Farmstead Fun - Trip to Yorktown

What do farm kids do for fun?  Why, we take over Yorktwon, VA, of course!

Many of the original homes are still at Yorktown and people live in them today.  Some are little shops and restaurants.  The highlight of our visit, though, was a Young Soldier lesson at the battlefield museum at the Visitor Center where the kids got to make their own miniature gabions.

What's a gabion?  Well, I'll tell you .....

The twig "basket" in the front is a gabion.  Soldiers built lots of them, then filled them with dirt.  See the overgrown ridge behind the gabion?  That is a gabion wall; a row of gabions, filled with dirt, lined up, and allowed to grow over.  This is how soldiers built a protective wall and had a place to put the dirt from the trenches they dug. 

 A couple of my kids making gabions with the park ranger in the background demonstrating how it's done.  He did a great job talking to the kids about how soldiers lived and worked during the war. 

There is also a replica ship in the museum.  Man the canons!

In other news, we have ordered a milking stanchion for Lulu the goat and it should be here soon.  I will start milking her once a day to get her milk supply up while the kids are still nursing.  Fresh milk and cheese incoming!  Also, we will be checking in on the bees.  See you back soon!