Raccoon Valley Arrival and Pre-Festival

!!!Note for readers!!! Please do not be concerned if you cannot follow all the names mentioned below as they are all either part of the Patt Family, or friends and we have only learned them as we have met them. Just take it from me that they are all wonderful.
On Thursday we arrived at Raccoon Valley and were immediately welcomed by Lisa and Winfred, whom we had not seen since Palatka,FL in February. They originally invited us to leave our trailer at Racoon Valley. We then set up our trailer. This was to be our first real experience of Dry Camping (We had stayed at Connie’s without hookup), so we filled the water tank (We have a 28 gallon onboard tank) and set up on the hill top above the festival ground. We had made sure the propane tanks were full and also set up our little 2kW Honda generator. This was to enable us to top up the battery, heat water and run the computer, though we only need to run it about an hour a day.
I then went and found George and Kay, who had been so wonderful to us when we parked up the trailer in the summer and then again in September when we returned. I then helped George and Marvin (of June and Marvin, from Cincinnati, Ohio) to make ready for the festival. We had a great time putting up tents, setting out tables and marking out the parking field. We had been invited to eat with the family as it was Janice’s birthday and they were having a bit of a party in Kertinka’s barn. This was a great time. We had to eat ham and chicken and birthday cake (not at the same time).
Friday dawned and we could hear rain on the roof. Never mind, the work had to be finished for Saturday, so when the rain eased off we finished marking out the parking field, having to stop for the lunch that Kertrinka had made – leftovers, plus hamburgers, chicken and dumplings that June (of June and Marvin) had made, ham and beans, as well as some really good peanut butter fudge.
We worked on in the afternoon and thankfully the rain stopped.
Everything seemed to be falling into place, the sound man had arrived and was setting up. During the day many of the concession stands arrived and set up. The Cotton candy, candied apples, Smokey Joes, BBQ, Coffee, Funnel Cake, Kettle corn, Fresh squeezed lemonade. A couple of church kitchens.
When the car park was finished, I got to clean out the blacksmith shop - an open fronted building with loads of old smithying tools. Best part was I got to use a leaf blower to blow a whole year’s worth of leaves out of the shop and down the hill –great fun.
Sally and I made up some tractor shaped windmills for Lisa. We had borrowed a golf cart and went round the site putting out these attractive little windmills beside the real vintage tractors that were on display.
We passed the sorghum mill being set up. The man was getting some juice from the cane (similar to sugar cane) by squeezing it between two large rollers, like a vertical mangle. These were turned by a horse plodding round. (We saw this at Cherokee State park on Sept19th while we stayed with Jay and Christie. There are some photo’s on another blog). We had a look at the rateher impressive Saw Mill that Tim had organised and they were testing out. The saw is about 4ft in diameter, with 48 teeth, run by the drive from a large diesel motor. There is a rack for the tree truck which is mounted on rails, powered by a belt take off from the diesel engine, so that the trunk is moved up and down past the blade. Very impressive to see in operation in the field (or rather forest), cutting up oak trees with a 18inch diameter.
In the evening, we all went out to Ann’s Kitchen for a meal and also to see Tim’s band ‘White Water’ playing. As well as his band, one of the groups who were performing at the festival turned up and sung a bit. We were introduced to them, The West Family from West Tennessee,who are a lovely family. It was a great evening, good music, good food and most of all good people to be with. We really enjoyed the evening.