Location: WJ Hayes State Park, MI
Today we decided to take a step back in time and visit the living historical village of Sauder. We've been to many of these on our travels. This one definitely rates at the top. Most of it was a replica of life in the 1800's.
What made it so great was that each of the working crafts shops had real crafts people doing their trade.
They had everything you could imagine; tinsmiths, spinners, basket makers, printer, glass makers, potter and herbalists. Here's Ned in front of the cooperage shop.
We had some questions for the cooper such as what's the best way to get the lid off and how do you tighten the stays? As luck would have it the cooper we met was so nice in sharing information and giving us a lot of history on barrels. This barrel aged chocolate making experiment we are working on is taking a lot of research.
Here he is showing Ned what kind of tools he'll need. I see Ned making some of these in the near future.
I really enjoyed visiting the water powered grist mill. Tom was making some cornmeal when we came through. We ended up buying a bag from him. I'm looking forward to trying out some of the recipes he gave me.
You'll notice the whole grain corn kernels on top and the fine cornmeal coming out on the bottom. We learned that it takes a granite stone to grind corn kernels while most other grain is ground by sandstone.
The park touts this as being a Hungarian migrant family's home as they traveled from farm to farm to harvest beets. I see this as just an early version of Winnie. I'm ready for the next road trip!
It was well decked out - wood stove, table, bathtub, and pretty big double bed to boot.
These cute twin bros are from a working farm in Michigan. Apparently many farms today still use oxen.
We were given a demonstration on how they work together as a team.
Here's another oxen team. So, which team do you think is cuter?? Never mind...don't answer that.
Do you think the prairie look is my style? Yeah, me neither. This was taken in the general store. There were so many fun things to explore in this store. This place alone could have kept me entertained for hours.
One of my favorite shops was the herb shop. They grow their own herbs behind the shop. The lavender scent permeating the shop was glorious. They also had lots of teas made from different native plants.
The first picture above is the outside of the herb shop.
Here's the glass blower in action. We use marble slabs a bit differently than him. We use it to cool off and temper chocolate, he uses to cool off molten glass. I think his temperatures are a bit higher tho...
Tonight we are camped at the Irish Hills of MIchigan. Its name comes from the Irish immigrants who settled here between 1830 to 1850. It's known for its beautiful scenery of rolling hills and kettle lakes. We took a spin through the area on our bikes and did a hike to the top of a hill.
Found some swans hanging out on one of the smaller ponds.
Tomorrow we meet up with my big brother, nephew and his family. Can't wait!!
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