Fort Christmas

Over the weekend we drove up to Fort Christmas.

It was a fort that was built to defend against

the Seminole Indians in Central Florida.

They started building it on Christmas Day.

And then moved out in March.

So it wasn't used for very long.

It has turned into a really nice park.

Not on the scale of Heritage Park,

but still a pretty nice place.

They had a really cool display of antique tractors.

Rod loved this little old Ford.

And this was an early calf chute with a head catch

and escape door on the side.

It was pretty small, so we decided it was

either for calves or goats.

Or cows were WAY smaller back in the day...

There was also a gentleman who had a neat display

of several early steam engines.

They were running and making loud

popping noises.

The guys were fascinated!

It was quite the collection!

And they LOVED this old car turned into a tractor.

I could just imagine Dad wandering around

with them taking it all in.

I'm teaching this weekend.

Wouldn't be surprised to come home and

find the Trooper has been turned into a tractor.

Hahahahaha.

In the background you can see a very SMALL

portion of the vendors there.

They had a bunch of soap makers / sellers,

and then nearly anything else under the sun

you could imagine.

We saw some really neat stuff,

but nothing that caused us to open our wallets.

(although lots of people were buying...)

All of the old buildings were decked out for the

holidays and I thought I took some pictures.

But I guess I didn't.

I want to make this cool star though. 

We have LOTS of sticks!

I also thought I took a couple of pictures of the

guys at another really fun spot.

There was a blacksmith making leaves like

Kyle is learning to make.

He had a terrific little forge that the guys

were salivating all over.

He was really interesting and happy to share

his knowledge and experience with them.

Kyle showed him some pictures of some of

the things he has made and he was very

encouraging.

They also got a line on some better coal

at a really good price!

There is a club... FABA.

Florida Area Blacksmith Association?

They meet the first Saturday of every month.

Rod and Kyle are going to try to remember 

to attend in January.

It was a really fun day!