Prairie Camp in the Front Yard......

Two days, 11 girls, and lot's of FUN!!
They all had a turn at scrubbing the clothes in a washtub with a

washboard and some homemade soap, they loved it!!

All proper prairie girls did a "sampler"! These will go on their aprons for a pocket. They are embroidering the
first letter of their name.



View from our "Dining" area into our "kitchen".......

we set up three fly's for shade and protection from rain, etc......one for the kitchen, one the dining room and one for the parlor.

The kitchen, where we prepared lunch
and made the butter each day.

I do not remember inviting him!!!!

Each day we cooked just one thing on the fire. My dear sweet husband dug the hole in the ground and created a firepit for us. The girls were divided in half and took turns doing, the butter, laundry, lunch and dishes. The first day they made biscuits to cook on the fire in the dutch oven, the second day they chopped veggies and we made stew in the dutch oven on the fire. Each day, after lunch, we filled the tea kettle with water so that later on we had

somewhat warm water for tea. :)
Have you ever seen any one so happy
to wash dishes?!?!?!?

Each day we also had some "read aloud" time, sometimes just to fill gaps while waiting for others to finish a task..........they are reading

"Kirsten, an American Girl".

They also learned the quilting technique for "Grandmother's Flower Garden", we made cornhusk dolls, my husband made each girl a flower press and we pressed some flowers, they made a hoop and my husband made sticks for them all and that is a game called "Graces", they all went home with a basket full of

things they had made.....

And of course at the

end of each day...........

Tea Time!!!

Prairie Camp was so much Fun!! The girls all had fun and so did I!! I think we all cannot wait until next year.

Prairie Bonnet, Step by Step.....

The pattern I shared last post has very good instructions and makes it very easy to create this bonnet. First step is to sew bias tape across designated area.

Then you put a very small hem on that bottom ruffle......
Then you sew the two brim pieces together and iron up one edge.....later that will be the part we sew down to the hat by hand.
Turn that right side out and press.......

Then you gather the crown piece to fit the brim and sew it onto the edge that is not ironed...that part left flapping open is the part that the girls stitched down themselves by hand.
We put ribbon through the bias tape, but you can sew a tie
that you thread through there.


And there you have it!!
A Prairie Bonnet!!

Prairie Day Camp.....

Now that canning is done......just in time.....we are having a "Prairie Day Camp" right here in our front yard. We have 11 girls coming between the ages of 5 and 11. It is going to take place for the next two days, so thought I would just do a brief intro and then I may have to

disappear for a couple days....... :)

I am cutting out and "mostly" sewing prairie bonnets for each girl. I leave one hem for them to sew up by hand, so they had a part in making their bonnet.
So, today, 11 bonnets, 11 aprons, setting up our canvas fly's to create a "Prairie Home", moving some furniture outside and trying to be organized :) for when they arrive at 9:30a.m. All the heavy lifting and setup thanks to my dear sweet husband!!

Schedule of Events:

Day 1

Make bonnet

Make butter/do laundry in washtub

Embroider initial on square of muslin

(that night, this will get sewn onto their apron for a pocket)

Lunch: Stew (cooking in the dutch oven), Bread,

Applesauce, Peach Pie, Dried Apples

Make a Game from a hoop

Quilting - Grandmother's Flower Garden

Teatime - Scones, Fruit and Strawberry Trifle

Day 2

Butter/Laundry

Candles

Pressed Flowers

(my dear sweet husband is making them all a flower press of their own)

Lunch: Cold Fried Chicken, Biscuits (on fire in dutch oven),

Canned Peaches, Pear Cobbler, Dried Apples

Cornhusk Doll

Work on Quilt

Tea - Scones, Fruit and Lemon Cake

And there it will end.....

You all have fun for the next couple of days, I know I will!!!

Can't wait to share the pictures of these little girls having fun!!

Day 4

PHEW!!!! Are we done yet?? The next day I did my beans. I only did two loads in the pressure cooker.
And.....froze the rest!! Have never done this, but we love frozen green beans now that I know how to cook them....and besides, the temperature was hitting the 100's right then!!! So, in the freezer they went!!

Cooking frozen green beans: We discovered we love them cooked in a pan with just

olive oil and fresh garlic!! A trick I learned from an Italian friend for cooking most of our veggies.

Day 3

The next day.....the same gals came over and I showed them how you do green beans in the pressure cooker!!
We did just a few jars of dilly beans in the waterbath.....I actually did a load where I had snapped the beans (as that is so much faster...it takes awhile to get those beans in there like this)....but we were thinking cut dilly beans would be good and ready to go for salads! :)

Day 2

The next day, at home, I did my tomatoes and pickles. A friend and I had gone to another ladies house and picked rhubarb....so that is a bit of Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam!!