Golden Gang: LBJ National Park!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

LBJ National Park!

It is one thing to READ about one of our former Presidents, but it is entirely a different learning experience when you actually visit his neighborhood, learn about the time period's way of life, and walk through the halls of his home!

Not too far from Fredericksburg, TX., (about 15 minutes) is LBJ's property that he gifted to the National Park Service.
The property is just gorgeous, with tons of deer, antelope, farm animals and buildings preserved almost perfectly.

The Beckmann family lived at this farm first, and then the Sauer family later. The Beckmann family started with a very small stone home, and then added on after they had 10 children. :)

We saw HUGE pigs, cows, deer, chickens, mules, and turkeys.

The National Park keeps this as a working, functional farm, still today! Every day, they are either smoking meat, butchering, canning, feeding livestock or working the grounds. It was awesome. :)

All the furniture in the home was authentic, and we learned about all kinds of contraptions that are pretty much extinct today. The farmer showed us an old meat grinder and sausage dispenser, and even a machine that separated the whey from the cream. (no electricity needed :)

This 'handy' object is actually the bladder from a pig! A 'pig-skin' or football was a common toy back then for the children. :) Ha!

Here, Parker is getting ready to carry buckets of water.

I LOVE all the quilts and simplicity of this period.

The ladies were putting on the candles of this Christmas tree, draped with popcorn streamers.

Parker was SO proud to get the egg! :)

Here is President Johnson's old school house.

This is his childhood home.

Here is the family cemetery on the property. LBJ, Lady Bird and all the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins are here.

This is the grandparents' home, just about half a mile down from his childhood home.

While you travel on the Park property, they give you a CD to listen to as you travel and visit each location. It was informative, even if the kids kept making fun of the speaker's voice. :)

This is the President's home. The Texas White House. He spent 25% of his time here when he was President of the United States.

They would not let me take pictures on the inside, but it was just too cool. Everything is as it was, even the leftover cigarettes left in the 'Reading' room. There are over 70 phones and dozens of tv's in the house.