No, we came to the Branson area to see the castle! Some time back, JJ came across an article about a French-style castle being built using traditional medieval methods in northern Arkansas. Road trip!
We drove to the Ozark Medieval Castle in Lead Hill, AR, just about 40 miles south of Branson. OMG! It was the most wonderful day, even if it was about 100 degrees outside and there was minimal shade on the site.
We spent about three hours touring the site watching stone being quarried and shaped. The masons were working on the wall and tower construction. The Belgian draft horse pulled a cart laden with stone and was later hitched to a cart to carry sand for making the cement. One artisan was making rope. The blacksmith was hammering away at the anvil. There were several pieces of hand-thrown pottery drying before being fired in the stone kiln. A weaver was using a drop spindle to spin hand-dyed yarn from wool recently shorn from the castle's sheep.
It was totally fascinating to watch and to talk to the artisans about their work. I cannot adequately describe it, so the best thing is just to take a look at the castle's website: http://ozarkmedievalfortress.com/
The castle is supposed to take about 20 years to complete. I made JJ promise me that he would bring me back in 2030 to see the finished castle even if he has to push me in a wheelchair.
Too bad our middle school is more than 5 hours away. This would be a fantastic and very educational field trip for the 7th graders to go along with their study of the medieval period. I took about 50 photos and I think I will put together a slide show to share with the 7th grade social studies teachers.
We are on our way back home to the St. Louis area tomorrow and hopefully, back to some last weekend of summer vacation sewing before next week.
To quote Miracle Max and his wife Valerie, "Have fun storming the castle!"
TTFN! Woohoo!
Vickie
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