Shed Building Plans: festival

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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 80s 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-1840s reenactment camp was a highlight for me. If I didnt 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 wasnt 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 boys 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. Ive 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.

Oak Ridge Festival

The Perfect Commute Show Garden for Malvern Spring Festival 2015

Almost certainly the most shedworkingy of this years show gardens will be The Perfect Commute, designed by Deborah Bird from Beholders Eye at this years Malvern Spring Festival. Heres how she described what looks like a must-see garden specially for Shedworking readers:

"The Perfect Commute is being created for a designer who runs a consultancy from their home. They have allocated a space at the end of their garden for their working area. The design is to be imagined as part of a larger space, sectioned off with a low boundary to demarcate the area from the rest of the domestic garden. It has a sheltered indoor working area in the form of a building being supplied by The Posh Shed Company. This is mirrored by a sunken seating area for relaxing and meeting clients. The garden is bounded by Jacksons Venetian fencing, sat on top of steel gabions which will be backed with natural materials.

"A focal point of the design will be a metalwork sculpture by Paul Margetts, a sculptor from Worcestershire. This piece is called ‘Focus’ and will be positioned in a raised bed and surrounded by multi-stem birch trees and soft planting. Throughout the design, planting has been chosen for year-round structure with an emphasis on spring/summer flowering specimens for the show.

"The design was inspired by a desire to minimize the daily commute, an escape from rush hour queues and the encasement of fluorescently lit office blocks. (Truth be told, it’s me building my own personal fantasy)."

Inspiration for some of the design elements is detailed on a Pinterest page set up by Deborah and she will be writing a blog during the build and run up to the show. The garden also has a twitter page @perfect_commute

I know there are many of you who like a full breakdown of garden details so here it is:

Designer:
Deborah Bird, Beholders Eye, Birmingham, 07931 728 007, beholders_eye@outlook.com
Diploma in Garden Design (Pickard School of Garden Design) | MA in Garden Design (Staffordshire University)
Previous awards: 2 x Bronze Medals at Malvern Autumns Shows; 2 x Silver Medals at Malvern Spring Shows and one ‘Best Border in Show’

Sponsors:
The Posh Shed Company, Eardisland, Herefordshire
Paul Margetts Sculpture and Metal-Work, Belbroughton, Worcestershire
Jacksons Fencing, Ashford, Kent
Nature First, Down Hatherley, Gloucester ----------------------------------------------------

Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UKs premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

The Perfect Commute Show Garden for Malvern Spring Festival 2015

Heritage Days Festival at Malabar Farm

Whoo-Hoo Black Powder!

If Im not burning some off myself second best is watching others do it! Today Wyatt and I attended the Ohio Heritage Days Festival held annually at Malabar Farm State Park located in north central Ohio. Malabar Farm is an interesting place to visit in and of itself being an actual working farm managed by the Ohio State Parks. Once the home and passion of noted author, conservationist and World War One Veteran Louis Bromfield Malabar Farm comes alive once a year with the sights and sounds of history.

These reenactors are demonstrating colonial era firearms. The long gun would commonly rest on the mantle above the fireplace in a colonists cabin and be called upon regularly to provide food and in times of war serve equally well.

Heritage Days does not concentrate on any one time period but encompasses all of Ohios past. Two civil war artillery units were set up firing off these big bruisers every couple hours through the weekend. Sorry no pictures of the smoke because I had both my hands busy covering my ears.

I love old engines of all kinds. On display was a couple engines from the early 1900s. I would have loved to take some video of these old machines chugging away but I didnt have a video camera along. About every 5 seconds the cylinder would fire keeping the flywheel spinning. The metal hose sticking out and bent around the bottom of the photograph is the exhaust pipe.

This is an amazing engine built in Columbus, Ohio. I enjoy just standing beside these old relics and listening to the mechanical music of early single cylinder internal combustion.

As a tool guy and gadget man I found this display very interesting. What an incredible collection of vintage monkey wrenches dating back to the mid 1800s.

The tools that built a nation.

There was lots of other stuff going on around the farm that I didnt get photographs of. Plenty of crafts and antiques were up for sale. The big house was open and the main barn was housing a large display of ancient artifacts found in Ohio -arrowheads, spear points, axes and celts. Thousands of primitive weapons and tools from Ohios prehistoric past. Also in attendance was RoadQueens Horsemans Club operating pony rides for the kids.

Although Ive visited the farm on numerous occasions Ive never been during the Heritage Days Festival. It was very cool and I look forward to checking it out again next year.

Heritage Days Festival at Malabar Farm