The People of the Mountain Homeplace : Heritage Days 2012

The Mountain Homeplace in Paintsville had their annual Heritage Days Event this past Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and we were happy to have a part in it again.  Here is the ad that ran in the paper twice a week for the past month:

This is a pretty big ad in the paper, measuring 8 1/2" x 7 1/2" and, yes, they used Christina's picture from last year as the top picture in the ad, which was pretty cool!

I am going to use this post to introduce some of the "Interpreters" at the Mountain Homeplace this weekend.  It was fun to be among them.  I'll do another post showing some of the scenery and grounds of the Homeplace at a later time.  Here are the folks who made this weekend happen:

Bobbi-Jo cooking in the kitchen:

Wanda helped in the cabin:

 

Esta Moore demonstrated old fashioned doll making:

Debbie Connelley with her 150 year old spinning wheel:

Wayne Whitaker with his grist mill:

The Bruno children demonstrated cow milking and butter making:

Betty Lemaster and Jane Boggs took care of most of the talks in the church:

Eddie Castle worked as the black smith:

 

For some reason I was more enamored with the chair maker this year compared to last year.  Terry Ratliff makes and sells his hand made chairs and other wood items for a living.  These are high quality durable chairs made completely by hand.  I think they are beatiful in their simplicity, but I doubt I will ever have a set of them unless I build them myself.  One of Terry's simple homemade kitchen chairs like the one below sells for $425! 

Here he is splitting white oak wood during a chair making demonstration.  I thought it was fascinating:

Christina spun on a spinning wheel and worked the loom:

Christina's friend, Kalen Stephens, helped in the weaving room:

 


 

Here is a neat shot of one of the spinning wheels in action:

 Lisa did most of the talks at the McKenzie Branch one-room school:

Simon worked in the barn shelling corn and telling about the animals:

Matthew could only make it on Saturday this year.  He helped out in several areas including the Sorghum press, the small grist mill, and the barn:

Here are a variety of other good shots of the Mountain Homeplace people enjoying the work and fellowship of the weekend: