Village people.

On August 4th, we made our annual trek to Ohio for the Zoar Harvest Festival. I've blogged about The Village of Zoar several times through the years. As I reported last year, the village is in danger of either being destroyed or moved. It's protected by a levee that was built in the 1930's. The levee is in great disrepair and would cost a lot of money to fix. So other alternatives are being considered, such as moving the buildings or removing the levee entirely. The latter option would destroy 80% of the town.

The plight of Zoar is getting national attention, and has been placed on The National Historic Trust's top 11 most endangered places, right along side the hospital at Ellis Island, Princeton Battlefield and Joe Frazier's gym.

You can read more about the plight of Zoar here and here.



We took a different route this year, where we traveled briefly through West Virginia to get to Ohio. This very cool bridge is in Steubenville.



I've already taken several photos of the buildings in Zoar, so this year, I focused on the little details.



Like birdhouses. There are loads of neat birdhouses in Zoar.







Here's a horse hitch for your...horse.



This old, repurposed bicycle is a fixture of Zoar. It's been leaning against the picket fence as long as I can remember.



We also saw a lot of sheep behinds as they were fleeing from their lives in the herding demonstration. We learned that boarder collie Gail is the same age as Daisy.



Gail almost got all three ducks in the pool this time.



I spotted this sapling growing along side it's mother outside of an antique shop.



And speaking of the antique shop, this kitty was lounging on its porch.



The town is always dressed up in red, white and blue for the festival.





Loved this old turquoise wheelbarrow leaning against the greenhouse in front of the famous Zoar garden.



The carriage in the Zoar garden is always a welcome sight.



In addition to antique dealers, there are also craft artisans at the festival. One booth had all kinds of neat handmade wooden toys. I couldn't resist getting a stick horse for Lauren.



As we walked through the festival, several people asked us where we got it.



Lauren was quite pleased with it.



Bonus photo #1:  I didn't even know she joined a union...





Bonus photo #2 - I took this on the way home. It's a railway bridge outside of the Fort Pitt Tunnel. I thought made a brilliant back drop to the flowers planted by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (who did a beautiful job).