Hubbell Farm: Around the Fields

There's not much I can add to the existing beauty of the stuff you alive on the farm, except clickity, clickity, click, now. Can't wait to see it in the Spring in full blossom.

Hubbell Farm: Ray & Linda's "Toys"

As mentioned in a previous post, the Hubbell Farm (c. early 1800's) remains a working farm here in Shelton, CT. Ray has a few toys (tractors), about a dozen in all, including a 1940's vintage 26 hp "work horse" and an old "Walton's Mountain" truck he is restoring, and all but one of his toys, start up easily (truck included), purr like kitty cats, and are used for various chores around the farm. Occasionally Ray can be scene in the Memorial Day parade. Linda's "toys" have more personality, eat hay and produce fine yarns, which she sells in her shop. What a great education for the kids!

Hubbell Farm (c. early 1800)

The Hubbell Family was a big part of the history in Shelton, CT where I live. In more recent generations, the Hubbell's got involved in making telescopes for space. Today friends Ray & Linda now own and run the farm, raising sheep, Llama, Alpaca and other assorted critters, and haying the fields to feed them, and growing organic herbs, greens, flowers and more. The farm features all of the original buildings and barns, although some were built more recently than the early 1800's when the oldest structures were built. The newest barn was built after 2000 to house the Alpaca's, Llama and sheep, and Linda's yarn making operations. She runs a gift shop in one of the barns and sells wool that is ready for spinning yourself or knitting. I've been lucky to spend some time there this Fall checking out all the old barns. Here's the scene. More shots to follow in another post.

Old Fort "Re-enactors"

Oh, to be an actor. Or re-enactor in this case. You learn a lot from re-enactors as they flaunt their period dress, behave as history interprets one behaved back in 1812, without all the conveniences of modern life. I admire their courage for attempting to be as it was, for an entire holiday weekend. Among the re-enactors we saw:

1. A muscian playing his period-appropriate Fender acoustic guitar.
2. A British gunner explaining how to re-charge the gunpowder. By the way, my daughter Caitlyn was smitten with this young lad, yet too embarassed to be scene by the lens with with him.
3. A woodworker manually shaving down the seat of a new chair.
4. A woman, whose husband is too cheap to build her a house with a kitchen in which to cook his venison vittles.
5. My hometown buddy, Mark Newman (Schnoo), in green shirt re-enacting how to get his baby the hell out of the way as some 1812 homies stroll down the street flashing their pieces.
6. Schnoo, son Zack and the baby re-enacting how tourists have caught some shade at Old Fort Niagara since 1900.
7. My son Matt re-enacting how to fit in with the crowd of 1812 in sunglasses after riding his flux capacitor Back from the Future.
8. Our crew re-enacting how in 1812 they must have eaten hot dogs and "British fries" (French fries were invented after the French kicked the British out of Fort Niagara).
9. Matt re-enacting how to barter smelly animal pelts for making Christmas presents for the women folk.
10. Schnoo's baby daughter re-enacting how babies of 1812 ate pulverized green beans from a plastic rip-top container.

Fort Niagara Re-enactment Scene

The Summer of 2008. The sun blazing. Clear blue skys. Niagara's typical 75-80 degree Summer day. July 4. History buffs. Story tellers. Critters. Tourists. The curious. War of 1812 is the scene. Weekend warriors of all types, ages and sizes. Marching around in sweaty woolen English uniforms. Sleeping in tents at night. Cooking over wood fires. Enjoying the breezes of Lake Ontario. Gun powder packed rifles cracking. Cannons blasting. History re-enactment at its best!

I'd say the Indian re-enactors had the best of it without all the wool; bare skin exposed; small pelts covering their privates (as Matthew pointed out); despite a bit of body paint. This beats the heck out of the unruly slapdash gypsies at a renaisance festival!

Old Fort Niagara

I've been doing a lot of things lately that I haven't done in 20 years. Seeing this place is an example with a visit in 2006, and again in 2008.

Fort Niagara. Guardian of the Niagara on Lake Ontario. Protector of all critters living upstream in other not-so-Great Lakes. Perhaps I ought to leave the describing to them. From https://oldfortniagara.org/:

"Standing on a bluff above Lake Ontario not far from Niagara Falls, Old Fort Niagara has dominated the entrance to the Niagara River since 1726. The colorful history of the site began even earlier, and continues to the present day. The fort played an important role in the struggles of France, Great Britain, and the United States to control the Great Lakes region of North America, and also helped shape the destinies of the Iroquois (Six Nations) peoples and the nation of Canada".

It all boils down to stuff "older than dirt". History at its best. Remarkable views of Lake Ontario. A place where historic story-telling is as anticipated as paying to get in. Its worth every penny. The Rice's saw it in 2006. Matt & Jacob were mesmerized by views of the Lake and the boats navigating it in 2008. Click-click-clickity-click, said the lens.