Last Sunday Drew and I went on a field trip. There is a little town called Lancaster just outside of Sigourney and all that is left is a handful of houses, a church, and this beautiful one room school house. I had never visited the schoolhouse before and since they were having their annual open house I decided to take Drew on an adventure.
The first floor
This little schoolhouse is the only one room wooden structure, two story schoolhouse west of the Mississippi! It has been preserved beautifully and we enjoyed our little adventure exploring the building and the beautiful grounds.
The second floor
We tend to think that we need to travel to enjoy beautiful places or pieces of history but sometimes they are right in our own backyard. It was fun to tour this and even better, we visited with friends and neighbors and people we knew who had gone to school here. Before we know it, those who did go to school here will no longer be with us which makes it even more priceless to talk to them and hear their stories!
This is the staircase that takes you to the second floor. We learned that at one time there were two separate staircases, one on each side of the building. One was for the girls and one was for the boys. Drew found that to be interesting and I explained to him that when I was in 4th grade our school building, which is no longer standing, had two staircases leading into the school. They were on opposite sides of the building and one was for the girls and one was for the boys.
Remember weaving potholders as a child? I always thought it was so much fun. And then those potholders never got used! They were so small and they would melt if they got hot. They got shoved into the back of a kitchen drawer. I don’t even know what happened to those potholders I used to make.
I do remember enjoying the process of making them though. Such a simple thing – weaving over and under, over and under and watching the pattern unfold. It’s a calming process. Kind of like cross stitch I guess. Simple, repetitive actions that slowly turn into these beautiful pieces of art.
This one is made with wool loops dyed with goldenrod. It is not near as vibrant as the pictures show. More muted shades of golds and greens. It is absolutely stunning. And to think something as simple and plentiful as goldenrod was used.
I ran across an advertisement the other day and was intrigued. The same process from when I was a child only using a nice metal loom and colorful cotton loops. And all of these beautiful patterns to try. A finished product that you could actually use. So I decided to give it a try.
This one was made using wool loops dyed with walnuts. Probably my favorite so far.
And then, I discovered these naturally dyed loops. And the loops are wool. Oh my goodness. I love, love the idea of all natural. So much fun to see what you end up with. No two loops look the exact same color. So very very prim – just my style! And you can buy natural, undyed loops. Maybe I will give dying a try one of these days!
This one was made with cotton loops. Drew picked out the colors and the pattern. It think it turned out beautiful!
I love the bigger loom and the bigger size potholder. They are nice and thick and will be perfect for those hot dishes that come out of the oven. No worries about the countertop or worries over the potholder melting. Now I need to try to dig out my old smaller loom so I can make smaller potholders. I think they would work great for coffee and tea mug rugs!
This one was made with cotton loops. It is just so perfectly fit for Fall!
I can’t get Drew interested in making them. He thinks it looks boring. But he did enjoy picking out colors and a pattern for me to make one! I’m addicted to all the different patterns and designs. It’s just fun to sit down and put some colors together and see what you come up with. Or follow a pattern and try using different colors and seeing how different each one comes out. I want to try all the patterns and all the colors! But I definitely don’t need all the potholders!
This is Rubio. She lives at my Dad and Mom’s along with her goat friend, Hazel. They are both Boer Goats. Hazel is Drew’s goat. Given to him by his Great Uncle Jerry. At the time Uncle Jerry gave her to Drew we didn’t have a place to keep her so Dad took her in. And he became attached! So, he then brought Rubio home from Uncle Jerry’s so Hazel could have a companion and they both live together at Dad and Mom’s where they are spoiled rotten! They even get daily treats of Fruit Loops!
There’s Hazel in the background!
Yesterday evening we went to Dad and Mom’s for supper. We roasted hot dogs over a fire in the backyard. Drew brought Rambler along and Rubio was fascinated. Dad doesn’t have a dog anymore so she doesn’t really see dogs much at all. Hazel paid no attention but Miss Rubio stood on this rock for a very very long time and just watched everything we did. I’m not sure if she was keeping an eye on Rambler or Drew or if she just liked the commotion of all of us out in the backyard. It was funny as she usually pays no attention to us at all.
It was a beautiful evening to sit outside.
It was a beautiful evening. The humidity had died down and there was a nice breeze. A wiener roast in the backyard was the perfect ending to a busy weekend of working on projects and getting a few things done. Rubio seemed to think so too!
We’ve been so busy lately and it’s been hard to fit in some stitching but I’ve managed! I’ve been stitching orders and stitching things to sell and once in a blue moon I stumble across a pattern I just have to stitch for myself!
When we were at the quilting/needlework store in Amana we found this cute cross stitch/beadwork kit. Two of us purchased the kit and are going to make Christmas ornaments to commemorate our camping trip. I haven’t done beadwork in a long time and it’s been fun to do a little bit of it again. I’m looking forward to finishing mine and seeing how Susie finishes hers. I’m sure they will look totally different from each other and yet both will be beautiful!
You can’t really see how the beads sparkle but they do. And they’ll really sparkle on the Christmas tree! It’s fun to have someone else stitching too as I don’t have anybody local who stitches and I’ve always thought it would be fun to stitch with friends!
All set up for the weekend. It doesn’t always work out but these campsites were perfect so that we could set up all four campers with our doors facing each other. We had this whole area just to ourselves!
A few years ago we started camping with a group of friends over the Labor Day weekend. There are four couples in this group and we take turns picking out a campground. This year was our year to choose so we chose the Amana area. The other three couples live in the Clear Lake area and we live in southeast part of the state. Some years we have to travel a bit more, other years a campground that is more centrally located is chosen. This year was a lot closer for us but the others wanted to explore this area so it worked out great.
We all headed to the Amana Campground on Friday and set up camp, had some supper and sat around the campfire. Then on Saturday we headed to Mt. Pleasant to the Old Threshers Reunion. This is an annual event that takes place every year in Mt. Pleasant after the State Fair is over. Many people in our state will camp at the State Fair for two weeks then pull their camper straight to the Old Threshers. I have lived here my whole life and never visited so I was looking forward to this too.
It was wonderful to see all the old steam engines, tractors, vehicles, different motors, etc. and the best part was seeing all of the young people taking part. This is such a big part of our history and it would be so sad if people didn’t keep up the tradition of holding this reunion for all to see. There were so many young people joining right in with the old learning how to run all of these things and doing all the work involved. I would love to go back again and spend more time here taking it all in.
Remember the old Burma Shave signs?
On Sunday we toured Main Amana. We walked through the shops and took it all in. The Amanas are a group of German villages established long ago. They lived in communal houses and each member of the village was assigned a job. One person may be a cook, another a farmer, a gardener and so on. They all worked together to keep the community going. Many of the old original buildings are still standing and being used as restaurants, shops and as houses. The General Store and the quilting shop were favorites among the women and the men simply tolerated the day! The restaurants are fun to eat at as they serve traditional German food family style but unfortunately Sundays are busy and we couldn’t get in without a reservation. So we checked out the Meat Shop, purchased some Amana meat and headed back to the campground with some yummy things to try. We went for a walk around the campground in the afternoon and checked out the dog show. There was an AKC Dog Obedience show going on all weekend and according to the lady when we registered, there were 3,000 dogs in the campground. It was fun to see all the different dogs and watch a small portion of one of the shows. It reminded me of the horse shows when I was young only with dogs!
We played some cards and lots and lots of bags at the campground. Spent each night sitting around the fire talking and enjoying each others company. Kelsey made us sugar cone s’more one night. Yum!
The weather was perfect, overcast and cool when we were at the Old Threshers and warm and sunny on Sunday. The evenings cooled down and the fire felt so good. It was another fun Labor Day weekend spent with good friends!
