We had a little rain, occasional sunshine and lots of competition --- including football --- but a good time any way during the Lucas County Historical Society's season-ending open house on Saturday morning.
The Boy Scouts were on hand at 10 a.m. to raise the flags on the Bicentennial flagpole and also demonstrated rope-making and cookie-baking --- in dutch ovens topped with hot coals.
The cookies were great --- here's Roberta Reynolds preparing to sample.
The Van Ryswyks brought along Pam's father, Floyd Stebbeds, of Knoxville, and the magnificent working scale model of a steam-powered Case tractor that he created 20 or more years ago. Once his equally magnificent model of a threshing machine had been attached and adjusted, compressed air powered the combination for the rest of the morning.
Floyd's model is about double to the scale of the Raymond Swanson model of an 1895 Case that was donated to the society recently and was on display upstairs.
Danielle Van Ryswick brought along small farm animals for the petting zoo and Karen Coons Dixson's "fainting" goat was especially popular with the youngsters.
Mary Jo Fisher offered face-painting for youngsters from headquarters inside Otterbein Church.
And blacksmith Jerry Book was on hand to demonstrate and explain his craft and also brought along his small cannon, which punctuated morning events with big bangs at 10 a.m., 11 a.m. and finally at noon.
After all was said an done, we gathered in the Pioneer Barn for a terrific volunteer-appreciation lunch coordinated by Kathleen, Kyle and Karoline Dittmer (with major assist from Patrick Dittmer, who smoked the pork). This was our way of saying "thanks" both to the volunteers who keep the museum operating and to those who helped out in various ways with the morning program.
If you're interested in seeing Jerry Book at work smithing today, he'll be at his nephew's Crooked Gap Farm during the annual Farm Crawl --- a busy weekend.
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