Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
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We thought we should let Colleen rest and not have to entertain us this morning, so we stayed around the Inn. We had coffee early, followed by breakfast. We just relaxed until around 1:30 p.m., when we invited Colleen for lunch at the Inn. The weather cooperated beautifully.
No perspiration for the week!
The breakfast table had some new decor. The Sander’s Sisters Blackbird was visiting this morning. A blackbird’s life expectancy is around three years, but they have been known to live into double figures.
Alfred Hitchcock, eat your heart out.
The sisters are funny! We watch the movie every Halloween season.
It was a great film, and the second production was as good as the first!
The skull consists of 22 bones joined together by cranial sutures. The cranial region houses the brain, and the facial region includes the rest of the skull. Enjoying an omelet when a skull was staring at you was difficult!
Hard Head!
We were all set to escape the clutches of the Inn at 11:00 am and embark on a thrilling adventure to the local museum. Brace yourself, museum; we’re coming to admire your finest dusty artifacts! We hopped in the car and zoomed over to the museum just a stone’s throw away.
New decorations showed up this morning!
The Woodman Museum was founded in 1916 from a trust established by Annie E. Woodman to: “Advance and develop a passion for History, Nature, and the Arts. To educate, excite, and inspire current and future generations about . . . a changing nation by preserving and exhibiting objects of historical significance, decorative and fine art, and natural science that connect Dover and its citizens to . . . the world.”
It is located at 182 Central Ave. Dover, NH, which was less than two miles away!
We arrived at 11:30 am.
The signage out front revealed four buildings to visit, but we also had limited time. We joined a tour group to get as much information as possible quickly.
Did you hear about the robbery at the local museum? The thieves only took the Monet and ran!
Museum, here we come.
We visited the first building and read about the linen made in New Hampshire. Linen was essential in the 1600s since no cotton was available in New England!
When people arrived in the New World, they needed food, water, and clothes. Linen has been around for eons. It is one of the world’s oldest textiles, originating around 10,000 years ago in Ancient Mesopotamia.
Linen is the second strongest natural fiber in the world. It is a solid fabric and gets 10% stronger when wet. It’s also 30% stronger than cotton! Linen is very durable; unlike other fabrics, it doesn’t pill over time. The more worn and washed it is, the softer and more luxurious it becomes.
To protect themselves from the Indians, settlers built fortified houses called garrisons!
Why is Dover called Garrison City? Because it was an early settlement in Abenaki lands, settlers built fortified log houses called garrisons, inspiring Dover’s nickname “The Garrison City.”
In 1600s New England, a garrison was a fortified house that was a crucial part of the military strategy and a last resort for frontier towns:
Definition: A garrison was a fortified house built in almost all New England towns, especially in frontier towns like Maine and New Hampshire. Garrisons were constructed to be strong enough to protect multiple families in times of danger.
Construction: Garrisons were typically built with log walls or thick planks and were constructed using a timber frame called plank frame construction.
Use: In times of peace, garrisons were used as one-family dwellings.
Military strategy: Garrisons were a first line of defense and a last resort for frontier towns.
Etymology: Garrison comes from the Old French verb garir, which means “defend, protect”. The term “garrison town” was first used in the mid-1600s.
The garrison below was moved three miles by hand and horse in 1910 and has been protected from the elements by an overhanging building for the past 120 years.
The community fort house.
Inside, it was generally used by one family, but when Indians attacked, the local people would go to the garrison, protected by a foot of white pine. The garrison kept food and water available and housed as many as twenty families during an uprising.
Inside was spartan but functional.
In the adjacent building, there were collections of items from pre-war of Independence through the 1860s. The docent had great stories to share.
The museum is well documented.
The early settlers (the mid-1800s) had music, including a Swiss music box that played 40 different tunes.
Excellent craftsmanship; it still works after 150 years!
At 1:15 pm, we departed the museum even though we were not done. We had to meet Colleen at the Inn for a late lunch. We were on time and had a super “afternoon tea,” complete with cucumber sandwiches, scones, and other delectable goodies.
We had brunch at the Inn.
From lunch, Colleen drove us home to pick up Mark, and we all went to Jacquie’s home, which we had not seen yet. We visited the kids and had a ball watching them be kids. We saw the drumset that we sent to Chunk (Ashton).
Four generations of family! It looks like Emmerson is having a ball.
Four generations at Lacquie’s home. Mary, Emmerson, Jacquie, and Colleen.
We brought the kids some homemade cupcakes from GAle at the Inn. Not only were they good to eat, but they also looked good!
“How do I look in my new cupcake?”
After a while, we departed Jacquie’s home and headed back to Doven to Colleen’s house, where Jon and Sarah would bring dinner from the local Thai restaurant.
In Thai culture, sharing is a vital part of dining, and eating alone is considered bad luck. At meals, everyone shares from a large bowl of dishes in the center of the table, and taking small portions from each dish is considered polite. We followed their tradition.
Jon and Sarah brought their kids, Nova, Kia, and King. The doggies were a three-ring circus, providing great entertainment.
The babies have a new best friend.
It’s time for tricks. Sarah showed us how the babies can have food put on their noses and on commend, flip to food in the air, and chow down.
The doggies were a three-ring circus!
We all know that these babies talk, so we attempted to make them tell us their secrets. It turns out that their first words were, ‘Goo, gaa gaa… give me a bottle!’ Well, we voted and decided that we humans make better husky sounds than they do!
We moseyed on back to the inn and plopped in front of the good ol’ TV until 10:00 p.m.
