The Adirondack Rural Skills & Homesteading Festival
Saturday, 27 September 2014

September 2014 is the third International Homesteading Education Month. To mark the event, the Paul Smiths VIC is hosting a celebration of rural skills showcasing historical traditions, as well as modern tools and techniques for safe and practical rural living with a distinctly Adirondack flair. Exhibitions will include logging and farming with draft horses sponsored by the Paul Smith’s Draft Horse Club, and a demonstration of competitive lumberjack sports by the PSC Woodsmen’s Team. Workshops and  demonstrations will appeal to a wide range of interests and include topics such as such as canning, dehydrating jerky, cider making, bow building, renewable energy, raising livestock, poultry processing, foraging for wild edibles, small-scale farming, heating with firewood and primitive skills.

The festivities take place from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. $5/person or $10/carload. Free for the Paul Smith's College community.

Workshop Schedule
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM	Cider Pressing: PSC Sustainability Office
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM	Butter Making: Franklin County Dairy Princess, Joyce Godbout
10:00 AM	The Backyard Mycologist: A Field Walk – Adirondack Mycology Club
10:00 AM	Slab of Bacon & a Side of Pro: Getting the most from your pig (butchering demonstration)
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM	Kid’s Papermaking with Casey Sukeforth, Program Director, 4-H Camp Overlook, Cornell Cooperative Extension
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM	Home Food Preservation 101 – Canning: Making Salsa – Pat Banker & Karen Armstrong, Cornell Cooperative Extension
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM	Quilting 101 – demonstration and workshop: Karen Potts
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM	Horses & Hand Tools: Low Impact Logging (Paul Smith's College Draft Horse Club)
10:30 AM	Understanding Solar Energy & Other Energy Alternatives: Richard Gast, Cornell Cooperative Extension
10:30 AM, 2:00 PM, & 3:30 PM	Paul Smith's College Woodsmen's Team Exhibitions
11:00 AM	Tree Climbing & Pruning Demonstration: Randall Swanson
11:00 AM	Mountain Music Jam: Kary & Curt Stager
11:00 AM	Getting started with maple production: Mike Farrell, Cornell Cooperative Extension
11:30 AM	Learn to Milk a Goat! Adirondack Goat Club, Rose Bartiss
11:30 AM	Mushroom cultivation workshop: first come, first served (16 participant limit)
Noon - 4:00 PM	Horses on the Homestead: The Original Tractor (Paul Smith's College Draft Horse Club)
12:00 PM	Economic aspects of sugaring: Mike Farrell, Cornell Cooperative Extension
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM	Wild Edibles Walk: Pat Banker, Cornell Cooperative Extension
12:00 PM on	From Tree to Tool: Traditional Longbow Construction: Craig Milewski
12:30 PM	Chainsaw safety and tree felling demonstration: Tom Bartiss
1:00 PM - 1:45 PM	Featured Presenter: Modern Times Theater perform The Rural Person’s Verbal Reclamation Front, Sponsored by PSC Sustainability Office and TRiO Student Support Services
1:45 PM	The Local Food Giveaway: Sponsored by TRiO SSS and Student Activities
2:00 PM	Wood Chopping 101: Secrets of Successful Splitting - Paul Smith’s Forestry Club
2:00 PM	Tapping birch and walnut trees for sap and syrup: Mike Farrell, Cornell Cooperative Extension
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM	Canning 101:Pat Banker and Karen Armstrong, Cornell Cooperative Extension - Making Salsa; Q & A on safe canning of veggie/tomato mixtures.  Ongoing display.
2:15 PM	Backyard Chickens: From Chicks to Eggs: Brian McDonnell
3:00 PM	Firewood Science: Getting the most BTU’s from your woodlot (Brett McLeod)
3:00 - 4:00 PM	Wild Edibles- Pat Banker, Cornell Cooperative Extension
3:30 PM	Adirondack Goat Club: Soap Making 101
Ongoing	There will be a Food Preservation display up all day; CCE Exhibits on their programming throughout county; Wild Edibles display by CCE
Ongoing	Cornell Cooperative Extension: Pete Hager, So you want to be a farmer?
Ongoing	PSC Local Food Culinary Arts Demonstration. Food available for purchase
Ongoing	Maple World! Learn all about maple production from tapping to cooking with maple: Brushton-Moira FFA
Ongoing	Sustainable Living Project: build a firewood carrier
Ongoing	Rural Life Movie Series, ongoing in the auditorium
Ongoing	Let’s talk Maple! Backyard Sugaring Q&A with Mike Farrell
Ongoing	Adirondack Farmers’ Market
Ongoing	Blacksmithing Demonstration: Rick Banker: Knife Making: Jason Warren
Ongoing	Healthy Kids!- activities and games on eating well, CCE
Ongoing	Taste of NY, Marcy Kugeman
Ongoing	Chainsaw Carving- Paul Smith’s Forestry Club
Ongoing	Cornell Cooperative Extension, CCE Representative to answer your questions
Ongoing	Quilt Making: Karen Potts
Ongoing	Portable Sawmill Demonstration
Ongoing	Paul Smith’s Forestry Club Firewood Giveaway – 11:00 AM, 2:00 PM

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