A day on the farm...

Sunday Drivers decided to head out on Saturday and explore Ross Farm Museum.  We decided to go today for a couple of reasons - temperatures are hovering around zero (tomorrow is supposed to be 8 degrees!) and I'm helping G with the pig tomorrow.



We could not have asked for a lovelier day! The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the chocolate was hot!  The farm is a living history museum, depicting Nova Scotia life in the mid to late 1800s.  There were docents present in the cottage, the smithy, the wood shop and the barn.  All were fantastic - patient and informative. 

We bought a family pass for this park, as it's only 1 hour away, and I'd really like to spend some time there by myself - watching the teamsters log with both horses and oxen, and learn how the smith shoes the oxen.

JJ Morley's blacksmith shop operated right up until the '80s. There are photographs of Mr. Morley shoeing oxen inside the shop.

A rather small shop anvil, but it does the job.  The shop also contains a "power hammer" which was originally powered by a water wheel in the stream running behind the shop.

Tool bench, post vice, authentic 1880's vice grips and period accurate Pepsi.

Farm stud, Maverick. He's a Canadian Horse.

Textiles and yarn for sale at the General Store.

Flax and rakes in the wood shop.

Brown bovine butts - everyone happily chewing their cud in the barn.

Ox in stall one was terribly curious and watched everyone who walked in.

Hand made snowshoes to lend for walks through the woods. It was only -1 today, but it's supposed to be +8 tomorrow! Not sure too many people will need them!

Snowshoes being made in the wood shop.

Ginger, Canadian Horse mare, peeking out from her paddock.

Roo, Clucky and Penny ogled me curiously as I knelt down to snap their photo.

"What. are. you doing?!" I can hear her admonishing me in a Mr. Burns-type voice.

I thought they were happily face-first into a manger of hay, but all of the sudden everyone looked up at me.  And then went back to eating... except that last one. She was like the sheep-police - didn't take her eye off me until I was a fair distance down the lane!

The sheep had a soft and most amazing fleece - it hung off in little ringlets.  I neglected to ask, but I believe these are Cotswald sheep.

This photo is from the farm website and describes the Cotswald as being a long-wooled sheep which is  "almost as tame as a dog".