Rural Life Museum

Tuesday, we went on a field trip to the Rural Life Museum.  This agricultural department of LSU uses these 400 some odd acres for research regarding all kinds of plants, fruits, vegetables, and flowers along with preserved buildings and artifacts from the 19th century.  All of these things are from all over Louisiana.

Before we began our tour, they started us off with a short movie discussing the things we would be seeing during our tour and about this time period in Louisiana.  Then, they split our group of 50 people into three smaller groups since we had three tour guides.   

Matthew 18:6 

but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

(Not sure how big the millstones were back in Jesus’ day but this is huge.  I had never imagined the size of a millstone before but this really made a very clear picture for me when I saw this one.)

 

These are a couple of pictures from the town jail.

Here is the cane grinder and Asa hanging out during the tour.

Here our guide is telling us about the sugar making process.

 

These are a few from a school house.  Of course, my children knew where the punishment chair was when he asked what this chair was for!!  He said back then they believed in spanking so they would put the disobedient child next to the teacher for him/her to use a ruler to pop the student.  My kids and a few others said, “We get spankings, too!”

 

Silly girls:)

You can tell my kids are use to me taking pictures of them.  Cai found this spot and said, “Hey Mom!  Look at me!”

I love these boys.  They are so sweet and well-behaved.  Aren’t they cute!!!

The next few pictures are of the smokehouse, chicken coop, and the kitchen.

 

This is one of their beautiful gardens. 

These are pictures of the Grist Mill.

 

Here are a few pictures of the church and the cemetery.

Can you see the oxen?

They were pretty far off so this is the best I got with my zoom.

Our guide was showing the kids the machine that was used for shaping the wooden shingles for the roofs.

Here is a picture that was on the wall of one of the houses.  Yes, it was crooked on the wall:)

Me and my bunch

To see some more incredible pictures from our field trip, you can go over to Candi’s blogs here and here.  She did a fantastic job on her pictures, just so you know:)

After the field trip, all of us left and went to a local park for picnic and play.  We had good time and a lovely day.  The weather was perfect!