Week 18

Since Monday was a holiday, we worked part of the day then went to see Kent House--the only plantation house in Alexandria.  It was very interesting and the tour guide was excellent.  You may remember from earlier posts that Alexandria was burned to the ground by the Union Army in the Civil War.  Kent House survived because the owner surrendered to the Union.  His land was burned, but the house was saved.  It was originally 500 acres given by a Spanish Land Grant.  The Spanish would give that much free to Catholics, so the original owner became a Catholic.  He later added more land until it reached 1700 acres. Primarily raising cotton for sale, but also enough sugar cane and other crops just for use on the plantation.

The kitchen outbuilding

From front and back--elevation kept it a little cooler and freer from mosquitoes  

Blacksmith's shop on bottom left, a slave who lived to 114 years old on top, cotton sack on right--slaves wore these around their shoulders as they picked cotton.  This one held 100 pounds--the largest would hold 300 pounds

Dining room, bedrooms, and parlor

The sugar mill--fire in the chamber on the bottom, huge pots upstairs to boil down the juice from sugar cane

And more beautiful camellias on the grounds--roses were also in bloom

We have been seeing Mardi Gras decorations for sale at Hobby Lobby since before Christmas--in fact, seven entire rows plus end displays:

Rows and rows of purple, gold, and green Mardi Gras decorations

Also, we started seeing King Cake, the traditional Mardi Gras cake decorated with purple, gold, and green sugar, in stores a couple of weeks ago.  We needed something from the mall this week, and the stores were displaying the most sparkly, glittery formal gowns you can imagine.

On Friday I got my hair cut--the salon was decorated for Mardi Gras, and I told my stylist that everyone knows about Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, because they're on the news.  I asked her to tell me about the celebrations elsewhere in the state.  Well, apparently Mardi Gras is not just a day (Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday and the 40 days of Lent), but it's a season.  It starts at the first of the year, and all those fancy gowns at the mall are for the balls that have already started.  I guess there is one about every weekend.  There will be several parades closer to the day (March 5 this year), and several other festivities. She also told me where to go to buy the best King Cakes.  I'll describe more as we experience more of Mardi Gras, but it starts early in Louisiana!

A fairly quiet week--we visited one early seminary class, substituted in the institute class, served in the food bank, held our addiction recovery session, and visited a bit in Marksville.  The training for volunteers at the prison was supposed to be held on Thursday, but with the government shut-down, nothing extra was happening at federal prisons.  We leave on Monday for a CES training in Tallahassee, FL, and plan to do a bit of sight seeing along the way.