New FCM Family Members

From Julie H., historical interpreter:

Hi all! It's been a little quiet here on the blog lately. Our staff has been busy during our winter hours with many projects, like sausage making, fence building, and mass amounts of sewing of new garments for the upcoming costumed season. We're excited for the upcoming year, and there'll be a lot of posts in the near future on more farm & daily life activities. I'll have a few winter-themed posts up shortly, now that the bulk of the sewing is finished, but before we get into that, there are some exciting announcements!

Our dear Hallie, an English Red Devon, gave birth today!!! We haven't named the little heifer (female) yet, but we'll think of some good 1630s-appropriate names soon. We were expecting Hallie to have her little one next month, so we were quite pleased to see the wee thing this morning. Come by and meet her, she's so adorable!

Hallie's half-sister, Lottie, will be giving birth in about a month or two, so stay tuned for another birth announcement!


Also, for those of you who made it out to our Christmas Lantern Tours programs, you met some beautiful horses who pulled the wagons to the New World. We are so fortunate to welcome two Percherons more permanently to the museum, and their owner, one of our new staffers, will be working them regularly. I'll have more about Chip and Mike here in a few days, but here's a teaser photo of these handsome fellows:

Also, coming up, after the horses, we'll post photos from a beautiful snow fall from the other week, finish Part II of English Christmas Baking, and maybe even learn all about the recent thatching job on our Irish blacksmith shop. Check back soon, we'll be updating frequently again!

Cows!

From Julie H., historical interpreter:

This weekend, we are the venue for the very exciting Augusta County Chamber of Commerce festival! In addition to our regular museum farm chores, there are crafstpeople, local ethnic and American food vendors, beer, vineyards, local musicians, and all sorts of neat things set up about the site. We had well over a thousand visitors come out yesterday, and are expecting about as many today.

If you haven't come yet, let me give you another reason to stop by today:

 NEWBORN COWS!

There are two of them, down in our 1850s barn. These little guys are a whopping six days old. One is a full blooded Jersey cow, the other is mostly Jersey. They will eventually be moved across the street to our 1820s farm. So come see the little wobbly fellows, because they don't come much cuter.

Hi!

 In all my years of old timey adventures, I've never had a calf try to nurse off my apron. The other butted in shortly after this photo was taken, also ate my apron, and then tried to lick my camera a couple times too.

Come and see us soon!! They grow up so fast!