For our field trip this week, we went to the Carroll County Farm Museum and Park. They did not have most of the animals in residence for the winter. We were a little sad about that, but the entry was free since it is the off-season for their activities.
The house was set-up like a prosperous farmer's residence, but our guide told us that it had served as the Carroll County Alms house for about 70 years. People who did not have anywhere else to go could live at the alms house and pay their way by doing farm chores. They had as many as 60 patrons living in the dormitory at one time. I guessed, but our guide did not know for sure, that the largest numbers of patrons were probably from the years during the Great Depression.
They had each of the rooms in the men's dormitory set-up as historical exhibits. One was an old time veterinarians office circa 1890.
They had an interesting exhibit about a crop that they used to grow locally, which I'd never heard of -- wormseed oil. At first I thought it must be the same as artemesia (wormwood), but Google confirmed that it is not. It is a different weed like plant that was widely cultivated and pressed into a useful oil. When they figured out how to produce an artificial chemical version of wormseed oil, the natural oil producers could not compete and stopped growing it.
I always love seeing the kitchens in old fashioned houses. This farmhouse kitchen had a mix of older and then more recent amenities.
There was a playground shaped like a tractor that baby A especially LOVED. It was a cool day, but the sun made it great weather for playing outside.
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