Frogmore Cotton Plantation, Then and Now

I can't believe the weekend is coming soon again. That means I get to show some pinks for Beverly's Pink Saturday and we get to tour for Sightseeing Saturday.

Last weekend, my stepdaughter Kerri and her three kids came for a visit. We took them to Frogmore Cotton Plantation, which is a working plantation in Ferriday, Louisiana. It is only about a 40 minute drive away from where we live. We have been wanting to go there but just never had a chance. It was actually Janie (Blondie's Journal) and Al who told us about it when they came to visit. They wanted to go there but we did not have time, because we had to go to the airport to pick up my daughter and 2 grandsons. Sorry, Janie! If you come and visit us again, I promise we will take you there. But for now, I hope my photos will suffice.

Before we go there, let me show you my pink. Beverly has a Thanksgiving theme for this Sat. but I already put my Fall decor away to make room for all the bins where I am moving my dishes from cabinets inside the house, in preparation for the new floor installation. I already ordered the floor but it will take around 10 days before they arrive. That will give me enough time to unload stuff from cabinets so the workers can move them but, I am going to FL for Thanksgiving. I wish John could do the rest since he is staying home but I know he is busy. And besides I don't think I want to trust my dishes with anybody else.

And so, I am showing you pitchers in our bedroom and my Coach coasters, of which some are pink. Notice my blog books under the pitcher? I print 4 months at a time since the time I started blogging in January of 2009. I finally have the whole year printed so I am moving to 2010 next. I am only almost 2 years behind, lol.

I got a new camera, a Sony NEX-C3 so I was playing with it. This effect is supposed to look like an old film with the background defocused.

And the one below is set on auto without flash. Although I have always used Sony cameras, (this is probably my 9th, I think, this one's a little different so I am still trying to study it.

Ok, it's time to go to the plantation. I had a hard time selecting what photos to share because I have over 300 pictures. I think this is one of the most interesting historical tours that we have taken. I really enjoyed it. I knew my friend Debjani wanted to go see it too so I invited her to come along. Noah and Zoe ran to the fields as soon as they saw it and just knelt there meditating and absorbing everything. It looks like the cotton here have just been harvested.
These were the slaves' quarters.
Hog killing was an event that they always looked forward to.

Inside the quarter, you will see that they used newspapers for insulation and they white washed the walls I believe, to keep the bugs away. You will also see the work clothes of the women. Notice the shoes in the frame. I can only imagine how cold it must get in the winter. The floors are not even solid. They have gaps between them.

Tool shed.

I am so glad they preserved all the primitive tools so that we would have an idea of how they used to harvest and process the cotton.

Below is the cooking cabin. I took a lot of pictures inside it. I wanted to take so many of these kitchen stuff home but I did not want to get arrested, lol.

The tour guide said they bought their groceries from Natchez which is about a 40 min drive by car today but it took them 2 days on a mule. Imagine traveling 2 days just to get some groceries?

The oven was right outside the cooking cabin.

We wanted to experience cotton picking so I went to get a bag. That bag is long and heavy.

And so with Zoe's help, we went to the fields to pick.

They gave us a tour of the cotton gin. and how the cotton was processed in the olden days. I am so glad they had labels on a lot of these equipment or I would not remember anything.

Noah was asked to help demonstrate how they used to do laundry. After they are done in this basin, they take the clothes to the other basin to wring them out.

After the tour of the gin, we were taken to a room to watch a dvd. It showed how they used to process the cabin and how they do it now. They do have modern equipment now. They have 2 big warehouses where they store the cotton before it is delivered everywhere, all the way to Europe and Asia. There's Kerri and our 3 grandchildren.

Here's a modern equipment they use now. I believe it cost $650,000.
I did not realize that cotton is used for food also and not just for fabric. Crisco, for example is made mostly of cotton seed oil.

John really enjoyed the tour too.

Here is a cotton bale ready to be weighed and labeled. A bale weighs 500 lbs.

I hope you enjoyed the tour as I did. Thank you so much for joining me.

I am linking with

Sarah's Homemaking Link Up Weekend at http://bloggingwhilewaiting.blogspot.com/

Honey's Potpourri Friday at http://twenty-eight-0-five.blogspot.com/

Tootsie's Fertilizer Fri at http://www.tootsietime.com/

Beverly's Pink Saturday at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/

The Tablescaper's Seasonal Sunday at http://thetablescaper.blogspot.com/

Thanks, lovely ladies, for hosting!