors around at all - only me).
I responded, in my best Samuel Daggett voice, "Young lady, that'll be three bible verses memorized by tonight!"
"But," she retorted, "I did not say the word!"
In which I snapped, "And one more verse in addition to the other three because you were thinking of the word!"
We both had a good laugh. But I am quite certain conversations, and perhaps punishments such as this, may have occurred in the Daggett household, for they were Congregationalists. Congregationalism is a direct descendant of Puritanism, and Puritans were part of a strict religious movement in early American history that emphasized strict moral discipline and purity as the correct way to live as a Christian. Puritans believed that if they honored God, their colony would be blessed, and if they failed to, it would be punished. This led to strict laws, including mandatory church attendance.
We both had a good laugh. But I am quite certain conversations, and perhaps punishments such as this, may have occurred in the Daggett household, for they were Congregationalists. Congregationalism is a direct descendant of Puritanism, and Puritans were part of a strict religious movement in early American history that emphasized strict moral discipline and purity as the correct way to live as a Christian. Puritans believed that if they honored God, their colony would be blessed, and if they failed to, it would be punished. This led to strict laws, including mandatory church attendance.
This is what the Congregationalists, such as the Daggett family, are directly descended from. In fact, Samuel was a deacon in his church – a very important position. His father, John, was also a deacon, and his son, Isaiah, became a deacon as well. Yes, they were very involved in their church.
I would love it if this information, which was a very important part of and guided their lives, would be spoken about more often instead of only during Holiday Nights when the presenter states that the Daggetts didn't celebrate Christmas during Holiday Nights because of their strict beliefs.
Ah, well. Just my opinion.
July 17
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Many people don't know that there is a 20 acre nature preserve at the back side of the Village. It is not open to the public except for special programs. Oxbow Island that you see there is also not open to the public. |
Time, it goes so fast:
And another week passes to July 25, and we have some more outdoor work being done over at the Daggett Farm House, such as chopping wood into kindling:
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| I documented the building of the well-sweep seen here in THIS post. |
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| Preparing to chop kindling. |
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| Here we have Choppin' Chuck! |
Happy anniversary to the moving of the Ford Birthplace to Greenfield Village - 80 years ago on the day this picture was snapped: July 29, 1944!
Here we have a horse and carriage moving past the birthplace of the one man who did more to rid the United States...the world... of horses & carriages than anyone else---and then that same man created the open-air museum of Greenfield Village (as well as the enclosed Henry Ford Museum) to celebrate the time of the horse & carriage!
Whew!
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| There’s a bit more irony behind this photo than would seem… |
Yes, that white farm house was where Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863. Although Henry Ford had developed from a farm boy with a mechanical bent into one of the world’s most powerful and wealthy industrialists, he and his wife, Clara, never forgot the values of the rural life they had left behind. As the inventor of the Model T and champion of the assembly line, Henry Ford was aware of the changes that the automobile and growing industrialization could and would bring to the way of life in rural America. Collecting the tangible evidence of America’s pre- and early industrial history eventually became Henry Ford’s passion.
In fact, the house in this photo was the last historic building Henry Ford had personally moved to Greenfield Village before his death. But it was also the first one he preserved; it was in 1919 that the highway officials decided to extend Greenfield Road south through the Ford farm (probably due to all the Ford cars!). Unfortunately, the homestead was directly in the proposed road's path. The family's decision to move the house and the outbuildings prompted Ford's first restoration project.
So, that same year, Mr. Ford began the preservation of his birthplace, this simple two-story clapboard farmhouse built in 1861 on the dividing line of Springwells and Dearborn Townships here in Michigan by his father William. He obtained every piece of original furniture, pictures, and equipment that could be found. Those that were unavailable he replaced with similar objects of the same period, such as the Victorian sofa and chairs in the parlor. His goal was to have the house look exactly as he remembered it from the time period of his mother's death, 1876, when he was just 13, and spared nothing in doing so.
I have not read why Ford hadn't moved the home to Greenfield Village before 1944, but, evidently, the restored farmhouse's chances of survival in a developing area and the need for 24 hour security protection from vandals worried him. Because of the proximity of the dwelling to the Village did not require one of architect Ed Cutler's disassemblies, it was simply cut in two and hauled over by truck, with some of the outbuildings already in place. Unfortunately, however, available space inside the Village did not permit the transferring of all of the barns and sheds. But, once reassembled in its current location, the completed homestead, with the white picket fence and those outbuildings he did bring, were arranged in their original positions.
The completion of this project on July 29, 1944 gave Ford quite a present the day before his 81st birthday.
And to think of this horse & carriage clip-clopping past the birth house of the man who created the future…and re-created the past.
I do thank God for all the history Henry Ford had preserved. Between the museum and the village, it is quite amazing! I just pray that history continues to be not only preserved here, but accurately displayed and presented as well.
And just two days later, July 31, I snapped this summer shot of the Ford home:
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| One doesn't realize just how agrarian Greenfield Village actually is. But then, since they (mostly) concentrate on pre-20th century life, it only makes sense. |
Of course, on this final day of July I made my way to Daggett, my very favorite house in the Village.
I've had many who work there - even in management - tell me they can't think of Daggett without thinking of me lol.
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| On the last day of July, we can see the Daggett girls have all windows open to take advantage of any slight breeze that might pass through. |
For me, Samuel Daggett, his family and his life just seems to fit the criteria of…me!---(if I had lived back in those mid-18th century days).
But, as for my passion for this house as it now sits inside Greenfield Village:
A) The house is an authentic historical artifact that was built around 1750 (my favorite time-period along with being my favorite architectural style – John Adams was born in a house very similar to this)
B) It is restored to look as it may have during the last half of the 18th century (yes!!)
C) As it sits inside Greenfield Village, period-dress presenters work in and around the house, doing a few of the same chores and activities as those who actually lived in it when it was first built (I, myself, have watched and learned from them, and then researched, and now a few of the presenters and I even share our knowledge)
D) I even know of a husband and wife who replicated this house on their own property! That’s how well-loved this lean-to house is by many. I would do such a thing if I had the money...and I was about 20 years younger (my wife & I don't want to leave the house we raised our four children in - - but look at what we did: click HERE)
Yep---as everyone knows, I zip way past all other structures and head directly to the Daggett house first thing upon entering Greenfield Village, while the presenters at the other buildings wave to me (and me back to them) as I move passed in a blur.
July 31
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| One of the Greenfield Village "strollers" - those who will wear period clothing, usually turn-of-the-20th century era, and wander throughout the Village streets adding atmosphere. |
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| The Mattox House - built in the built in the late re-construction era of the 1880's. It was the home of several generations of the Mattoxes, an African-American family. |
July 31
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| Remember the Cotswold Cottage I wrote about earlier from the Renaissance period? Here's another shot of it. |
August 14 - August truly is a harvest month!
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| The yield coming from the fields and gardens at Firestone Farm has been very good. |
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| Would you look at that field corn at Firestone! The pumpkin vines find the spotty shade between the corn rows and grow very well, because instead of competing for light, the two crops shared it. The pumpkin vines benefited the corn by shading the soil, so the two plants made a very happy partnership. |
In weeks the farmers will be out in the field in force to harvest and make corn shocks. A shock is a stack or bundle of bound piled upright for curing or drying, and here the harvested field corn is being stood up in neat shocks. And we’ll soon be see them standing tall as the Headless Horseman and Ichabod Crane ride their horses through them for Hallowe’en.
Firestone Farm pre-dates the era of the silo, when corn stalks were chopped up and made into a slightly fermented feed known as silage. So instead, the Firestone corn stalks will be chopped and fed as fodder. Gathering the stalks into shocks has an important purpose. The inside of the stalks, sheltered from the elements, retain their nutritional value for quite some time and the actual shock makes a handy manageable portion for the farmer to haul from the field for his cattle. The corn was either picked before shocking, or at the time the shock was pulled from the field. Corn then had to be husked, and then thrown into the corn crib for further drying. Firestone barn has an enormous corn crib running the entire side of the barn shed. Once dry it could be shelled, then either fed as shelled corn, or ground into feed or meal. The variety grown at Firestone Farm is called “Reid’s Yellow Dent” and was primarily grown as a feed corn. Hard “flint” corns were best for meal, and the softer “gourd seed” type of corn was also used for animal feed, or for making hominy and grits.
Corn harvest related work usually will take place throughout the later part of September.
Summer's going fast! Here we are, August 22, and leaves are beginning to change. I have to remind people that calendars are man-made - God created our seasons, and God does not follow what man says.
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| A little New England-style church - the Martha-Mary Chapel - built inside Greenfield Village on the Village Green in 1929. |
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| There's my favorite eatery - the Eagle Tavern from 1831. Great food and the best dining atmosphere and experience.
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August 22
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| Stepping out of the Plympton House, turning right, this is what I see. |
August 22
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| The ladies of Daggett - - - ! Let's see...I spy Talitha, Asenath, Anna, and perhaps a family friend~ |
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| Idle hands are the devil's workshop. No idle hands here! |
August 22
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| Larissa also has wool to spin on the great wheel. |
August 22
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| I waited a while to capture this image of a presenter moving past the parlor/kitchen doorway. |
So...'twas on Wednesday, August 28, when I made this visit, but it certainly already had a fall flavor to it, even though it was still August:
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| I accented the gray clouds with a computer program. But you can see the Farm Fields of Firestone here - and there in the distance is the field corn. You can see the Loranger Gristmill there across the way. |
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| A Firestone Farmer is chopping kindling. Yep - pumpkins are ready for harvesting. |
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| Inside the Plympton home. |
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| Which Daggett daughter is she? |
August 28
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| There are not very many places one can go to witness hearth cooking. Daggett presenters have been doing it since they brought the house over to Greenfield Village. |
It was in 1977 that Mrs. Dana Wells, who had purchased and was living in this house since 1951, decided to donate this wonderful representation of colonial New England America, complete with most of the colonial furnishings she collected, as well as an endowment fund to maintain it, to Greenfield Village. With continuous labor, the house was ready for public viewing by the 1978 season.
August 28
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| The Burbank House from about 1800. Even on August 28, fall was in the air...and in the trees. |
Well, the seasons of spring and summer are over.
Autumn is nigh. Even if it isn't official. It's here. It is in the air. And on the trees.
And that's enough for me.
Until next time, see you in time.
Throughout this post are links to various other GFV associated postings I wrote.
Here they all are:
Greenfield Village's Opening Day/Weekend (from April 14 & 15) click HERE.
To read on the period dress visit for my wife and I, please click HERE
To read about our 4th of July Salute to America event, click HERE
HERE is a listing of links about many of the houses inside Greenfield Village
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