Feast of the Hunter's Moon

Think Renaissance Fair - but 1700's early American.  It was wonderful.  All the exhibits were authentic.  The food was authentic and cooked as it would have been.  Everyone - yes just about everyone - was dressed in period costumes....... and that is saying something because it was COLD!!

The participants were "housed" in white tents.  There were hundreds of them.

So many of these skills have been lost.  These women were making yarn.  

Here is another spinner.  Where would you go to even buy a spinning wheel??  And how would you learn to use it??

We thought this guy was cool.  He had rigged a "band saw."  The rope attached to the flexible pole is looped around the piece of wood and then to a foot treadle.  As he presses the foot treadle down, it springs back up automatically, and spins the wood.  He then uses a knife to carve the wood.  I think he is making a table leg.  It was fascinating.

See what I mean about authentic?  These guys were the real thing.

And, frankly, I think they were warmer than we were.

Some families were just hanging out.  Maybe they were performing later.  They all had small fires going and most had pots of "something" cooking.  The whole campground smelled delicious.

There was the obligatory firing of the cannon.  Very loud.  Each group had their own uniforms.

There were performances at several locations.  Here is a fife and drum corps.

You can see that is was muddy.  There was straw in a lot of places because of the mud.

Craig and I discussed that this is just what the roads would have looked like.  Women's skirts would have dragged through this daily.  I can't imagine doing laundry back then. 

There were many, many people dressed in native American Indian dress.  Some were selling crafts.

Some were performing.

These kids were doing the hoop dance.  The little boy was darling to watch.

One family had a teepee instead of a tent.  I like how the American flag is flying outside of it.

The food booths were sponsored by community groups.  We had pork chops that were to die for.  So moist and savory.  We also had fry bread.  Oh so good, fried over a fire in oil and served hot.  There was homemade root beer.  You had to bring your own container or buy one - we passed.  There were homemade apple dumplings (like individual apple pies).  The line was one hour long.  Yeah, we didn't wait.  But our neighbor did!!!  And she bought us one.  Now that's what I call friendship.

Although we thought we would stay all day, we were cold and tired after about four hours.  

To remember our wonderful adventure.  We bought a bowl.  We actually watched the carver work on a bowl like this while we were there.  You can see the carve marks.  It's cherry wood.  And even though the food at the festival was very reasonably priced, the bowl was not.  But then, what would you charge for a bowl that took hours and hours to carve and sand?

My neighbor promptly filled it with gourds and squash from her garden.  It looks love-er-ly.  

Very "fallish".

It was a very enjoyable day to be sure.