Two Hams in a Can Two Hams in a Can

Boondocking for the first time Sep 16, 2006

It's been a long time since I posted on this blog mostly because of computer malfunction. We left Sauder Historical Village and drove to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore for our first taste of boon docking. It wasn't too bad. We did a lot of reading and the weather cooperated with cool evenings, so no need for air conditioning. The mosquitoes were the worst that I have ever seen in my life however. They had had a really bad storm about three weeks previous (while we were in Michigan - we remember hearing about it on the TV.)Lots of trees were damaged and lots of standing water which led to the mosquitoes. Thank goodness for our screen tent and Deep Woods Off.

While we were there we were fortunate enough to discover their annual Harvest Festival which was a lot of fun. They had an exhibition of steam farm implements such as the one here

Steam driven farm implements

and lots of different farm crafts etc. We walked down a lovely path

Path to the homestead

which got us to an old homestead plus exhibits of Indian crafts from the area.Here are lots of foods that the Indians would cultivate and cook , and here is the way they would dry pumpkin rings for storage.They also had a trapper' cabin replete with pelts etc. from the time period.

The homestead pictured here

homestead

has been restored to its 1910 appearance since that was the only one they could confirm, but it actually dates much further back.

There is also a working farm

farmhouse

which was demonstrating many of the crafts used to make a life back then.We watched a sheep being sheared (actually a lamb.)

sheepshearing

She didn't seem to enjoy it much.We also saw a demonstration of sheep herding by some really intelligent dogs (in other words, not Madison)And Jeff got some pointers from the artist in residence and did some oil painting of the farm house.There was a blacksmith exhibiition.And they set up for a threshing dinner - all of the food raised on the farm and cooked in the period kitchen - woodstove and all.They were pressing sorghum with a horse and they also had all sort s of 4-H and Scout groups etc. selling food. Jeff had roasted corn prepared by the local firefighters and I had a caramel apple from the 4-H. It was great. If we ever go to Indiana Dunes again, we hope that the Harvest Festival is going on and NO MOSQUITOES!