Harvest Day at LSU Rural Life Museum

On a recent beautiful Saturday, Benjamin and I had the opportunity to travel to Baton Rouge to attend Harvest Days at the LSU Rural Life Museum.  The LSU Rural Life Museum is located just east of the heart of Baton Rouge on land donated by Miss Ione and Mr. Steele Burden with the stipulation that the wooded area remain in its natural state as a wilderness area.  Wilderness it is!   You'd never know that you are in the middle of the city and just a stone's throw off of busy I-10.

It is known as one of the Top 19 Outdoor Museums in the world and it lived up to its billing.  The Burdens cultivated a beautiful garden and accumulated, over a lifetime, a number of artifacts that are on display across the acreage.  Many of the buildings and artifacts were purchased from old plantations across the State and moved to preserve them.  There are 3 areas of the museum:

• Barn houses that display a number of farming equipment, tools, and other items used in everyday life in the 19th Century,
• A working plantation that actively demonstrates life in the 19th Century, complete with a commissary, an overseer's house, kitchen, slave quarters, sick house, schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, sugar house and grist mill, 
• Louisiana Folk Architecture exhibits that shows the State's early settlers' styles of architecture, including a country church, pioneer's cabins, shotgun house, Acadian house, and dogtrot house.  

It would take forever to show you everything, but I'll show a few highlights.  This is a demonstration of the conversion of steam rotary driven power to piston power and Benjamin was able to pull the rope and blow the whistle.  In "Gone with the Wind" where the whistle blows and the Foreman says, "Quittin' Time!!" That whistle was made by one of these:

Blowing the whistle - "I'm the foreman.  No one says it's quittin' time before I say it's quittin' time."

The museum is a living exhibit and everyone is dressed in period clothing.  Benjamin arrived at the schoolhouse in time for recess and participated in playing hoops where you get a stick and roll a wooden hoop.  No iPads or video games or televisions to keep you occupied.

Recess.  Children at play

Benjamin was getting the hang of it!

Rolling Hoops

We sat and listened to some great music at the Dogtrot house played by some talented musicians.  They played music that was popular during the day, including a sad, Civil War song.

We saw a blacksmithing demonstration and then we listened to an explanation of how cane syrup was made from the sugar can that was grown, harvested, and had the juice extracted right there on the plantation.  We then watched as lye soap was being made over and outdoor fire.  I was very interested in this as we're planning to try to do this soon.  Lye is made from pouring water over ashes.  If you look on the table there is a jar with some lye in it.  There is an egg floating in the jar of lye.  That lets you know that the lye is activated and concentrated enough.  If the egg (or potato) doesn't float in the lye, when you mix the lard with the that weak lye, your soap will not harden and will instead make a big mess.  It was important to get it right.  Soap was made after butchering when there was lard.  You didn't want to mess it up as that lard could have been used for cooking.  I can't wait to try this!

Soap Making

This was the inside of the old country church.  There is a turnbuckle holding the structure together, just like the Lufty Church in the Smoky Mountains we visited in August.

Country church

Benjamin is observing a pirogue (flat bottom swamp boat) carved out of a log.  These boats are uniquely made to enable the rider to get into shallow marshes and swamps to duck hunt and fish.  People were largely self sufficient and lived off the land and needed land, tools, and skills in order to survive.

Pirogue

We took a mule driven wagon ride around the property.  Lots of times, even today in South Louisiana, if someone comes to visit, you'll say, "Ya'll get down and come inside."  This comes from the old days when people had to 'get down' from the wagon. 

Wagon Rides

Bells were an important means of communication on a plantation and they were used to call people to work, to eat as well as notifying people of emergencies, steamboat arrivals and for celebrations.  Benjamin pulled the rope and rang the bell loudly.

Plantation bell circa 1791

This was an old Acadian style house, made of cypress (termite resistant).  People sat on the porch and visited and played music to pass the time. 

We watched as a worker got his team together to go plow a field.  His team was trained and followed orders obediently.  John Deere tractors had not made their arrival yet.

Getting the team ready

I really like this next picture.  You can see the dirt being turned over right next to some sugar cane.  This was hard work for both man and beast.  The arrival of the tractor enabled farmers to enlarge the sizes of their farms and produce more and more.

Turning over some dirt

Overall, the day was fun and educational and I'd like to say it ended well, except for the fact that Benjamin got into a little trouble and was incarcerated in an old jailhouse made of cypress wood.  I couldn't locate a bail bondsman anywhere and poor Benjamin had to endure neck, hand and feet shackles along with an iron ball to ensure he didn't escape.

Jailhouse Rock?  Nope.  Benjamin's mugshot

I took a photo of his bed and bathroom while incarcerated.  Poor fella!

The 'facilities'

The repentant convict gazed longingly for freedom out of a small, barred window as he awaited justice.  

Looking for Freedom

The wheels of justice, as the say, turn slow, but finally Benjamin was released and we journeyed home. Speaking of justice, I didn't do the LSU Rural Life Museum justice in my review, but I wanted to keep it somewhat short.  It is truly a great place.  To experience it fully, you'll have to visit it yourself.  There's always good stuff going on! Click here for more details: LSU Rural Life Museum