Oak Ridge Festival

This past weekend the RoadQueen, I and our boys took a short drive north to visit a bi-annual event called the Oak Ridge Festival located just outside the village of Attica, Ohio.  The festival has been going on for thirty years or more but I only heard of it thanks to brother in law who attended a couple years ago.

The weather was beautiful with temperatures climbing barely into the 80's so it was a great day to spend outdoors. 

The Oak Ridge Festival is all about living history and putting on display tools and methods of a bygone era.  Just inside the gates we saw this draft pony team plowing some fertile Ohio ground.

A pre-1840's reenactment camp was a highlight for me.  If I didn't have too many hobbies already I would love to get into this.

  

A permanent feature on the festival grounds is a traditional sawmill.  Throughout the weekend operations turning logs into dimensional lumber were on display.  As a woodworking hobbyist I found this also very interesting.  

I talked to an old-timer who has participated in the event for around 30 years.  He said usually they have an antique steam engine providing the power for the saw mill but the owner-operator of the engine wasn't able to attend this year.  So while not as cool as an old steamer a trusty Farmall got the job done just fine.

It took about five minutes to turn a massive red oak tree trunk into a stack of boards.  The fresh cut wood smelled wonderful.

Half the grounds were open fields where the primitive camp, agricultural and sawmill displays were set up.  The remainder of the festival was situated in a wooded tract of land.  Under the cool shade of hardwoods a lane wound itself around with vendors selling crafts and foodstuffs.   

Old-Time Music of course!

 Down a small side trail we discovered the Simon Kenton Range.  We hung around for a while enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of a black powder novelty shoot.

I really like how they have the range set up in woods instead of out in the middle of an open field.

Nice to see some ladies shooting as well.

One of the boy's favorites was a working blacksmith.  This is no surprise as boys have been interested in fire and beating things with hammers for generations.  

The smith was buring coal in his small forge and heating it up with a hand cranked bellows.  It took less than a minute to heat the iron up to red hot.

RoadQueen took this picture of the blacksmith in action.  

Speaking of RoadQueen, The event she was most interested in was the antique tractor pull.  So while the boys went off exploring on their own we settled in to watch some classic American iron do its thing.  I've been to tractor pulls at the county fair but never seen one like this with stock and lightly modified antique machines doing the heavy lifting.  Very cool and nowhere near as noisy as the modern pulling tractor shows.

A picture heavy post I know but these old tractors just look too good to leave out.  It was a great day and we all had a good time.  Later in October the second festival of the year takes place.  The feature then will be antique military vehicles so needless to say we will be in attendance.

Yard Work!

Hammer for scale

I've been too busy for bike riding. The weather in Ohio is sunny and beautiful with temperatures in the 80's. Recent rains have the ground saturated and standing water is still prevalent in low lying areas.  The grass is turning greener by the day and is clumping up in places. It will be a waiting game till the ground dries out as far as mowing goes.

In the meantime I removed a huge 20+ year old evergreen shrub from the corner of my house.  This was the last of the evergreens that lined two sides of the house.  The bushes required trimming twice a year and over the years while I enjoyed pruning and forming the shape of the living trees like big bonsai it got to be tiresome. I can honestly say I don't mind seeing them go. My wife has done an expert job restocking the landscape with more compact shrubbery better suited to the look and size of our property.

Maintaining a house and grounds is expensive and time consuming but one can improve and upgrade all the while making the upkeep easier to deal with.

The first two pictures I took with LeeAnn's new camera. It's a Sony and does a great job.  Although my shots don't do it justice.

She wanted a camera with performance above our little point and shoot Canons without having to bust out the cumbersome SLR.  I quickly familiarized myself with it's operation and have been having a blast in auto mode.  I'm naturally skeptical of cameras manufactured by non-traditional photography related sources but this is a prejudice I'm quickly getting over. Being a fan of Sony audio equipment for years I should have realized they would be making excellent digital cameras in this day and age. 

The Sony has a larger lens and manual control which to me adds a large measure of ease and fun as well as quality to the hobby. The numbers don't mean anything to me but I do know the body has interchangeable lens and I'll be buying the 250 whatever lens for big shots in return for access to the equipment.

  The last three photographs I took with my Cannon Powershot. The little compact does a good job for a camera less than the size of a pack of cigarettes. Resting unnoticed in the pocket the canon is always at the ready when something interesting appears. Like a kilted band.

St Patrick's Day  2012  Columbus, Ohio