Field Trip: Michigan History Day Oct. 16, 2015

Field Trip: 

Michigan History Day 

Oct. 16, 2015

We (Dd and I) held a field trip for our new homeschool group--though no one from our new group actually attended this event!  So odd!  But, we did have a good time.  I thought I'd type up a short summary of our field trip, held at the quaint little farmstand we go to every so often to buy fresh, homemade Pumpernickel bread and fresh donuts too!  The store is called: Heidi's Farmstand--and they grow all the vegetables and flowers there---and bake all the goods there on site.  They don't grow the apples there, but buy them from growers in the area, and have a large variety of apples to choose from.  The family that owns/runs this store/farm, came to America from Switzerland way, way back---the first of them in the 1800's and then the rest around 1914.  This is a family run deal, and feels really good to visit!

They have Corn Mazes and all sorts of fun activities for families to come and do there---acres of pumpkins are growing all over the place!  

Now for the specifics of our event--they (Heidi's Farmstand and The Lowell Historic Society (an aunt) ) organized this field trip, and have buses of public schooled kids go through these six stations.  The stations:

1)Native American Village in the woods...they had around 7-10 "Indians" at the camp.  The leader (actually a member of our homeschool group-Link) gave a really detailed description of the life of the three different Indian tribes that lived in this area and how they formed a successful confederacy and worked together to protect themselves.  Since we forgot our lunch, these fellow hs'ers invited us to come back to their post during lunch time and share a meal with them....wonderful stew in a cast iron dutch boy.

2)Fur Trapping and Trading--also with fellow hs'ers in our LINK group.  They did a great job telling the story of Madame LaFramboise and Daniel Marsac.  We saw lots of animal hides, and heard some songs on a wooden flute and fiddle.

3)Woodland Adventure: this was the only spot that didn't really want to give just two people their normal speel.  They just gave us a rough idea of what they "normally" do for groups and let us look around at the signs at various kinds of trees, basically information about 10 different trees and how they were used (furniture, boxes, tools...).  The best part of this stop was that we got to take a nice little hike in the woods there and back again!

4)Apple Tasting: this was also another stop that just gave us a 10 minute review of the material that they "normally" show the students.  We got to taste and discuss six different kinds of apples.  We also got a donut and a small cup of apple cider---so good!

5)Grandma's Trunk: this was Dd's favorite stop.  This was done by Luanne, the woman who works for the Lowell Historical Society.  She was set up in a tent, and had her actual grandmother's things/trunk that came from Switzerland, and belongings.  She told the whole story of her grandmother's trip form Switzerland to Lowell, Michigan.  Dd got to do all sorts of fun things---doing it in order that she was taught in Switzerland (and this is the same order that my mother-in-law also does her home chores):

Monday is Laundry Day--do the wash-and Dd got to flake the soap into the tub and use the tools for washing in the tub, then the wringer- to get the water out of the clothes....

Tuesday is Ironing Day!  Dd was shown how this was done.

Wednesday was sewing and darning.

Thursday was making butter--and we got to eat some of the butter that Luanne made....wow, that was good!!!

Friday was clean the house day!

Saturday was cooking and baking day--fill up your pantry with food for all the guests you will have on Sunday.

6)Pioneer Farming: this was an interesting set up--the man running this station had built up a portable "barn", even having a loft with hay bales in it.  Dd and I got to saw some wood, and Dd got to sharpen a knife on this cool gizmo that ran the wheel from her riding a bicycle thing.  This was really fun--I liked seeing all the old tools.

I didn't take a lot of pictures---it was kind of odd to try to take a photo when we were only two people and they were totally focused on telling us their story.  I'm really glad we went!

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