WIde open spaces...
This is our Families fun journal of outings together. Fun, adventure and new discoveries all in God's wide open spaces. Vision not cramped, smells for the wonder, sights with question and fulfillment...only to over and over again remind us how MAJESTIC GOD is...solemn designer and creator of our beautiful world....
Our aquarium visit...Thanks Cathy!
Our local discovery center...what Fun
Family Fun Day at the Park
Another weekend of fun with Friends.....
We went to the Apple Family Farm and Traders Point Creamery in Indiana...it was a great experience for all of us. Watching the children respond with their very special looks at the animals and being outdoors with family and friends, makes for a great weekend of fun and fresh air in God's wide open spaces....
Weekend Fun at the famous Malabar Farm in Lucas Ohio....
You can read below about Louis Bromfield and Malabar Farm before viewing the slide show or just go down to the last paragraph to read about the pictures that you will be viewing.
You can also visit Malabarfarm.org to learn more and you can also google "Louis Bromfield" or his daughters to find out more about them.
Malabar farm in Lucas Ohio
This now, Ohio State park, was once the home of the famous Louis Bromfield. He was born in Mansfield, Ohio in 1896 about 10 miles from this Bromfield estate that he later purchased after leaving France in 1938 when rumors of war became too concerning in Europe. He lived in this estate from 1939 until his death in 1956. He was an accomplished Novelist, short story writer, playwright, scriptwriter, essayist, journalist, soldier, innovative farmer, nature writer, conservationist, He won a pulitzer prize for fiction in 1927 for "Early Autumn" among many others, plus 2 of his books were made into movies, "The rains came" and "Mrs. Parkington". Very popular movies in their day.
While he was living in France, a place he loved most, he became part of the circle of American "Lost Generation" artists working in Paris. Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and other Famous writers of the time and they often spent sundays at the Bromfield Home along with many hollywood actors. ( In the slide show you will see a wall of photos that Bromfield dedicates to important socialites and movie actors that visited his home regularly... Shirley Temple you may recognize easily....Top middle) Then Lauren Bacall at age 20 and Humphrey Bogart age 45 were married in Bromfields' home, and surprisingly to hear these days..they stayed married until the death of Bogart in 1957 a year after Bromfield's death. Bogart and Bromfield were close friends. You can't see either of Bacall or Bogart in this photo I took of the wall. But for the wedding story....as the piano played they came each separately down the separate stair case. In the slide show there is newspaper clippings and the marriage certificate ...just for the viewing...it is not that readable..but you can make out their names at the top left of the picture.)
Bromfield married in 1921 to Mary Appleton Wood, a New york socialite of old New England Stock...her father was a publisher...great company for Bromfield to be around. They had 3 daughters. Two of the daughter's are still living today and still visit Malabar farm. When Bromfield died he had used up most of his money so his daughter's sold everything... the big house and all of the acreage, the entire house of antique furnishings, all other outdoor buildings and animals for $250, 000...really just pennies for this 32 room house and everything else. The Girls did not have the money themselves to keep the estate. The Youngest of their Daughters being Ellen Geld Bromfield who successfully Followed in her Fathers footsteps. She went on to become an excellent writer and agriculturist. Ellen is now 75 years old. Their middle daughter, " Hope", is now 80 years old and is living in Montana where she and her Husband run a ranch and a wildlife sanctuary. The oldest daughter Ann had suffered with schizophrenia and is no longer living. But her oil paintings still hang in the "Big House" as it is called at Malabar...where we visited. There are a few in the slideshow.
When Bromfield bought the Estate it was snow covered. WHen the snow melted off of the land...he was furious at the destruction of the farming land that he saw. This changed the direction of his heart and writings there after. He echoes what is now being so talked about today...overworked lands, no more rich fertile topsoil..which is what makes healthy plants/healthy people, chemical sprayed foods, no crop rotation, no land resting. His mission turned to restoring the abused soil, plundered woodlands, and abandoned buildings. He purchased 3 old farms and combined them into one. Overtime, by replanting fallow fields into grass and the intelligent use of controlled grazing, natural fertilizer, crop rotation and other organic methods, the fertility of the land was not only restored but also vastly improved. His farming techniques became famous as his novels, and the farm drew visitors and agriculturists from all over the world. Every Saturday morning, NBC broadcast his voice FROM THE VALLEY radio program. He has a widely syndicated newspaper column and wrote numerous magazine articles. Malabar Farm was drawing 20,000 visitors a year, the high point of which was a Saturday in the early 1950's when 8,000 farmers and their families from 27 states converged on Malabar Farm for "Successful Farming Magazines" field day on building topsoil.
an additional note: The movie Shawshank Redemption was filmed on Malabar farm and the local Mansfield Prison was the prison used in the movie. You can take a tour of the Malabar Farm big house on you tube and see the mansfield prison clip that is listed there as well. We did not get to visit the locations where the movie was filmed, but we hope to on our next visit.
Needless to say...Louis Bromfields life was very interesting. The sad part was that he was not a man of God. He was a very accomplished man, on this earth, and he made a huge contribution to the knowledge and benefits in land and soil preservation and rallied with great anger against farmers that did not take pride in the land but rather in mass marketing to the depletion of our soils and ultimately our long term health.
In the slide show you will see Bromfield in a painting, painted by his daughter Ann, with one of his many indoor dogs, next is a picture of just a few of his published books, next is a picture of a sign that names his movies. They were playing on a TV model of that time period below that sign. Next you will see one of 2 entry ways to the farm. This is the barn side entrance, To the far right you can see alittle portion of the "Big House", Then you see Hope and I in front of the house, the next picture is taken from the front porch, viewing some of the fields. The next one is taken from a mountain top that is seen from the front of the house. We drove up there to take the picture after the house tour. Next is the barns and another storage barn with flowers beside it, the the smoke house that Bromfield built and the turkeys and a very loud young hungry cow, The next 3 pictures are of Bromfields office...the bed is the 3rd picture. This is where he slept and where he wrote and typed his books. He found sleep hard....he could only sleep 2 hours a night mostly, so he stirred alot and did not sleep in the same room as his wife. That is the dogs bed at the end of his bed. Next is his Wife's bedroom..the bed is not in this picture, but the pale yellow painted round shaped head board had been hand painted in pastel colors with all of the names of his books that had been published at that time..in a very pretty calligraphy fashion, next you will see the newspaper clippings and marriage certificate of Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, Next a shadow box of birds, Old piano, another painting by his daughter, the photo wall of famous celebrities, the stair case that Bacall and Bogart went down during their wedding ceremony, several upstair bedrooms, Next is our sweet Hope at the Malabar Farm Gift shop and then Pooped out Hope who fell asleep in 5 minutes of Saucer Fun.
