Aunt Beru: “Luke’s just not a farmer, Owen. He has too much of his father in him.”
Owen: “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Star Wars IV: A New Hope
Saturday in Central Iowa was drop dead, autumn weather perfect.
Although we were going to visit the historical farms and 19th Century town at Living History Farms with Dad Windu’s parents this weekend, they decided (at rather the last minute) that it wasn’t a good time to visit since his mother wasn’t feeling her best. Pulling on our big boy/girl pants, DW and I decided to go check it out anyway while Padawan Learner was at trampoline class. We enjoyed it so much, we hosed Padawan Learner off and went right back for the rest of the day.
A few pictures for you to enjoy:
This Ioway Native American lodge looked downright cozy.
Traditional medicinal plants and their uses were identified in and near the Ioway farm camp.
The one-room (with loft) Frontier Cabin…
and it’s matching lean-to barn/shed. One of the things DW liked best about this set of historic farms is that they had live farm animals and (very informative) interpreters engaged in the daily tasks of farming life. I liked that they were NOT trying to pretend they were actually IN each farm’s stated time period. I know some people love that type of thing; I am not one of them.
On our way to the 1900 Farm, we spotted a stunning set of matching dappled gray draft horses participated in the farm’s annual weekend-long fall plowing contest. (I believe there’s one in the spring, too.) What a clever way for the LHF to quickly get their fields plowed. I wonder if a laundry contest could work in the apartment…
My heart never ceases to go pitter-patter when I see a big, beautiful barn like this one. The hay, grain and leather harnesses inside made it smell heavenly.
I’m pretty sure PL’s favorite part of the day was finding this sweet little kitty to love.
This interpreter said she started as an elementary summer camp attendee, 9 years ago, and has been involved with the LHF in one way or another every year since. Now that’s impressive, in my book. Did you know that Iowa has one of the highest rates of volunteerism in the nation? Just another reason to love this place.
This pantry and the prep area below had me drooling into the collar of my turtleneck (it was in the high 50s, after all).
Anyone know what that corrugated-looking thing in the corner is?
With such a scene as this, it almost makes a girl want to go boil up some laundry. Ok, but it does make me think of flapping sheets and towels on the clothes line.
This is similar to the treadle sewing maching that I remember from my great-grandmother’s house, which she had from her mother.
The 1950s kitchen from the Modern Farms exhibit stopped me cold (there was also a Modern Farm Kitchen; I found it pretty sterile looking). This little honey is almost an exact replica of the kitchen we had when we bought our Grand Rapids house all those years ago. I think it’s just lovely.
We had planned to go back the next day to watch the old-time baseball game, but found out while eating breakfast that Padawan Learner had (a shitload of) work that was due the next day for one of his public school classes that he figured “wouldn’t take that long.” Oh, the learning curve ride this kid is taking… He worked straight from 11am until we had to leave for a homeschool family potluck at 4pm and was back at it when we got home at 8:30 pm, finally finishing around 10:30pm. Nothing like learning the hard way to get your stuff done as it comes in, rather than waiting until the very end because you’ve got “lots of time to do it.” Dad Windu is finding all this very hard to be patient about, but I keep reminding him, “The fastest way to learn is to screw up.”
For those of you who didn’t check out the curriculum log over at The Jedi Academy, here are notes I made on Thursday and today about his Ocean project and some more work that we didn’t know about until later for the same class:
Padawan Learner’s Environmental Sustainability class found out Wednesday that their Oceans-related project – his is on the Smalleye Hammerhead Shark – which was scheduled to be due in late December, was being moved up to being due… this Friday… to meet the 6th week marking period. <snark>Ah, the logic to be found in grades-based public schooling.</snark> Therefore, we have pushed our homeschooling scheduled work off to Friday (after he gets back from his public school classes) and Saturday afternoon (after gymnastics/trampoline practice) so that he can spend today getting his ES project completed.
and
Considering Padawan Learner’s experience with “projects” last week at Public School and the fact that he has several more projects coming due in both Italian and Environmental Science, we’re taking the next week to do some (much needed) science review here in The Outer Rim, especially since we’ve just finished Unit I in Biology, a little more Pre-Algebra & Algebra review – a few things are still a little shaky – and to give him time to get these crazy Public School projects zipped up and out of the way. No more last minute project “emergencies” for us, please.
