Plantation Days

We look forward to Plantation Days every year.  There is so much to do out at Middleton Place!

Such a pretty place!

Flowers still blooming in November

The fall colors on the Ashley

Lon thought this view was so pretty. He asked me to take a picture of it for the blog. So I did.

This could have been centuries ago. A spinner and Arthur. We are getting to know the cats.

Arthur let Lon pet him.

Telling us stories about Indigo Dye. How it is made and what it is used for. The pot next to him is full of wool yarn, being dyed.

Mashing apples for the apple press. They will be making hard cider from these apples

The interpreter had Lon smash an apple with a mallet to put into the mash. Lon had fun doing that.

Pulling out the wool from the vat, it turned blue as it hit the air.  In the foreground, winding up some white wool yarn.

Lon found Henry in the barn. Henry let himself be petted too.

This lady is the archaeologist for Middleton Place.  The big rains we had earlier in October broke one of the dams, and water rushed out into the Ashley River. This was a wonderful thing. She found over 40 bottle parts in the muck before the damn was repaired and the water levels came back up to normal in the ponds

Music and Dancing! The song she warmed up with was one of the songs I recognized from the movie Last of the Mohicans.
The caller taught everyone the dance steps and called the dance. It was fun to watch.

Lon was freezing when we arrived, but by this time the sun had warmed him up so much that he was getting hot!

We remember this pig as a baby piglet!
He has gotten much bigger!!

The Colonial games table.
Lon had to try the stilts. He did not take many steps, but he tried, and had fun with it

Graces. This game was fun. Lon played this at the lighthouse at Yaquina, Oregon.

They played till Lon caught two.

The second catch

Hoops. Lon loved playing hoops and he would love to get one for the back yard.

We went over to see what they were doing.
They are pressing sugar cane to get the cane juice.
From there they poured it into a huge kettle over a wood fire to make cane syrup.

Trying sugar cane.  Not his favorite treat

But he tried it

The water buffalo sticking his nose toward the fire and the cane syrup. He likes sweet stuff.

Petting Jane, she is a diva horse. She knows she is magnificent!  She is glad to let you know that too.

Pounding the husk off the rice.

They made these rice mortars at Middleton, along with the pounding sticks

Peek a boo

Learning how to separate the chaff from the rice

He was pretty good at it. Rice stayed in the basket, he was not feeding the chickens and the chaff flew away

He had fun doing this but it was lots of work. He did not do it for long.

Helping the cooper but a barrel together.

We did, of course, go over to see the cashmere goats, but they were sleeping. The girls did not want to wake up. It was nice sleeping in the afternoon sun.

It was time to go, even though we did not see everything, we had some more things to do !!