Yes!  We finally got the rain we so desperately needed.  Yet, it was still a productive day, but not for Social Studies.  We started the morning at the Franklin Farmer’s Market.  They have a very cute little market next to the school.  The vendors have amazing produce, breads, eggs, jams, wood products, posters, plants,…  It was a great find, plus we did a little campaigning.  Next, for me, it was on to the Moses to finally ride my horse.  Yes, I rode in the rain and boy, did it rain!  I was pretty wet by the time I was finished but I don’t think either one of us really cared.  Cheyenne was such a good girl, she did a nice slow collected canter and a pitty-patter trot.  She needs a little tune-up on her side-pass and 360’s but otherwise was very good.

Monday:  Rode in the morning and then spent the afternoon floating in Maggie’s pool and discussing books (maybe 10 minutes was spent on the books we read).  We chose four books for the coming months so it was pretty productive (for us).  We enjoyed the pool so much that we invited ourselves back for the August meeting.

In the evening, I attended the Margaretville Cemetery Reenactment showing in the Margaretville Historical Societies new digs at the, previous, Isaac Walton League.  I had to miss the original presentation, held at the cemetery, because of the campaign.  Freddy and Nick filmed it and presented the finished product last night.  It was wonderful!  All of the presenters did a great job but Joe Hewitt should be an actor.  What a talent!  He (his character) was a raft rider from Arena and told about building log rafts and floating/riding them down to Trenton, NJ, in the 1800’s.  They were able to get a good price for the logs because of all the building going on in New Jersey and Philadelphia.  Then, they had four days to run/walk home so as to put together another raft of logs and do it all over while the water was high.  Joe told of the hardships, ice and snow storms, falling in freezing cold water, walking one to two miles each night to find meals and sleeping quarters.  His (characters’) last raft trip was completed when he was in his early 80’s.  What a hardy soul!  The log business died out in the late 1800’s after the Catskills had been denuded of trees and turned into farm land.  This was fascinating!