Dreary Day

When will this rain end?!? I just don't believe it. It was so miserable today. And what makes it worse is that the ten-day forecast is predicting nine more days of rain. We just can't get a break. As a result of it being such a dark and miserable day, most of us were less than thrilled about doing anything today. At least our seminar session was at the kitchen table of the Allen House (where we take all our meals and where the boys live). It was comfortable to be around a table and eating breakfast. We talked about/critiqued the exhibits we saw yesterday. The general consensus was that the America's Kitchens exhibit built by Historic New England was very disappointing. There was a lot of potential to have an interesting and interactive exhibit that people could connect with, and it failed. The rest of the morning was spent researching in the library. We have a brain-storming session with museum staff tomorrow, so we were all scrambling for ideas to present tomorrow. Okay, so I am using the Colton Family papers, but for my final I think I'm going to use correspondence. The family patriarch's son and his first wife exchanged courtship letters from 1859-1861, so they are really interesting to read. They provide great insight into the daily activities of Massachusetts and Connecticut for the time. I don't know what approach I will take yet, but I should be able to get some great ideas from the staff tomorrow.

This afternoon was SO MUCH FUN! We had a field trip to Old Greenfield Village. Greenfield is a village less than 10 miles away from Deerfield, so it was a really close drive. There is a gentleman there who collected anything and everything from Greenfield, built houses and building to house everything, and created an old-fashioned model town in his backyard! There was the general store, carpenter shop, pharmacy, toy store/ice cream parlor, blacksmith/tinsmith shop, dry-goods store, butcher shop, wheel wright shop, doctors' offices, printing shops, church, schoolhouse, etc. It was so awesome, despite the rain. It was amazing how many things he had. But it reminded me a lot of home. We have so much of those antiques in our sheds. I guess there is something good about Grandpa and Dad being pack-rats. The last building especially reminded me of home because it had that dirt/rusting iron smell, just like the work benches and sheds. I was so excited about this trip. I am now inspired by this guy. I could totally open up a museum like that on my own. I probably won't but it would be fun.

There isn't anything else exciting going on. I didn't get pictures of this field trip because of the rain. I cooked supper tonight, but it only involved making salad, toasting bread, and putting frozen lasagna in the oven. But it was good anyway. I am now going back to the house, get warm, and read about my samplers for the object paper. I HAVE TO BE PRODUCTIVE TONIGHT!