10/06/08 - Fall Fun

My parents drove up to visit for a few days.  Grandpa Ernie was attending an ACSI convention in Portland, so he’d ride the max into town each day while I would entertain Grandma Glynna, Uncle Caleb (14), Aunt Barocha (16), and their two exchange students, David (12), and Julie (10).  

 

The Philip Foster Farm was having a special Homeschoolers Day on Friday, so we went up there for some fun.  When the kids signed in, they each got a bag with a scavenger hunt guide, two apples to press into cider, and an ear of dried corn to shuck and grind into meal in the barn.  Hosts in 19^th century period dress milled about each of the activities.  Guests learned how to wash clothes with a washboard and wringer, and build a log cabin.  The old farm house was open for tours, while a woman demonstrated how settlers made apple fritters on a cast iron stove.  The kids could climb into a covered wagon, and try to load another wagon for the Oregon trail (not everything fit, so you’d have to decide what to keep and what to leave behind).   

 

They also had a blacksmith demonstration, a woman spinning wool, and a trapper’s cabin where you could learn about frontier tools and firs, and pet live rabbits.  It was drizzling rain almost the entire time, but that’s just life in the Northwest.  If you stay home when it rains, you’d never leave the house 9 months of the year.