Warther's Train Museum and Smuckers with family

My cousin Brooke recently moved from Idaho to Pennsylvania. I was happy to have family back within driving distance and even happier when she asked if they could come over to Ohio for a visit! We showed them all the options of places to visit and let them choose. Our first stop was the Smucker's store/museum.

They are very seasonal-minded and decorate for every holiday. This was just before Easter. Obviously.

But they do not hold strict to the holiday only decor rule. If you happen to be in the mood for some yellow, green and frog kitchen wares...Smuckers is your place.

Or if you like pastels and cupcakes, you also might want to make a stop in Orrville, Ohio to visit Smuckers.

Ducks your thing? They got you covered, too.

A little masculinity can also be seen inside the store. (But I'm not sure it would be the man who would walk into the store and scream with joy at being able to buy a matching football plate set to go with his football field serving dish).

For your next meal where you serve deviled eggs, you would be negligent if you didn't serve them in a green platter in the shape of the animal that helped provide said dish to your table.

Kids might be tempted to touch all the porcelain and glassware, so they conveniently have a chalk table for the kids. Good distraction.

Airplane in the works...

Trent was at work, so a semi-family shot.

My cousin and her husband. :)

They even have amusement rides inside the store.

After Smuckers, we ran over to the great Amish store-Lehman's. I almost got this Root Beer pack for Trent. Alot of brands I've never heard of.

Someone was being naughty...

But he made bail.

Lehmans is the place for the beanie with attached gloves that you've always wanted. You're welcome.

Giant train track that goes along the wall inbetween the first and second floors. B was manning the tram thing.

Car for the kids and life-sized sock monkey for a play pal.

Ever since B saw this train going the length of the room on the wall, he's been praying for a Train on his wall in every prayer....and I mean EVERY prayer.

After Lehman's we ran over to Dover, Ohio to see the model Train carvings by Ernest 'Mooney' Warther.

While he collected wood and carved figures into it, his wife collected buttons and made designs out of it.

Brooke and Todd admiring her extensive work.

 Their house-his first workshop was in their library.

She collected thousands of buttons, made designs with a homemade compass and sometimes drilled into their kitchen table when she was assembling it together. 

 That dresser on the right is their refrigerator. Would not be able to store many leftovers or prepackaged meals in that thing. (Is that why people were smaller back then? Ate less often, ate smaller portions, and not much processed stuff?) But it's a shame she couldn't get a decent sized cookie sheet into that oven.

Farmhouse type sink. 

We ran down to the old locomotive parked in their backyard.
Somebody was anxious to get there.....

A happy chap in his native element. 

Warther's other workshop. He made alot of these tools. 

The guy woke up around 3am and started working, would be done by the time the kids got up, took a nap, and played with the kids when they were done with school.

Arrow heads he found around the place. 

He gave some trains and carvings away. But not alot. The few trains that the museum/family doesn't have, they know exactly where they are.

The museum lady turned this thing on and all the pieces work. The men go back and forth as well as the machinery. Alot of his stuff he didn't use glue so that it wouldn't fall apart later on. He just made every piece to fit exactly into place so that it would always work and never go to disrepair. 

 These are the pieces that he made to assemble one of his trains.

 Take the pieces from above, and put it together to get the train below. With his hours in the morning, I think the lady said a train would take about 9 months to put together.

Mooney was frustrated with the knives available to him, so he made his own. He designed the handle to be more ergonomic and have interchangeable blades. 

 

When he traveled, he grabbed a piece of wood and carved a postcard to send to his wife. Sent it through USPS.

Happy train guy checking out the untouchable locomotives.

After watching a short video of the guy, his grandson came in and carved wooden pliers. It was the first thing that Ernest learned to carve and fascinated him that with about 10 cuts, you could make a working piece of tool. He carved one for Brenden and Kyleigh.

This came from one piece of wood and Ernest estimated how many pliers he could make out of it, some didn't believe him, so he did it (careful not to screw up and mess the whole thing up).

Engineers have looked over his work and have not been able to find a missing piece. So detailed.

Abe Lincoln was his role model.

His knife factory. The family still builds his knives and sell them. Mostly kitchen knives built here.

Back during one of the Wars, steel was so hard to come by, so a few people begged Ernest to make their son a knife to take to war with them.

This thing is cool. Get a homemade, hand carved chess set.

He carved a model of the train that took Lincoln home to be buried. And even a replica of Lincoln carved inside.

Impressive stuff. Fun first day with the cousins.