This morning we went to see the house where Melissa's Mom grew up. It was a challenge finding it because the car's GPS didn't realize a major freeway has been run directly in front of the house. But we did find it and snap some pictures. It was sort of sad that the yard didn't look more cared for in a neighborhood where most of the houses showed more care.
On the way to Kearney NE we stopped in York NE to see the Wessel Living History Farm. Mr. Wessel donated a portion of his estate to preserve the history of farming. The foundation eventually purchased this house and had it moved to the land that was donated along with a number of barns and other buildings that house the collection of tractors, plows, and other farming tools of old.
Inside the farm house they have a ton of antiques.
We got a tour and learned a number of interesting tidbits. These are butter stamps. The farmers wife would churn the cream to butter and then press the butter in these molds. Each farm had a different stamp and the grocer knew each one, so when he sold one he knew who to credit the sale to.
The grocer paid more for eggs that had been graded. So the farmer's wife would grade them using this scale before taking them to the market.
The flour was kept in the Hoosier. On one side was the flour sifter. Besides sifting for accurate measurement into recipes, the sifter also ground up all the bugs and weevils that were living in the flour as they had no way to prevent these bugs from living in the flour.
They kept a bucket of rice or oats that were used to fill wet boots. The next day the boots would be dry without the shrinkage that would come from setting them near the heat of the fire.
Outside there was a tool shed filled with hand tools. But the jigsaw was really cool. You sat on it and pedaled to make the blade move up and down.
This old tractor is the same manufacturer and roughly the same year (though a bit larger) than the tractor Melissa's family had on their farm when she was a kid. All the kids learned to drive it.
As we were getting ready to leave, one of the farm volunteers came to feed the sheep and goats that Marla was busy petting. He said (imagine this with a strong Midwest drawl) that it was "a real problem with winter coming what with them kids having named the animals and all because he didn't know how with the winter he thinks is coming anyone will be able to come feed them come the freeze".
For dinner we went to a Thai restaurant in Kearney. Imagine our surprise when it turned out to be as good as any Thai restaurant in Seattle!