On a recent Sunday Kenyon and I took a tour at the Gari Melchers estate. It is a beautiful older home from the 1920's. Gari Melchers was a portrait artist...and apparently a pretty good one.
It costs money to go in to the home and art studio. Since we have not received a paycheck in months, we didn't do that part of the tour. What we did do was the FREE guided tour of the grounds on the estate. The tour is guided by volunteers and there are a couple of tours like ours scheduled throughout the week.
It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon...being outside in nature, on a walk, and learning about things I had no knowledge of before. I learned about indigenous vegetation and wildlife...and also about natural elements that were introduced from other places like Europe. But, the best part for me was the insight on what life was like in those days.
There was a carriage area in the front of the house with a cement stoop to let the ladies off. The designated garden area was HUGE. Why? Because that is what it took to produce enough food for their family. Because this man was a sought after artist they had a big and beautiful house and other amenities like ice.
Where they got the ice is the most interesting story to me. It's source is a nearby creek. It was obvious they had created a pooled area kind of like what happens when beavers build a dam, but this was man-made with stones. In the winter they would lay out slats of wood and let the water freeze, then stack more wood on top of the frozen water, and so on and so on, until they had layers of ice. Before the ice melted, they would come out with a ice saw and cut it in to blocks then store it underground. They would serve this treat at parties because ice was considered a luxury item.
Walking the grounds I kept thinking about the value of self-sustained living.
just Sheri, intrigued by sustainable living
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