Life at Skansen Vilage

These are fire engines from the olden days.  They are  in this museum that has all these houses like Sturbridge village.

This is the town’s forge. A forge is a place that a blacksmith works. A blacksmith shapes metal. In the olden days most things made out of metal were shaped by the blacksmith. It was an important part of the town.

This is inside the forge. In the forge there are a lot of tools for blacksmithing. It’s hot in there.

This is an old fashioned grinding wheel for sharpening tools. One person cranked the handle and the other one sharpened the tools.

This is the cantilever saw. On the cantilever saw there is a notched log with 2 support beams on either side of it making it look like an upside down V. The cantilever saw is hard work to run. They cut the logs into pieces

Here's a really long log ready to be sawn

This is Ellen

This is Gerry

This is Barbara - she is a good friend of my Mom.

This is Josh

This is a drawknife. Unlike other knives, you pull it towards you. You usually use it for peeling and shaping logs or pegs.

This is a place where you pound the pegs through little holes that are a little sharp and when you pound it,  it cuts off the excess making it a perfectly round peg.