Helping with the eggs
Kids collected fresh chicken eggs from the chicken house and brought them in and cleaned them. Jonita Sommers explains about eggs and the kitchen in the homestead.
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Churning butter
Jamie Brewer gives each of the kids a chance to help turn the butter churn. Later they would get to eat home-made bread with the butter they helped make.
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Homestead Playground
The homestead playground includes the rebuilt old teeter-totter that uses the original tractor seats to sit on, and has broom handles to hold on with.
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LaBarge Elementary School students learn about homesteading history
by Pinedale Online!
September 19, 2012
Sixty-three students, all of LaBarge Elementary School 1st through 5th graders, visited the Sommers Ranch Homestead on Wednesday, September 12th. The students got to help churn butter, ate home-made bread with homemade jam, collected and cleaned chicken eggs, helped spin on a spinning wheel, helped do hand laundry, pumped water from a water well, learned how to throw a cowboy rope, visited a nearby Native American archaeological site, and played on the homestead playground.
Volunteers helping out with living history demonstration stations were Jamie Brewer (home-made bread and churning butter), Jonita Sommers (explaining eggs and the kitchen and made gooseberry jelly), Caroline Brazzell (spinning), Dave Vlcek and Sam Drucker (archaeology), Clint Gilchrist (homestead history), Ty Hunt (roping), and Dawn Ballou (laundry).
The Sommers Ranch Homestead is a living history project being done jointly by the Sublette County Historical Society, the Green River Valley Museum, and siblings Jonita and Albert Sommers. It opened to the public in the summer of 2012 and had its Grand Opening on September 1st 2012. Buildings on the 1.5 acre site are still in the process of being restored and interpreted. The intent is to make it a hands-on learning experience about the early 1900s homestead era in the Upper Green River Valley. Much of the staffing and tour leading is being done by volunteers. Initial funding has been through the generous support of the Sommers family and through donations. The Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office helped fund the restoration of the garage and cellar this past year. Additional buildings still to be restored include the old bunk house, ice house, and a barn soon to be moved onto the property. Future projects include rebuilding the wind mill electricity generator, the water wheel in the ditch, replanting the garden, and making the old telephone system functional again. Interested volunteers always welcome. For more information, contact the Sublette County Historical Society at the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale, 307-367-4101.
Photos by Clint Gilchrist, Pinedale Online!
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