Anyone who’d like to get a feel and taste of what life was like back in the pioneer era is encouraged to head out to Flora for annual Flora School Days festivities.

The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Saturday, June 19, at the historic Flora schoolhouse about 35 miles north of Enterprise.

Quilting, candlestick making, old-time fiddle music, horse-drawn plowing, weaving, butter churning and much more will all be part of the fun. A high point for many folks is a tour of the town from the back of a wagon pulled by a team of horses.

Now under renovation for a number of years, the old Flora school is being pieced together bit by bit – much as the fabric of history is formed and the way a quilter pieces together a quilt.

School Days 2010 will honor quilters and sewers, including people using old-time treadle machines, who have helped with the restoration effort by piecing together a total of eight schoolhouse block quilts to raffle off for the restoration effort.

This year a slightly different raffle quilt, started with silhouette blocks, and then embellished by many hands as they see fit. Six quilters will be at School Days this year,

to work on many projects, including the new quilt.

In addition to other pioneer skill demonstrations, there will also be flour grinding, blacksmithing, silversmithing, making charcoal and drawing. Veteran artist Gene Hayes of Wallowa will be on hand working on his latest painting. New this year will be silhouette making with children by Teresa Henke of Lostine and rug hooking with Cheryl Brunton of Pendleton.

Sure to be at the top of everyone’s list, will be the traditional Dutch oven lunch, followed by a pie social. The Country Store – a fund raising activity for the nonprofit Flora School Education Center – will be filled with hand-made and recycled items, along with bakery goods.

Music will begin with old-time jamming from 10 to 12, with Peg Willis and her group set to play from 1 to 2 p.m. and 3 to 4 p.m., with Troy Kiesecker and his group playing from 2 to 3 p.m. Violinist/fiddler Rebecca Lenahan is organizing the musical entertainment.

Activities will all take place at the Flora School, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and are provided by the Flora School Education Center, a 501c3 tax-exempt organizations dedicated to promoting folk arts and pioneer skills and to the restoration, repair and renovation of the school.

All demonstrators and workers are volunteers.

For more information on School Days or to volunteer, call 541-828-7010, or email (floraschool@tds.net).