Fourth Grade Shout Out: Touring a Colonial Home

Would you ever imagine that a home patterned after a New England colonial home exists within ten minutes from our school? Scott and Debra Duncan were so kind to allow our fourth graders from OCS to tour their home yesterday. They have spent the last 28 years researching colonial history and collecting authentic pieces for their home. We learned how the houses were often attached or very near the barns due to the weather extremes. We saw how a colonial kitchen might function with a reflector oven, fireplace, and other wrought iron, pewter, and kitchen tools. What a treat to taste oatmeal cooked over an open fire in a cast-iron pot! Mrs. Duncan showed us how rosemary was ground up with a mortar and and pestle. Other items of interest included seeing a handmade lock used to lock all the windows in the house and understanding how precious and costly nails were to a homebuilder as each were handmade. We learned about different types of wood used for furniture including pine, maple and mahogony. Mr. Duncan discussed some of the reasons that lead up to the Revolutionary War including taxes and laws that Britain imposed on the colonists that made life very difficult.
Perhaps the favorite part of our field trip was watching Mr. Duncan load a Flint lock rifle. It took several attempts to fire it, but at the last moment as we were literally watching away, the rifle finally fired, much to the delight of the fourth graders!

A bucket hanging in a hallway would be filled with sand in case of fire. This is also a "Good Morning" stairway. There was a hallway on the left and right of the top of the stairs and members would greet each other with a "good morning" as they met at the top of the stairs each day.