A Fieldtrip

On Monday we went on a Homeschool Field trip with our local homeschool group. We visited the Great Smoky Mountain Heritage Center in Townsend, Tennessee. We were blessed with a wonderful sunny day for our visit.
We toured several authentic cabins and barns that were recovered and rebuilt on the Heritage Center site.
There was a lovely demonstration of Open Hearth Cooking. And we were even able to eat some delicious corn bread with homemade butter. Yummy !!
We learned and had a lot of fun playing several Pioneer games.
The museum within the Heritage Center is chock full of farming tools, household items, and even portions of an actual residence.
We giggled at this Corn Sheller -- it is awfully small compared to the Corn Choppers here on the farm. But this tool is probably where it all began.
A primitive table, simple dishes that the Pioneer families might have owned, woven chairs, oil lamps, and in the top right corner is a string of dried beans in the pods known as Leather Britches.
While touring the partial cabin in the museum, we listened closely about how important the Front Porch was to Pioneer homesteaders -- it was a social area, an extended work area for weaving or sewing or churning or food preparation. We use front porches as decoration, but many years ago they were vital to the household.

The Smoky Mountain Heritage Center did a wonderful job for our field trip. All of the volunteers were so sweet and helpful, answering countless questions and sharing with enthusiasm their knowledge of Pioneer Days.

We are going to be studying American History this year, so this field trip was a wonderful introduction to life in some of the "early" days.

If you happen to be nearby and want an interesting inexpensive family activity, we highly recommend the Smoky Mountain Heritage Center in Townsend, TN.