With an eye to the weather, Homesteader Museum officials are ready to be nimble as they prepare for their signature events, Homesteader Days and the companion Farm to Table Dinner.

Some 150 tickets have been sold for the Friday evening Farm to Table Dinner which introduces Saturday’s day-long Homesteader Days at the museum. Both are outside events, and the forecast for change in the hot weather pattern of late summer raises some questions.

Particularly challenging is the staging of the Farm to Table Dinner. On a warm early September evening, dinner on a festive table lining a closed Second Street in front of the Washington Park bandshell can be delightful. In the event of a cool evening, perhaps even turning cold and windy, the outside dinner table is less engaging.

Such is the dilemma for Homesteader Museum sponsors. From mid-week high temperatures near triple digits, a cool-down and even some moisture is forecast Thursday and Friday. 

There is a Plan B ready.

“We may have to move the Farm to Table Dinner to the fairgrounds,” said Brandi Wright, museum curator and director. “We will call all of our ticket buyers if that is the case.”

Hefty food preparation and cooking are already slated for the kitchen in Heart Mountain Hall at the fairgrounds. If conditions dictate, the 6 p.m. dinner will be shifted to that site as well.

Through their business, Dunn Been Smoked, Duane and June Dunn will be catering the Farm to Table Dinner. They will be serving smoked meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, maple carrots and green salad. 

The smoked meatloaf for 150 is a blend of 60 pounds of beef and about 25 pounds of pork. The caterers will be peeling about 60 pounds of potatoes.

The Saturday Homesteader Days, starting at 10 a.m., will feature historic tractors and vintage farm equipment from the early days of the area’s Shoshone Reclamation Project farms. Hands-on demonstrations will reflect back on yesteryear.

Music by the Rewinders will fill the air on the corner of First and Clark streets. At 1:30 p.m. Saturday, the annual Ruby Hopkin Pie Auction will return.

Joining Homesteader Museum for the day with booths to raise community awareness of area museums and their missions will be representatives of the Lovell-Kane Museum, Cody Heritage Museum, the Park County Archives and Heart Mountain Interpretive Center.

The Eagles Lodge will also be hosting its Vehicle Vision Car Show Saturday in the streets around the museum.