Field Trip: Upstate NY to harvest grapes

When I was growing up we always went in the fall to pick grapes for canning grape juice.  I have been looking around here and called several vineyards to see whether they have u-pick grape options, but they all said "no". Their are a few farms that grow grapes for people to pick, but they are $2.99/pound. In upstate NY it is only about $0.35/pound. (My mom said that it was $0.11/pound when she was picking them).  I finally decided that it was worth the trip. Once you have had real homemade grape juice, no other store made juice is even close.   We visited with my dad, Goomie, and Gma J for a day and then left first thing the next morning to hit the vineyard.

 We got a late start because it was pouring rain and we had to stop to buy some ponchos.

 The landscape was beautiful! The owner was sweet and had some funny stories about people picking grapes in the rain.

 We picked 213 lbs. of concord grapes.  The kids did a great job of helping.

I bought a steam juicer and my friend from our ward gave me her old one. My mom had advised that it was good to have two going at once. It did work great, but it was still long and messy. It takes about an hour for 6 lbs. of grapes to cook down all the juice. Every half hour I was able to fill 3 quarts, alternating between the juicers.

 I got a late start because the tube was broken on the one my friend gave me.  I had to go get a part at Home Depot.  I started at 10am and canned all day and all night until 6am the next day. Our boxes were squishy from the rain and I knew that the grapes would ferment quickly.

 I filled a whole rubbermaid bin with the skins and stuff. I know that people use them for fancy things, but I just put them in my compost pile.

 We ended up with 90 quarts of beautiful grape juice for our efforts! (We usually dilute it about 2:1 for drinking because it is very strong). The taste is fantastic. And my kitchen smells wonderful. Totally worth the trip and the work.

Farm Fresh: Monster Stump is gone!

One morning we saw Mother Goose running down from the top of the compost pile. She looked unusually pleased with herself... so we looked and found a nest! It is the wrong time of year for goslings so I am still not sure why she was laying a clutch.  We will have some XL eggs for eating in any case. 

 We finally found a "stump guy" who specializes in huge stumps and was able to handle the monster stump and several other big ones that would have taken many long hours for hubby to get out with the tractor.

 Here is the crevasse where the 6 ft. wide stump was.  Even with his massive stump grinder it took about 4 hours to grind up this one.  He did a great job getting all the giant roots too.  Now we can finally make progress on the high tunnel.

 The garden is mostly done for the year.  Remaining crops are beets, daikons, spinach, late potatoes, and the sweet potatoes that are taking over all available space.

Family Schooling Summary: Week 3 at Co-op and Fall Festival at the Horse Rescue

 A rooster that looks a lot like our Sunset.

 The one on the left is a tarantula eating a bird (copied from a nature book).

 Those crazy looking brown horns on the table are the overgrown hooves of a terribly neglected horse! They rescued him and show the "before" and "after" pictures as he was brought back to health.

 We watched a beautiful demonstration of horse-rider partnership.  This gal bought Starbucks from the rescue about 7 years ago and they warned her that he was too emotionally damaged.  And that he would probably not be a good partner and would possibly be aggressive and dangerous. She worked carefully with him and now she told us that their partnership was the best she had ever had with a horse.  She demonstrated that by riding him and then  JUMPING him without a bridle! She was just holding onto a rope loosely around his neck to keep from falling off. We were all spellbound by the demonstration. He performed beautifully for 30 minutes to loud music.

 Miss L is currently obsessed with horses and paid very close attention during the show.

 This was part of a little sheriff and deputy comedy routine.

Field Trip: Historic St. Mary's City

We went to Historic St. Mary's City for our field trip this week for their "Homeschool Day".

 "The Maryland Dove is a re-creation of a late 17th century vessel commemorating the Dove of 1634, which accompanied Lord Baltimore’s original expedition to Maryland" according to the website.  All the personnel at St Mary's City act and speak like they are in character for the 17th century. And oooh the costumes! Aunt S would have enjoyed that.

 The original Maryland Dove was lost at sea on its way back to England. It had a crew of 9 and was a cargo vessel.  The hold would have been locked during the voyage to prevent pilfering.

 They had several workshops for the kids around the town.  We learned traditional 17th century circle dances and they were so fun to practice. I looked around the circle of moms and kids and everyone was smiling! The kids made corn husk dolls:

 And played traditional 17th century games: 9 pins

Graces:

Quoits:

Hoops:

They had reconstructed all the houses that made up Maryland's first capital city. Some were complete and some were just frames to give you an idea of what the city would have looked like.

Of course we had to try out the stocks. We didn't have any rotten fruit to throw so corn husk dolls were used.

Small colonial shop:

We visited the Native American village and learned from those guides as well.  Here they are making cornmeal mush.

Playing Native American games like "AtlAtl". Big sister A was a natural at it.

I don't remember what this one was called. Something that meant throw the corncob through the hoop.

We drove over the "Plantation" example and found the biggest orb weaver that any of us had EVER seen. I couldn't believe how decorative its web was.  It was incredible.

Hay storage shed on the plantation. We told the boys that their might be more orb spiders, like the ones we saw out front, hiding in the hay loft and they looked startled and climbed down from the bales.

The plantation had a lovely garden and I thoroughly enjoyed talking to the characters on staff about what and how they were pickling, herbs they were growing, and which poultry the colonists would have brought with them (Hamburg chickens).