Sunday, September 7, 2008

Saturday field trip

Yesterday, on my in-laws' recommendation, we took the girls to Gagetown to the Thumb Octagon Barn Fall Family Days.
You non-Michiganians might not immediately "get" that name, but all the natives will know automatically where to look on their maps.



Isn't it beautiful?

It was built in 1923 and has been restored by the "friends of the Octagon Barn". We have a fondness for barns around here and thought it was lots of fun to go inside and take a look around.

The grounds were packed with people and plenty of activities to take in.



We toured the barn (complete with animals from a petting zoo-Clarence and Allison loved that, Julianne and I-not so much), walked through the mostly restored house, watched the tractor parade, ate homemade ice cream (churned by a model T), walked around the flea market area, and watched the guy above cut wood shingles on a huge saw powered by a tractor. That belt under his saw blade is attached to a tractor at the other end which turns it.

Things we missed included watching them press apple cider and make sorghum syrup. Oh, yeah, and the doughnuts. We could smell the doughnuts but didn't want to wait in the line stretched across the entire lawn. Later, the line was gone so Clarence headed over there only to find they were sold out. That was when we decided to console ourselves with the homemade ice cream.



There was a guy tooling around on this John Deere motorcycle, too. I saw him riding it a couple different times but didn't have my camera ready quickly enough. It was much quieter than a Harley.

I'll try to post some pictures of the house tour tomorrow. The house has several things belonging to the original owners, who built the house from 1919-1922, and lots of vintage pretties throughout. Touring it was Julianne's favorite thing of the day.
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