Exhibition visitors are invited to attend.

The 1,280 square foot building is paneled in pine with floors from local ash. The porch roof is clad with cedar shingles milled at the Museum. Other features include ample windows for natural lighting and a cedar closet to help protect valued textiles.

The building was made possible by a grant from The Sweetgrass Foundation which helped kick off fund raising. Funding was further supported by members of the group, friends, and members of the Museum. The Heritage Textiles group also received gifts of building materials, furnishings, and antique textile machines and actual early fiber products and handicrafts.

Early machines and equipment now in place include walking (great) spinning wheels, a large barn loom, table loom, flax wheels, quilt frames, dress frame and various smaller items related to sewing.

During the Museum’s Spring Exhibition, Heritage Textile members will be demonstrating rug hooking, spinning, weaving, tatting, quilting and rug braiding. The members will be teaching most of the above skills in classes to be announced in the near future.

If interested in supporting Heritage Textiles or participating in its classes, please contact Andrea Castle by email at andreacastle22@gmail.com or phone 315-322-5663 or email Mabel Baker at mbaker9@twcny.rr.com.

Sign up for a Museum membership and join its hundreds of members in preserving the North Country’s past and how its people benefited from new technologies.

Individual memberships are $25, couples $30. Junior memberships are $5 for those under 18. It’s all about great folks having lots of fun helping the community in a big way.

The St. Lawrence Power & Equipment Museum is located in the Town of Madrid. It is a 501(c)(3) education corporation, provisionally chartered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York. Information about the Museum is available at slpowermuseum.com. Contact the Museum at info@slpowermuseum.com or PO Box 400, Madrid, NY 13660.

The Museum is open on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month during the summer from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Group visits are always welcome.

Call 315-322-8956 to schedule a time.

Original Article: http://www.northcountrynow.com/featured_events/heritage-fibers-group-gets-new-home-madrid-0236402

Garden tractor and draft horse and mini horse pulls, antique tractor pulls and kids pedal tractor events are just a few of the scheduled events, demonstrations and activities.
It all starts at 7 a.m. Saturday with breakfast and events getting underway at 9.

The Heritage Fibers group will dedicate their new center at 11 a.m. on Saturday, with demonstrations of spinning and weaving and exhibits of old and new quilts, bed canopies, and other handmade items.

The forge in the new Blacksmith Shop will be fired up during the weekend with smiths creating items from raw iron.

Chicks will be hatching in the chicken house with more farm animals at the White Barn. The lumber mills will be making boards and shingles.

Festival-goers can enjoy free wagon and train rides, watch tractors in the parades and plowing in the pumpkin patch, make a scarecrow, and see the great collection of horse-drawn vehicles and farm implements.

Younger attendees and their parents will be able to meet the teacher in the One-Room Schoolhouse, and see if the vintage gas station is selling gas for 27 cents.

There will be shoemaking and repair demonstrations and samples of real maple cotton candy at the Sugar House.

Classic cars and trucks will be on display.

Breakfast, hotdogs, and burgers, pie and ice cream at the Ladies Corner will be available. Roast pork with trimmings will be served Saturday at 4:30 and Steelin’ Country will perform at 6:30. Sunday features church at 7:30 in the Tractor Barn and the Museum’s famous grilled chicken dinner at noon.

Attic treasures will be available for sale, while exhibitors show off their antique engines and machines nearby. Vendors will offer deals on tools and trinkets.

The Old Iron Auction is planned for Saturday afternoon, and raffles will be held for a Mongoose bike, Lenovo tablet or John Deere cart.

Sign up for a Museum membership at the registration desk for $25; couples memberships cost $30. Junior memberships are $5 for those under 18.

The St. Lawrence Power & Equipment Museum is a 501(c)(3) education corporation, provisionally chartered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York. Information about the Museum is available at slpowermuseum.com. Contact the Museum at info@slpowermuseum.com or PO Box 400, Madrid, NY 13660.

The Museum is open on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month during the summer from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Group visits are always welcome. Call 315-322-8956 to schedule a time.

Click here to download the newsletter in PDF form.

Members receiving the Distinguished Service Award were John and Rose Bartholomew of South Colton, Myron and Helen Langford of Chase Mills, and Robert and Carol Moulton of Potsdam.
Volunteer services provided by these members included cooking during shows, construction and painting, driving visitors around the campus, and fund raising.

“It’s very difficult to select the recipients,” museum president Reginald Chester said in a news release. “We’re an all-volunteer organization, and all that we have accomplished has been done by volunteers.”

“Museum volunteers provide a wide range of services including restoration of antique engines and machines, hosting visitors, constructing and restoring facilities, and administering this non-profit organization. A remarkable number of its 900 members are there to help during its shows and open houses, an announcement of the awards from the museum said. But the rapid growth of the museum continues to demand even more,” according to the release.

The museum is in the Town of Madrid. Through its exhibits and demonstrations, the museum “helps preserve the history of how the people of the North Country lived and how new technologies helped shape their lives,” museum officials said.

Information about the museum is available at slpowermuseum.com. Contact the museum at info@slpowermuseum.com or PO Box 400, Madrid, NY 13660.

That was the price on the two pumps at a replica Texaco gas station that was among the exhibits at the 27th annual Old Fashioned Harvest Days.

“They’re probably from the ’40s or ’50s,” said Wayne Day, who was manning the station on Saturday. Mr. Day is a past president and board member for the St. Lawrence Power and Equipment Museum.

It’s retro inside the station, too, with a soda machine that will only set you back 65 cents for a Coca-Cola, a relic of a cash register, and parts for vehicles that are now considered classics.

Mr. Day said they had an actual station to copy when creating the one on the museum’s grounds. It’s modeled after a Texaco station that was owned by Bob Calnon and located at the intersection of Routes 310 and 345 in Madrid.

“It’s a replica of that,” he said.

Mr. Day said Mr. Calnon didn’t do any mechanical repairs at his station. He did, however, sell small grocery items and candies, and had the only place that sold beer on a Sunday morning.

Next to the gas station was a brand new building with a sign that identified it as “Heritage Fibers.” Inside, several women of were making quilts and rugs, while others were spinning yarn made from sheep’s wool.

“It’s the first time the building has been used,” Mr. Day said.

Phyllis Acres was working on a “penny rug,” a craft that dates back to the 1800s around the time of the Civil War. Thrifty homemakers would use scraps of wool from old clothes, blankets and hats to create designs for mats or rugs.

Pennies in those days were nearly twice the diameter of today’s pennies, and they were used as templates to create circles, which were then stitched to the backing.

“They were easier to trace,” Ms. Acres said.

The penny rugs weren’t actual floor rugs, but were used as decorative coverings for beds, tables, dressers and mantles, and sometimes as wall hangings and pillows.

Ms. Acres said she’s been involved with quilting and sewing since she learned to sew as a member of 4-H.

Mary Fonda, sitting next to Ms. Acres, was working on another piece. She and others meet every two weeks to work on their pieces.

“My friend got me started. It’s very therapeutic,” Ms. Fonda said.

Reg Schweitzer was also on hand Saturday to display one of his prides and joys — a 1952 Minneapolis-Moline tractor.

“My father bought it new in ’52. It’s been in the family since,” he said as he wiped the tractor down with a cloth. “Made in the USA, every part of it.”

Behind Mr. Schweitzer was a sea of tractors brought in by others who were just as proud of their machines. Many of them were from McCormick Farmall, while others were stamped with names like Wards Twin-Row, John Deere, Ford 861 Powermaster, Massey Harris and International.

Hugh Newton, a member and past president of the St. Lawrence County Maple Producers Association, was at the Maple Sugar House to talk about the process of turning tree sap into maple syrup. He said the Maple Sugar House, which was built by the St. Lawrence County Maple Producers Association, was the oldest building on the museum grounds.

“We were the first organization to build a building on the grounds. They wanted a sugar house,” he said.

Near the building was a tree with two buckets attached, ready to catch the sap as it began flowing. Mr. Newton said the rule of thumb is it takes 43 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup.

He said his family began maple syrup production in the 1940s, and he’s been doing it for about 20 years.

There were plenty of syrup products available for purchase, including maple hot dogs, maple candy, maple sugar, maple cream, maple walnuts and maple cotton candy.

Schoolhouse No. 12, which dates back to 1850 from the town of LeRay, was also open for visits, with “school marm” Judith C. Liscum on hand to provide information about education back in the early days. The building was dedicated in 2014 and is now a destination for field trips by local schools.

Also open for visits was a barn with several horse-drawn carriages and harnesses. Among the vehicles on display was a circa-1920 horse-drawn kerosene tanker, a two-seater carriage, a delivery van, a two-seater sleigh, a horse-drawn milk wagon and a “100 percent original” Jenny Lind Cutter Sleigh, dating back to circa 1850.

One building that’s still under construction is the Madill log cabin, which was originally located on state Highway 68. The Madill family had arrived in the Lisbon area from Monaghan, Ireland around 1812. The cabin is being rebuilt as close to its original circa 1850 condition as possible, although they’re dealing with issues like logs that are now 165 years old and showing substantial weathering.

Old Fashioned Harvest Days continue today with church in the tractor building from 7:30 to 8 a.m., sawmill and shingle mill operation from 10 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 2 p.m., fall harvesting behind the log cabin from 11 a.m. to noon and 1 to 2 p.m., an antique auto and truck exhibit from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., an antique tractor pull from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., a horse and tractor parade and barbecue chicken dinner at noon, and a kids’ pedal tractor pull from 1 to 2:30 p.m.

Admission is $5 for people 12 and older, and children under 12 are admitted free. The St. Lawrence Power & Equipment Museum is at 1755 Route 345, Madrid.

Original Article: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/news05/st-lawrence-power-and-equipment-museum-presents-27th-annual-old-fashioned-harvest-days-20170903