Fall festival fun at Phillips Farm Park

Some rode in a horse-drawn carriage, some pressed apples to make cider and others sat on hay bales and listened to live music at the annual Phillips Farm Fall Festival on a chilly Saturday at Virgil Phillips Farm County Park north of Moscow.

Milt Moore and Lois Blair led two roughly 1,800-pound Percheron horses - Dixie and Dolly - around the park with a host of visitors attached in a red wooden carriage.

While the slightly bumpy ride began with a slow trot, the horses eventually put on a show with Moore as the director. Dixie and Dolly took the carriage in a circle, reverse and eventually kicked it into high gear to show off a glimpse of their speed before returning to the park's entrance for another group to take a ride.

"I just love to work my horses," said Moore, who has given rides at the fall festival in several previous years. "I'm a horse lover."

Moore said Dixie and Dolly, who are sisters, love people. Some visitors fed the friendly horses apples.

Laurel and Charlie Herrick, a married couple who moved to Moscow about three weeks ago, were two of the many visitors who sat in the carriage for a nice weekend ride.

Neither was a stranger to the horse-riding experience.

"It's always a lot of fun," Laurel Herrick said.

She said Dixie and Dolly responded to Moore's commands really well. Charlie Herrick said he enjoyed the horses' tricks, such as the figure eight and trotting circles maneuvers.

Many people checked out the apple pressing area.

Diane Noel, who owns an apple orchard near Potlatch with her husband, Tim Steury, showed visitors how the two apple presses work and allowed people to operate the manual machines.

Noel said she has been crushing apples and turning them into cider at the fall festival for years.

"The little kids just love to put the apples into the hopper and the little bit older kids love to do the grinding," Noel said.

Noah Gregg, a Moscow High School freshman, was trying to catch critters in the park's pond.

Gregg said he caught a newt, insects, snails, larva and other various water critters.

Gregg took the creatures to a booth where visitors could examine them with the naked eye or a microscope.

"I think the main reason not many bigger animals, like reptiles, are around right now is because it's pretty cold, so they're all hiding," Gregg said.

MHS Environmental Club students volunteered at the various booths Saturday.

Lee Anne Eareckson, a MHS biology teacher and Environmental Club adviser, said her students use the park as an outdoor science lab for biology classes and the Environmental Club is involved in projects to help enhance the park's natural environment.

She said her students are conducting a wetlands restoration project in which the students replace reed canary grass with native plants at the park.

Face painting, a scavenger hunt, the Washington State University Raptor Club and food and beverages were also options at the festival.

Kathy Dawes, a board member with Friends of the Phillips Farm and Latah County Parks, said the purpose of the festival was to promote the use of the park and show what it has to offer. She said donations were collected to help fund projects at the park and summer camps sponsored by Friends of the Phillips Farm.

Dawes said a restroom was installed this past summer at the park. Andy Grant, Latah County Parks and Recreation director, said before the new restroom was installed, there were portable restroom units.

Garrett Cabeza can be reached at (208) 883-4631, or by email to gcabeza@dnews.com.