Thousands of people arrived in Oxford this weekend for the Apple Butter Festival at Pioneer Farm in Hueston Woods State Park. The event was held on Saturday and Sunday, organized by the volunteers of the Oxford Museum Association (OMA). "We've been very pleased with the area's response (to the festival)," said Bill King, director of the OMA. "We've been blessed with good weather." Apple butter, apples, candy apples, crafts from the 19th century, and incense were available for purchase. Members of the Ohio Valley Civil War Association were on hand to perform a rifle demonstration featuring guns from the 19th century. On Saturday, the OMA unveiled a McCormick Daisy Reaper, a refurbished historical artifact used for harvesting grain. Dr. Calvin Finch, of Brookville, Ind., donated the reaper to the OMA several years ago. Ron Pfohl, a retired Miami University zoology instructor, and John Morrow, who also retired from Miami, spent three to four years rebuilding the device. "The hardest part was not really having a blueprint so we could reconstruct (the Daisy Reaper)," Pfohl said. "It was a lot of fun - a challenge." According to Pfohl, he and Morrow consulted with the Wisconsin Historical Society to obtain a parts manual. The main draw of the festival was the apple butter. Lois Lehmkuhl, an OMA volunteer and official brewmaster of the festival's apple butter, has been overseeing the cooking process for each of the festival's 41 years. The apple butter is cooked in a long, slow process. First, two 35-pound containers of apples and one gallon of apple cider are placed into a large copper kettle over a wood fire. Then, five more containers of apples and more cider are added. After five to six hours, cinnamon, cloves, and more apple cider are added to the kettle, and cooked for an additional half-hour. "I like being outside and I like to do this," Lehmkuhl said. "Its fun to chat and all these volunteers are friends." Three kettles were prepared on Friday, and two each on Saturday and Sunday. All seven kettles yielded approximately 85 dozen jars, available in pint and half-pint varieties, according to King. King was pleased with the turnout for the event, adding that the participation of volunteers is crucial to the event. "Two-hundred members of the OMA of all ages in the community have an interest in preserving history for the next generation," he said. "It's really a hard working group."