Beautiful eggplant

Eggplant is such a beautiful plant in the garden.  Too bad I can't get anyone in my family to eat it, so I don't grow it.  This one was in the garden at Historic Oak View County Park.  

Goats

These goats have a pretty good life.  They're permanent residents of the Historic Oak View County park.  They have their own barn with nameplates at their stalls.  They get regularly fed by all the kids who come to see them.  

I thought goats could eat anything, but a sign in the barn says to be careful not to feed them Magnolia leaves because it makes them sick.  Tin cans-yes, Magnolia leaves-no...???

Nothing runs like a Deere

Even when it doesn't run...

I didn't realize that John Deere was a major wagon manufacturer but it makes sense.  Here's a link.

This wagon was used to haul cotton from the Oak View farm.  

Historic Pecan orchard

 

The pecan orchard at the Oak View farm was planted in the 1920's You can see how amazingly large some of the trees are.  During Hurricane Fran in 1996, many of the trees were lost.  Some were replanted, and you can see the small new tree in the front.  Maybe in another 80 years it will be as huge as it's brothers.

Water tower

This water tower sits in the farm yard of the main house at the Historic Oak View County Park.  The house was built in 1855, but, they didn't put in  indoor plumbing until the 1940's.  I think this tower can't be too historic.  

Dragonfly

I gained a new respect for dragonflies when visiting in Minnesota this summer.  Up there, they reach the size of birds.  Here in North Carolina they aren't quite that size, but they're still amazing.  

Turns out he's a Common Whitetail.  He doesn't seem to common to me.

Steam Punk

This is a detail of the side of a cotton gin at the Historic Oak View County Park.  Looks like something from a steam punk design.

Dogtrot

I first learned the word dogtrot in Harper Lee's book, Go Set A Watchman.  She describes Scout's uncle's house as a dogtrot.  It's a Southern style pre air conditioning.  The house was built with a center breezeway that was open.  See here.  

This house was a tenant farmer's house at Oak View farm.  On either side of the main breezeway there is a room with a fireplace (probably for heat in the winter.)  There is a porch in front and back. 

Crazy Robot?

No, although it looks like a robot gone bad from a Felix the Cat cartoon, it's a cotton gin at Oak View Historic Farm.  A gin like this was used to clean the cotton for this farm and also neighboring farms that brought their cotton to be ginned there.

Chicken and the Egg

Each of these chickens lays a different colored egg.  The visitor center at the Oak View farm displays the latest produce from the farm, and the day we visited they had this pretty brown egg, from a "Silver Laced Wyndotta" hen.  That's her in the black with white spots.

Carolina Barn

As my husband pointed out, this barn could only be built in the South.  An Iowa or Minnesota barn would never have such a flat roof pitch on the sides.  The first snowfall would crush anything below the too flat roof.  Which would be too bad, here is a treasure in the barn, an old Ford tractor.

The barn is part of the Historic Oak View County Park.

Old style air conditioning

As I asked yesterday, were the "good old days" so good?  This is how you cooled off pre-air conditioning.  We visited the Oak View Farm on a day when the temperature reached 91 degrees.  The porch looked enticing, but not exactly cool.

Good Old Days???

Who says the good old days were so good.  This is a typical kitchen building from a pre civil war southern farm.  The heat from the open fire was so intense, and the danger of lighting the whole place on fire was so real, that the kitchen was a separate building near the house.  This one was the first building constructed on the Oak View Farm.  The family lived in the building until the big house was built.  An indoor kitchen was added onto the main house in th 1940's.  

Historic farm

We recently visited Historic Oak View county park.  It is a ninteenth century historic farm, complete with original house, out buildings and a pecan orchard.  Here is a link to the park information.  I was in awe of the giant beech tree out in front of the farm house.

This portion is the original house,  the rest was added on in the 1940's when an indoor kitchen and bathroom was added.