Posts by Karen:
Father’s Day Flashback
Meet my dad. This one on the left is one of my favorite photos of him as a child. Of course, he doesn’t look very happy (but given that diaper, are you surprised?) The first time I saw this photo, I couldn’t understand how my grandma could let her kid play on a lawnmower. But [...]
Baby Wren Rescue
The wildlife just keeps trying to come in. Last week a chipmunk, a few weeks before that a little brown mouse. (The cat was toying with it and when I rescued said mouse. Both he and I were convinced he was dead. Since there was no obvious injury, I carried him outside and as the [...]
Bandstands
I grew up in small town America. The oldest buildings here date to the Victorian era when Sayre, PA was a major railroad town. This bandstand, built in 1886, was painted white during my childhood and was a major destination during walks. At one point the bandstand had fallen into such disrepair that the platform [...]
Deerfield Doors
in Uncategorized
as deerfield, doors, historical houses, Samuel Partridge
Historic Deerfield in Massachusetts has some famous doors. In 1760, a famous wood joiner named Samuel Partridge built a door for the house of Reverend John Williams. Many neighbors then sought to replicate its style. This original door is on display in the Flynt Center of Early New England Life, a museum maintained by Historic [...]
Double Yolks!
This morning I cooked my sons fried egg sandwiches and found this: Apparently they’re very rare and the chicks will not hatch (they can’t acess the air pocket when there are two in the egg). For way more info than you probably want, you can read Twin Yolks and Twin Chooks? The kids thought it [...]
What is an ‘Ell’?
What did a nineteenth century family do when they needed more space? Wanted to attach the house to the barn? Or wanted to keep the kitchen separate from the more formal dining room and parlor? They built an ell. It means exactly what it sounds like – the addition was built at a right angle [...]
Redware
in Historical, Writing
as kiln, Old Sturbridge Village, OSV, potter, pottery, Redware
In Wait for Their Return, my historical character needs appropriate dishes. Some of these dishes are made from redware, a kind of pottery that went into production in America in 1625. Redware was given its name because that was the color the clay turned after firing. The production of redware continued at high levels until [...]
Open Hearth Cooking
in Historical, Writing
as 1840, bake oven, Old Sturbridge, Old Sturbridge Village, open hearth cooking, OSV
Wait for Their Return incorporates a lot of historical facts from the 1830s. To get the details as accurate as possible, I spent a huge amount of time reading and researching. The library has seen a lot of me this past year. * I also made several trips to Sturbridge Village in order to get [...]
Soap, The Hard Way
in Historical, Writing
as ashes, lye, making soap, Old Sturbridge Village, old-fashioned soap, OSV, soap
I was at Sturbridge Village last weekend (detecting a theme?) and there happened to be two costumed interpreters making soap, the old way. In an earlier post, I mentioned that the ashes from all those wood fires were saved for making soap. I had a vague idea of the process, but took the opportunity to [...]