Historically chickened out


On Tuesday, Brad and I went on a date to Historic Brattonsville. We had great weather! It was overcast and had recently rained the night before, so it wasn’t too hot. We didn’t even need cooling vests or anything!

Historic Brattonsville is a working plantation set up to be around the turn of the 1800s. They have lots of cool old buildings, crops, farm animals, and several really good interpreters who know their history and can explain it well.

Veronica and Hestia walk along a dirt path surrounded by old timey fences in a forested area.

We started out on our walk around and came to the first building with an interpreter named Emmy. She was fantastic! She told us all about the updates that are happening to Brattonsville—like which buildings were currently closed, why, and what they’d look like when re-opened. We can’t wait to see some of these things!

Veronica stands at the bottom of a set of stairs from an old wooden building. Hestia sits on the second set up. Emmy, dressed in traditional 1800s clothing, stands on the top step. Veronica and Emmy discuss Brattonsville and history.

I am most excited about a building that used to be a store being opened to the public looking as it did back then. I think that will be super interesting! I wonder if it will be wheelchair accessible? Two of their current buildings are accessible, though both were closed for renovations when we were there.

Emmy also showed us yarn that she had dyed in traditional second mourning colors, and talked with us about mourning back then. The rules were much more strict for women than for men!

We also got to talk with Emmy about Hestia, my puppy Alice that I’ll be getting in three and a half weeks, and service dogs. She was a great person to talk with, and we had loads of fun!

Hestia stands in front of Veronica’s legs, and looks directly into the camera for a shot taken at Hestia height.

Next we headed over to the kitchen, and talked with a woman who was making bread and succotash. We had another good conversation, especially about bread baking and trying to find and/or follow old recipes.

While we were talking, Hestia kept looking backwards. Turns out she was looking at the free range chickens who were at the back of the property!

We headed back there and when the chickens saw Brad, they rushed him like they thought they were going to get fed! They must get fed from some sort of cart, because every time he moved, they acted like it was meal time!

The rooster is a reddish-brown color with two red horn-looking growths sticking out of the top of his head. This picture taken from chicken-eye-level shows his neck and head and a few tail feathers as he looks at the camera like it might be something to eat.

I picked Hestia up because I didn’t want to risk sharp beaks and claws poking her eyes. She was very interested in the chickens, but the chickens didn’t seem to realize I had a dog in my arms LOL! Brad went a little bit overboard taking pictures of all the chickens. I think he took over 200 chicken pictures! Having lived on a farm with chickens, we really do love chickens. They are such funny animals! And the chickens kept posing for Brad in front of different interesting backdrops.

Veronica holds Hestia and kneels down while they both look at three white chickens pecking in the grass in front of them.

Finally we headed over to see the sheep. Most of them didn’t care about us when they realized we didn’t have any food for them. But one sheepie came over to investigate Hestia, who was looking through the slats in the fence. Brad got a picture of the sheepie and Hestia sniffing each other!

Hestia and a sheepie sniff noses through a fence.

By that time, we were getting tired, so we did a quick pass of the remaining buildings on the property. We did stop to get some pictures of Brad under a trellace of grape vines, though!

Brad extends his left arm and reaches towards some grape leaves while looking calm but interested.

It was a really great visit. Being so cool out, and seeing only two other groups of people while we were there (besides interpreters), it really felt like a relaxing walk and not a stressful outing.

I left there feeling more relaxed than when I had arrived, which is really rare for me for an outing!

A great high dynamic range photo of an old loom (still able to be used today!) with a wooden chair in front of it.

Brad got loads of pictures, enjoy them below! I am a round woman in a pink bird dress with my brown hair in a ponytail with a bug scarf around it. Hestia is a small white and black dog with a smushed face wearing a galaxy vest. Brad is a bearded man in a power wheelchair wearing a white blazer with a gold pin of DEATH from the Discworld series on his lapel. He has on a red and white striped shirt, a white tie with green leaves, and a straw fedora.

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