The third week of July is summer camp week at the museum where I volunteer, usually as the spinner. It is a Revolutionary War era museum in the first fully planned community in what is now Southwest Virginia. The village was 25 lots laid out on the Wilderness Road with each home required to be an 18 by 14 foot log structure. It could have a second floor and a root cellar if desired. It was built on the plantation of Adam Hance. The museum contains 8 original structures plus one reconstructed building on the site of an original building. One of the buildings is a German barn and one a 10 x 10 foot log building that was the original home of Adam Hance built several miles from what became his plantation and later the village of Newbern. About 40-45 years after the original home was built and had been sold, it was deconstructed and moved to the new community to be a slave cabin. Another 10-15 years passed and it was given a second floor and a root cellar and occupied by the enslaved woman named Mary Draper who was an excellent weaver. She lived there with her son. Upon emancipation, her skills were so valued that she continued to live in that home and was then paid for her labor.
Each summer, the camp covers a different theme. One year it was Revolutionary War, the next was Civil War with a field trip to Cloyd’s Mountain and Ingall’s Ferry site. They have done other wars, one year was about the various settlers that came from Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, and others. This year’s theme is “Beyond the Battlefields” and focusing on other aspects during the Revolutionary war. Day one, I was the lead instructor and we did a session of Herbal Medicine and they learned to make healing salves. This day included some foraging, lessons on being sure of what they were picking and why that was important, why herbal medicine was so important on the frontier, what some wild foods were and again, how to tell them from imposters and why, and culminated in the salve making and they each got to take home tins of two different salves.
Day 2 , I was back with fiber on the frontier with growing, harvesting, processing, spinning, weaving, and making clothes and other needs for the family, village, and enslaved workers. This culminated in a spinning lesson with each camper being given instruction, a spindle, wool, and cheat sheet to take home at the end of the day.
Wilderness Road Regional Museum can be found on the web and Facebook and pictures of the museum and activities can be seen there. As a retired educator, this is my dream volunteer work. I love working with the children.
We continue in a pattern of scorching hot weather with horrendous thunderstorms every few days. Yesterday, it rained hard while we were in the barn with the spinning lessons, and then it cleared, but by the time I was driving home, there were times when it was difficult to see the cars in front of you on the road and our driveway is again full of gullies from the run off. When I got to the top of the driveway, I could see the ditch uphill from our culvert was full to the road level. This suggests the culvert tube is clogged and not allowing water to flow through. It is 20+ years old and not positioned quite right to the edge of the road, so perhaps it needs to be dug out and replaced. There is a limit to my ability to continue to regrade the driveway to make it passable.
Between rain storms, with dinner prep ongoing and needing a tomato and jalapeno to make pico de gallo, I did a quick harvest. The 9 hens each provided a fresh egg yesterday and the garden the required tomato, pepper, and a basket full of green beans. Some will go to my daughter’s house, some to our son, as I am off tomorrow to a girl’s weekend near him. Some need to be processed for our freezer for winter use. There are more out there needing harvest, but it will have to wait a few more days.
The pumpkins and gourds are vining out nicely, but the weeds are winning. Maybe next week will be spent in the garden trying to find the vegetables and paths.
Cabin Crafted 