Whiteley Creek Homestead

campfire donuts

If you truly know me, you will not ask me to eat out on my birthday. Unless the interior space and/or exterior architecture is unique. Unless the menu is healthy fare. Unless the meal is served in an unusual setting. Oh, just put me outside. Hiking a trail somewhere. Happiness guaranteed. Or at a friend's pumpkin patch. And, if there is a hayride, apple cider, happy people, and homemade cinnamon sugar donuts...even better. Dick and I did just that. On my birthday. 

In preparation for the canned biscuit dough, a cast iron pot of oil was set atop a grate over a fire built of split wood.

Homemade donuts rolled in cinnamon sugar...and the pumpkin I selected as a memory of our day? The large one. Center right. Positioned ever so slightly at an angle. To catch my attention. Like a wink and a nod. The annual pumpkin sale is held on September's final weekend. Go south of Brainerd, (Minnesota) on 13th Street, which becomes Co Rd 45, approximately ten miles to the driveway preceding Jim and Pat Puetz's property.

 

blueberry picking

It's how I was raised. During the spring, summer, and autumn seasons, we planted, tended, gathered, and put away food that would carry us through the cold winter months. I do believe I was meant to have lived in the 1800s... a Little House on the Prairie/Laura Ingalls Wilder existence, as I thrive on living off the land and using what I have. Making do and finding joy and contentment in it. So, when my friend Connie told me the (chemical-free) blueberries were ripe at Pine Winder Blueberries, I scrapped my plans for the next morning and trucked on over.  

The sweet-spirited young mother, who was assigned to pick berries on the other side of my row, was as colorful as the blueberries hanging thick on the branches.

The peaceful solitude of the patch was interrupted occasionally by the fleeting buzz of a fly, a gentle breeze flapping the streamers tied to a wide-eyed balloon scarecrow, and an intermittent loud-speaker recording of a not-so-foreboding, at least to human ears, bullyish bird call meant to deter meeker birds from pecking more than their share of succulent berries. 

In three hours, I had picked two five-quart buckets @ $19.50/bucket. Forgoing washing and scattered on a rimmed baking sheet, to prevent a solid clump post-freezing, the berries roll freely as marbles. It'll be a breeze to measure the amount needed for blueberry muffins, pancakes, and scones on a cold January morning. Now, let's be real here. I'd proudly lay claim to the freezer bag labels, however they are clip art I happily discovered online then inserted text boxes to add the picking date and berry patch name. Not necessary, but how fun it life makes!

Picking details: Pine Winder Blueberries is located three miles west of Pine River (Minnesota) on County Road 2, then watch for their sign directing you to turn right (north) and travel a short bit down a country gravel road to their driveway on the left. This year, the patch was open for picking July 20-30, 2017, which isn't a long window of time. That's how blueberries are. You can request to be on their email list so that you get notification of picking dates in 2018, or follow their Facebook page for updates at the beginning of July. 

winter garden farmers market

The farmer's market... a colorful space. Vibrant hues of wheatgrass and sunflower greens. The deep, richness of multi-colored carrots and heirloom cherry tomatoes.

The warmth of autumn brown in the homemade chicken stock and raw cacao beans.

The colorful expression of market attendees. Oh, yes, there's gotta be some dreads.

Down a nearby side-street, an old feed store. There, as I stood across the street to shoot the feed store photo, was an imprint in the cement sidewalk edged with bits of straw. I thought, "A chicken's foot perhaps?" I knew it was not, but I appreciated the artist's quirkiness.

The little community of Winter Garden, Florida. Instant love. 

 

anthropologie

Imagining a little gnome waiting to greet me on the other side of the door, I reach for the handle on the oversized entrance door. Then I stop. The magical window display takes my breath away. Anthropologie is an adventure before even entering the shop.

Upon entering the store, there is a flow. A serene, calming, slow-the-pace rhythm. Really, it's what we do in our homes by arranging furniture and grouping meaningful items to create cozy niches that bring intimacy to a space. Anthropologie masterfully accomplishes this on a much larger scale, often in an old architecturally unique building. Creatively quirky artistic expression is all around, often using common materials in uncommon applications. Take note of the details. Each carefully selected product, no matter how small and seemingly insignificant, is given equal care and attention. I immediately fell in love with the hand-drawn, natural-colored packaging of these handmade goat milk caramels from Big Picture Farm in Vermont.

It was the packaging, the black and white reindeer mugs stacked alongside, and the rustic wood and metal farmers table they sat upon that drew me in... and my youngest daughter, who is an Anthropologie visual manager. As a young child, along with her two sisters, she created elaborate stores in the unfinished basement of our home. They played for hours creating merchandise, displays, and signs for their individual storefronts. Now, as an adult, the marketing strategies and accompanying retail-specific language is more advanced, but... the environment remains the same. She still plays. In her store.  

battle of gettysburg

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1-3, 1863 in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was a turning point in the American Civil War (April 12, 1861-April 9, 1865). The Union Army led by Maj. Gen. George Meade defeated Gen. Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army, but not without cost. Both armies experienced heavy losses. I remember learning of this battle in Mr. Engebretson's 10th grade American History class. Dick's and my visit to Gettysburg so many many years later, to retrace the steps of the soldiers who bravely fought this battle, was a field trip forty-six years overdue. Our visit began at the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center where we viewed the film, "A New Birth of Freedom," which provided an overview of the American Civil War and the Battle of Gettysburg.

We, then, moved on to a huge round room with concave walls covered with a 360 panoramic painting called a cyclorama depicting Pickett's Charge, which was Gen. Robert E. Lee's infantry's failed assault against the Union Army that marked the turning point of the Battle of Gettysburg thus ending the Confederate Army's attempt to invade the North. Wagon wheels, cannons, canteens, clothing, broken fences, and other three-dimensional relics of battle litter the foreground to create a diorama which adds depth to the realistic, detailed scene. As we stood in the center of the room, a narrator recounted the battle's major events while spotlights highlighted locations in the painting. The black and white photo is the French artist, Paul Philippoteaux, who, along with a team of assistants, sketched the topography and key areas in the battlefield and interviewed veterans of the battle before beginning the oil painting which took over a year and one-half to complete. 

Informational markers along a 24-mile route identify key chronological events during the 3-day Battle of Gettysburg. One location known as Devil's Den (left photo) is a hill strewn with huge boulders that shielded Confederate sharpshooters from Union soldiers occupying Little Round Top which can be seen off in the distance above the rock barricade. (Right Photo) Adjacent to the battlefield is the 189-acre Eisenhower Farm. The farm was purchased in 1950 by General Dwight D. Eisenhower. After completing two terms as president (1953-1961), he retired to the farm with First Lady Mamie Eisenhower living there until his death in 1969. Mamie continued to live at the farm until her death in 1979. The farm became a national historical site after the Eisenhower's gifted the farm to the federal government in 1967. It was opened for public tours in 1980. Tickets can be purchased at the Gettysburg National Military Park Visitor Center where a shuttle is taken to the farm. After completing the three hour driving tour of the battlefield, there was not enough time remaining to tour the farm. We will return.     

The Henry Ford (1863-1947) Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan followed by Thomas Edison's (1847-1931) factories, lab, and home in West Orange, New Jersey then the American Civil War's (1861-1865) Battle of Gettysburg in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania were three destinations that fit together so perfectly in one trip.

thomas edison lab factory and home

Dick proudly boasts of his connection to Thomas Edison. He says his grandmother, Olive Clifton Dullum is a second or third cousin to Thomas Edison's second wife, Mina (pronounced my-na) Miller Edison. So, to visit Edison's West Orange, New Jersey laboratory, factory, and home on the day he celebrated his 66th birthday, it was a very special day indeed. He can be seen below in the far right of the left photo walking across the courtyard between the three-story building that was one of Edison's factories, and a long, narrow building that was Edison's lab. The photo on the right shows what the lab looked like in Edison's day. The equipment and supplies used to conduct experiments still remain on the original lab tables and shelves today.

Although some buildings are closed to visitors, there is much to see. Many items are professionally displayed with identifying information, but some areas are as if the workers moments ago left for lunch and plan to return. When we think of Thomas Edison, the light bulb immediately comes to mind, as in this old string of Christmas tree lights, but his patents are varied and numerous. Did you know he invented the first phonograph? While he continued to perfect his phonograph, he restructured one of his factories to begin manufacturing electrical household appliances such as this toaster from his high-end Edicraft line.

For forty-five years, Thomas and Mina resided at Glenmont, a 23-room home on thirteen acres in West Orange, New Jersey overlooking the valley where Edison's lab and factory were built. The house is open to the public for guided tours. (Photos Source: Mina Miller Edison. A Publication of the Charles Edison Fund, 1981.) I would have been perfectly content as a servant there...

In the kitchen maybe? It was the pan of cutout sugar cookies.

 

henry ford's greenfield village

Adjacent to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan is expansive acreage where Henry Ford preserved history in another way. Having the foresight to identify those who represent the heartbeat of America... people who would eventually find a place on the pages of our history books, he set about to preserve their memory by relocating 83 homes and businesses to 80 acres that was named Greenfield Village. Although a part of me feels that the buildings would be more authentic had they not been uprooted from their birthplace, I know that it would be difficult to visit all of them if they were scattered in various locations across the country. Also, they would eventually have fallen in disrepair and many would have been demolished.

Left Photo - Built near Columbiana, Ohio in 1828, this brick farmhouse was the childhood home of tire maker Harvey Firestone. It is a working farm where sheep are sheared, pigs are butchered, eggs are gathered, and horses pull plows where crops are planted and harvested. At the farm, and throughout the Village, costumed interpreters complete daily and seasonal chores like washing and mending laundry, churning butter, making soap, canning garden produce, and making apple butter.

Right Photo - When he was a poet-in-residence at the University of Michigan, Robert Frost lived in this house that was built about 1835. It was moved from Ann Arbor, Michigan. When we stepped across the threshhold of the front door, Robert Frost's voice greeted us as he read his 1920 poem, "The Road Not Taken."

The Road Not Taken 

By Robert Frost 1874-1963

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

 

 

    Wilbur and Orville Wright funded their aviation experiments with income generated in their bicycle business. Parts used in the assembly of their planes were built in their shop. In 1936, Henry Ford moved the cycle shop and the Wright family home from Dayton, Ohio to a peaceful street in Greenfield Village where they sit side by side.

 

   Thomas Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory, the courthouse where Abrahan Lincoln practiced law, Noah Webster's New Haven, Connecticut home where he compiled the first American dictionary and wrote textbooks, and on and on it goes. So many lives. Gathered together in one place.

henry ford museum

The Henry Ford, which includes the Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village, Benson Ford Research Center, Ford Rouge Factory Tour, and Imax Theater is worth driving, say... 810 miles. From Brainerd, Minnesota to Dearborn, Michigan, that's what Dick and I did. Think of the experience as a pop-up book. Our nation's history unfolding and coming to life in 3-D like a page from my Chronicles of Narnia book.

The displays in the Henry Ford Museum feature original objects representative of decades as well as specific events within. 1)This flashy Holiday Inn sign was used when the hotel chain opened in 1952. It was designed as a "beacon in the night" for travelers on the new interstate highways. In 1982, the sign was replaced with a small plastic one that was more energy efficient. 2)In 1994, the number of hamburgers sold exceeded 99 billion. It was decided to cease counting and change signs to read billions and billions served.

The actual bus that Rosa Parks rode when refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger is open to sit and ponder. My entrance onto the bus triggered a ceiling light to shine above the third seat in the right hand row where Rosa was seated. As I sat down in the rear, Rosa's voice describing that day could be heard as clear as if she was present still.  

I was naturally drawn to the displays that impacted my life as a child such as 1)President Kennedy's limousine that he was riding in when he was fatally shot and 2)Written on a school classroom's chalkboard, instructions to follow during a routine civil defense drill implemented when the Soviet Union began nuclear testing. The drill became as routine as reciting the morning's Pledge of Allegiance.

The professionally constructed displays at the Henry Ford Museum summarize historical events sensitively with maximum impact. Viewing the impressive preservation of irreplaceable artifacts at this museum triggers memories and a respect for those who played a role in shaping our nation. I highly recommend a visit.

 

 

before i die...

After leaving King Arthur Flour in Norwich Vermont, Dick and I set our GPS for Woodstock, New York. To clear up confusion, the town of Woodstock was not the site of the August 1969 music festival of the same name. It was actually held on a 600-acre dairy farm outside of Bethel, New York which is 43 miles southwest of the town of Woodstock. Present-day Woodstock is a throwback to the hippies counterculture of the 1960s era. Its population mushrooms during the summer months. As our stride gently, naturally slowed to match the mid-week late autumn pace, an expansive chalkboard wall leading to the Oriole9 Restaurant's entrance door drew my attention. How could it not?  

It's the first time I had seen an interactive wall of this type. One that invites and encourages participation. Later, I learned of the Before I Die wall's history and its global impact. The idea originated in 2011 when Candy Chang stenciled the first Before I Die wall on the side of an abandoned house in New Orleans. She could not have envisioned the sweeping movement to recreate similar walls worldwide.

Everywhere I travel, I become inspired by the places I visit and the people who call it home. In this place called Woodstock, I fell in love with a leaf-themed sidewalk and a sesame sunflower seed bun that accompanied my bowl of split pea soup at the Bread Alone Bakery. Before I die I want to create a walkway of leaf carvings. A permanent fluttering of leaves underfoot. Before I die I want to learn to make golden crusty breads. Ones that crunch like toast on the exterior with a soft interior. 

king arthur flour bakery

When the headquarters for King Arthur Flour in Norwich, Vermont was designed, large viewing windows were included so that visitors could watch bakers at work. My youngest grandson and I were especially inquisitive about stacks of coil-wound wooden baskets. We stood at the bakery's observation window long enough to learn their application.

To make a rustic loaf shape called a "boule," a baker deftly forms chunks of dough into balls then places them into fabric-lined, flour dusted, round brotform bread proofing baskets for the dough's final rise before baking. According to the King Arthur website, "the removable liner gives you the option of making a plain loaf or one that has the imprint of the coils."

We also observed a baker shape dough into long, French bread-like pieces then place each within the folds of a heavy linen or canvas sort of fabric to rise. I learned the fabric is called a "baker's couche." It is used to make baguettes.