Rose Hill Manor Field Trip, Pt. 2

After we finished our open-fire popcorn snack, we headed out the kitchen door and into the glorious sunshine. (This was one of the few early-April days we had here that were warm--actually, it was hot! Upper 80's, I think!) This was the view of the gardens, etc., from behind the kitchen--so pretty:

Friends in our group, strolling to our next location...

...which turned out to be this tiny log cabin!

The cabin isn't native to the property; they moved it there from somewhere else as they began transforming Rose Hill into a museum. I'll tell ya, the juxtaposition of the manor and the one-room cottage is quite striking, especially once you learn that the couple who owned the cabin had six children!

The fireplace/hearth area, the big bed, and the table. That was about all there was to the cabin. There was also a half-loft, where I presume some of the children must have slept. We moms all agreed that these living quarters made us freshly grateful for our suburban homes, cramped as they may feel to us!

Matthew loved trying out this wooden yoke, for carrying buckets of water.

He wasn't satisfied just to try it on, either; he had to walk it across the room.

'Course, I imagine if I lived in one room with seven other people, I might be volunteering to take walks with that yoke all the time!

Our next stop was the blacksmith's shop.

There is a real blacksmith who has his own working shop nearby (so cool!), and he comes and demonstrates his smithy skill when Rose Hill has a festival. But the blacksmith wasn't in the day we visited, so Miss Peggy showed us the bellows (and other equipment).

The kids checking out some old horse shoes: (Good grief, they're heavy things! Glad I'm not a horse!)

Meg's best buddy, cutie-pie Madison:

Examples of blacksmithery:

Our final destination was the ice house. I never realized before that an ice house was built over a deep hole in the ground--the insulation of the cool underground earth was what kept the ice all year. Miss Peggy said that the Rose Hill ice could last from the time they cut it (deep winter) straight through to the next November. Wow.

Fake block of ice suspended over the pit:

The function of the ice house, however, was much less intriguing than the black snake we found there. We had heard from the other tour group that we could expect him, but when we first went in, no one could spot him. It wasn't until Matthew and Madison mistook him for a tool or a rope and almost picked him up that we discovered his hiding place.

Non-poisonous snakes don't bother me much, but it's always a little freaky when you don't realize one's there and then suddenly--something is moving just inches away from you!

This root cellar was also inside the ice house.

After our tour, I took a couple last pictures...

...and we had to go. I'll tell you what, though, my kids absolutely LOVED this place and cannot wait to go back. They have several festivals throughout the year, and I believe the entry is free except for a nominal parking fee. It's worth checking out if you live near Frederick!

"Who We Are" Updates

I try to keep the "Who We Are" column on the left of this blog fairly current. This means revisiting what I've written about the kids somewhat regularly, as their little tastes, personalities and interests are in constant flux. But whenever I make changes, I loose the old text completely, and as I made my most recent revisions, it occurred to me that I could track my changes here in the body of the blog. At least this way I'll have some record of my ever-evolving perceptions of their ever-developing selves.

Am I making any sense?

So here we go. Until 5/11/13, the kids' bios read as follows:

Meg

At seven years old, our Meggie lives life at maximum volume, with maximum enthusiasm. Her delights include talking, drawing, reading, laughing, coloring, singing, shrieking, bossing, bouncing, emoting, learning, running, mothering, helping, and playing.

Matthew

This boy is a five-year old mass of contradictions. He's alternately rough-and-tumble and fragile. One moment he's clueless, the next he's acutely sensitive and sharp. He lives to make others laugh but spends much of his own time in tears. He never sits still... unless you have a building or crafting project for him, in which case he's all yours for hours. Oh, and he totally digs Spider-Man Angry Birds.

Esme

Our Esme Rose is something else: charming and challenging, independent and affectionate, adorable, and maaaaaybe just a wee bit enamored with herself. She's three years old and all girl, with a bad case of the dress-ups and a yen for helping mommy in the kitchen.

Graham David
Born in January 2012, this little man is the sweetest, huge grinningest baby ever. We are all his adoring slaves.

To see what I changed, check out the newly renovated "Who We Are" column!

Rose Hill Manor Field Trip, Pt. 1

Early in April our home school group went to Rose Hill Manor in Frederick. What a great field trip! The kids had a blast, and I also enjoyed it thoroughly, as you'll be able to tell from the number of pictures I took.

Rose Hill was the property of Thomas Johnson, the first governor of Maryland. He lived on the estate, and when his daughter Anna married, he gave it to her as a wedding present. It was she and her husband who built the manor house.

Our tour began in the parlor. (By the way: parlors? SUCH a good idea. A room where no one [ahem, children] ever goes, unless your family is entertaining guests, and therefore a room which always stays clean. It's brilliant, I tell you. Sign me up.) Our docent, Miss Peggy, was great. We went with the younger half of our group that day, so she was speaking mostly to 3-5 year olds, and she succeeded in keeping them engaged for well over an hour.

This is a portrait of the Johnson family. Governor Johnson is at the top left; Ann, future heiress of Rose Hill, is directly below him in pink.

We proceeded upstairs, where we viewed the master bedroom and learned about bed warmers and chamber pots. Then we went into a sort of Textiles Room, where we learned how our pre-industrialized ancestors made their clothes and bed coverings. For starters, each of the kids had a little bundle of wool to card.

Then Miss Peggy demonstrated spinning the carded wool into yarn. It was the first time I've ever seen anyone actually use a spinning wheel!

We learned about the different substances used to dye wool.

And some of the kids got to help weave a few strands using this loom.

Next we took a look at the children's bedroom and their nursery (play room). I didn't get any pictures of the nursery, but the kids had a lot of fun there, playing with the kinds of toys 19th century children might have enjoyed.

After we finished upstairs, we passed through the enormous and stately dining room and into the kitchen. There Miss Peggy got busy preparing some authentic popcorn for the kids' snack--over the open fire in the enormous kitchen fireplace!

Here's our group of hungry little historians waiting for their popcorn and herbal tea:

(This made me chuckle: many of the kids [and at least one of the moms] were turned off by the old-fashioned, cold spearmint tea they received along with the popcorn, but my kids, steeped (yuk-yuk) in the ways of tea since they were toddlers thanks to their tea-loving Nana, gulped theirs down without thinking twice.)

Storage and preparation areas in the kitchen:

And Meg taking a turn at the butter churn:

This concluded our tour of the mansion itself. I'm going to do a second post for the grounds and outbuildings, as this one is already much too long!

Esme Quote

"Mommy, my foot is sleeping, so you have to be quiet."