New Five Senses container garden...

--by volunteer and Girl Scout Troop 2701 member Cori Weaver

Stand outside and listen...do you hear the whistling of the grass?  Take a deep breath; is it a sweet smell or a tangy one?  Look around you; do you see vibrant colors or deep hues?  Touch the plants; are they soft or pokey?  Have you ever tasted a mint leaf straight from the plant?  Stimulating all five senses can be very relaxing.  A senses garden can do just that.  A senses garden incorporates plants that exercise all of the senses.

On February 26, 2012, three girls of Girl Scout Troop 2701 aided in the planting of a senses garden at Log Cabin Village (with guidance from Village interpreter/Troop Leader Teresa Weaver and direction from Village interpreter Pat Kriener).  Taking old containers, the girls planted five different things, each representing a different sense.  Working hard, they filled the containers first with dead leaves to become compost.  Then they added organic fertilizer.  Next they planted the sound and sight.  For the other three senses, the girls dug up a portion of the plants from an already existing herb garden.  With all the plants planted, their senses garden was complete.  There was:  grass for sound, oregano for smell, marigold and pansies for sight, lamb's ear for touch, and lemon balm for taste.

 As the wind blows, the grass dances and makes a rustling sound.  The strong-scented oregano can tickle any nose.  Marigold and pansies have bright colors that catch the eye.  The lambs ear feels like just that--this plant has soft leaves that you can't resist petting.  Lemon balm, when added to tea, can be very relaxing without causing drowsiness.

Note from Rena (Village Educator and Collections Manager):  We hope y'all will come out and see Cori and Troop 2701's hard work!  Many other exciting updates are planned for the herb garden, so come check those out as well!

We get by with a little help from our friends...

Do you ever have something really cool going on? Something you keep meaning to tell people about, but then the phone rings, or an e-mail comes in, or you have to take a cat to the vet (not kidding)? Well...I'm finally sitting down to tell you about that cool something we have going on!

Andre applies Renaissance Wax to a pump organ top

Y'all may remember that last spring we started a service-learning partnership with Tarrant County College--Trinity River Campus. We have been fortunate to continue the partnership this semester, and we're enjoying volunteer service from some truly incredible students!

Miles assembles our spinning wheel

Thus far we've had TCCers raking leaves and removing debris from around cabins, greeting visitors at Harvest Homecoming, inventorying and cleaning artifacts, "waxing" one of our new acquisitions (more on that in the future), census research, and even assembling our new traveling spinning wheel (also more on that in the future)! What's even more fun is that we've got a couple students who are considering museum careers. We LOVE spreading the museum geekdom!

We also will be hosting a TCC blog post series. Students are researching various topics and writing blog entries that will be featured here later. Stay tuned!

Cleaning up our act...

What happens when you mix storm debris, random rock and log piles, litterbugs, and twenty-some hard-working volunteers?

This.

And this.

And even this!

Yesterday Log Cabin Village was very fortunate to have forty extra hands to help make our site even more beautiful than it already is.


Volunteers from Chesapeake Energy Corporation worked tirelessly despite 100-degree heat, dragging and stacking downed limbs and logs





gathering trash from the lane, and moving piles of old cemented rocks to a place more accessible for pickup by our intrepid parks crews.

And they actually smiled while doing it.

Please join us in giving our volunteers a big, huge, ginormous, Village "THANK YOU" for helping make this an even better place to escape the present and experience the past!

Keeping the past alive...

Log Cabin Village has dedicated itself to educating its visitors about the past. As time marches on and entire ways of life disappear in developed nations, our role in preserving historic crafts becomes even more critical. Increasingly more and more of our visitors are unable to say, "I remember when Grandma did that." The past as it relates to the frontier is becoming farther and farther removed.

While we all are certainly anxious to leave some of the hardships of the past behind (cholera, anyone?), we feel it is important to retain knowledge of frontier skills. It keeps our collective memories alive, it weaves us into the multicolored fabric our ancestors started, and it helps ground us in a realization that each of us represents one spot on an infinite timeline.

As our programming continues, our visitors increase, and our interpreters teach, we will be mindful of connecting our patrons to their history. We are continuing to seek local artisans who are interested in volunteering their time at our events to help keep the past alive. From knitting and sewing to carving and weaving, we invite everyone to escape the present...experience the past.

If you have a special skill that you'd like to share at Log Cabin Village, please e-mail me for more information about volunteering. We'd love to learn from you!