Union Mills Homestead

For those wondering what to get mom for Mother's Day, the Union Mills Homestead flower, plant and antiques show tomorrow and Sunday should provide some ideas for a gift.This year marks the 26th flower and plant show, which traditionally has opened the season at Union Mills Homestead.The antiques show will celebrate its fifth year at the event.Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. The homestead, which dates to 1797, is at 3311 Littlestown Pike, seven miles north of Westminster.

The Union Mills Homestead gristmill is getting a dressing up for the May 6 opening of the 1797 Shriver family home.Yesterday morning, Robert Grassi arrived from Purling, N.Y., to "dress," or re-groove, the French Burr millstones that are used in the Homestead's gristmill to grind grains into flour."

The Union Mills Homestead, family home of the Shrivers of Maryland, is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Carroll County.Now, visitors can take a memento of the nearly 200-year-old farmhouse and surrounding buildings home with them, thanks to the Union Mills Homestead Foundation's latest fund-raiser.A 50-inch-by-65-inch cotton woven coverlet features nine Homestead scenes and can be used either as a sofa cover or wall hanging."One of our members saw a coverlet from another community and suggested it," said Esther Shriver, the Homestead's executive director.

Typically, a day is set aside to give recognition for a worthy cause or to a worthy event.Such a notable event was held at Carroll County General Hospital on Monday.The hospital's auxiliary presented its annual Lights Illuminating Ceremony in front of the main building for the public.The Lights Illuminating Ceremony serves not only as a holiday tradition welcoming a new season, but also as a symbol for the Tree of Lights fund-raising campaign at the hospital.Each year the hospital's auxiliary asks families, organizations, business and industry to purchase a light to be placed on the tree.

On Saturday and Sunday, the Carroll County Farm Museum will sponsor Fall Harvest Days from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.It's a fun-filled weekend of fall activities. The entire family can enjoy scarecrow making, wagon rides, corn husking, demonstrations in apple butter making and butchering, and a continuous line of on-stage entertainment.Lots of country foods and crafts will be for sale.Admission is $4 for anyone over 12; $2 for those 60 and older; and under 12 is free.Information: 876-2667.If you have what you consider to be a pretty big pumpkin, you may want to enter the pumpkin contest during Fall Harvest Days.

Today kicks off the 97th annual Carroll County 4-H/FFA Fair, held at the county Agriculture Center in Westminster.Beginning today and running each day through Saturday, the fair will invite visitors from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. to enjoy exhibits and entertainment.Last year, more than 1,000 4-Hers participated in the fair, and this year even more exhibitors and exhibits are expected to be involved.Exhibits range from cows to computers.In addition to live entertainment each night, the cake auction, livestock auction, horse and mule pulls will be featured on specific days.

Get out the bathing suits and picnic baskets and prepare to mark the calendar, as the activities begin to pile up for the summer weeks ahead.This week marks the last week of school for students in Carroll County, so let me begin with a few wishes and reminders.To all graduates, I wish happiness and success in the future.To students who will return to Carroll County classrooms in August, have a safe and fun-filled summer.To their parents, keep smiling because summer vacation is not as long as it used to be. (The kids won't know the difference if you tell them they went to school longer last year)

Spring is a time for planting, cleaning and redecorating.So, the Union Mills Homestead would like to offer some help with everything but the cleaning at its 25th annual flower and plant market and fourth annual antiques show tomorrow and Sunday."

Arts and crafts, rides, food from all over the world, games, a Civil War re-enactment, a parade, contests and music are among the things residents can enjoy tomorrow and Sunday at three major fall festivals around the county.The Silver Run/Union Mills Lions Club will open its 10th annual Fall Fest at 6 a.m. tomorrow with an old-fashioned buckwheat pancake breakfast at the Union Mills Homestead, 3311 Littlestown Pike. Breakfast will start at 7 a.m. Sunday and run to 10 a.m. both days, when lunch items will become available.

At Union Mills Homestead, progress means preserving, not improving."We don't change anything," said Esther Shriver, executive director of the Union Mills Homestead Foundation.The Union Mills Homestead has been in existence since 1797. The land originally belonged to the Shriver family, which kept it and the main house, grist mill, tannery and canning buildings for six generations."It was sort of the main center of the community and it gave the community jobs," said Mrs. Shriver, whose husband is a sixth-generation Shriver.