(NOTE: View a larger picture by clicking on the photo(s) above.)
The Park is named after General John Coffee, a planter, U.S. Congressman and military leader. The land was donated to the State by a group of Coffee County citizens in 1970. It has a little over 1,500 acres. The Park is known for interpretation of agricultural history at its Heritage Farm, with log cabins, corn crib, tobacco barn, cane mill and other exhibits. A picture of the interior of a Blacksmith Shop is shown above.
A variety of farm animals reside at the farm….pigs, chickens, donkeys, goats, etc. When we arrived, there was a new little goat, six days old, named Holly. The third picture is Holly when she was 11 days old. She ran, jumped and twisted so on the little dirt hill she is on, that it was difficult to get a picture. It is surprising how active they are at just a few days old.
When we arrived we were Camp Host number five. Of the four other Hosts, two are from Canada, one from Southern Indiana and another from Connecticut. Most of these had already been here since October. You see a picture of our trailer on its site above. You will note that we had to jack the front up high to get the spot level.
The work is different here. In the Winter, there are very few campers, so most of the work is maintenance. That can mean almost anything. Here, however, it mostly means cutting trees, grinding stumps, building and fixing things. I now have a new skill as “stump grinder.” The third picture above is the grinder I have been operating. The trees are cut leaving a stump six to ten inches above the ground. It has to be ground down to about two inches below the surface of the ground. Most of the trees we are cutting are Live Oak, the State Tree of Georgia. The cutting is to make it easier for the RV’s to maneuver through the campground.
Carolyn has learned the Office work and the computer system to man (or woman, in this case) the front desk. Any way it is said still sounds strange. I guess we could say she “runs” or “operates” the front desk. Now one gets the picture of her in joggers chasing the desk around, or using scalpels to dissect what goes on there. But, I guess you get the idea.
I have also made a “road trip” to work at a State Historic Site. I and another Host were asked to go to the Lapham-Patterson House in Thomasville, GA, a little over 100 miles away, near the Florida border, to do some needed repairs. We drove the State truck down last Tuesday which took about 2 ½ hours of driving each way. We repaired some outside steps, leveled some bricks in the sidewalk that had been pushed up by tree roots, which required removing the bricks, cutting out the offending roots and replacing the bricks. Then we repaired a antique iron gate that was coming loose from its anchor. A picture of the house on which we worked is the last one above.
The house, built in 1885, is named after it two owners, Lapham and Patterson. C.W. Lapham was a wealthy shoe merchant in Chicago. He was a survivor of the Great Chicago Fire. He suffered lung damage as a result of being rapped in a burning building. He went to Thomasville for it supposed therapeutic mild-winter climate and pine-scented air. He built the house as a winter cottage.
The house is quite strange in its construction. There are no right angles in the house, and nothing is centered or symmetrical. Presumably this helped the air flow for healthier living. The 19 rooms has 45 doors and 53 windows, none of which is the same height as the one next to it. It has a double-flue chimney with a walk-through stairway and cantilevered balcony. The Laphams sold their winter house in 1894, and it was resold to James Patterson in 1905. The Pattersons remained in possession until 1970. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 1975.
Well, the month is ending, and so is this blog. Not for good, just for the month. Next month will be different, to be sure. I wonder what we will get into next. Stay tuned.
