Looking smug!

We gonna pump(kin) you up.

Mail from a mouse.

Hey, what's up, dogs?  Short post today to say thanks to Beanie Mouse, who sent me a packet of handmade cards for participating in the Traveling Sketchbook project!  

Thanks Beanie!  Now I definitely need to catch up on my correspondence....

An apple a day...

Hey, what's (yawn) up, dogs?  Today my human (yawn) woke me up early--way too doggone early--to go on another field trip.  She said the place could get crowded if we didn't go first thing in the morning.  

So, she bundled me into the car and we drove for about half an hour.  

Well, she drove...I napped.  And when I woke up, we were here...

It's an apple orchard!  Are we picking apples today? 

Here comes the wagon...

The staff gave us a crash course on picking apples. 

 "Redder is better!" they said.

 

Hmm.  I guess I'll have to ask my human for help with the "red" part, since dogs don't have the best color vision...

Oh hey, that looks like a really red apple, way up there.  Gonna need a ladder to reach it, though.

Here we go.  My human will hold the ladder steady while I climb up.  Kids, always make sure you have an adult to help you with this!

Oops.  Looks like that's not such a good apple after all.  Yecch!

We'll leave that one alone.  You know what they say..."One bad apple spoils the whole bin."

But that's okay...there are plenty more apples to choose from.  I mean, look at this tree.  It's just LOADED with fruit...

Here's a nice one!

I think we've got a nice little haul here.  An apple a day keeps the Dogtor away, so we should be set for  roughly 2 weeks!

Have you picked your own fruit before?  What kind was it?

 

Mail call.

Hey, what's up, dogs?  Today we got a couple of pieces of mail from our friend Ajdin.  First up, a postcard from his recent road trip to Chincoteague Island, Virginia.  I hear that place is famous for its wild ponies.  Nice!

The second piece of mail is a package that bears a postmark from Singapore.  What??  Singapore?  When did he visit there?...  

Oh, I see now.  He sent us a prize for our Stuffie Olympics bronze medal finish...and it looks like it was mail-ordered from Singapore.  



It's a little notebook that says, "The best therapist has fur and four legs."

I couldn't agree more!  I know a certain furry,  four-legged psychotherapist who could use this book to record his patient notes.... 

Anyway, thanks for the mail, Ajdin!  See you next time, everyone!

Just milling around, part 2

Hey, what's up, dogs?  We're back to our explorations of the historic Red Mill Village.  Last time, we saw the inner workings of the mill itself...this time, we're moving on to some other buildings in the complex.  

Here's an old tenant house that stands on the property.  People who worked in the complex would have lived here.  It's pretty small, but cozy.

No running water in those days, of course.  There's a washstand and basin in the corner behind me.      

There's a storage shed here with some historic modes of transportation:  an old buggy and an old wagon.  No horses nearby though!  

The next building down the road is a one-room schoolhouse...

Wow, they had to pack students of all ages in the same room.  And the desks were all tiny.  Must have been a tight fit.  At least they had a stove in the middle of the room to keep warm in the winter.

Up here is the teacher's desk, with a hand bell, globe of the world, and...uh-oh!  That white cone-shaped hat is the dunce cap.  If you didn't answer the teacher's questions correctly, you had to wear it for a while. 

 And here's a copy of the student rules, as written in 1872:

How do you think these rules compare to school rules now, readers?  Are they more strict or less strict?  And are students better or worse at following rules now than they used to be?  Something to think about.

Well, that's it for this post.  Thanks for following along with me on this outing, and I'll see you next time!  Cheers!