Saturday, November 29, 2008

Homestead Fair

We spent yesterday and last night visiting the Homestead Craft and Children's Fair. This was a really really neat festival that was right up our alley. It's put on by a little community near Waco. The group started out as a church that eventually decided it was more in line with their doctrinal beliefs to live in such a way where they are more or less dependent on their community, rather than the world. That means they complete quite a few tasks themselves. Not that everything is always done in this manner, but for example...they have the ability to grow a field of cotton, build a spindle, spin the fiber into thread, build a loom, weave the thread into fabric, and sew clothes from it. Coincidentally, we have been taking baby steps toward the goal of being as self-sufficient as possible. These people have a LOT of skills that we're interested in learning, so we had a fun time. Demonstrations ranged from quilting, weaving, broom making, pottery and leather works to metal casting, cheese making, bee keeping, baking, canning and horse farming....and lots more. It was free to attend the fair, $5 to park, and an additional $2 if you wanted to pitch a tent and stay the night. Lots of good food was available at a reasonable cost and there were also lots of children's activities available pretty cheap (bigger projects with more materials cost more). I got a few pictures before the camera batteries died:

Sierra making a candle


Learning some water-color technique:


At home with most of her goodies. She did a water color (that's supposed to be a butterfly ;-), made a candle, made a felted soap bar, and also worked a printing press to print her name on a book mark


Fun times...I'm thinking we should go back next year.

Other pictures...

Sedona with her friend, Max:


And new strawberry plants (we ended up with over 100 of them) in the ground

3 comments:

Rachel said...

I'm so glad you guys went! We were there Friday from 10-1ish. There were a lot of people there, so I'm not surprised we didn't see you. Josiah's watercolor looks very similar to Sierra's. I'm glad you had fun.

Dr. White said...

The fair looks really cool! Speaking of Christmas gifts...I'm felting some soap for Christmas this year! It is so fun to do and you can get very creative with the designs if you have several different colors of roving. Sierra looks so proud of all her projects!

Over Thanksgiving Holiday we stopped at a field of cotton and explained how the cotton is grown and processed to make our clothing. Isabella picked a few pieces of cotton and found the seeds. She went to my parents' ranch and told my mom she has to grow a field of cotton so mommy can spin the fiber to make us some new clothes! I was so proud of her! I think she's getting the idea!!

Traca said...

Our family tries to go every year, but the kids and I didn't make it this time. My parents, my nephews and SIL were there, though! Glad you guys had a fun time. We will have to look for you next year!

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