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RE: Old Dutch farm house: a look inside
It's so great that people have preserved some of these old buildings, to give us an idea of how people lived in earlier times. I imagine that the whole house smelled like a barn, but with wood smoke, too. It would have been quite a household. They sure dedicated a lot of space to the loom. Have you ever seen the process of going from flax to linen cloth? I have not - it must have been a real effort, those plants are not large. People had it so much harder, I think.
I have actually done the whole process, it's fun to experience, but I wouldn't want to make a job of it. My ancestors come from further West, where they also grew flax, but mainly hemp for rope and sails. The farmers there did the rather elaborate process up to isolating the hemp fibres themselves, these were then sold. This home industry was killed off by cheap imports of hemp fibres from the Far East.
That's neat that you've handled all that flax, through the whole process. At least linens is tough and doesn't wear out as fast as cotton. People are so innovative about using the plants around them. Such a connection to history. For the hemp, too.