Monday, October 03, 2005
The Anderson Circle Farm Tour
The Anderson Circle Farm with the Show Barn in the background. By the numbers; the ACF has 7000 acres, 85 barns, 17 full time employees, 15 houses (the full time employees live on the ACF) and 8 miles of hard surface roads.
ACF is owned by Ralph and Ruth Anderson. Ralph is the owner of Belcan, an engineering consulting firm based in Cincinnati.
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Here is the haywagon for our tour of the Anderson Circle Farm. We say toward the back of the second haywagon.
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Originally what appeared to be a typical Kentucky transverse tobacco barn, turned out to be constructed with mortise and tenon type framing, which is very labor intensive. The Andersons had this barn structure reconstructed into a guesthouse. The Spring House.
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Walnut Hall is the residence of the Andersons when they come to the farm. Walnut Hall was the first major resoration effort by Ralph and Ruth and is now on the National Park Services' National Register of Historic Places. The doors, windows and trim woodwork throughout the house had been milled from walnut trees grown on the farm. The baseboards were 15 inches high.
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The Chapline House and the surrounding 400 plus acres were purchased by the Andersons in 2004. The original owner, Abraham Chapline, gave his home the name 'Pleasant Fields'.
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The catering crew prepared a 'cattleman's' supper for us. The steaks were grilled on this 'grill'.
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The Anderson Circle Farm has 1200 head of Black Angus cattle contained by 120 miles of four-board fence.
