Week 35

First, the nature report:
I forgot to say last week that our baby cardinals have gone.  One fledgling sat on our window sill for about 30 minutes singing for its supper, and the daddy cardinal came several times bringing food for it.  And that's the last we saw of them.  Male cardinals don't get their brilliant red plumage until they're about a year old (I guess not being flashy is helpful when you're young and don't fly well--don't alert predators until you're very good at flying away).

Mimosa trees are blooming all over the place.  Lots of yards have beautiful specimens, but they also grow along the roadside mixed in with other trees.

Pink powder puff blooms

 Another flowering tree we see a lot is the chaste tree--pretty purple flowers on it:

The chaste tree in bloom

For folks who plant tomatoes and other vegetables no earlier than May 15, it's quite amazing to see the blossoms already on squash plants, and tomatoes and corn like these beauties--already over two feet tall:

This week's "education of the south" highlight was a trip to Frogmore Plantation.  It's named after Frogmore Estates in England, where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are buried.  The original owner of the plantation came from England and I guess thought it would seem like home.

The plantation is a little over an hour east of us, between here and Natchez.  We took the combination tour, which included a look at cotton production now and in the 17- and 1800s, as well as a Civil War tour to learn about how the war affected the plantations in the South.  What really made cotton profitable was the invention of the cotton gin in the late 1700s.  A cotton boll has a lot of seeds and the cotton fibers really make getting them out difficult.  At one stop on the tour, the guide gave us each a cotton boll and told us to get the seeds out.  We couldn't!  It would take a slave all day to get the seeds out of one pound of cotton.  The gin changed all that by mechanically removing seeds quite quickly. The gin cleaned 50 pounds of cotton per day per worker.

We saw one of the original steam powered gins, and watched a video of the modern gin in action.

The gin

The steam house. the tamper that compressed the cotton, and a bale ready to transport

Originally, slaves saved 5% of the seeds for planting the next year.  Eventually, though, cotton seed was found to have a lot of protein and oil that could be used for animal feed and human use.  Then they saved all of the seeds--still using just 5% to plant, but selling the rest for other uses.

The most interesting thing was about the oil--Proctor and Gamble made a product out of it called Crisco--Crystallized Seed Cotton Oil.  Who knew?!?  Also, the fuzzy lint on the seed is used to make paper money, duct tape, yarn, stationery, and other products.

Cotton also contributed to language usage.  I grew up hearing my father say, "fair to middling" when asked how he was (and I often use the same phrase).  When cotton is graded for quality, middling is the term to describe it. The higher the number, the lower the quality; the lowest number (highest grade) we saw in the case was 11.  Middling is a real thing!  That used to be judged by hand (or eye), but now it's done by computer.  In this room is a copy of the Degas painting called The Cotton Exchange--Degas had an uncle who was in the cotton business, which inspired this painting.

Grading cotton and Degas painting

We also learned about the lives of the slaves on plantations in general.  Such backbreaking labor.

The plantation house and the slave cabins

The corn crib, the boll weevil (eradicated in 2005), the sugar cane mill, and some cotton seed products

After the Civil War, many of the slaves remained on the plantations as share croppers.  They could earn more money and have more say in their lives, but still very hard labor.  One of our three tour guides had been raised on Frogmore, the daughter of a share cropper.  Plantation owners often opened little stores so the people wouldn't have to travel so far to get supplies.  Some owners were honest and fair, but others cheated their tenants with inflated prices and payment in tokens that could only be spent at the store.

The plantation store

Saturday we decided to have a boil again.  We're going to miss crawfish, even if it is a lot of work to get the meat out.  The sauce on the left is like fry sauce with lots of Cajun kick to it.  Delicious.

First the paper bag, then the double bag, the single bag, and the delicious boil

The real highlight of the week was starting the summer institute class on Wednesday.  There were only two students and one "mature" sister, but it was great.  We're studying Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel, and looking forward to teaching that every week.  While we're having a lot of fun and learning much exploring Louisiana, we're here to serve the Lord.  What we truly enjoy is the opportunity to serve in the many capacities of this mission.  It is so different and so much less structured than our last mission (in fact, we call this our potpourri mission).