PERU — The Babbie Rural and Farm Learning Museum kicked off its 2025 season with a festive Plow Day celebration last Saturday, May 17.
The day included the unveiling of its new sign, snacks and drinks, as well as new activities and demonstrations for visitors.
A highlight of the season’s start is the nearly-complete schoolhouse, the museum’s final building in its collection of historically-accurate structures.
“The schoolhouse is up, but we just need to finish the inside and paint the outside,” Lee Ledesma, Museum Director, said.
Though the interior is still being completed, Museum Coordinator Karen Babbie expects it to be painted and ready within a month, weather permitting.
“The school is the last building we’ll be putting up,” she said.
“Once it’s done, we can put the classroom stuff in there, which will give us some room to change our displays in the main building.”
Other new attractions include a working water pump that young visitors can try for themselves, and a “Save the Bees,” display in the main exhibit room, which teaches the importance of bees in sustaining ecosystems.
“It shows how important bees are to the world, I mean where would we be without them,” Babbie said.
“There would be no crops, no flowers, no trees,”
Another new display traces the history of long-distance communication, from the Pony Express to the cellphone.
The display features a telephone switchboard, telegram, rotary phone and a cellphone from the early 90s.
The children’s “Fun Zone,” includes old-fashion games and activities, fresh popcorn and cotton candy, shell corn as well as the new communications exhibit and water pump.
Plow Day, a cornerstone of the museum’s spring events, gives visitors a front-row seat to traditional farming methods.
“Plow day is when we get our field ready,” Babbie said.
Staff and volunteers demonstrate old-fashioned plowing, thrashing, and planting techniques, weather and soil-conditions permitting.
“We grow corn, wheat, and barley,” Babbie said.
“Right now, they’re running the shredder, or husker. It takes the ears of corn right off the stalk and strips the husks off too.”
The event offered a hands-on look at agricultural history and underscored the museum’s mission, which is preserving the skills, stories, and tools of rural life for future generations.
June is National Dairy Month, and to celebrate, the museum will host Dairy Day on June 21 and 22 with free ice cream, demonstrations and calves.
“We will have special demonstrations and free ice cream,” Babbie said.
“The calves will be out too,”
The museum will unveil a new mural, supported by a grant from the Adirondacks Lake Council of Arts, on dairy day.
“We will be unveiling a new mural coming soon, on dairy day. It will be going up on the sliding doors facing the road,” Ledesma said.
The Babbie Museum, located at 250 River Road, Peru, is a 501©(3) non-profit and operates with volunteers to offer a variety of monthly classes, workshops, interactive and hands-on activities and demonstrations.
Anyone interested in volunteering at the museum to assist at a special event is encouraged to contact the Museum at 518-643-8052.