Leave the roads...take the trails: "A Poet of the People"

Last weekend my other half and I went to the Carl Sandburg Home in Flat Rock, NC. I had seen the sign for the home on the side of the highway countless times but had my friend not said we should really go, I'm not sure I would have. And I'm glad we did because we had a blast!

The Carl Sandburg Home is a National Historic Site run by the National Park Service. It costs $5 per person to tour the house, but the grounds, trails, and barn are free.

For those of you who are like me and have no clue who this gentleman was, let me educate for a brief moment. Carl Sandburg was a famous (it surprised me how famous!) writer, folk singer, activist, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and biographer (two for his poetry, one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln). He died June 22, 1967 and his wife sold the property with its contents and cultural resources donated to the National Park Service in 1968. One of the stipulations was that the calendar in the house remain open to June 1967. I wish I had taken a picture of it to show you!

Lake on the way up to the house and goat barn

View of the house from the trail

Trail leading up to the house. When we were heading back to our car a lady yells to us, "Is this hike worth it?!" We said, "Oh, definitely." And then Chris and I both look at each other and say, "Hike??" It was .25 mile and 100 foot elevation gain. Funny.

Lilian Sandburg's (wife) passion was goats and one of the main reasons they moved to North Carolina. All of the goats on the property are descendants of her original goats. Or so they say.

I used to want goats. And then I read parts of the keeping backyard goats book they had in their giftshop.

Chicken butts

Of course I had to take a picture of the piano

Every room was full of books; apparently the collection contains 12,000 volumes. This is actually the dining room. They weren't big tv watchers but every year Zenith would send them the latest television set they had made.