Back to George Ranch

 A few weeks ago, the girls and I took Grandma and Paka to visit George Ranch, a kind of historical park situated on a large piece of land in Richmond, TX.  Unlike our first time there a year ago, it was very cold and we were nearly the only visitors which meant private tours of each of the four family homes.  In the picture, Paka, Sophie and Ella are walking up to the 1830's home, the first stop on our tour.

 Watching a demonstration of how to make fire using flint

 Three stoves
To give a sense of how things changed from one house to the next, I arranged the photos of the stoves and tables from the first three houses sequentially.

This one is the "stove" (aka fire pit) in the 1830s home.

Stove in the 1860's home.

(This house was not the actual family home but was brought to the ranch as a model of what it was like.)

Stove in the 1890s victorian mansion

Table and food in the 1830's frontier home

 Table and place setting in the 1860's home

 Table and place setting in the 1890s victorian mansion
The moon-shaped dish in front of the plates was for bones.

 With the all the work there was to do, there wasn't much time to play but here the girls are checking out a few of the toys children might have played with in the frontier home.

 We saw a weaving and spinning demonstration.

 Spinning wheel

 Friend or food?

A natural cowgirl.  "Look--no hands!"

Coming up:  More at George Ranch