We had a great time at the Hancock Shaker Village. This was Maddie's first trip there. Brian and I were pleased at the updates they have made at the village. We really enjoyed the gardens and the baby animals. Here is one of Maddie's picture of the garden.
After visiting the gardens we went into the tool shop and laundry. The interpreter in the building explained what the building was used for and how they powered it. I must admit that Maddie and I were not too thrilled with the idea of doing laundry for 100 people. We went back over to the machine shop pretty quickly! Brian was still speaking with the man there who offered to turn on the water turbine. We were surprised at how loud it was! Then he cut off a very thin strip of wood after showing us how the turbine was turning several different belts and gears to make things work.
Then, between buildings, we saw another interpreter putting out yarn to dry and hang down to untwist. Momma the knitter had to stop and Maddie, despite saying she has no interest, was very interested. She kept checking back every time we went by to see if it was dry yet! This was not yarn that had been spun or dyed at the Village.
After that we went into the "Brick Dwelling" which is where the community would eat, sleep and sometimes worship. Here is Maddie looking all quiet....don't be fooled!
The kitchen was very interesting too. Imagine cooking for 100 people every day, sometimes 4 times a day!!
Then we saw the shop where they made chairs, boxes, shoes and brooms. The broom corn they used was grown right here in Scotia and all along the Mohawk River!
After that we went over to the round barn. This is where the animals still live. We could hear them since entering the village and Maddie couldn't wait to see them. A sign out front promised baby animals.
We found the baby animals! And were even allowed to come into the pen and see the animals. We were warned to stay away from the turkeys, particularly the big Tom Turkey who likes to bite! We had a great time trying to get the sheep to come see us and watching the ducks in the water bin.
Then they called the sheep in and we discovered that sheep have quite a bit in common with golden retrievers. Despite getting out of the fence by themselves they insisted they couldn't get back in on their own.
We went into the discovery room where Maddie play dress up, "milked" a cow (it was water!), inspected a bee hive with a magnifying glass and just generally had a good time!
A funny part to the day was watching the group of school children race about the village and generally create a ruckus. Maddie announced that she was homeschooled to be sure she was not lumped in with the kids causing so much trouble.All in all we had a great time at the Shaker Village!
We had to go back to say good-bye to Pansy the cow, as named by Maddie.
We had a great time at the Norman Rockwell Museum too but couldn't take pictures in the art museum. We went to see the exhibit about the Ice Age movie and how they make the animation into 3D. Maddie loved seeing all the artwork and (yay!) was very interested in the Rockwell paintings too. She especially liked one of the doctor and the dolly. It reminded her of going to Dr.Gaylord with Raggey and/or Elizabeth. They always had to be checked too.
We arrived home tired but happy!! More vacation still to come!
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