Homesteader Days

There is an annual festival called Homesteader Days in the park across the river from the cabin.  The idea of it is to show off all the stuff the settlers did when they came to the Ozarks way back when.  Like making candles:

Turtles.

This kid-powered merry-go-round thing was a big hit.

A hundred years ago this would have been a tiresome chore, but it is just good clean fun in 2011.

There were also lots of people cooking stuff in dutch ovens and making open fire beans. 

Who wants beans when there is homemade biscuits and strawberry jam and butter churned on the spot!

And then there was this crazy thing.  It was a sled pulled by horses, but it went over the grass and dirt instead of snow.  These two local hoodlums jumped on right before it was about to take off with Phoebe and Frankie.

Hold on!  It topped out at about 3 M.P.H., but it still seems crazy that they did not require you to sign some kind of release before you got on this thing.  But what would you expect from an event that also featured a 7 year old kid giving a hatchet throwing demonstration?