Shelling Corn the Old Fashioned Way.

Today I'll show you where we "found" the cornmeal and wheat flour for yesterday's yummy Honey Cranberry Cornbread!

A couple weeks ago Yip and Yap's kindergarten class took a walking field trip a couple blocks from school to Raymond's house. Raymond is a retiree who had a backyard full of antique farm tools for the kids to try out. Raymond also goes to our church and the boys have been begging to go back to his house again. So Raymond graciously let us come over and play and learn!

The boys started off shelling corn. The cob of field corn would go in the top and a the large wheel on the side would be turned. The corn kernels come out the bottom and the cob gets pitched out the side.

Yay for John Deere!

Then the corn kernels would get poured into the corn grinder.

Each with full cups of corn...now...CRANK!!

These boys make this look easy don't they! It was harder than it looks.

After all the cranking, the ground cornmeal fell out the bottom into a little basket Raymond had rigged up. Yep, that's where we got our cornmeal for cornbread! (I did grind it up a little more in a coffee grinder at home.)

Then they tried it with wheat. It didn't work quite as well but we still brought it home and made it work.

Yahoo tried to help too; she kept trying to put the cornmeal back in the top....when she wasn't eating it that is!

Raymond has all kinds of antique goodies hidden away!

A couple more corn shellers.

Antique strands of barbed wire too.

I've only seen a collection like this in the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. Raymond said most of it he found here in the local area too.

A hand drill...thank goodness for electric cordless drills. This took a lot of work!

Raymond also had a scale. I'd never seen anything like this before. Sorry, I really should have tried to get a better pic of this. Basically it's a J shaped piece of metal that is hanging from the post. Metal weights are hung on one end on numbers while the thing being weighed (my boy) sits in a swing underneath with his legs off the ground. Which ever number the weight hangs balanced on tells the weight of Yip. 56 lbs.

Thanks Raymond! We had a great time. Don't worry, I have a loaf of cornbread with your name on it!

Is this ART??

The other day I was kidless for a couple hours. I KNOW!!! Can you believe it?? Being kidless never happens. Anyway, I decided to do something I would NEVER do with my kids. Go to an antique store.

I love antique stores! I love how crowded things are. I love the dusty smell. I love the piles that you have to search through.  I love how paintings are leaned against the wall four or five deep. Going 'antiquing' is like a pirate's treasure hunt...you may never know what you may find.

As I was flipping through some paintings, this one caught my eye.

An old west sheriff complete with his badge and gun. Neat! But...wait...

Something's not quite right....can you see it??

His mustache was fake hair glued onto the painting! Really?? Who thought that was a good idea?? Overall, it wasn't a bad painting but that mustache...ugh....it ruined it for me!

So what do YOU think? Is it art? Or am I just an art snob?