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Demonstrations At
Home
Tillers offers a growing number of opportunities to visit
or to see our work at home and on the road. These events
require no registration unlike the classes that are more
intensive sessions at our Training Centers. You can come
and leave on your own schedule as you, your family, and
friends explore the fascinating world in which we work and
share ideas. These are great opportunities to check out
the possibilities of joining in a class or finding out about
volunteer or donor opportunities.
Plow Day and Traditional
Crafts Demonstration - 102
Spring turning, a rite of the season, celebrates fertile
soils and responsive draft animals. If you have a team of
horses or oxen, put them to work plowing fields and sharing
the pleasures of working draft animals with people interested
in learning the skills. If you don't have work animals,
come enjoy the beauty of their work. There will be blacksmithing,
broom making, chair making, chair caning, timberframing,
and many other demonstrations the bring to light the traditional
craftsmen's skills taught at Tillers. Bring a dish to join
the volunteers' pot luck. See the Farm
Tour.
Enrollment: 0 to 400. All ages welcome.
a/ May 3, 2008-- Saturday, 1-5pm -- $10 per car to encourage car pooling
Cook's Mill, Scotts, MI.
Ox Drovers' Show - 104
Join many of the 200 members of the Midwest Ox Drovers'
Association in celebration of these rarely seen draft teams.
Enjoy the parade of teams or learn to plow behind oxen.
See them demonstrate special skills. This unique event is
an opportunity to share in the revival of a nearly lost
art. Test-drive a team and learn about their training. Enjoy
their versatility! See MODA 2001 in the Events
Photo Gallery and the Nigh
Ox.
Enrollment: 0 to 400. -- All ages welcome.
a/ June 20-22, 2008 -- Friday- Sunday, 1pm-5pm -- $free
Cook's Mill, Scotts, MI.
Community Harvest Festival
- 105
The beauty of fall makes this a special celebration of a year's
work. Sorghum is cooking in the evaporator and the shops are
busy with smithing and woodworking tasks. Watch as wheelwrights
set a tire. Try you hand at plowing a furrow. Take a hay ride,
and enjoy the season with a walk along the Mill pond. Purchase
sorghum, honey, pumpkins and other produce grown on the farm.
Enrollment: 0 to 400. All Ages Welcome.
a/ September 21, 2008 -- Sunday, 11:00am-6:30pm
Cook's Mill, Scotts, MI.
DreamAcres' Open House
- 107
Spend a day on an organic farm nestled in the hills of
southeast Minnesota. Todd and Evie host a tour of their
non-electrified homestead. Come see solar demonstrations,
horse and ox farming, learn how timbers are prepared for
framing and make the pegs that hold them together. There
will be ox cart rides and tours of their community supported
organic market garden. Enjoy a day in the country surrounded
by the sights and sounds of farm activities. Take a
photo tour.
Enrollment: 0 to 250. All Ages Welcome.
a/ TBA -- Saturday, 1-4pm
DreamAcres, Wykoff MN. Todd Juzwiak, Evie Barr, hosts.
Demonstrations
on the Road
Presentations on the road give us a great opportunity to
meet more of you. Thanks to a grant from the Harold and
Grace Upjohn Foundation, Tillers has a van and stock trailer
that permit us to show our oxen in more places.
We depend on former students and friends in the areas of
these demonstrations to help us interact with the audience.
Please meet us at one of these activities. If you might
be able to help, call ahead. We will welcome the help and
cameraderie!
Fairs and Expositions
- 81
Tillers gives demonstrations at several Fair and Expos that
include animal powered work by the oxen, calf training,
woodworking, blacksmithing. Volunteer to help in presentations
near you or visit us to learn about these activities. Call
if you would like us to help on some similar event next
year.
a/ Horse Progress Days, Mt. Hope, OH
July 4-5, 2008 -- Friday-Saturday
This is the best place to see new equipment designed for
draft animals and to check out a number of draft horse breed
associations. Tillers plans to have a team of oxen
there to demonstrate plowing and other tasks.
Museum and
Historical Events - 82
Tillers is helping several organizations with historical
presentations. Let us know if you might be able to help.
We will probably need to be in historical dress for these.
a/ Port Oneida Fair, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park
August 8-9, 2008-- Friday-Saturday, 10am-4pm
c/ Cobblestone Farm, Ann Arbor, MI.
TBA -- Saturday, 9am-5pm
Plowing demonstrations.
Informational Exhibits
- 87
Tillers also has displays and volunteers at some events
where we can not present demonstrations. These feature
news about what Tillers is doing.
Barn Preservation Network, Michigan
Volunteer and Staff Activities
Tillers has a great group of staff and volunteers. We enjoy
the time we spend working together. Call for information about
volunteer opportunities. 800/498-2700
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