Pioneer demonstrations and activities are featured during Flora School Days in 2019. The annual event helps raise money for the Flora School restoration project and to highlight the folk arts. The school moved the celebration online the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but this year it’s “Back in the Saddle Again.”

FLORA — The historic Flora School is “Back in the Saddle Again” this year, after taking time off for the COVID-19 pandemic. The school will be open for its traditional School Days from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 4.

Visitors are urged to come, see, learn and live in the past including dressing in an “Old West” style, according to a press release.

Part of living in the past begins early, as the forge will be fired up and ready for the third-annual blacksmith contest at 8 a.m.

Demonstrations of pioneer skills generally start at 10 a.m. and continue until 3 or 4 p.m. Some skills and activities scheduled include grafting heirloom apple trees, story time, town tours with draft mules, cleaning cast iron after lunch and sewing bean bags to name a few.

One of the highlights of the day is the Camp Chili Cookoff. Contestants should be signed up, pay a $5 fee and be ready to cook at 11 a.m. They must be done by 2 p.m. For $1, visitors taste-test each chili in order to decide the winner of the contest. Contestants may only have the beans cooked prior to the start. For more information about the cookoff, call or text Shannon Wiedeman at 541-263-0132.

Dutch oven implements are the focus of this year’s blacksmith contest. The tools will be auctioned off at the end of the day along with presentation of winners. Dick Phillips, a Walla Walla, Washington, blacksmith from days gone by, will judge this year’s competition. All metals are provided. For more information, call or text Nathan Thompson at 509-876-7812.

The event is part of an ongoing effort to raise money to restore the school building to its 1915 glory.

For more information, refer to Flora School’s website www.floraschool.org, Facebook page, Instagram, YouTube channel, email floraschool@tds.net or call 541-828-7010.