Ozark Folk Center

Ozark Folk Center. Check it out!. It's a village full of crafters. We spent two days there. There is no amusement park theme to it, just good old fashioned crafts. The craftsmen and craft ladies are so ready to visit with you. You will love their accents and their hospitality.  A restaurant is on site with good country cooking (even though they were out of chicken and dumplings by the dinner meal).

The jewelry maker

Plant Market

The broom maker at work

The broom maker's wonderful works of art.

Marva, the country cook.

It's not her best picture, but she was a dream to visit with. She was making corn cakes that she shared with us. They were topped with either apple or peach preserves.

The pot rack in the country kitchen was made on site by the local blacksmith.

I wanted all of her skillets!

I would take her stove too, if she would have parted with it. However it was too warm to transport, she was actually using it!

Of course I've seen plenty of blacksmith shops, so no need to show this one.

 But the sign was unique.

Shannon cabin. Notice the smoke coming out of the chimney?

How did this picture get in here? 

So I will just tell you the fried pies were awesome.

Mine was peach. The blacksmith had cherry.  And they were still warm.

This guy was just hanging out while the old fashion carrousel with swings that he powered was being modified due to high winds.

Old time print shop. That press was so quiet!

The cooper was making wooden spoons, he said the market for spoons is more desirable than wooden buckets.

The spinning and weaving cabin.

The potter. Beautiful works, although I like cobalt blue pottery and not too many people do that. Therefore I left empty handed.

The candlestick maker. At least it's his shop, he's not in on the picture.

I bought this from the basket maker, Sharon Fernimen.

Can you guess what it is? 

It's to cover your plate of food to keep bugs and flies off!

An old fashioned foot lathe. This gentlemen made some wonderful wooden tops.

Every night we went back to the Folk Center for their music show.  It was 2 hours of pure bliss. Their music is so enjoyable (except for one lady who played the harp). Children and adult alike were invited at anytime to join on stage to dance.  Clogging or square dancing or whatever was fine. I only wish we lived closer to have season tickets.

The three boys in this group are the Cobb brothers. Sorry the video isn't picture clear, but you can still hear the music.

We and the Casita visit Mountain View Arkansas

We left Perry, Oklahoma Monday morning at 9:06. At 4:55 we pulled into Mountain View with 335 miles behind us. It was a long drive for the blacksmith. Our next three nights would be spent at Ozark RV park. It is located within walking distance (gated path included) to the Ozark Folk Center.

It is a full service RV park. Full hook ups, free wifi, free cable TV, laundry facilities, trash pick up, and even a community room and a free newspaper delivered to our door step.

For about $23 a night, before our Good Sam discount, we were put in lot 2A.  A perfect spot, as it was located just across the drive way from the community house and there was a jam session to start at 7:00 PM.

After set up, I heated a bowl of chili up. The blacksmith took a nap and I walked over to the music just after it started.

The locals are very proud of their roots. Their music is pre-world war II, 1941. They do not use any electric instruments. The only thing being played that night were dulcimers, auto harps and one bass wash tub. I counted 30 musicians. Each person took a turn picking the song they wanted to play, and then everyone joined in. A lot of singing was going on. One lady chose Amazing Grace.   "No, no" everyone said, "that is always our last song of the evening, we will come back to you".

At 9:00 came Amazing Grace, everyone joined in singing. I really enjoyed my evening.

The next morning after a great breakfast of homemade pork sausage that I had brought along, fried eggs, and toasted sour dough bread, we were ready for a day of shopping in the rain.

Our first stop was Main Street. We parked in front of the court house shown in the above picture.

We visited so many antique shops and even found a thing or two to buy. The fudge shop was open, but we kept on walking.

After lots of walking the downtown area, we went out of town for more antiquing.

This is a must see store, Mellon's Country Store. There was a corner dedicated to musicians in the front of the store. Most all businesses have an area to jam. 

I just had to take a picture of the cocks combs!

Next time I will tell you about more music and the Ozark Folk Center.

Perry, Oklahoma

We've been on a road trip!!  Did ya miss me?  I know at least 2 of my blogging buddies looked for me. One called and one emailed to see if we were okay. Thanks guys! I don't know about you, but I never post on facebook or the blog that we are leaving home.

So over the next few days I will blog about our trip.

Our first 3 nights were in Perry, Oklahoma. There we attended the Saltfork Craftsman's Association annual blacksmith conference.  

We parked the Casita at Sooner's Corner RV park. A no frill park, no wifi, but full hook ups for $20 a night. Did I mention it was next to the Interstate and a truck stop?  Luckily we were below one of the few hills in the county and it really wasn't too noisy. Great weather, not too hot, not too cold for sleeping. The daytime weather, well that's another story.

I watched one really good looking blacksmith work both days. It wasn't my husband, but he was almost as good looking. He was Mark Aspery from the state of California, originally from England. I loved his accent. 

In their gallery I saw this fireplace screen. My blacksmith has made almost everything I wanted, except a screen. Had this been for sale it might have come home with me. Lucky for the husband it wasn't.

But lucky for us, our daughter and son in law were only an hour away. So Sunday afternoon we took off for their place about 2 o'clock. I was so busy catching up with them, I forgot to take a picture of the newlyweds or their brand new sofa that was delivered the day we got there.

I did snap a picture of the platform heels she bought for a wedding in Phoenix today. Oh to be young and wear those. It would be a dream for me. They were as adorable as the daughter wearing them!

We left Perry Monday morning. I snapped this picture while traveling through Tulsa.

Stayed tuned for more adventures.

Doe fawn sighted on game camera

Oh wait, that's Lizzie!

A mother and her baby

It's been deer season here since Friday, well it ends tonight. It was a special urban hunt, whatever that means. The blacksmith was hunting on his home place now owned by the favorite BIL that I've talked about before. Favorite BIL was gone fishing this weekend. Yes farmers get some R and R too.

While the blacksmith was walking in the woods, from his deer stand he saw this cow giving birth, it looked as if she might be in trouble. We went back a couple of hours later to see if everything was okay.

This is what we found.

And there is a reason, I am showing only the front of the cow. Thank you very much.

 

Nap time now. It's been a hard morning!

Looks at these beautiful spoons! Would you like to win them?  Just visit Down on the farm's blog.

What's been going on in my neighborhood?

Well last friday we canned pinto beans. I've talked about this before if you want the recipe go here. We always use the pressure canner or the water bath canner out in the garage.  So I snuck this picture of what the husband does while he babysits the canners. He surfs in the garage. Thanks to the son we now have a wireless router. Thanks Jeremy, Dad can now surf on the deck, at the kitchen island, the garage, the recliner, and he's not tried the shop yet, but that will be next!

My neighbor Maggie called me over friday, she said she had some fabric for me.  It didn't take me long to hop over, anytime free fabric is involved I get in a hurry. The stack above is in beautiful earthly colors. She had them leftover from a quilt she made. I'm sure with my stash I can make a full size top.

And this pile!!! I remember when she purchased this fabric, it was for a grandson. It includes a panel of the world map. It includes red quilt backing, and all the extras to make a full size top. She had even cut some squares and strips to get started, and then they changed colors in his room.

Thank goodness for neighbors like Maggie!

And then my boys came. They cut down 4 very tall walnut trees along the upper garden. We found that not much grows under Walnut trees. Had we cut the trees, they could have fallen into the power lines. The Electric Coop will take them down when the lines are in the way. You see I work for the Electric Cooperative and for years the blacksmith has referred to the linemen as my boys. Some are young enough to be my sons. One that cut the trees could have been my brother in law, he dated my sister back in the 70's, but then he married her best friend. LOL

And on a final note, I got all 17 windows washed yesterday and today. Now it's time for a glass of wine. Okay, maybe a bottle!

Linn Missouri Centennial 2011

There was definitely a chill in the air when we arrived at 7 AM to set up our booth. The grass was sporting a very thin layer of frost!  Yikes, I'm not ready for this cold stuff yet.

The blacksmith's cousins husband came by and snapped this picture of us. Thanks Mark!

About mid-morning I visited the food booth next to us. I had the most delicious peanut butter pie.

We we located away from the parade route, but a few of the entries came our way to unload, including Santa Claus driving a John Deere. Seems he was driving a bunch of hippies around.

It was a beautiful day in Osage county. Thanks to all that came by!