Exploring

Things to be shipped from the depot. Notice the coffin. And the chickens.

The depot was so cool. It was from the early to mid 1900s and the things that look like butterfly nets by the wall are actually devices to deliver messages to someone on a moving train. So cool!

Another view of the depot office. I would love an office like this one.

Picture of a root cellar. That is real food. Potatoes and pears.

This is Ann Arbor, not Sauder Village. This is one of the fairy doors.

Shout out to Angy.

A CPS guy.

On Saturday Jessie came down and we went exploring. I wanted to see some of the sights in the area, and I asked one of the librarians if she had any suggestions, and she mentioned Sauder Village. It is about an hour away in Archbold, OH. It kind of reminds me of Rockome Gardens, but more authentic and a bit less cheesy, though to be fair I have not been to Rockome Gardens since it's had new management. Anyway, we had such a good time! Every building had someone dressed in period garb and they gave a mini tour and explanations about the building. Many buildings were little shops and people were doing authentic crafts. They actually made the wares in the stores like in the weaving shop, basket shop, tin shop, broom shop, glass shop, pottery place, etc. We both bought leaf tea in the herb shop. I had to buy a tea ball too, as I had never bought leaf tea before. Strawberry Tingle Rooibos. It smells good. Jessie bought 100 Monkeys tea. :-) We spent about 4 hours there and it didn't feel like that at all. There were other people there, but it wasn't crowded, and we often were in the buildings alone and were able to get a personal tour and information. We talked about pigs feet with a lady in one of the old houses from the early 1900s, the guy in the woodshop made us wooden hearts from a pedal powered saw, and Jessie tried her hand a basket making. There was also an old printing press that still worked. It was so cool!

Our favorite, though, was definitely the barber shop. An older man was our "tour guide" and he new so many cool things. He showed us the curling irons for the handle bar mustaches, the hand powered clippers, and the personal shaving cups. Also, I now know what the barber pole stands for. In the middle ages, the barber also acted as a surgeon and bloodletter, and the white stood for bandages, the red for blood, and the blue for the veins he would tap into. Rather gruesome. He was so cool, but we didn't get the chance to go back and tell him that he was our favorite. He was replaced by a younger guy in a red barber vest. Sigh. We were disappointed.

The village had some Mennonite roots, so they had a display on the CPS, and I took pics for Angy.

Also, we really enjoyed the depot. It reminded me of playing around after meetings as a child and sneaking into the old depot outside the meeting house. Many of the buildings reminded me of the Rutherford house and its out buildings. They had a doctor's office and jail too. Their's were better kept, though.

I am so glad that we found Sauder Village. It's not that far and it was a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon. Fun activities and good conversation and friendship. I'm glad that I now have some time to explore the area. The main thing is to have people to explore it with.