The first of the things that I found most interesting about our field trip was the way people lived in the NH climate. There were so many innovations and improvisations that were invaluable in New England's winters. One of which was the feather matresses. They provided excellent insulation during the cold winter's nights. In the summer, the settlers didn't need the heat of the feather mattress. They would simply open up the mattress, take out the feathers, and stuff it with something cooler.

The next was the layout of the settlement itself. Strawbery Banke used to be mud flats before it was filled in with hard materials in the 1600's. The settlement was much more crowded than it is now in it's golden age. There were more buildings, wharves, and docks, but they were taken out during the construction of Portsmouth for more space.

The final one is the way people ate. There were many ways of preserving food, like salting, drying, and turning fruit into jams and jellies. Vegetables were strung and hung over the fire to dry out. Vegetables and meats also could be salted as a way of preservation.Fruits were cut up, mixed with sugar, and turned into jam or jelly.