Pricketts Fort

 I pulled the blind up this morning to see rain falling. Fortunately by the time we had finished breakfast it was at least dry.

Destination today was Pricketts Fort, a civilian fort created during the colonisation of the west by settlers to protect again attacks by Native Americans. As the settlers took more and more of Native American land they faced attacks by tribes whose hunting grounds were being taken. To combat this the Prickett family constructed a wooden fort around their home. Families in the area would "fort up" when there were raid nearby until they felt safe to go back to their farms. Up to 250 people could end up in the 100 metre square fort. A local militia of around 90 men was formed and based there.

The grandson of the original Prickett family built a house next door in the mid 1800's and a re-enactor showed us around it.

Several re-enactors are based at the fort although sadly today there were only three today. The lady who was making baskets was very interesting to talk to.

There are cabins and workshops within the fort that you can explore and a small store selling some of the items they have made there. Charlie compelled me to buy a pair of fingerless gloves as a souvenir.

There is also a fort cat called Olive who followed us around demanding to be let into some of the closed cabins. Olive followed us outside and had to be retrieved because apparently she isn't allowed out. I believe Olive is well aware of this but couldn't care less.

We wandered down to the riverside which was quite pretty. We watched a belted kingfisher and a green heron feeding. A Northern cardinal also posed for me.

If you look carefully you can see a red bellied woodpecker. Charlie spotted it had a nest in a dead tree stump. We watched the parents feeding the occupants for some time. At least one chick was quite big and hung out the nest in-between feeds obviously impatient to be fed.

Whenever we park the car it issues the above warning on the screen. As if somehow a bunch of people could have sneaked in whilst we weren't looking!