In the evening, a fabulous Harborside Gala will be staged, also at Brewer South Freeport Marine, with entertainment by the Jason Spooner Trio, light food and beverages, and both silent and live auction as well as Giving Tree. All events will benefit the Freeport Historical Society and their public programs and two historic properties.

Celebrating the maritime history of Freeport, the schooner Bowdoin will be at the dock at Brewer South Freeport Marine for viewing, deck tours and sailing adventures. The Bowdoin, built in East Boothbay in 1921, has deep ties to Freeport. She was captained by Admiral Donald MacMillan, known far and wide for his Arctic explorations, which led him to receive the prestigious Hubbard Gold Medal from the National Geographic Society in 1953.

The Bowdoin is today owned by the Maine Maritime Academy and is designated Maine’s official state vessel. Her mission is to provide sail training for the Maine Maritime Academy students and the public as well as to aid in recruiting and community relations, making her inclusion in the inaugural Harraseeket Heritage Day on behalf of the Freeport Historical Society a natural fit.

Also on hand at Brewer South Freeport Marine providing oar-making demonstrations will be the Compass Project, which uses boatbuilding and rowing to provide positive direction to youth by encouraging the development of personal responsibility and community and environmental engagement. In addition, Maine Maritime Academy students acting as crew members on the Bowdoin will be demonstrating their skills at knot-making and splicing, while local artists of the Freeport-based Frost Gully Violins will be performing traditional maritime shanties. Children’s author Mary Cowans will do a reading for children from her award-winning book, Captain Mac: The Life of Donald Baxter MacMillan, Arctic Explorer, and will be available for book signings.

Harraseeket Heritage Day events will be held from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm at Brewer South Freeport Marine. Deck tours of the schooner Bowdoin will be held from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm and admission to the dock will cost $5 per person or $20 per family. Two-hour sailing adventures will depart at 12:30 pm and 3:30 pm, with a limited supply of tickets for $30 per person available in advance. Children under 13 must be accompanied by a parent and must provide their own PFDs.

The Harborside Gala will begin at 6:30 pm, with the auction ending at 8:00 pm and the Jason Spooner Trio performing live music. Tickets will be $40, including light hors d’oeuvres and beverages for purchase.

Tickets are available at the Freeport Historical Society: in person (45 Main Street, Freeport), by phone (207.865.3170), or online at www.freeporthistoricalsociety.org (click on “Online Donation” and use your credit card or Paypal account).  Tickets may also be purchased at Brewer South Freeport Marine.

Harraseeket Heritage Day and Harborside Gala are sponsored by L.L.Bean, The Doolan/Dougherty Group at Morgan Stanley, Brewer South Freeport Marine, Bob Knecht/Town & Shore, Mary Noyes, Haraseeket Lunch & Lobster, Seabags, and Curtis Thaxter-Attorneys at Law.

The evening begins with a Business Meeting which will include a quick review of 2011 programs, voting on proposed Trustees, introduction of the new slate of Officers, and a farewell to two long-serving Trustees. Presentation of the Mel Collins Award and the Partners in Preservation Award as well as our recognition ceremony for volunteers will also take place.

Our speaker, Jane C. Nylander

We are honored to have as our special guest speaker this year Jane C. Nylander, author of numerous articles and books, including the authoritative Our Own Snug Fireside: Images of the New England Home, 1760-1860.

Her presentation is titled “Items of good taste and perfect specimens of economy: Freeport homes in the 1830s.” Jane C. Nylander is a nationally recognized scholar on New England social history and decorative arts and is President Emerita of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England). She is the former President of Strawbery Banke Museum, and former Curator of Textiles and Senior Curator at Old Sturbridge Village. She is a Trustee of the New Hampshire Historical Society, an Honorary Trustee of Historic Deerfield, a Governor of the Decorative Arts Trust, and an Advisor to the Castle in the Clouds in Moultonborough, New Hampshire. Her many publications include Windows on the Past and Fabrics for Historic Buildings as well as more than ninety articles.

All are welcome to attend the meeting and lecture. Beverages and sweets will be available.

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Knitted Cuffs

Muffatees (fingerless gloves) 

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Dr. Brzozowski suggests the following links for more information and further support.

Fruit tree pruning fact sheet

Renovating old apple trees

Pruning woody landscape plants

Order the 32-page publication, Growing Fruit Trees in Maine

Link to Orchard Equipment Supply Company from which he bought many of the pruning tools used at the workshop

Worried about the effect of our recent warm temperatures and cold snaps?  Check the following links for information about these conditions on fruit trees and other plants:

Critical temperatures for fruit tree buds

Frost Protection:  Tips and Techniques

Participants gather for the workshop.

Dr. Richard Brzozowski discusses pruning techniques.

An apple tree before pruning.

The apple tree after pruning!

“Free Trade and Sailors Rights,” a rallying cry of the war, is comprised of two public programs: an illustrated presentation taking place on Sunday, May 6th at 1:30pm at 45 Main Street featuring Dr. Joshua M. Smith, and a lively acoustic music program set for Sunday, Sept 9th at 4:00pm featuring merchant, maritime and early American Navy songs, presented by Bob Webb and Dave Peloquin. (The location of the music program will be announced shortly.)

Dr. Joshua M. Smith is Associate Professor of Humanities and Interim Coordinator of the American Merchant Marine Museum at the US Merchant Marine Academy. Among other publications, he is author of Borderland Smuggling: Patriots, Loyalists, and Illicit Trade in the Northeast, 1783-1820 (University Press of Florida, 2006).

For nearly four decades, Bob Webb has presented the music of seafarers, loggers, railroad men and other folk heroes and heroines. A singer, raconteur and instrumentalist, Bob reaches all ages in presentations ranging from theatre concerts to intimate informal programs. His specialties are shipboard work songs, known as “shanties,” and the seagoing ballads called “forebitters” or “main-hatch songs.” He is an accomplished balladeer, who sings unaccompanied (a capella) and with the five-string banjo, MacCann-duet concertina and guitar. Audiences delight in joining Bob on the choruses. His songs, shanties and instrumental music have been received with acclaim from New Zealand to Poland. He is also a historian and scholar: his groundbreaking exhibition on the history of the banjo in America at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts led to the publication of his Ring The Banjar!: The Banjo in America from Folklore to Factory (Centerstream Press, 1996), the first overall history of America’s “own” musical instrument. Sailor-Painter, his long-awaited biography of the marine artist Charles Robert Patterson is now in print.

Dave Peloquin, a well known folk musician from Windsor, has been singing ballads, a cappella shanties, and many other types of traditional folk music for over 25 years. He is also a published poet and playwright who has appeared on Good Morning America, played at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D. C., and toured the country as an ECHO performer.

Tickets are $5.00. FHS Members are free (click here to join).