MONMOUTH — The McNaughton brothers, Porter, 4, and Beckett, 2, applied some new technology — a remote-control robot which Zeke Delorme, a member of the robotics team at Monmouth Middle School and Monmouth Academy, showed them how to use — to accomplish an old-school task: moving apples.
They joined fellow residents and visitors who celebrated old times with fresh fruit Saturday at the Monmouth Museum’s AppleFest celebration.
“This is a good little town, this is awesome,” said the McNaughton brother’s dad, Caleb McNaughton, as he watched, congratulating Porter with a “good job,” after he successfully maneuvered a robot to pick up an apple, carry it several feet and deposit it into a basket, as Delorme offered tips on how to steer the device.
Inside the Monmouth Museum, Carl Swanson demonstrated how to use a decidedly much older device, an 1887 New House sewing machine, to stitch up a quilt.
The sewing machine is on loan to the museum from the Winthrop Historical Society, part of a collection of items left to the society from the Morrill House.
Swanson, a former mechanic at Carleton Woolen Mill in Winthrop, where he worked for 40 years, had to track down a belt to get the old sewing machine running again, which he found in Madison. He made a gauge that users of the machine can use to set the needle in the right position, since the proper size needle for such a machine is no longer available.
He hand-wrote and drew instructions on how to use the sewing machine, including how to thread it, only to discover, this year, that the old instruction manual for it was available online for $8. The sewing machine is powered by a foot pedal attached by the belt to a wheel on the machine.
Next door in another room at the museum, Lynne Chick, a fiber artist whose business, Weave Works, is just up the street from the museum, demonstrated how to use a 100-year-old small loom to make a scarf. She has seven looms at her home, including one big enough to do rugs. She figures she can weave two or three towels in an hour, on a larger loom she has at home.
“It keeps me in shape,” she joked about working the old looms by hand.
AppleFest is a fundraiser for the Monmouth Museum. Admittance to the museum was free but the proceeds of sales from cider, apple pie and other apple-related treats go to help fund the museum, which is open in the summer from Wednesday to Saturday, from 1 to 4 p.m.
The museum now has a gift shop, across Main Street from its multiple buildings, where history books about Monmouth, old town reports for sale for 50 cents each, and other items are now sold.
Orva Appese, a docent of the museum and director of the gift shop, said the museum had a good summer, with many visitors this year.
Just outside the museum’s gift shop visitors learned how to make applesauce, with cups of the pink sauce available for sampling.
Nine-year-old Finn Murphy, of Monmouth, showed 4-year-old Carter Cormier, of Auburn, how to core an apple, one of the first steps in the applesauce-making process. Carter said the sauce looked just like the kind his Uncle Pat makes.
Jennifer Cormier offered encouragement as Carter cut through the apple core with Finn’s help. She said she grew up in Winthrop and has been coming to AppleFest for many years.
At one point during Saturday’s festivities, several bicyclists from the Kennebec Bicycling Club stopped during a ride to enjoy the festival.
Other activities at AppleFest included rides in a horse-drawn wagon, rides for kids in a barrel-train pulled by an old tractor, face-painting, a 5K running race, and a book sale at Cumston Hall.
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