Angelica Civil War Reenactment

September 29, 2015October 2, 2015 thefarmingdaughter7 Comments

The biggest Civil War reenactment doesn’t necessarily make the best. While I’ve enjoyed attending the large and exciting sesquicentennial events the past couple of years, this weekend reminded me just how nice the smaller, local events can be too.

Mason, Addison, and I went to the Angelica Civil War reenactment hosted by the 136th NY. The first reenactment I ever participated in was actually this same event four years ago. It was special to be able to come to this event for the fourth time and camp in the exact same spot where my reenacting adventures began! Tenting next to us were also my good friend Emily, her sister Haley, and their friend Aidan.

The Farming Daughter: Angelica Civil War Reenactment New Blog Post (https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/28/angelica-civil-war-reenactment/) 2 — We were all very serious…

The Farming Daughter: Angelica Civil War Reenactment New Blog Post (https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/28/angelica-civil-war-reenactment/) 3 — …but not for long!

The Farming Daughter: Angelica Civil War Reenactment New Blog Post ( https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/28/angelica-civil-war-reenactment/) 26 — This was Aidan’s first reenactment! (photo by Emily)

One of the reasons I enjoyed the smaller event size was it afforded better opportunities for interacting with the spectators. On Friday we helped run one of the education stations that local school groups toured. Our station was “Children’s Games and Toys of the 19th Century”. I gave a short talk explaining some the things children during the Civil War entertained themselves with and then we had various toys, including graces, hoop and stick, Jacob’s ladder, drafts, ball and cup, etc., for the kids to play with.

We also ran the same station the next day for the Boy Scout troops that came. I was talking to one of the scouts later and was shocked to learn that they drive each year all the way from Massachusetts for this event!!

I brought the orphan kitten that I’m raising, Koda, to the event. She also had fun playing with the toys!

The Farming Daughter: Angelica Civil War Reenactment New Blog Post (https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/28/angelica-civil-war-reenactment/) 4 — (photo by Emily)

The combination of kitten and toys at our camp attracted several children, and Haley, Mason, and Aidan had a nice time playing with them all.

The Farming Daughter: Angelica Civil War Reenactment New Blog Post ( https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/28/angelica-civil-war-reenactment/) 20 — Bobby was adorable in his accurate 19th century attire

The Farming Daughter: Angelica Civil War Reenactment New Blog Post ( https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/28/angelica-civil-war-reenactment/) 21 — (photo by Emily)

The Farming Daughter: Angelica Civil War Reenactment New Blog Post ( https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/28/angelica-civil-war-reenactment/) 22 — (photo by Emily)

Mason hauling wood like a true 19th century gentleman (photo by Emily)

The Farming Daughter: Angelica Civil War Reenactment New Blog Post ( https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/28/angelica-civil-war-reenactment/) 24 — I had a nice time discussing the Battle of Cold Harbor with one of our guys, Mr. John

The Farming Daughter: Angelica Civil War Reenactment New Blog Post ( https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/28/angelica-civil-war-reenactment/) 25 — Civil War selfie 🙂

Another opportunity I had for sharing some of my knowledge of the period was Saturday afternoon. I was working on preparing a supper of chicken pot pie and a group of spectators stopped by to watch. I was able to have a very nice conversation with them about what I was doing, how my pie differed from an actual 19th century pie (not killing the chicken myself, for one thing), and food preservation during the 19th century. I love how smaller reenactments help you to get “up close and personal” with the public.

The Farming Daughter: Angelica Civil War Reenactment New Blog Post (https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/28/angelica-civil-war-reenactment/) 8 — Addie assisting with supper

The Farming Daughter: Angelica Civil War Reenactment New Blog Post (https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/28/angelica-civil-war-reenactment/) 10 — Part of supper cooking

The Farming Daughter: Angelica Civil War Reenactment New Blog Post (https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/28/angelica-civil-war-reenactment/) 5 — Made from scratch chicken pot pie ready to be baked in the dutch oven

The Farming Daughter: Angelica Civil War Reenactment New Blog Post (https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/28/angelica-civil-war-reenactment/) 6 — Baked to perfection

Saturday evening we attended one of our favorite events, the dance! I had asked Addison to do a simpler style for my hair the previous days, but she insisted on making it fancy for the dance. She did a lovely job!

I then did Addie’s hair. She has such a large amount of hair, that any style ends up looking epic!

The Farming Daughter: Angelica Civil War Reenactment New Blog Post (https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/28/angelica-civil-war-reenactment/) 15 — Sisters ready to dance their shoes off! (photo by Emily)

Every year the dance is held in the Grange building. The low levels of light, crowd of dancers, and wood floors make for the perfect 19th century atmosphere.

The Farming Daughter: Angelica Civil War Reenactment New Blog Post (https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/28/angelica-civil-war-reenactment/) 16 — The dance (photo by Emily)

The Farming Daughter: Angelica Civil War Reenactment New Blog Post (https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/28/angelica-civil-war-reenactment/) 18 — Cooking breakfast Sunday morning (photo by Emily)

Sunday after church I had a lovely time visiting my friends Allison and Stephen at their new sutlery (what the shops in tents at reenactments are called). Allison sold me a lovely belt buckle that perfectly suits my tastes, pretty and nice without being too flashy, and Stephen helped fulfill a dream of mine by selling me my own bound copy of Godey’s!! The book is from 1857 and contains all of the issues of Godey’s Ladies’ Book from that year. I can’t wait until I have some time to sit down and explore it thoroughly!

It was a lovely weekend, and a good reminder that smaller events can be fun too!

Many of the pictures in this post were taken by my friend Emily. Be sure to check out her blog post here about the weekend to see more of her beautiful pictures!

-Michaela “The Farming Daughter”

Last Days of Summer Dinner

September 16, 2015September 16, 2015 thefarmingdaughter2 Comments

When summer’s end is nighing
And skies at evening cloud,
I muse on change and fortune
And all the feats I vowed
When I was young and proud.

From hill and cloud and heaven
The hues of evening died;
Night welled through lane and hollow
And hushed the countryside,
But I had youth and pride.

The year might age, and cloudy
The lessening day might close,
But air of other summers
Breathed from beyond the snows,
And I had hope of those.

So here’s an end of roaming
On eves when autumn nighs:
The ear too fondly listens
For summer’s parting sighs,
And then the heart replies.

-Selection from A.E. Housman’s “When Summer’s End is Nighing”

Only one week until the Autumnal Equinox! Last night I decided to make a meal in honor of the end of summer with grilled kabobs, roasted sweet corn, and a skillet chocolate chip cookie. Everything turned out so delicious I thought I would share the recipes here.

Kabobs

About eight hours before you want to cook you should start marinating the kabob meat. The marinade I used is a my own variation of the allrecipes.com marinade that you can find here. I used chicken, but any meat you prefer would probably work fine. This was enough marinade for about 4 chicken breasts.

Cube your meat into chunks about 1.5 x 1.5″ square. For the marinade you need:

1 cup oil (I used 1/2 cup canola oil and 1/2 cup cilantro and roasted onion infused EVOO)

3/4 cup soy sauce (I used Bragg Liquid Aminos)

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup southwest spicy mustard

1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper

1 teaspoon seasoning salt

4 cloves minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Mix all of the marinade ingredients together. Put the cubed meat into a gallon sized Ziploc bag and pour the marinade over top (make sure that all the meat is covered). Seal the Ziploc bag and place in a glass container (in case the bag accidentally leaks). Marinate in the refrigerator for 8 hours.

When you are ready to cook the kabobs cut up some of your favorite grilling veggies (I used onions and sweet peppers). Alternate threading a veggie and a piece of meat onto your skewers. Cook on the grill using medium heat. Halfway through cooking flip the kabobs over so both sides get a nice sear.

Roasted Sweet Corn

About eight hours before you want to start cooking you need to start soaking your ears of corn. Leave all of the husks on and put the corn in a waterproof container (I used a large, plastic Rubbermaid tote). Fill the container with enough water to cover the corn. The corn will float, so you’ll need to put a heavy weight on top to keep it under the water. A cinder block did the trick for me.

If you’re having trouble finding fresh sweet corn at the grocery store this late in the season try looking for a roadside stand that sells it. Most commercial sweet corn growers plant their sweet corn under rows of plastic and use irrigation to have it ready as early in the year as possible. This also means that the sweet corn is done sooner. If you can find someone local who just grows a little bit of sweet corn in their backyard you might be able to find it this late in the year.

At least two hours before you’re ready to cook the sweet corn start building your fire. Your object is to get a bed of nice hot coals to cook the corn over. Roast the corn on a grate over your bed of coals, turning it once with a pair of tongs to make sure both sides of the corn are evenly cooked. When ready to eat, husk the corn and serve with butter.

Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie

The recipe for the cookie is just the original Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I’ll put it in so all of the recipes are together.

1 cup of butter (2 sticks)

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 package (2 cups) semisweet chocolate chips

Cream the butter and sugars together. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spread the dough in a greased 10″ cast iron skillet. Bake in a 350°F oven for 25-30 minutes. Use a toothpick to test for doneness. You wan the edges of the cookie to be golden brown. It’s OK if the center is still slightly gooey because the cast iron retains heat for a while and will continue to “cook” the cookie even after you take it out of the oven. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

-Michaela “The Farming Daughter”

Full Circle

September 13, 2015 thefarmingdaughter9 Comments

I went backpacking for the first time about eight years ago. Some friends of our family, the Maybrays, kindly offered to take me along with them on a trip and I enthusiastically accepted.

Looking at photos from that trip I see a lanky, twelve year old version of me smiling a mouthful of braces. I didn’t have hiking boots (still don’t, actually) so I wore a pair of sneakers. My outfit consisted of a pink synthetic shirt and a pair of jogging pants found at Target. My pack was an old external frame thrift store find and didn’t even have a hip belt, so we jerry-rigged a fanny pack and piece of nylon webbing to go around my waist. We didn’t see any animals more exciting than a chipmunk and probably hiked less than five miles, but you know what? I had a blast. And ever since that trip, I’ve been hooked on backpacking.

The Farming Daughter: Full Circle 2 https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/12/full-circle/ — Me on my first backpacking trip

I’ve gone on several more trips with the Maybrays, and last year my brother Marcus was able to come along too.

Last week I had the opportunity to bring three of my siblings on a short overnight backpacking trip. This was Mason’s first overnight hike, and just like I was, he is only twelve years old.

The Farming Daughter: Full Circle 1 https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/12/full-circle/ — Marcus (14 yrs.), Mason (12 yrs.), and Addison (16 yrs.)

As I was reflecting on the trip I realized that my backpacking adventures have come “full circle”. I started out as the inexperienced novice, hungrily soaking up information. Then, I was knowledgeable enough to give some gear and packing advice to my brother for his first trip. And now, I was able to do what the Maybrays did for me, take an excited twelve year old on their first backpacking trek! It felt wonderful, and a great tribute to what the Maybrays did for me, to take what they had taught me and “pay it forward”. Maybe someday Mason will be able to use what he’s learned from me and introduce another person to backpacking!

We hiked a section of the North Country Trail/Finger Lakes Trail that winds through the Stevenson Forest Preserve, Rieman Woods, and Robert H. Treman State Park. The terrain was fairly easy, with some steep ascents that were moderately challenging. Our biggest obstacle to overcome was the heat that soared into the nineties!

The Farming Daughter: Full Circle 3 https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/12/full-circle/ — I told Mom we should take a group picture before we headed out and she thought it was a good idea. “Plus,” I said, “then you can use the photo for identification purposes in case we get lost and don’t come back!” (Note: not the best thing to tell your mother.)

The Farming Daughter: Full Circle https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/12/full-circle/ 25 — Mason

We ate a lunch of cheese sticks, beef jerky, crackers, trail mix, and peanut butter cookies in the Rieman Woods camping area. Backpackers can bivouac in this spot, but there is no water nearby.

About 2.6 miles into our hike we came upon this sign:

The Farming Daughter: Full Circle https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/12/full-circle/ 8 — Just take note that if you’re hiking this trail the detour adds almost a mile onto the hike.

The detour also forced us to walk off the trail and along the roadside more, but since we were out of the woods we also saw some better views:

The Farming Daughter: Full Circle https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/12/full-circle/ 6 — While hiking past Hines Road we crossed a field with a beautiful historic barn that has been renovated into an event center known as the Treman Center. (For more info click here.)

The Farming Daughter: Full Circle https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/12/full-circle/ 10 — Anybody know what kind of flower this is?

We had to cross Fish Kill Creek, so we stopped for a short break to allow me to soak my still-recovering sprained ankle in the cold water. Marcus entertained himself in the meantime with taking funny pictures on my phone 🙂

The Farming Daughter: Full Circle https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/12/full-circle/ 12 — Mason and Marcus

The Farming Daughter: Full Circle https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/12/full-circle/ 16 — “Bridge Unsafe”

The Farming Daughter: Full Circle https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/12/full-circle/ 17 — Ya’ think?! 😀

The Farming Daughter: Full Circle https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/12/full-circle/ 19 — Photo by Addie

The Farming Daughter: Full Circle https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/12/full-circle/ 21 — This was my first time using my new Osprey Ariel 65 pack. After I use it some more to thoroughly test it out I’ll do a review post, but so far I’m really loving it 🙂

The Farming Daughter: Full Circle https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/12/full-circle/ 22 — Cooking dinner, on a cat food can stove no less.

The Farming Daughter: Full Circle https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/12/full-circle/ 23 — Pack explosion while making dinner.

The Farming Daughter: Full Circle https://thefarmingdaughter.com/2015/09/12/full-circle/ 24 — Me and the boys

Trail hiked: North Country Trail/Finger Lakes Trail from Stevenson Forest Preserve to Robert H. Treman State Park

Miles hiked: 10

Temperature: 90° F

Maps used: Finger Lakes Trail Conference Map 16 (liked the actual map in this), CNY Hiking trail description (liked the land mark descriptions in this)

Information:

CNY Hiking FLT – Free topo maps of the trail and land mark descriptions

Finger Lakes Trail Conference – They have standard maps for purchase, as well as instant downloads. The one you want is Map 16.

-Michaela “The Farming Daughter”

The Farming Daughter

Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and life to the full."

Month: September 2015

Angelica Civil War Reenactment

Last Days of Summer Dinner

Full Circle