Kansas City Adventures: Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead

Today we ventured over to Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead. This incredible place is just a few miles from our home and FREE. I think it will become a regular exploration spot for us.

Andrew gets photo credit on this one.

This windmill was really loud. Andrew dubbed it the old-fashioned tornado siren.

The first thing we did was look at the chickens. They were super active; running around even jumping up toward the people around the fence.

I don’t think Emily was super impressed, but she watched them very seriously. She did sneak me a little grin though when we made eye-contact.

I really liked this school house, mostly because I could pretend for thirty seconds I was there at school with Miss Shirley or Christy as the teacher. I was surprised to see the desks get smaller as you went down the row on the right side. It makes so much sense that the little children would have smaller desks! Somehow even with my fascination with one room school houses I never caught that detail before.

Next up, baby goats and calfs. There were actually lots and lots of animals everywhere in the complex, but Emily was more interested in watching the people than the animals so we didn’t spend too much time around the livestock.

We then went to the Kanza Indian Encampment. Kansas got its name from the Kanza Indians. This structure would house 5 or 6 families or 60 people.

The dome was lined all the way around with beds and then open space in the center for living.

Andrew realized that Emily’s shirt fit right in for the occasion.

Onto the town.

We learned that by the age of 25, the majority of blacksmiths were deaf. Gloves are really dangerous for them to wear because the sweat inside of the gloves would turn to steam when they picked up the metal and burn their hands. The floors of blacksmiths shops are always dirt so that the sparks or dropped metal won’t start fires when they hit the ground.

Emily held her hat up like that for the majority of the demonstration.

The barbershop had its own ceiling fans, run on a belt and propelled by a windmill or waterwheel. A seriously brilliant invention of the early 1900s!

The clock’s numbers were purposefully backwards so that they would reflect forwards in the mirror, which is where the men would be looking when sitting in the chair. The face of the clock also had paid advertising painted on and it would be changed each month.

The shaving cream was mixed in a communal cup, unless you paid to have your own cup, which would be displayed in a case and only used when you came in. The cups were a status symbol, so the fancier the better.

The general store.

Emily loves climbing up playground stairs and picking up the wood chips that are on them, which is a daily activity for us. Because she had been sitting in the stroller for our entire outing, we stopped to let her play for twenty minutes and get out some wiggles.

Andrew peaked through a crack by the stairs and got some of her faces.

If you look closely you can see her tooth, which is the lighter part center and bottom. She opens her mouth when she is excited, and lately that means her mouth is open a lot.