Neighborhoods and Activities in Baton Rouge

One of my favorite places to go in the Baton Rouge area is LSU 's Rural Life Museum and Burden Estates.  Coming in just a few days is their annual Christmas celebration called "A Rural Life Christmas".  This is a living history event, where artisans in costume  recreate Christmas festivities of the nineteenth century.  You and your family experience sugar cane grinding, syrup making, candle dipping and other activities.  An old church comes to life with renowned gospel choirs singing hymns.  Enjoy hot cider and Louisiana style food...Jambalaya dinners.  A Civil War encampment will feature the soldiers in their winter quarters.

Children will thrill to horses and soldiers and play old fasioned games, sing carols and ring handbells.  There will be an assortment of old fashioned crafts and hand made gifts for purchase for the holidays.  Hot apple cider and cookies are always a treat.  Here my grandson was allowed to ride one of the calvary horses at the fall festival.  He didn't stop talking about it for days!

Old fashion hay ride tours are another highlight of the event.

This event is a wonderful way to begin the holiday season.  If you are traveling to Louisiana, or just living here, this is one of the best events for children of all ages. 

Mark December 7, 2008 on your calendars!

Today I just toured the new home built near LSU by the AgCenter, called LaHouse. 

It was 6 years in the making from conception to its recent completion.  A home able to survive hurricaines and keep its residents safe from the storms.  Its mission is to assist the Louisiana and Gulf Coast region in construction and design of homes.  It is a model of building science best practices and building code-based information and continuing education.  It is designed to withstand the Gulf Region environment of hurricanes and tornados, providing the resdents with multipurpose rooms that can also be used as "safe rooms" in storms.  It provides information on a variety of new building materials and one of the goals was to come up with "affordable" alternatives.  It offers neat features like sensors that detect walls of rushing water and open automatic "gates" under the home to allow water pressure to flow under the home and avoid permanent damage to the foundation. As wind and flood standards and zones are being revised to provide an economical & safe rebuilding of storm ravaged coastal areas, this is a must see educational museum and teaching facility.  LouisianaHouse of the LSU Ag Center.