The Homeplace

On my parents last day camping we went by The Homeplace.  The attraction is a living history facility with a number of buildings that were gathered from all over the area when it was turned into a national recreation area in the mid twentieth century.

Homeplace 1850s Working Farm and Living History Museum represents a two-generation farm. When you visit the Homeplace, you will see interpreters in period clothing going about their daily chores. You’ll find the perfect blend of artifacts, restored historic structures, and traditional seasonal activities to step you back in time to relive history before the Civil War. Even our livestock includes rare and endangered breeds. We cultivate many varieties of garden plants and field crops; most from heirloom seeds dating back before the Civil War. These heirloom seeds can be purchased in our gift shop.
--from Land Between the Lakes website

The first building you enter contains the gift shop, ticket counter, and a few exhibits.

We didn't spend too much time in the exhibits as the kids were anxious to get outside and we didn't have too long to spend (my parents still needed to drive back home before the end of the day).

I thought the seasonal exhibits were interesting as they talked about how each time of year was different.

Once you exit the building there is a path back towards

I always like split rail fences.

I don't care if they may technically be weeds, I always enjoy seeing different flowers.

The first building we saw was a large cabin.

A number of quilts were being exhibited the weekend that we visited.

It was fun to see the various colorful quilts strung up in the middle of the landscape.

There were also a number of interpreters in the various buildings.

The buildings were also stuffed full of old furniture and other household accouterments.

The girls really enjoyed the cards with shoelaces that they could practice pretending to sew.

There was a great view from the upper room of the

After we left the house we saw plenty of animals starting with some sheep.

The farm also had a couple pigs.

The chickens were amusing to watch as they perched on the fence around the pigpen.

The ducks were quite obviously enjoying the puddle.

You can't quite tell it from this shot, but these are very large bovines.

There was a second one with red hair.

This gives you some idea of the scale.

These blooms on some of the trees were gorgeous to look at.

We got to watch some plowing.

The guy went up and down the field several times as we watched.

This pile of boards was actually a rather fun activity.

The boards were all notched so that you could put them together as a log cabin.  The sign encouraged you to build the cabin, photograph it, and then tear it apart so the next person could build it afresh.

It wasn't large when finished, but was more than big enough for the kids to play inside for a few minutes.

I took this shot as we headed back out to the parking lot.  The flowers were beautiful.

All of the photographs in this post and a few more are located in this album.

~Matt