The tickets we purchased at the Plantation were actually in 3 parts. The site itself, a grist mill off site and a replica of the Mayflower down at the harbor. Three different locations for one price, how could we lose?
Apparently very easily as it turns out….because after we bought them, we found out the replica Mayflower wasn’t even in the state, but in Mystic, Connecticut undergoing an overhaul for the 400th year anniversary they’ll be celebrating next year. Thanks for that. It would have been nice knowing before I paid to tour it.
And the grist mill?
While attractive…
Turned out not to be so historic after all.
Yes, the Pilgrims eventually built a mill in 1636 after 10 years of grinding corn by hand. And yes, it was somewhere on Town Brook in Plymouth, though no one knows exactly where.
The mill pictured here was actually built in 1970 with many of it’s parts coming from a salvaged mill near Philly. How’s that for historical accuracy?
But we paid our money so here it is… upstairs, big stones.
And downstairs, big wheel. I won’t bore you with the more technical details on the inner workings.
But I will share the picture and video of this poor girl sifting cornmeal. The mere thought of having to do that all day makes me appreciate the little blue Jiffy box I use to make muffins soooo much more.
And it was even louder in person, trust me.
Naturally I had to visit the gift store and buy some freshly ground meal which is when we passed this:
Feel free to groan.
I did.
Sadly I only caught sight of this book when we were leaving and didn’t have a chance to flip through it. Who knew Yetis brewed beer?
Leaving the grist mill, I spotted a scallop shell.
In Tennessee we saw painted bears, in Vermont painted cows, somewhere I can’t remember painted lighthouses.
I was at Wal Mart the other day and decided to cruise down the clearance aisle. I don’t often shop there, but clearance racks are like thrift stores. You never know what you’ll find.
I found this:
I chuckled. I photographed it. I came home, started to write a blog and thought….. come on.
How often does corn need to wear a coat?
Fair enough… if not slightly disturbing.
Proof positive there’s a Google Image for everything.
And then I saw –
Which is definitely disturbing.
Corn porn?
WTH!
And of course that got me thinking of that damned corn on the cob dildo I found on Amazon a while back, which lead me to –
Make of that what you will.
Google Images has a mind of it’s own.
But thinking about disturbing corn also made my mind go here –
Maybe it’s supposed to be ironic, this former corn field, sprouting 109 people-sized ears of concrete corn in a large oddball art display. But it’s also a salute to Sam Frantz, an inventor of hybrid corns, and a very weird sight along the highway.
Frantz farmed this site from 1935 to 1963, using it as as a study field for tasty mutant strains. Frantz was “well known for his development of hybrid corn seeds,” and worked with Ohio State University on hybridization projects. He donated this land, now named Sam and Eulalia Frantz Park, after its farming days were over.
The artist brought in by the Dublin Arts Council to create the environment of corn, Malcolm Cochran, completed the field in 1994.
Intended by the Arts Council to remind residents of the area’s long-gone agricultural heritage, the Field of Corn instantly became a joke — giant inedible food — paid for with tax dollars, and surrounded by a sprawl of corporate offices, bland businesses and suburban neighborhoods.
And now, I totally want to go and take a corn selfie.
(Admit it… you do too.)
But if that isn’t enough corn cuteness for you?
Here’s a capybara.
In a pool.
Eating corn.
Just because I can.
From Wal Mart’s clearance aisle to giant rodents eating corn.
That’s the very definition of sidetracked.
Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
River's world..... 