LANARK CTY—One thing spectators can expect to see this September at the Rural Expo 2003 Lanark County International Plowing Match and Farm Machinery Show is working demonstrations rather than static displays in the antique and historical area.

"We’ll have equipment working at different times throughout the day, and have people giving information on the exhibits to the crowds. We’d like to inform the people on how these great antiques really work rather than have an inactive site, with signs on it.," said Vernon Wheeler, who is co-chair of the 37-member Antique and Historical Committee."

Wheeler said to have so many working exhibits requires a lot of volunteers, and over 100 have already been recruited, but more are welcome.

"There is quite a lot of responsibility in this section. It’s grown tremendously from one acre years ago and now it’s up to 16 acres. It’s quite a big part of the plowing match," he said.

"We wanted to have Lanark County well represented and have invited people with expertise in different fields ranging from collections to entertainment to horse-powered exhibits."

One large tent will house the 11 museums from Lanark County, and another will show smaller items such as domestic antiques.

A large area will feature antique equipment ranging from old steam engines, paving machines and saw mills, and horse-powered threshing mills from the early 1900’s.

Construction entrepreneur George Tackaberry, may be filling a building with restored antique equipment and there will also be a wooden well driller dating from the 1920’s to 1930’s and restored by Peter Stanton of Clayton, an early wooden threshing mill restored by Mac Dowdall of Carleton Place and Bryan McVeigh, Perth area resident, who is restoring an old side loader.

There will also be an outside display area where members of antique car clubs may show their vintage cars and tractors, and a tent to show smaller items such as model or toy tractors, which need protection from the weather.

A heritage entertainment tent with a stage, will feature a variety of performances from comedy stunts to farmers who want to share their talents with a crowd. "We hope to have food in the tent, perhaps a pancake breakfast with pure maple syrup and later beef on a bun with baked beans," Wheeler said.

Since horses supplied power to so many different activities in the past, there will be working demonstrations of horses with horse-powered equipment. A team leader is in charge of training horses to do tasks they normally don’t do, like walking on a tread mill, supplying power to a grinder.

Wheeler said these demonstrations will be in the same area as the other antique equipment, but away from the steam engines, to avoid spooking the horses, and other factors like safety and crowd control have to be considered in locating these exhibits. "This requires careful planning."

"We’ll also be displaying the different types of Lanark County fences, from the famous patent Lanark County fence to stump fences, to snake fences and other kinds of fences which are mostly unique to Lanark. We’ll be using fences to divide displays and also for crowd control," he said.

"Keeping in mind Lanark County is the Maple Syrup Capital of Ontario and maple syrup is the overall theme of the plowing match, it’s only right we promote it as much as we can and an area will be devoted to maple syrup production, including past methods of making syrup."

He hopes to acquire an old working sugar camp, to demonstrate how sap was boiled. And following the show, he would like to use the camp and its roof for a billboard display, to inform visitors they are now entering Lanark County.

The Wheelers are best known for their Pancake House at MacDonald Corners, west of the Town of Lanark, which is open every day except Christmas. In addition to the Pancake House, and 730-acre sugar bush camp, the Wheeler family also built a museum where visitors can learn about syrup making from Indian techniques to the latest tubing system to collect sap.

The museum area at Rural Expo 2003 will feature other displays, but the Wheelers may add some of their own museum equipment, to complete the exhibits. Vernon Wheeler also has a pair of Hereford oxen, which he has trained to plow and to skid logs, and he would like to demonstrate the team. But since only he can drive the oxen, this would depend on the availability of volunteers to do other tasks.

In addition to the sugar bush, and his work as co-chair of the antique, historical committee, Vernon restores log houses in his spare time. He is now in the process of putting together an 1880’s house, which he dissembled from a location in North Gower and is erecting on a separate lot at MacDonald Corners.

Vernon and his wife Judy started tapping trees in 1978, and over a 30-year period built their business, which now supplies 90 per cent of their income.

"The family works as a team. We all can do anything," said Judy, who co-chairs the Antique and Historical committee. "We all run the Pancake House. Our son Mark works full time in the bush. He does pipeline work in the spring, and cooks, while our daughter Angela who graduated with a Bachelor of Science in plant biology from Guelph University, is doing contract work for OMAF and helps at home when she can. Kristen is studying Biological Sciences at the University of Guelph and is also very involved here, and Tracy, in Grade 12 is very actively involved in the business."

In addition to helping in the bush and at the Pancake House, the children assisted with construction of the museum and the Pancake House.

A native of Perth, who moved to the country after she married at 18, Judy not only runs the business, but is secretary for Rural Expo’s Antique and Historical Committee, and attends meetings of the North American Council for Maple Syrup.

Both Judy and Vernon belong to the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association, of which Vernon is a past provincial director, and their son Mark is currently president. Vernon is also an alternate director for Ontario for the North American Council for Maple Syrup which covers the north eastern United States and eastern provinces in Canada, the area where all the maple syrup in the world is produced.

To help pay for some expenses like tent rental, the Antique and Historical committee is planning on a May 24 fund-raising golf tournament at Timber Run Golf Course in Lanark and an antique auction scheduled for June 11 in Perth.