Farm museum reviews year’s deeds

The Curran Homestead, located in Orrington, will hold its annual meeting and recognition dinner at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 16, at the Oriental Jade Restaurant in Bangor. Members, donors and honored guests do not have to pay a fee to attend the event. The cost to others is $15, $8 children.

Those who wish to attend must RSVP by Monday, Jan. 14, by calling Carroll Adams at 989-2430 or Irv Marsters, 945-9311. The dinner is sponsored by the Bangor Letter Shop.

Some of the year’s highlights for the farm museum that will be mentioned at the meeting are:

. Penobscot County jail prison inmates planting Curran Homestead fields with vegetables for use at the jail to help defray its food costs.

. Replacement of the roof of the main house.

. Insulation blown into the attic.

. Replacement of the barn doors that were damaged by high winds.

The Curran Homestead board of directors is seeking sponsored funding in order to hire its first full-time employee, someone who will do strategic planning pertaining to the organization’s history education programs, recruitment and training of volunteers, continuing restoration of the farm’s physical facilities, expansion of the operation to include more public access, and the introduction of farm animals to be housed at the homestead.

In August, 14 Bangor Home Depot managers volunteered a day of work at the homestead, organized by Ron Coombs, store manager, Shirley Hall, human resource director, and Fred Hartstone, who also is a Curran Homestead board member.

They painted the new fence gates, installed wrought iron railing around the wood stoves in the field house and the sugar shack, helped reassemble the jigger wagon, built a concrete pad for a new chimney in the barn for blacksmithing demonstrations and removed wallpaper from the living room before hanging new paper.

North East Insurance Co.-Cross Insurance of Portland did a loss prevention review at the farm and museum, pinpointing potential hazards to people and property.

Ed Peteraf, a teacher at United Technology Center in Bangor volunteered to evaluate the homestead’s electrical system, provided a list of materials and volunteered to do the upgrade. Standard Electric Co. provided assistance in gathering the equipment needed for the upgrade. Others who contributed time and supplies to the effort were Sheldon Hartstone and Paul Perry.

Eagle Scout Aaron Prusaitis of Bangor worked with Curran Homestead board member Dick Stockford and Bangor Home Depot associates to design, build and install five gates to fit five entryways in the homestead’s picket fence.

For information about the Curran Homestead, call 945-9311.