Dudley Farm

   When I stayed with my parents in Gainesville for 19 days around Christmas, I went to visit my grandpa a handful of times when my mom went to take his compression socks off every night. One of those times I was flipping through old pictures in a yellowed and worn scrapbook, then I scanned my favorites. It's amazing how much I resemble my great-great grandmother, Myrtle Dudley.

   Just kidding!! These pictures are from when I went to Dudley Farms, with Mia, Tonia and Sharanya on December 28th, and I just edited them to look really old. Pretty legit, right? ;)
   Dudley Farms is an old home of the real Myrtle Dudley and her whole family back in the late 1800's. It was so cool and I really felt at home there, as I normally do when I read about pioneer and prairie times. It was one of my favorite days of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday! I was very fortunate to have a lot of really great days last month.

They sure did love that mule! They pet him for a good 20 minutes. He was pretty cute though. 

I started exploring the dinner house where the cast-iron stove and wooden tables were.

 Our Helen Keller pump! And I'm pretty sure Grant Wood's 

"American Gothic" painting from 1930 was based off of this gem of Mia and Tonia. 

Yeah, I just forced myself to learn something in order to write that comment. ;)

^^ Our tour guide (for part of the time when we had questions), Bennet, showing us
one of the wells. This one was only 9 feet deep. The other one he showed us was 56 feet deep! ^^
& I loved the little decorated Christmas tree (below) with the doilies and fabric. 

I don't know what type of tree it was- maybe Mia does?- but that was very cool too.

   This last picture (below) was from a different 1880's place in Gainesville, Morningside Living History Farm. I went there with my best friend, aka my mom, the weekend after Dudley Farms! We always have such a fun time together. I'll have to post more of these good times later. Especially the ones of Lindsay, the volunteer girl dressed up!

   I wonder if anyone took silly pictures back then. Probably not since it took 20 minutes to take a picture, right? I probably wouldn't take very many pictures either if it always meant nobody was smiling because smiling helps you remember what a great day it was! =)