A couple weekends ago we went to Kliebert's Alligator Farm because how could we live in Louisiana and not go to an alligator farm. We loved it! The oldest alligator there was 54 years old and almost 15 feet long. We also got to see a TON of turtles, a mama alligator guarding her nest, and various other creatures. We learned that alligators can go a whole year without eating because rather than eating when they're hungry, they just eat whenever they have the chance. When they aren't hungry right when they've eaten, they store it as fat until they do need it. It's also incredibly loud when they smack their jaws together. Oh yeah, and something about them not being able to swallow their food when they're underwater so that they don't drown themselves.
Sorry it's crooked, but there were 10,000 turtles in that pond! And the pond wasn't exactly huge
Are you sure that's a good idea?
Just a couple of mamas protecting their babies
Hahaha this picture makes me laugh so hard
He showed us how to wrestle the alligator
alligator charmer
Alligators feel SO weird-I couldn't stop laughing
Adaline wasn't about to miss our on the action
some turtles are very stretchy
This is what Adaline does when she sees any bird:
Andrew getting off of the alligator:
The video doesn't really capture how loud this was, you'll just have to believe me:
I have no idea why he volunteered to have an alligator bite him...the people that work here have to be a little crazy I guess:
The following weekend, we went to a plantation house. Rather than going to one of the big, fancy ones, we just went to the one in the heart of Baton Rouge. It's called the Magnolia Mound Plantation and was originally on about 930 acres. The house was built in 1791 and then underwent some expansion and renovations around 1807 to accommodate the new owners and their 11 children. We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside of the house, but we got to learn a little about the structure of their house, things they did to keep cool, the "refrigerator" buried under the porch, and the "shoo fly" hanging over the kitchen table. My favorite part was the outdoor kitchen. It would have been SO hot to have to cook out there in the summertime. And it was so much work! After seeing the work people used to have to put in, I really can't complain.
In the slave quarters
I am so grateful my mattress is thicker than that
In front of the main house
In front of the overseer's house
The kitchen
Can you spy the waffle iron? What about the "toaster"? (Answer: the waffle iron is the black rectangle with the long handle. Can you imagine how heavy it would have been to hold that in the fire until they cooked? The toaster is the thing with the semicircles to the right of the toaster. You put 2 pieces of toast in and set it in front of the fire, then you'd spin the top part to toast the other side.)
I would have hated sweeping with this broom even more than with my own.
Luckily my little girl is tickled to help out!
Side view of the main house. The porch originally went all the way around the house, but during the expansion, they used the porch to add extra rooms
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