Hey folks - back from Music City and back to the old grind at work again... sigh... a wonderful time was had by all in the 'Ville. We took advantage of the long weekend and went to see Adam, our oldest. While there, the weather was absolutely fantabulous - cool nights and warmish days - but not so warm that an outside adventure is out of the question. We LOVE to visit historical sites. And Nashville and surrounding area is full of them. Adam loves this stuff, too. We decided to visit The Hermitage, the plantation home of President Andrew Jackson. It was gorgeous, immaculately up kept and preserved and the perennial gardens were out of this world! If only I could duplicate that at home!
Let me take you on a brief tour. I believe the tour guide told us that the Jacksons had around 1,200 acres and today still they have all but about 80 or so. We had these headsets that we could wear and take our own tour at our own pace. Sweeeeet! Andrew Jackson bought this place and he and his wife first lived in one of the log cabins on their place and later built the big home that we see today. His son inherited it later on, wasted alot of the money, and a grand-daughter took over the place and had it restored to a museum and historical landmark. I believe her foundation still maintains the upkeep even today.
There is a nice museum and gift shop and restaurant on the property - not attached to the main house.
There are several oil portraits in the museum of Andrew Jackson, photos of the family, the slaves, and lots of interesting information about the family and their lives and history. They have a movie about the Hermitage also, but we did not take that in.
(above) This picket fence is what you see on approaching the house...
(below) the family carriage and Jackson's personal phaeton are housed in the museum...
(below) The staff would not let us take photos inside the house - everything is under glass and climate controlled to prevent mold and decay. Everything is much the same and they have most of the original furniture in the house. Original French wallpaper murals adorn the entryway, library, and upstairs bedrooms. It's QUITE beautiful... wish I could show you pictures...
(above) We were able to take a picure of this dining room. Very nice - notice the old linoleum... Just outside the dining room was the chef's pantry where all the dishes and serving pieces were kept. Normally, the affluent kept a sugar cabinet in the parlor or the formal dining room. It was a sign of wealth. There was also another pantry that was kept under lock and key, and the mistress of the house kept the keys. All food was raised on the farm, but anything else they wanted was shipped in and kept locked up for special occasions and special guests.
An outside kitchen was later built - There was a kitchen in the house at one time, but people used to have outside kitchens, in case it caught fire it wouldn't burn the whole house down...
THIS (above) was the smokehouse right outside the kitchen. They would butcher the hogs here, drain the blood in these big vats carved from some mighty thick trees and hang the meat in the rafters and they would smoke the meat for about 6 weeks to cure it...
(above) a view of the back of the house...
(above) horse-drawn wagon tours available, too! How fun!
(above) The Jacksons had an English styled garden - foursquare and all symmetrical. The family graveyard is there, too. They did own slaves and at least one of the men is buried near Jackson. They had a beautiful monument/tomb erected from Andrew and his wife surrounded by the gardens...
(above and below) The whole garden was very "Monet-ish" and provided lovely photo ops and painting ops for me! YEA! Hope to get to that pretty soon!
(above and below) The monument that contains the tomb of Mr. & Mrs. Jackson...
A side view of the house from the gardens...
(above) Adam reading some of the headstones in the garden and family burial plot...
HAD to get a picture of these two hard workers!
(above) Adam and I in the garden - notice the sunspot on my nose!
(above & below) one of the cabins on the property. I think the one above was converted into a barn structure. See this sleepy guy hanging out?
This is a renovated cabin believed to be the first cabin that Andrew Jackson built on the property - later converted to slave quarters. To the left of this cabin behind the trees were the "Field Quarters" - a couple of hundred acres where the slave cabins were - they must have had quite a few to take care of this large estate- the gardening, the field crops, cotton, the animals and the daily tasks of running the home.
(below) These were the resident roosters - Dave & Buster. They crowed the entire 2 and 1/2 hrs that we were there...
(above) My guys along with one of two of the other draft horses that pulled the wagon.
And, you might be a redneck if.....
You wrap your carport in Confederate flags, and sell steaks and seafood out of your home!!! (spotted in Arkansas...but why am I surprised? No offense, Arkansas - we got stuff like that in Texas, too!)
You might be a redneck if you use your defunct tractor as a pond fountain to aerate for your catfish!!!!
Spotted in Pittsburg, Texas (I think)
And just one more...
You might be a redneck...
If you ride ON the mower ON the trailer from job to job
Next up - a few shots of Adam and his Rock 'n Roll show at Big Shotz, downtown Nashville Saturday night Sept. 5! Hope you all had as wonderful a weekend as I did!
