Weather kind to Holiday Evenings

The two-day Holiday Evenings event is intended to celebrate the season at the Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site, but this year the ranch had another reason to feel fortunate: a break on the wintry weather. Scenes at Holiday Evenings at Rock Ledge Ranch Dec. 13... ABOVE: Tom and Carol Beadle play for the barn dance. Caller Merell Folsom (in felt hat, at upper left) works with some dancers. BOTTOM LEFT: Volunteer blacksmith Don Hanson hands a recently-forged "candy cane" to a young visitor. BOTTOM RIGHT: Next to an outdoor bonfire and beneath a full moon, volunteer fiddler Beth Harmon plays Christmas tunes. Westside Pioneer photos        The first night, Friday, Dec. 12, was pleasant, then through much of the daytime Dec. 13 the wind blew hard, even picking up some of the luminaria along the ranch pathways, according to manager Andy Morris. But by late afternoon, when the the second Holiday Evenings had started, all was calm again. Later that night, a blizzard moved in. If the event had been on a Sunday, as it used to be, "We'd have been lucky to have 20 people," he said.        As it was, Morris said, a total of about 1,300 people attended Dec. 12-13, enjoying barn dancing, Christmas carols, house tours, wagon rides, a Civil War encampment, blacksmith demonstrations, St. Nicholas visits and other activities. Westside Pioneer article