Hands-on Living History Museum Woodwright Shop

After assuming some responsibility for the woodwright shop in the middle of the summer season, the new woodwright started thinking of ways to improve the shop. There was a barrier running down the middle of the room to separate the work area from the visitor's area. With the shop open nearly every day, it was impossible to implement some of the new ideas, but now the shop is closed for the winter. During that time, the entire barrier was removed.

Old timbers from the 1860s were salvaged from parts of an old flour mill and milled down to be reused. The goal for the new 'barrier" was to bring the shop to the visitors. The old timbers were made into a workbench top which replaced the old barrier. Now visitors and woodwrights can come face to face to discuss old hand tools while the visitors are given some hands-on experience with some of those tools. Excuse the out of period items in the background as this is still a work in progress. As you see, the new counter/work bench still displays the old original bolts that held it together. On the left side there are indentations in the counter which will be filled with period items under glass. On the right side, not visible in the picture, is a lower bench/counter which is meant for young children to learn about tools. The dark brown areas on the wall under the counter are signs remaining from the original flour mill.




Here you see the length of the main counter after it was polished up with tung oil. There are holes bored in the counter to accommodate bench dogs and hold fasts.



New shelves were built to display old molding planes and show the types of molding they made.



If you come to visit in the summer, you can learn to use an old hand plane and work on the new workbench!

A Plethora of Peahens

Without all the summer visitors to chase them, the peafowl have the run of the living history museum. Who can blame them for running to look at the great view of the Wellsville Mountains?



It's pretty cool to be the ruler of the roost!

No More Swimming Pool

The old swimming hole is not to be. Instead, we now have this framed in house...roofless still, but started at least. As you see, the snow on the ground is almost gone. After 15 or so inches of snow, and the warmer temperatures, I suspect the basement of that roofless house may have a secret swimming pool down there somewhere.

Sometimes I just feel old.

Back when we lived in Alaska, I went to the doctor one day. She asked if it would be okay for a medical student to observe our visit....and then mentioned his name. I was shocked! He was a kid!...a friend of Blaine's whom we had driven home several times. (It was NOT okay!)

Our neighbors in Wasilla used to complain loudly about any bonds to build new schools. They had no children and felt it was so unfair that they should have to pay to build new schools. I remember pointing out to them that someone had paid for THEIR education. What's more, I thought it prudent to be sure the children had a decent education, as when we are older, those same children will be our doctors, our lawyers, etc.

For years it has been a family joke that if you have a computer problem, just call the neighborhood junior high kid to fix it.

Today was a similar story. Our dryer hasn't been working well. We have to run it twice to get a load of clothes dry. We have just put up with it for quite a while, but finally decided to bite the bullet and have it looked at. This morning the doorbell rang. It was the repairman. I feel very certain that he couldn't be a day over 15. Okay, maybe 16 since he was driving a truck. I wanted to ask him if his daddy helped him learn how to fix dryers!

An idea, a job, a project

Have you ever noticed how quickly a simple idea can grow into a job, and then into a major project? When we moved into this house years ago, the storeroom was already there...including the shelves seen in the first picture. Across from those shelves was the bare concrete floor which soon turned into a repository for empty 5 gallon buckets, containers of water, canning equipment, empty jars and other items. After living here for a while, we went away for 18 months to West Virginia. While we were gone, we had house sitters living here, so we stored all the things from our kitchen pantry down here as well, so they would have room for their things. We had a PhD (Pile it Higher and Deeper) in home storage! Some things I never found again...until today. (NOTE: These are NOT before pictures. Those would be too scary.)



At the end of the room were these small shelves which were also crammed with a variety of canning equipment, empty jars, an unusable wheat grinder (due to its location) and sundry things which were mostly not accessible as folding chairs were stacked in front of them.



I looked at the table in my mother's storeroom and had an idea! If I could just get a small table at the local thrift store I could move the small shelves opposite the big shelves and put a table in that space. Then I could actually put my wheat grinder where I could use it! After thinking about it for a couple of weeks, I mentioned it to the woodworker. He got excited about it and I felt my simple idea slipping away and turning into a job, and maybe even into a project. As he talked I had visions of the contents of the storeroom strewn throughout the basement for weeks...which is NOT a happy thought when expecting company for New Years, although I'm sure the grandchildren would be happy to find new play things. I not am not complaining though, because what I got is in the picture below. Woodworker just extended the existing shelves, leaving one out where I could put the wheat grinder in a usable location! As an added bonus, there are now more shelves to store things on. Best of all, it was all done in one day so the basement is now back in order.



For now, I have to use an extension cord to get power to the grinder, but an electric outlet is forthcoming in the near future I am told. We also hope to get some hanger things so we can hang extra folding chairs up on the wall out of the way. For now, I am pleased to say that NOTHING is piled on the floor!

Poinsettia

Maybe it is the bright colors of the poinsettia that liven up a gloomy winter day. After snow and cold and spending the past week coping with the 'crud', I was feeling pretty low energy until the woodworker came home today with this! At first I thought there must be 2 different poinsettias in the pot, but the white and red 'flowers' are all on the same stem. The red leaves look like they have been spattered with cream colored paint. Why some leaves are red, some are white and some are spattered is a mystery to me, but I don't need to know that to enjoy the plant. Thanks, Woodworker!

Oh, what do you do in the wintertime?

Do you see this thermometer? Do you see the number on the lower right-hand corner? The one that says '15.5F'? That is the outside temperature tonight. It does NOT say that there is a slight breeze...but there is. It does NOT say that it is pitch black out there without even the light of the moon...but it is. So what do you do when it is so dark and cold outside?



If you live in our neighborhood, you have a hot dog roast and neighborhood potluck! It is dark in the pictures, but you can probably see the large piles of snow in the background if you look closely. I'd say we have 15-18 inches of snow on our yard.






We have tough neighbors!