Rally for the Norlands!

I'm posting this announcement on my blog because I want to do everything I can to support and bring attention to this wonderful organization. The Washburn - Norlands Living History Museum was an important part of the creation of my book, Past Destinies. I dare say that without the time I spent at the Norlands, doing reinactments of lives lived in the past, as well as taking part in live-in's, I might not have come up with the idea for the book at all. A live-in is where you go for a weekend and take the name of someone from the late 1870's who lived in the Livermore area and pretend to live in the past.Since I was a volunteer and staff member, I had a the privilege of choosing a name that stayed with me for the years I spent there. My Norlands name was Sarah Rose. 

Going to the Norlands during a Reenactment weekend is almost like stepping into the past and is well worth the trip. I'm posting here some of the pictures I took during the last time I attended to show just how realistic everything is. Even the smells of campfires and gunpowder linger in the air, lending a realism difficult to find anywhere else.

      As you can see from the pictures, it truly is like taking a trip to the past! The big yellow mansion, pictured here, is what I based the mansion in my book on.
      The next reenactment weekend is June 4-5, 2011. Following is information from their website about the planned events and ticket prices. Come support a great cause!

Admission: $8 adults; $6 children under 12 y.o.  $14 for weekend pass/$8 children. 

Gates open at 9 am daily.

Saturday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Grounds Open to the Public
Saturday: 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Smoked Brisket and Fixins' for Supper followed by Contra Dance (extra$)

Sunday: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Grounds Open to the Public
Sunday: 3 p.m. Closing Concert (tentative)
Food booths, free parking, family fun.

The 6th Maine Battery will fire their cannon, a Parrott Rifle.  Battles commemorating the Spring 1861 campaign of the Civil War will be staged on both days in the early afternoon.  Civil War musicians, temperance marchers and calvary units will give demonstrations.

Saturday and Sunday, historian and author Kerck Kelsey will give talks about the Washburn brother's roles in the Civil War.  Kelsey's book "Israel Washburn Jr.: Maine's Little Known Giant of the Civil War" and other books by the author will be on sale.

Tophats Sutlery http://www.tophatssutlery.com/ , JR Robinson Merchantile http://www.jrrobinsonmercantile.com/ , Fifth Maine Museum http://fifthmainemuseum.org/ , basket makers, historians and authors will be exhibiting and/or selling their period wares.