Scandinavian Homesteads

The Scandinavian Homesteads section of Old World Wisconsin consists mostly of Finnish, Danish and Norwegian farms. First we’ll visit the Finnish farmstead of Heikki and Maria Ketola. The house and barn were originally located in Oulu, Bayfield County. The cattle weren’t interested in having their picture taken but the chickens came running, which is when I headed swiftly over to the house. The Ketola family were evidently quite well-to-do judging by the fancy stove in the kitchen that even boasted a built-in thermostat, and the telephone nearby. They even had a sauna in the back yard.

The next place we come to is the Danish Pedersen Farm. This particular area of Old World Wisconsin got off to a royal start when Queen Margrethe II of Denmark dedicated the exhibit on May 14, 1976. Both the house and barn were originally located in Polk County. The garden at the Pedersen Farm is used mostly for growing herbs and other natural medicinal remedies and there was a master gardener on hand to tell us all about it.

Our last stop in the Scandinavian Homesteads area is the Norwegian Raspberry Schoolhouse. This one-room schoolhouse was built by three Scandinavian families in 1896 and was named for Raspberry Bay in Bayfield County where it was originally located.

I hope you will join me next time for a look at Life On The Farms at Old World Wisconsin.

Shoe Shop And The Four Mile House

Rounding off the Crossroads Village part of our visit to Old World Wisconsin, we’ll first take a look inside the Shoe Shop. Anton Sisel’s shoemaking shop was moved from Slovan, an unincorporated community in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin to Old World Wisconsin in 1983. Sisel emigrated with his parents to the USA from the Czech Republic in 1857. Following his apprenticeship in Kewaunee, he returned to Slovan to open his own business but when the demand for custom-made shoes dwindled, he turned to harness work, selling ready-made shoes and repairing shoes. He retired in 1938.

Our final stop in Crossroads Village is at The Four Mile House. This stage coach tavern was built in1853 in Rolling Prairie, Wisconsin and was acquired by Old World Wisconsin in the early 1980’s. The lady in the kitchen was cooking potato pancakes and they smelled and looked delicious.

Join me here for the next post, when we head out to the Scandinavian Homesteads in Old World Wisconsin.

Crossroads Village

A tour of Old World Wisconsin usually begins with the area known as Crossroads Village. The Village includes businesses and houses that you might see in a typical 1880’s village in Wisconsin complete with costumed docents who demonstrate various tasks about the home and work. These friendly and knowledgeable people make the learning experience most enjoyable.

The General Store is filled with all kinds of interesting artifacts and a shop assistant invited a little girl to pick out a fabric that she might choose for a dress and which buttons would work well with it.

Opened in 1976, Old World Wisconsin is owned and operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society and is the largest outdoor museum of rural life in the United States. Inside an 1870’s Yankee home, you get a feel for what life was like back then.

The Town Hall turned out to be rather a small room with quite a lot of people inside so I opted for an outdoor shot. Across the street, an 1880’s Yankee farm was the largest house in Crossroads Village. There are more than 60 historic structures on the grounds of Old World Wisconsin.

There is more to come, on Old World Wisconsin. I hope you’ll join me next time when we’ll visit The Shoe Shop and Four Mile House after which, we’ll be heading over to the Scandinavian Homesteads.

Old World Wisconsin

It’s been a few years since we visited Old World Wisconsin so, a couple of weeks ago, we decided to take another look at this remarkable outdoor museum. Set on approximately 480 acres in Eagle, Wisconsin, this faithfully recreated village and farmland, situated adjacent to Kettle Moraine State Forest, gives visitors an idea of what life was like back in the 1880’s.

It’s fair to say that there’s quite a bit of walking involved in visiting OWW but thankfully they have added a tram with lots of stops along the way, in case you run out of steam. We opted to walk for most of the time, but took the tram to get from one area to another. The museum consists of three main areas, Crossroads Village, Scandinavian Homesteads and Life On The Farms. Of course, there were plenty of photo opportunities but rather than bombarding you with dozens of pictures in one post, I’ll only cover a small portion of the trip at one time. So, off we go!

The first building on our tour of Crossroads Village is St. Peter’s Catholic Church. St Peter’s was the first Catholic church in Milwaukee. It was later moved to the grounds of St. Francis Seminary in St. Francis and then relocated in Old World Wisconsin. The original foundation stone (lower left) shows the date 1839.

Next up, the Irish Home where it appears to be wash day. The one tricky thing about taking pictures at places like Old World Wisconsin is trying not to get other people’s kids in the shot. During the busy season, OWW is full of children enjoying the various demonstrations, but I am very well-aware that parents don’t necessarily want pictures of their kids put on public display. In order not to do that I sometimes have to angle the shot in such a way that it doesn’t always show the subject to its best advantage, especially if I don’t want to wait around for everyone to clear out.

One slight disappontment on the day was the fact that, owing to a snafu on the previous evening, the forge wasn’t operational. I’d been looking forward to getting some shots there, but contented myself with views of the Wagon Shop and the outside of the Blacksmith’s Shop.

I hope you’ll join me here for the next post when I continue our tour of Old World Wisconsin.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Silhouettes

This week, Patti has chosen Silhouettes as the subject for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. I should probably state at the outset that I don’t think I’ve ever taken a picture of something or someone specifically as a silhouette. They’ve just turned out that way, either due to my woeful inability to manually set the camera to cope with the stark contrasts of light and shade or the failure of my camera’s auto mode to do the same. The following ‘silhouettes’ were captured, however inadvertently, at the Chicago Botanic Garden, Volkening Heritage Farm at Spring Valley, Old World Wisconsin and the Stephenson County Historical Museum in Freeport, Illinois.

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Motion

The Weekly Photo Challenge on The Daily Post this week is Motion and for this theme I’ve decided once again to use b/w images in order to put more emphasis on the topic rather than the colors. I’ve also tried to show just enough blur in the pictures to demonstrate motion without having the subject totally unrecognizable.

How I miss competing in this sport but advancing years, the loss of most of my fencing equipment in a flood and various medical issues have me thinking that this kind of motion is no longer in my picture. Now I can only stand on the sidelines at capture the moment on camera.

A little bit of fan-twirling going on here as one of the performers at the Japan Festival in Arlington Heights goes through the motions of a very graceful dance.

Continuing with the twirling theme, dancers with Ballet Folklorico throw all their energies into the performance; definitely motion with emotion.

Horses in full motion, racing for the finish line at Arlington Park.

A blacksmith working at his anvil in Old World Wisconsin.

For more on the Weekly Photo Challenge go to https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/motion/

Travel Theme: Wood

Ailsa’s Travel Theme challenge this week on Where’s My Backpack? at http://wheresmybackpack.com/2014/01/24/travel-theme-wood/ is Wood.

Once again I go back to the wonderfully intricate architecture of the Hindu temple in Bartlett. The wood carving on this entryway is stunning.

In contrast, this simple wood fence at the Volkening Heritage Farm in Schaumburg seems to blend nicely with the flowers in the background.

A large wooden barn at Old World Wisconsin.

Also at Old World Wisconsin, this white, wooden church stands out against a blue sky on a summer’s day.

A beautifully polished wooden locker and bench on board the Sorlandet at the Tall Ships Festival in Chicago.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Wheels

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge on Cee’s Photography at http://ceenphotography.com/2013/10/22/cees-fun-foto-challenge-wheels/ is Wheels.

Wow! Once I got started on this one I couldn’t stop. I didn’t realize that I’d taken so many pictures of wheels! The first shot was taken at a farm in Old World Wisconsin.

Some fancy wheels on a car at the Volo Auto Museum.

White wheels on a carriage waiting to be hired in downtown Indianapolis.

Just across the road from the horse and carriage at Monument Circle in the center of Indianapolis were some more modern wheels parked outside a café.

An old, wooden wheel at Spring Valley Nature Center in Schaumburg.

Also at Spring Valley, a wagon with bright, red wheels in a barn at the Volkening Heritage Farm.

Beside the Barn