Apple Saturdays, and More at Shaker Village

The Shakers have cultivated apples for more than 200 years, even developing two varieties of their own that were named the James Sweets and the Oliver Sweets. Explore interesting aspects of the Shakers’ heritage during Apple Saturdays. Try your hand at free cider pressing all day long, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Either bring your own apples to be hand-pressed, or purchase them at the Shaker Store. Free “Apple Art for Kids” is the featured event on Saturday, Oct. 5, and a cider and doughnut sale is the highlight for Saturday, Oct. 12.

Other activities include guided museum tours, departing from the Museum Reception Center every day, except Sundays, through Monday, Oct. 14, and two guided nature hikes through the Shakers’ woods on Saturday, Oct. 5. The first hike starts at 10:30 a.m. and the second one at 1:30 p.m. Nominal fees apply for the tours and hikes.

Shaker Village is located on Route 26 (707 Shaker Road) in New Gloucester. For more information, call 926-4597, or see www.shaker.lib.me.us.

Benefit Turkey Dinner

The Lunn-Hunnewell AMVETS Post No. 6 Auxiliary, located on Route 100-Lewiston Road, New Gloucester, will sponsor a turkey dinner with all the trimmings on Saturday, Oct. 5, beginning at 5 p.m. The dinner is in support of the New Gloucester Veterans Monument, being built next year. The cost is $9 for adults, $6 for children 6-12 years old, and free for kids 5 years and under.

Klezmer Music

The Casco Bay Tummlers return to the Village Coffee House of New Gloucester with their unique Klezmer music, including traditional dances and songs of the Yiddish theater and Jewish Ghetto. The performance will take place starting at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 5, at the Vestry Community Room of the First Congregational Church, 19 Gloucester Hill Road, New Gloucester. Tickets will be available at the door, $10 per person. For more information, call 653-6151.

Volunteer Trail Work Day

Help members of the Royal River Conservation Trust lay out the final section of the Bradbury-Pineland trail corridor, connecting the Pineland Public Reserve parcels in Gray, North Yarmouth and New Gloucester to Bradbury Mountain State Park in Pownal. Join staff from Maine Parks & Public Lands, volunteers from New England Mountain Bike Association, and volunteers and staff from RRCT.

Bring rakes, gloves, and eye protection. Parks & Public Lands staff will provide additional tools, including clippers and hand saws, to help perform some simple trail work. The trail work day is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 7, from 1-6 p.m. Meet on Route 231 at the North Yarmouth-New Gloucester town line (new trail crossing). Contact Alan Stearns, RRCT executive director at 215-8315 or [email protected] for more information.

Fire and Rescue Open House

New Gloucester Fire and Rescue will be hosting an open house on Wednesday, Oct. 9, from 5-7 p.m. Features will include a free barbecue, live fire demonstration, school bus safety, chimney and stove tips, face painting and balloons. Enter to win a new bike and a chance to ride to school in a fire truck. Meet Sparky, and take a photo in a fire truck. Come see the department’s new ambulance. For further details, call 926-4142.

Upper Village Master Planning Workshops

The New Gloucester Planning Department invites the public for a series of workshops to help shape the future growth and development of the Upper Village. Workshop I: Vision takes place from 6:30-8:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 8, at the AMVETS Hall, Route 100, New Gloucester. Join your neighbors to review the Upper Village master planning efforts to date and further shape a vision for the area.

Trunks for Treats Halloween Fun

Come to a Halloween community gathering on Saturday, Oct. 26, from 5-8 p.m. in the parking lot of the AMVETS Hall, Route 100, New Gloucester. Decorate your pickup truck’s tailgate or your car’s trunk, and bring a bowl of candy. The event is for all ages – be creative, but not too scary.

Registration by Wednesday, Oct. 16, at 5 p.m. is mandatory to reserve your spot. The cost is $5 per vehicle. Send your non-refundable check or money order, payable to AMVETS Post No. 6, to AMVETS Post No. 6, PO Box 301, New Gloucester, ME 04260. Note “NG-Trunks” on the memo line. A donation bucket for the New Gloucester Veterans’ Monument will be available. The event will be cancelled if raining. Call George and Sandra Hinckley at 739-0898 for more information.

Learn About MacMillan, Arctic Explorer

Maine author, Mary Morton Cowan, will narrate a slide presentation based on her award-winning biography, “Captain Mac: The Life of Donald Baxter MacMillan, Arctic Explorer.” MacMillan, a well-known Maine resident, led his own expeditions to the Arctic, as well as accompanying Robert Peary to that destination occasionally.

The talk is sponsored by the New Gloucester Historical Society and is set for 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, at the New Gloucester Meetinghouse, 389 Intervale Road, New Gloucester. The program is free and open to the public.

On left, Claire Tisdale, a New Gloucester Public Library trustee, and Hebron resident Louise Knapp look over library artifacts at the Sept. 7 New Gloucester History Barn Open House. A special exhibit there commemorates the library’s 125th anniversary and is sponsored by the New Gloucester Historical Society. The next open house occurs on Saturday, Oct. 5, 9 a.m.-noon, at the History Barn behind Town Hall, Route 231, New Gloucester.