Flowertown Festival

This morning was the first day of the Flowertown Festival. It also was the last day of Spring Break. We knew it would be crowded so we decided to get there as soon as they opened at 9am. 

Lon made it his mission to spin every prize wheel

One of his prizes

Lon was having fun

Pizza for lunch. Lon's first choice always

It was starting to get crowded. We went to look at the artists booths, but that did not last long as the crowds got too big.   We were there about 3 hours.  It was fun.
We had a good time and we went home before we stopped having fun.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! This is the post for Easter Week and the Festive Day

On Easter Monday, Lon took the day off for an eye appointment and to help me set up for our Church's Seder meal.  He did a great job, and then developed a fever and could not attend.  He was out sick for the next two days. Poor kiddo.

He was recovered enough by Holy Saturday to help Grandma dye eggs. Lon  makes his own colors by mixing several different dye tabs.  He got some great color

Ranger supervised. 

The Easter Bunny still comes to our house ! and that is a good thing

Even for Mom and Dad!

Getting ready for the big feast!  Lon was very helpful

The cats were not so helpful.  Yes, the table was cleaned before we put food on it.

 The big table, all filled up

mostly homemade candy.  Bunny tails, in chocolate and lemon coconut. White chocolate nests.  See's scotchmallow eggs too!

 not pictured, the ham, scalloped potatoes, and asparagus with hollandaise

Kids having fun

The adults getting in on it too

The Egg Hunt is on!  The kids had so much fun!

Lon got to help hide eggs this year.  He had fun with it!

I just want to remember how the mantle looked.

Time to get to the eating part of the day!

Happy Easter.

Rose Hill Plantation

Since we had such a good time visiting Cowpens we decided to take the long way home through the Sumter National Forest.  We had not done that before.  Mark looked at the map while I drove and he said there are two points of interest. Molly's rock and Rose Hill Plantation.  We chose Rose Hill Plantation.  I am glad we did.

The house!
We found out the reason the house was still standing, and not destroyed in the civil war was there was a flooded river that prevented Sherman and his troops getting to the house.
The house was built by the Gist family.  Gist was the sessionist governor, the one who lead South Carolina to leaving the union. 

The ranger office/gift shop was in the back of the kitchen.

The web site Mark looked at said tours available from April through September, but the ranger said she would give us a tour in about 5 minutes if we were interested.  A private tour of the house, of course we were interested!

While we had a tiny bit of time, Lon found the hoop and wanted to see if he could play it on grass, he did pretty good!

The front door is beautiful.  and large

There were some pieces of furniture that were original to the family that they got back for the house and this was one of them

The verdigris dining room. The picture over the mantle is States Rights Gist. Yes, they named him States Rights.  He was killed in the civil war
The ranger was very informative about the house and it's contents.
The house was spared from destruction by a flooded river, It was a cotton plantation.  All the trees in the Sumter National Forest were planted after the Park Service bought the Gist Plantation and surrounding plantations in the 1930s.  The house was restored by a private induvidual before turning it over to the Park Service.

This bed, in the upper room, along with the armoire were left in the house. They were too big to take out!

Rose Hill does have a good number of roses, because it might be near freezing at night they cover them to protect them.

A very old sewing machine in the ladies parlor

What the house looked like after sitting empty for 40 years. The georgian style part of the house was still structurally sound, the later added porches,  did not fare as well.  The house was originally brick, then covered by stucco, with brick lines drawn on the stucco for a more modern mid 1800s look.

We went to look at some of the out buildings, they were not originally in the positions they are now, except for the kitchen.   They were either re made or brought in from other places.  I love the fact they had a loom house !

With a loom!

The rear of the house, with the kitchen.

This magnolia tree was much smaller when the house was being built. The tree is HUGE!

Park information

 Our very wonderful day ended with a treat at Dairy Queen. 

It was a great day. 

Cowpens

I an finally caught up !!

Yesterday, we went to Cowpens, they were doing a living history exhibit on women in the Revolutionary War.  It is a three hour drive from our house. 

We had not planned on doing a Jr. Ranger badge. When we got to the desk, the Ranger asked us if we were doing a Jr. Ranger Badge, Lon said he did it already. Then he asked if he did the Overmountian Victory Badge. We have been searching for that badge for two years! We heard about it, it was on websites, for 96, Kings Mountain and Cowpens, but no one had it.  I even called the National Parks Service and they did not have it.  But Lon worked the booklet for it at Cowpens. He was happy to finally be able to get it!

The Wooden Ram Cookery was there, making food for all the reenactors.
 The chickens smelled great!

 a table with all the wonderful things they had to eat and drink

Selling the fruit and vegetables that would be left at this time of year. This time was known as the starving time of year, the larder was almost empty and the new crops had not yet started to come in yet.  It effected everyone of every social class.  If there was no food to buy, it did not matter how much money you had .

Mark checking out the medical tent.  How colonial women on the frontier used medicines, and what they had to work with.  Doctors were rare and expensive.  A healer woman would barter,  you did not have to use cash, that was helpful. Most people had a chicken, but not 10 dollars.

The man in the medicine tent gave Lon some colonial money to see if he could buy an apple.
Lon was nervous about it.

But he did it!

He was sworn in for his new badge. It is a wooden one, and it is smoke scented.
(now happily glued on to his backpack, which we are now keeping in the car)

Trying to build a fire with a flint. Lon was trying to help him.   Sadly, he was not a boy scout, and double sadly he thought he knew more about building a fire than Lon.

Working hard at it, even though it did not light

After a wonderful time walking around, we were hungry!  We stopped in Gaffney at a place called Aegean Pizza.  We ordered an extra large pepperoni pizza, with mozzarella sticks to start.  A Greek Style pizza. That pizza went fast. Lon ordered another small pizza, ate most of it and what was left we took home,  well, we tried to take it home, it did not make it home. Lon finished it on the ride home.

If we go to this place again, Lon wants to order this pizza. He might be able to eat most of it.

Now to go the long way home!