Saturday, November 9, 2013

Here's what the family plot looks like!

UPDATE 10/25/2014: Changed function of picnic ground and open space.


This is one of the most important posts I have ever made, as this represents the "official" depiction of the rural family farm in which the Barefoot family lives.

It is based on an actual satellite image of 2118 Barefoot Road in Newton Grove, NC.  In real life, this is where a person named Ayden Barefoot lived in 1993, according to the Benson phone directory published by BellSouth (now AT&T) that year.  (The real, late Alfred "Buddy" Barefoot on which my main character's name is based is in the same directory.)  From that image, I "remodeled" it to make it truly their own.

Here is the Photoshop image that was the final result.  Each part is numbered and explained below:

  1. Picnic ground and open space - Its main purpose is for relaxation and outdoor parties.  It was the site of the "Pink Party" for a few years before it moved to what is now the Barefoot Cemetery site.
  2. Outhouse - It's the family's bathroom and home of the infamously-named butt.  As explained earlier, a "butt" in this context actually means a water barrel.
  3. Barnyard - The Barefoots' animals are tended to here, and are prepared for food, clothing, and farmwork.
  4. Residence - All 13 of them live here, of course.
  5. Workshop - Here is where Harvey makes the handcrafted items.
  6. Domestic room - It includes a kitchen, bath, and washroom.
  7. Flower meadow - Annie designed it to beautify the road to the front entrance.  In reality it is on the corner of Barefoot and Calvary Roads.
  8. Loblolly pine forest - This is a place of relaxation, especially in the summer when clan members need to escape the heat.
  9. Farm plot - Domestic fruits and vegetables are grown here in rotation.
  10. Orchard - Apples, plums, peaches, and other fresh fruits are picked here.
  11. Mud pit - There are two very different functions here: child-like recreation and beauty treatments.
  12. Oliver's Creek - This source of the family's drinking and cooking water was created from an irrigation ditch that Oliver Barefoot (B.W.'s great-great-uncle) made after nearby Mill Creek flooded.
  13. Briar patch - This open field is used for everything from growing wild grains to hunting game animals.
  14. Pond - It's where the fish bite and people go to have fun every summer.
For more on some of the specific functions on each of these features, please see this page I put up in the fall of 2012.

In the next photo montage, I incorporate that "artist's rendition" into a "print advertisement" for the Barefoot Family Farm.  I imagine it open for public tours and educational field trips.  The three mini-pictures show, from left to right, B.W. farming with traditional animals, Bobby Ray and Hambone in the barn, and Bryson picking apples.  (Remember that the website and phone number don't work, at least not for the fictitious Barefoot family!)


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