Dudley Farm

Wednesday, we took the children on a field trip to Dudley Farm near Newberry.



This Florida state park, demonstrates what farm life was like from the 1850's through the 1940's (through 3 generations of the Dudley family).

We were fortunate enough to arrive on a day when there was a quilting bee going on at the visitors center. Costumed ladies demonstrated quilting and how to a crochet rug out of an old T-shirt cut into strips.







The children really enjoyed seeing all the livestock.















It turns out that we brought with us the perfect resource people. At the tobacco barn, Linda explained to us about what it was like growing up on a farm where tobacco was grown.





The sorghum mill:




It was a bit hard to see the vats for boiling down the syrup, because they were covered with trays of onion sets.



The general store:









Pumping water was fun!





The kitchen house:







The outhouse:


Laundry is fun with a wringer and wash tub, when it's not a daily chore.









The main house:















The spring house, used for cold storage:







The park service maintains beautiful flower beds in front of the house.







The blacksmith:





The gift shop:


It was a very warm day, so we ate lunch inside the screened-in back porch of the visitor's center.



Some of the children managed to stay "cool" despite the temperature,



but others...we're just not so sure about.




I would really like to thank this particular student, who helped me with the photography. We had an extra camera donated for the trip, so while I used the borrowed camera, she used my camera and did a fantastic job.