Original 1910 orphanage
North Little Rock, Arkansas is home to the St. Joseph Center, a non-profit organization based on a historic building that was once a children’s orphanage run by the Catholic Church. The impressive structure was built in 1910 and currently there are several Artist’s Studios inside the spacious old building that houses other functions. As a Harvest Hosts site, we used our membership to park our RV free for the night.
Currently the St. Joseph Center is an educational and working farm. The grounds are really beautiful. The first thing Sher and I did after we parked was to take a stroll around the main building, enjoying the old statuary and flower beds. We also got our first look at the garden plots. Turns out that there is a large citizen garden space where locals can come and, for a modest fee, have their own personal garden plot.
Bull, right and cow
Recently sheared ewe
A couple of very friendly mommy cows
The Farm Stand, in other words the store, offers locally sourced goods ranging from in season produce to canned veggies, jams and jellies, pickles and cheeses. Local sourced flour, grains, and even meats are for sale. We certainly took advantage of Michelle’s opening the store for us and we made several purchases including pickles, pickled green beans and peppered Colby Cheese.
Raised garden boxes
View of the lovely grounds
There are quite a few head of livestock on the farm. Steve directed us to pastures and pens where goats, sheep and beef cattle make their homes. The sheep had recently been sheared ready for the hot summer. I enjoyed seeing the good quality cross bred cattle. Several calves were still on their mothers and would have been fall calves. There are also chickens supplying a great supply of free range eggs. There are two sets of beehives, and we purchased some delicious honey produced by the honey bees right there on the St Joseph Center grounds.
The honey we bought came from these hives
Sher and I enjoyed our visit at this educational farm. Owner’s Steve and Michelle made our visit to this sustainable operation very pleasant. Recently North Little Rock was hit by a series of tornados. Fortunately the St Joseph Center only suffered the loss of several beautiful old trees, but no animals or buildings were damaged. Here is the farm website.
Entrance marker to Rose Hill 
A unique brick and stone monument. Note the entrance gate in the background 
Note the Hand pointing up: symbol for deceased going to heaven 
Monument to Civil War Vets 
Infantryman on CW monument. Note that vandals have knocked off the musket 
Ornate multi-level family monument…
The only marker on the grave 
The road still splits around the graves 
Within a few minutes we were leading a long line of cars, trucks and semi’s crawling along at a blistering 10 MPH behind the bright yellow digital sign board mounted on the truck. The signs let us know to NOT pass or drive over a freshly painted line. We peeled off right as soon as we hit a cross road to avoid continuing the snail’s pace of the sign truck. We still enjoyed our country drive.
New Orleans is celebrating it’s 300th birthday during 2018. 
For some reason, only mules are used to pull the carriages that drive around the town. 
The window display at Rev. Zombie’s Voodoo Shop. 
Above ground tombs in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. Only tour groups are allowed into the cemetery to help control vandalism 
Bourbon Street in New Orleans, known for music, food and revelry. Note the famed balcony iron work in the background 
The oldest soldier listed here as mortally wounded in battle was 24 
