A Monarch Emerges

You never know what you are going to learn in a new job, and that has been certainly true of my position this year as an assistant at a local Montessori school.  One of the things I've been blessed to discover is a wealth of knowledge about butterflies.... I'm learning so much!

Today, our last Monarch butterfly emerged:

 Tomorrow, it will start its journey to Mexico.

Demo at Heritage Festival at Prince William Forest Park

We had a lovely time demo'ing yesterday at the Heritage Festival at Prince William Forest Park.  This was a low-key event, designed to educate attendees on the various aspects of the park.  We had been invited to demonstrate blacksmithing as a part of the section devoted to the Civilian Conservation Corps, who built the park from 1935 to 1942.  The festival also had lots of children's crafts, as well as an area devoted to World War II because the park was a secret training area of the World War II spy agency, the Office of Strategic Services, from 1942-45. 

 

In addition, the festival offered lots of great music -- Jeff was thrilled that we were blacksmithing very close to the bluegrass band!  You should have seen him trying to keep time with his anvil -- it was rather funny since he's not known for his musical ability. 

 

 

One of the great aspects of the festival was that the children were sent on a scavenger hunt when they arrived; they were told to write down one thing that they learned from various demonstrators.  We got to do a tremendous amount of education, which is always our mission on these events.  We don't demonstrate blacksmithing to show off Jeff's talents but to teach people about the craft.  Thus, Jeff had brought material to make andirons but we quickly switched gears to make nails and other projects that can be completed quickly so the children could see a project from start to finish and get a fuller understanding of the craft. 

The only downside of the day was that it was the coldest morning to date and we forgot to pack gloves and other winter things.  It's the second demo in a row where I set up while bundled in a blanket! On the flip side, though, once the fire got started, we were one of the warmest places to be!

An October Afternoon in the Garden and at AHS

 

Once I returned home from another fun-filled work session at Mount Vernon (I'm having so much fun with this job!), the boys and I took advantage of a day off of school to head out to the garden.  With colder temperatures in the forecast, we cleaned up a few tomato plants and brought the green ones inside to ripen. We left about half of the plants in the garden, though, since I don't think the frost is actually going to reach our area.  Check out the size of the cushaw squash -- great pies are on the fall and winter menu.  My younger son is totally puzzled as to why cushaw squash make great "pumpkin" pies when they aren't a pumpkin!

We then went went to visit our friend, Miss Jane, at the American Horticultural Society.   Jane (who is in charge of volunteer opportunities and the gift shop) and her husband Tom (director of AHS) are some of the best things about AHS.  It's a great place.  You've got to love a place so welcoming to everyone -- we really enjoy volunteering there as a family.  

 

It was a wonderful afternoon.

Demo at the Heritage Festival this Saturday

Please join us this Saturday at Prince William Forest Park for what looks like a fun festival!  We'll be blacksmithing from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.  Please note, though, that we won't be selling any our ironwork, so just email or call us if you'd like something.  Also, this is not a colonial demonstration, so we won't be in costume for a change. 

Hope to see you!

Tabling the Broom Corn

In these unsettled economic times, I have taken on more and more part-time jobs (as has Jeff). It's a running joke in our household about how many jobs we are currently holding. Some jobs, though, have immediate pay-backs....in the living history arena.

I've taken on a "on-call, part-time" interpreter position at the Mount Vernon Estate, which is wonderful and a lot of fun. It's great to work with people who share so many of the same interests.  One day, when I stopped in to meet someone, I happened to notice the broom near where she was working.....and then noticed that it to be made out of broom corn, which I am currently growing but did not know how to get from the garden bed into a broom.   And so I asked.

Before many minutes had passed, we'd had a great conversation that included the information that I should "table" my broom corn. Turns our, tabling is fine and easy when you have plenty, but we don't, so we tabled as best as we could. We're already dreaming about making our first home-made broom....after, of course, we research those next steps!  We might not have enough broom corn to actually make a broom, but we'll give it a good try.  If you, by any chance, know what we should do, please feel free to let us know.

Weeekend Visit to Monticello

 

Wanting to take advantage of a weekend without soccer (the boys are sitting out this season) and no blacksmithing demos, we took a road trip to Monticello this past Saturday. About an hour and a half into the drive, I was ready to turn around....what we were thinking sitting in the car for 5+ hours with a to-do list like nobody's business??? But, we hadn't been there in a few years and wanted a day of inspiration and renewal. Of course, I'm speaking for Jeff and myself and we hadn't asked the boys --- they had different goals.

All in all, though, it was a good trip. Monticello has expanded its offerings with a new Visitor's Center (which we had seen before) and a kids' Discovery Center (which we hadn't). The Discovery Center was great -- it was wonderful to actually try out Jefferson's cipher and his polygraph. I think Jeff and I enjoyed those things as much as the kids! The polygraph was certainly the highlight of the boys' trip.

I also made sure to visit the garden, albeit briefly, because I hadn't had much of a chance to take any nature photographs all summer and fall....and I needed to get my hands on a camera and take more than a snapshot of the kiddos, as much as I love the boys. Plus, my poor cookbook that I am slowly putting together needed some photos!

 

Jefferson was a remarkable person and it is something special to spend a few hours around his home...even with excited kids, a long list of things that need to be done, and a very long drive home.

Photo of Jeff by John Milleker

I am so happy to show you a better copy of the photo that John Milleker took of Jeff at the Jefferson Patterson Park demo!  John is an amazing artist and is using wet plate photography in the example below.  Please check out this link for other photos that John took that day -- they are incredible!

© 2012 John Milleker Photography

Demo at Jefferson Patterson Park

 

 

 

We just returned from an all-day demo at Jefferson Patterson Park at the park's 1812 Fair and Reenactment.   We usually focus on the colonial time period, so we were a bit out of place.  However, the Fair's organizers had seen us demo at other locations and asked us to come -- they didn't mind that our outfits were a bit on the antiquated side!

 

One of the benefits of doing demos is that we get to meet some incredible folks and get to see some unbelievable places.  And, as we were discussing on the drive home, we also get to eat some wonderful "fair" food.  We're becoming "foodies" of the various fairs -- quite a niche, I'm sure!  In that regard, Jefferson Patterson Park offered some fine crab cake sandwiches! 

We try to demo at places that really appreciate our educational mission, and this demo did not disappoint.  One boy watched intently as Jeff forged and finally asked me if the forge was plugged into the ground as he tried to figure out the power source. What a great opportunity to chat a bit about coal, fire, and, the forge.  Another teenager was so proud of himself when he'd watched Jeff make nails for a few minutes and then figured out that Jeff could cut off the nail from the longer piece of metal and then use that metal for other purposes.  It really is great to be able to educate folks on the art of blacksmithing.

The education is not one-sided, by any means.  We got to learn about the various battles that occurred near the property in 1812 and 1814.  That was exciting because our family was reading up on the War of 1812 this summer, visited the Star Spangled Banner in the Smithsonian, and want very much to visit Fort McHenry soon.   

Although I haven't taken many artistic photos recently and am waiting for inspiration (or time!), I was very excited to meet a photographer who was doing wet plate photography -- something I've never seen in person.  It's a good thing that we don't do 1st person interpretation because I can't help but chat with photographers who come to our demos.  Wet plate photography dates back to the Civil War years and was used by Ansel Adams as well, for a time.  It was absolutely fascinating to see the photographer take Jeff's photo using this method.

 

All in all, a lovely day.

Forging a Frame for a Trivet

Jeff is working on a frame for a trivet.  The trivet is a piece of granite which will be housed in an iron frame with handles.  It's going to be beautiful when it's finished. These photos are from the beginning stages of the project:

Garden Curiousities

I was at the pool today with the boys and a neighbor came up and asked, "What kind of amazing corn are you growing?!  It's higher than your roof line!" 

And, it is.

We grew broom corn for the first year as an experiment because we've become fascinated by the artistry of handmade brooms.  We first discovered such brooms when we met the owners of Justamere Tree Farm at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival many years ago.  Since then, we always buy our year's supply of maple syrup from them and admire their brooms.  In addition, we absolutely love and regularly read the children's book, Ox-Cart Man by poet Donald Hall which discusses the cycle of a small, family farm.  In that book, the boy makes birch brooms.

So, when we found some seed for broom corn at Colonial Williamsburg, we bought it and tried it out for fun.  We don't know enough (and honestly, probably didn't plant enough) to make our own broom (nor do we probably have the equipment).  But, we were curious and wanted to see what would happen. 

The answer is, simply, it grew well.

If you know how to turn broom corn into a broom, please fill us in on the process.  Or, if you know of other uses, that'd be great, too!  Otherwise, we are just enjoying the corn. 

And, while we are asking for advice, here's another question:  Does anyone know what kind of squash we are growing?

Thanks so much!

Demo at the Virginia Scottish Games

We had a great time this past Saturday and Sunday demo'ing at the Virginia Scottish Games.  This is always a fun festival -- we've attended for years, but this was the first time we'd "worked" the event.   We were asked to be a part of the Living History demonstration as colonial blacksmiths.  

 

As part of the demonstration, we renamed our forge for the weekend and became "MacPherson's Forge" in honor of our family, Clan MacPherson.  We had a great time catching up with our clan cousins.  Next year, we need to get a clan banner...and the kids want kilts!

Our tent was directly across from the bagpiping competition -- Jeff thinks he'll hear pipes in his sleep for many, many days! 

 

All in all, it was a fun weekend -- lots of great music, good food and friendly people.  We knew we were going to enjoy scotch eggs and colcannon (like I said, we are loyal attendees to the Games!) but this time, we also discovered a love for eccles cakes -- I definitely need to learn how to bake them at home!

 

We primarily made colonial nails as a demo piece because it shows people a quick project from start to finish, and also is a great teaching lesson about the colonial time period.   Of course, we also made other items as well and got to answer a LOT of wonderful questions.  The folks at the fair were a super appreciative audience and it was a pleasure to chat with them.   Jeff got a lot of requests for classes -- we'll have to look into that further.  He'd be great at it, if we could figure out the logistics.

We want to thank our friends for coming out to the festival -- it is so much fun to see familiar faces!  It was also great to run into folks and discover connections from the community -- it's a small world, indeed!  We might start out chatting about nails and then discover that they are a veterinarian at our local animal hospital....and that sort of thing happens over and over.   One funny thing is that people are starting to come up to us and tell us that they've seen us various other events. 

At the end of the weekend, we felt like we'd made lots of new friends ---what a great way to spend the holiday!