Plymouth Faith & Freedom Tour Day 1

  As I ponder this Thanksgiving Day on the things in my life that I am grateful for, I am reminded of how grateful I am to have actually been in Plymouth, Massachusetts.  With all of the talks about the Pilgrims we’ve been listening to this week and the books we’ve been reading, it’s amazing to be able to actually picture where these things took place and how they would’ve lived.

  I realized that I’d never posted photos from the Plymouth Faith & Freedom tour back in 2009, so I sought to cure that right now.  I also have some video that I’ll edit someday and post here as well.

  This post picks up where this post ended: “Sight Seeing in Plymouth June 28

  On the first morning we gathered in the hotel lobby and then stepped out side where Mr. Phillips led us in some psalms that had been sung many times in Plymouth-by using the Pilgrim method of “leading worship.”  He’d sing a line and we’d all repeat it.

 

 

Trekking through the damp New England morning to Plymouth Harbor.

It “happened” that Marshall Foster was also in Plymouth, so even though it wasn’t planned, he taught during the Faith and Freedom tour as well.

The Mayflower was just to the left of us…more on that later.

This is the canopy where the rock is housed

Gathered around Plymouth rock

Anyone else heard the story about the “Pen of Destiny?”

You can see where the rock was cemented in 1880.

 

Pilgrim Mothers Monument

Massasoit Statue – with a peace pipe in his hand

The colony had a 50 year peace with Massasoit and the Wampanoag tribe

This is a sarcophagus for those who died during the first year of the colony.  Some of their bones had been discovered and this was erected during the tricentennial celebration in 1920.

Statue of William Bradford

As we walked to the next destination on the tour we got to walk past all of these wonderful New England houses.

Anyone have some veggies?

Our next stop was the Jenney Grist Mill where we got to take a tour through a mill the early colonists would’ve used to grind up wheat.

 

 

 

 

“And this is the origin of the term, ‘Keep your nose to the grindstone.’

The demonstration and teaching inside the mill was fantastic and was certainly a highlight of the tour.

We ate lunch at the Jenney Grist Mill

After lunch we headed up to Old Burial Hill where most of the early settlers are buried.

Many of the the gravestones had angels of death and skulls and crossbones on them-they did this to remind those who’d see the stones that the day of death comes to every man and that it quickly approaches.

William Bradford’s grave

The next stop was one of the best parts of the entire trip…anyone seen Monumental?

The Forefathers Monument

 

This post is a work in progress!

Fall Party

Some video clips from the fall party hosted by the Mays family.  Includes some footage from the team obstacle course, some bull-bucking and some four-wheeling.  That evening we roasted dogs around the campfire, went on a hayride and ended with some dancing.  Thanks again Mays family for such a fun day!

Ben Shoots a Deer

Benjamin shot a little button-buck this today – which happens to be the last day of the rifle season!

He’s been hunting throughout the season and took some shots at a few deer, but never downed one.  Today he wasn’t planning on hunting, but decided to do a little hunting in the woods nearby before the sun set.

He carried the deer across the field on his back after field dressing him and then we put him in the trailer for a quick drive back home.  The deer will be placed in a freezer until Ben can process it later this week.

Filming with Stephen Littman

  We got together with some friends to make a short video together that would incorporate a few self defense techniques we’d learned and would make a promotional piece for Whole Armour Martial Arts.

“Behind the Scenes” footage can be seen here: Short Video Shoot

P.S. Re: "Lydia”  I’m gathering the photos from the North Carolina trip, so I’ll be posting some photos from the spoons game this week!

Just Blowing Smoke…

We’ve been “battling it out” with the leaves!  Rakes and blowers and tractors, hoorah!  When we finally reached the joyful day on which we could finally burn the leaves Noah tried out his Israeli gas mask with a filter.  Because of the tight seal of the mask, he was able to walk right in the middle of the smoke without any adverse effects to his eyes or breathing.  He did say, however, that the fire would get too hot for his (exposed) ears.

With a little editing this photo looks creepy enough to be on the cover of a music album.

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