Scottish Festival

In a little town, very near to us, there is a Scottish Covenanter's church.  It's the oldest one in North America.  This church is big part of history and while not used for regular services anymore, it is being preserved.

In order to help with this preservation, they have been holding a festival the past three years.  It's gotten bigger every year, and we attended it on Saturday.

My dad has had a longtime goal of getting a kilt in the clan tartan and this year for his birthday our kids and Tim and I went in together and got him a gift certificate for a local Celtic store.  He was able to order his kilt through them and the flashes.  He ordered his hose (stockings) and sporran online.  He also bought a Sgian Dubh (pronounced skeen doo) to be worn in the stockings traditionally.

Oh, and I got him his kilt pin for Father's Day.

My dad and I, Lindsay, Sarah and Kyle went to the festival and we had a wonderful time.

Sarah and dad walked behind the clan flags during the opening procession to lay a wreath at a WWI veterans grave, and then later in the opening ceremonies for the Highland Games they carried the McDonald clan banner!

We spoke with new friends at the clan tent and listened to excellent singers and performers, we watched a 'flaming caber' toss, watched an excellent exhibition of Scottish Country Dancing.

Sarah and I spoke with the lovely folks at the Red Rose Scottish Country Dancing tent and they encouraged us to come out to dance with them.  When we watched them one of the ladies invited Sarah to dance when they were teaching audience members to dance.

I can't get the video to load from Vimeo.  I'll keep trying.  All of Sarah's English Country Dancing experience really helped her catch on quickly!


These two had a fine time, in spite of the heat!

While Sarah and I were watching the dancing, inside in A/C (did I mention it was very hot?), Kyle and my dad enjoyed a demonstration of weapons and old fighting techniques.  

I wore my tartan, too!

Today - Update

We had a lovely time at the Civil War Ball. The caller was very good teaching everyone the dances. The girls danced a few times, but really were interested in watching. We found that many of the dance steps are familiar since we do some English Country Dancing. We also were happy to see such good interaction between everyone who was there. So now maybe we will have to make a few dresses?

www.allposters.com

Today I will be puttering around my house, working on some treats for tomorrow, and guiding my family. My husband and I are taking Lindsay and Emily to a Civil War Ball this evening. They don't have gowns from that era, but not everyone dresses formally. They were going to perhaps wear their Regency dresses but may just wear regular dresses. They know dances that are similar to those from the Civil War era, so they should have fun.

Tim is working on clearing the driveway - he is using my Dad's snowblower. The snow is so piled up everywhere. Some roads that drift badly are single lane, you must use caution when driving! The majority of roads are perfectly clear and dry. I truly hope that we don't have a quick warm up which would melt the snow quickly! Our property can get pretty muddy in certain areas and that would make a huge mess, especially down where we want to put our raised beds.

Lindsay and I have been compiling a list of seeds to purchase for our garden. We are planning to get seeds from Heirloom Seeds. It is important to us to purchase non hybrid or genetically modified seeds, so that we can save seeds from year to year. Typically the seed packets you buy at stores like Target are hybrids or genetically modified and cannot reproduce themselves from their seeds, they are sterile.

I have been watching a movie on Netflix called "Food, Inc." It is scary and eye opening. I hope to finish it today hopefully!

Did I mention we are considering getting some chickens? Our friends at Laurel Hill Farms, gave us some wonderful eggs from their Rhode Island Reds. They were great. Also Rhode Island Reds are a dual purpose chicken, meaning you can not only eat the eggs, but they are good meat chickens.

Who knew a girl from Southern California would end up being a homesteading type! It just proves to me that God has a sense of humor!

It's Snowing, Icing, Raining - Yikes!

Well yesterday we had snow to ice, and didn't get to go bowling. Overnight it turned to rain.

As the girls and I were going to bed last night, we noticed that a car could not get up our hill. Several of the neighborhood men helped them out. I do not know how the road on the bigger highway was, but hopefully it was salted and clear as there are a huge hill and a hollow, depending on which direction they were headed. (Tim by the way didn't help the poor stranded people in the car. He has been going into work early and was already in bed.)

This morning, he was headed off early again. About 30 minutes after he left, he called to say that he had slipped the fan belt on his van and that he was attempting to get to work, but to start my van as I may need to head out to pick him up and get him to work. 15 minutes later he called to say that he made it to work and he was praying that the fan belt hadn't been lost. I was so glad not to have to head out in the dark on the icy, slushy roads!

Today, Becky from Hospitality Lane is to come over with her children. Her children and my two older girls are in my class at co-op and we are going to be learning 2 new dances this semester. I am wanting them to learn at least one new one today, so that when we work on it in class tomorrow, they can show in person how to do it! This of course depends on the weather!

It is dark outside still, so I will try to get some photos later.