Camp Hosting at Oakley Plantation, Mar 1 to Jun 30, 2026

[DutchmenSport]

This is our 6th visit to Oakley Plantation, near St. Francisville, Louisiana as their camp host. Our time ran from March 1 through June 30, 2026. As I've reported about prior visits over the last 2 and 1/2 years, I'll do a summary of this visit.

In addition to Oakley Plantation House Tours, 1800's Carpentry demonstrations, and 1800's blacksmithing demonstrations, my primary focus was to restore the Plantation House vegetable garden. It's been neglected for several years and was taken over by wild growth and decaying fences.

The first step in restoration was to fix the fencing around the garden itself. I did not do this work myself, but the park has an arrangement with a local prison for volunteer work from the inmates (a work release type of agreement, with custodial oversight.) A new fence was rebuilt.

Then my challenge started, framing in the 5 sections of the garden, giving the appearance of a Parterre garden. The framing was painted and set in place.

Next came the rototilling of the 4 quad sections, then new top soil, then various vegetables.

I started growing vegetable starts from seed in starter boxes and using a hydroponic device. 2 different types of cotton plants, an assortment of pole beans, corn, squash, luffa, and tomatoes.

There are 2 more quads to be planted, one will be for watermelon and the second for pumpkin. The park manager wants to dedicate at least 1 pumpkin plant to produce one of those 200 or 300 pound pumpkins. Being an Indiana farm boy, I gave him specific instructions how to make that happen so they can follow up once we leave the park June 30.

The obsticles for such slow progress has been the weather. It seemed there was nothing but rain for 2 solid months. If it quit raining, it took days for things to dry out. Just as soon as things got dry enough that the ground switched from mud to dirt, it would rain again. Finally, all the elements fell in place for a few good days, just the right timing, and with help from one of the other park staff members was able to finally knock out the work.

The inmates returned again also, which was instrumental to finish the rototilling and spreading new pea gravel.

All of this was going on, meanwhile the normal visitation on the park and the Viking and American Cruise Line bus tours continued.

We are scheduled to leave June 30, but return again on Oct 1 and will be camp hosts again from October 2026 through the end of February 2027 again. I wonder what project they'll have me focus on during that time! The projects seem to get bigger and bigger with each visit.

 

[DutchmenSport]

In addition, I got my picture posted in the Louisiana Life Magazine on an article for Oakley Plantation. The picture was of me walking my 2 dogs on the parks trail.

Then this appeared on Facebook:

And I made a couple new friends:

My wife and I also had the opportunity to visit Gibsland, Louisiana and enjoy the day at the Bonnie and Clyde Festival. This is the closest town to where Bonnie and Clyde were shot down and finally killed. It was a fun day!

We never made it to the Angola Prison Rodeo though. It's only about 20 miles from the park!

 

[mlh]

Ok 2 questions
How do you keep the deer out?
I know you build a fence. How high is it. I’ve saw deer jump 8 feet.
Second question. What type of soil do you have down here, sandy——clay.
Lynwood

 

[DutchmenSport]

Fence is an 8 foot privacy fence around the enclosed area. On the bottom, dug into the ground about 6 inches of welded fencing wire that comes up about 3 feet to keep small critters out. Before the fence was fixed, deer could easily fit between the uprights as they were rotting and falling off.

The park also has a Parterre garden on the South side of the plantation house. They have problems with racoons and opossums digging up the flowers and bushes. It's fenced in also atop a brick wall, but they still get in. It has 4 doors, they keep all 4 shut.

The soil in the garden "quads" is a very rich soil over years and years of adding top soil, mulch, fertilizers, and natural grasses growing, chopped, mulched, and put back in the ground. When it rains the 4 quads turn into solid mud. The addition of the new top soil has now helped the "mud" issue, until it eventually decays into the ground.

Around the quads, the walk area has a thick layer of gravel covered with pea gravel, making a solid dry walk. More needs to be added, but all they had delivered was used. They are going to get more (in 4 more weeks) and have the correctional institution inmates work to finish spreading the new pea gravel. I won't be here when that happens. I'll be back home in Indiana.

Here's a photo of the Parterre Garden inside:

Here's a photo of the Parterre Garden outside:

FYI, here's a link to the Louisiana Life Magazine article they featured on Oakley Plantation. If you go to the bottom of the article there is a series of images. Click forward on the images, Mine is #7 walking the trails with my dogs:

Louisiana Life Magazine

 

[mlh]

Thanks.
Lynwood

 

[DutchmenSport]

Our time is winding down at Oakley Plantation (St Francisville, Louisiana). We have only 7 days left. We'll be pulling out on June 30, early morning. We'll do an over-night at the West Memphis (Arkansas) KOA and then on July 1 at the KOA near Paducah, Kentucky. We'll be home (Indiana) on July 2. We have no travel plans over July 4 week-end. We're going to anchor down for a short while at home, and on August 1 will be at Pilot Mountain State Park as a camp host for the entire month. While home, I have a few things I need to get accomplished and a few minor things to attend to on the camper.

The rain seems to have finally stopped for a while at Oakley. The ground is still soft and still has even has some water puddles standing. But the humidity has skyrocketed, and the heat index has been 101 to 105 for several days now. It's either rain in droves or the heat index is unbearable, making outside work near impossible either way.

Yesterday morning was a magnificent morning. Before 8:00 am the air was clean, crisp, clear. temps measured around 74 degrees. And even though there was a dampness from the dew, the air felt cooler, fresh, sunshine bright, deep shadows with the sun low to the Eastward horizon. The gigantic Oak trees, with their gnarled limbs overhead made a canopy of green leaves with their trunks covered by native vines, turning each tree into a work of art all by themselves.

A perfect morning for walking the dogs, enjoying the sounds of birds in the air, and soaking in all the beauty and solitude this park has to offer before the grounds open up to the public and the parking lot begins to fill.

It is a real joy to be the only living person walking the entire property, the solitude, the ability to let your body and mind slow down, reflect, and simply appreciate how privileged it is to be here. The mind reflects what life would have been like at this exact same location 200 years ago, when early morning was not an experience of solitude. Instead some 200 slaves were already at their respective places of work. The blacksmith already pounding the iron, the sounds of metal beating against metal in the distance. The smell of the wood fire coming from the plantation kitchen and the odor of something she was already cooking in the old cast iron pots. At the carpenter's shops, the sound of chopping wood with an axe would have been heard echoing over the fields. Perhaps the sound of a dog barking would be heard in the distance as well. Pigs are squealing, chickens clucking, a donkey breying, a horse snorting pounding his hoof on the dirt, an oxen mooing. And maybe a carriage or wagon wheel grinding over the dirt path that served as a road could be heard coming from a distance away.

An older slave is leading a cow up to the milk house to be milked. He looks like an old man, aged, weather beaten, wrinkled. He is probably not more than 35 years old. Another delegation of older men (slaves) are gathered at the barn. Each one sitting at a shaving horse, carving out wood shingles that will eventually be used to replace thousands of wood shingles from the many roofs of the many small building scattered throughout the property.

There's a delegation of older women, also aged, weather beaten and worn working the plantation house vegetable garden, tending the small (very small) flower garden nearest the big house. Another elderly looking woman with very small children gathered around her. These are the youngest children, too small to start working yet. She will be tending to them while their mothers are off doing their respective jobs.

Spinners, weavers, candle makers, laundry, butcher, gardeners, are already at their duty stations, working away with the sounds of human vibration reverberating though the air.

Yes, reflect on all of these things when walking the grounds at 6:30 in the morning and it's near impossible comprehend when surrounded by the stillness, the peace, the solitude today.

Here's some photos I took of yesterday journey:

Our campsite yesterday morning:

The road leading to our campsite:

The path leading from the memorial marker for the many slaves buried on original Oakley plantation.

Back side of the Oakley House from the yard behind.

Even the modern day (out house) looks like a post card photo when taken in it's natural surroundings:

The picnic area across the parking lot of the Oakley House:

Turn around in the parking lot and see the front of the Oakley House. It's hard to imagine none of those trees were originally there. This would have been cotton instead:

The road (path) leading past the barn (left) and the blacksmith shop (little white building straight ahead) and then onward (straight ahead) to the cow pasture and original cotton fields that now are ear marked for Revolutionary War and Civil War reenactments. Hard to imagine such thing happened also:

Same path from the opposite end looking back. The little white building is a slave cabin and blacksmith shop farther down.

Daisy the long horned Texas Cow in her pasture:

Path leading back to the Oakley House from the battle field and the cow pasture:

Such a wonderful morning. I hope you enjoyed the walk with me.

 

[mlh]

That place is probably like my farm. I’ve lived on this farm 80 years Sunday if I make it a few more days. All the trees that were small are huge oak trees now and the old trees for most part are gone. The yellow pine forest is now a mixed hard wood forest.
It all changes so I’m wondering what the plantation looked like a hundred or a hundred and fifty years ago.
Lynwood

 

[DutchmenSport]

Final Report:

The trip from Oakley Plantation in Louisiana to home (Anderson, Indiana) was successful with no hick-ups at all. Camper towed like a charm, traffic was light until we hit I-465 around Indianapolis and then it was awful, outside temps all the way had a heat index between 95 and 105, but the AC in the truck worked great. I averaged 9.5 mpg on that diesel truck. Fuel prices (diesel) in Louisiana was $3.90. Each 200 miles Northward the prices increased. Last fill-up was in Henderson, Kentucky and it was $4.25. AND ... WELCOME back to Indiana... diesel is even higher than that.

No reason to complain though, other than I am still mystified why Indiana charges so much more than any other state. It's crazy.

Well, my son did a pretty job of taking care of the house, but the yard did need mowed. He likes to let the chickens free-range in the yard and he says when the grass is taller and there are weeds, the chickens eat more bugs! Well, first things first ... I got the John Deere out and made the yard look like a yard again.

Today (July 4), I'm washing the dually inside and out. This is the first bath since it was repainted 3 months ago. That's my current project.

"Home" does look pretty good, but we are looking forward to returning back to Oakley in October for another 5 months over the winter. Yes, we are still scheduled for a camp host in North Carolina for the month of August.

You may travel the world, but there's still "No place like home!"

 

[mlh]

Nice place, nice home. I like the little building painted to match the house.
Lynwood

 

[DutchmenSport]

"little building" .... That is my grandson's "School Bus Stop House." I built it from scratch 3 years ago when my son and his ex-wife decided to switch the boy to our school district. He has a wind block now for those snowy, cold, windy Winter mornings or those rainy, wet, miserable mornings early Fall and Spring. It has electricity and heat. The heat is on a timer and kicks on about 2 hours before the bus arrives, warming it up.

Here's the thread I posted after it was built:

https://www.montanaowners.com/threads/long-post-what-happens-when-between-campgorund-hosting-gigs.994477/#post-10826668

 

[twindman]

I had to wait in Iowa on the cold snowy days too. My shelter was a 1x12 about 5 feet high between a fence post and a highvoltage power line!

 

[mlh]

6 kids in our neighborhood had to walk 2 miles off of a mountain to attend school. The walk was about 1500 feet in elevation through the snow, rain, cold and heat. They would ride red wagons or whatever they could invent. You can’t even imagine that today.
Our bus driver would drive so drunk he couldn’t hardly find the pedals and he always had a bottle under his seat. Once he got stuck with 8 inches of snow on the ground. He opened the door 2 miles from our home and said get off and go home. The kids that lived on the mountain were 4 miles from home and it was below freezing. If that happened today he would be in prison. On the other hand there were no phones and no way to contact anyone so what could he do. But still these were little kids. My brother may have been 8 years old.
My my how things have changed in the last 70 years, for the better.
Lynwood