Johnson usually made the trip with her husband, Robert. She said he passed away a month ago, “but he’s still with me.”

Across the compound, re-enactors showed visitors their authentic weapons, clothing and household goods while women dressed in period costumes churned butter or tended wood fires in front of encampment tents.

Some craftsmen and vendors sold wood products while the bookstore and space at the gift shop at the Wilder Farm was standing-room only, and even that was difficult.

In between getting beaned by small apples falling out of the tree she was set up under, illustrator Jody Wheeler spoke with guests and autographed her work featured in three HarperCollins books in the “My First ‘Little House’ Book” series.

Geared toward pre-schoolers as well as first and second graders, the read-along books introduce younger kids to the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Her appearance has been planned for about a year.

“When Sandy Young asked me to be part of it, I thought, ‘I don’t even know where I’m going to be a year from now,’” Wheeler said.

“But when I heard the idea that it was going to be held upstate and in the autumn and at the homestead, I said ‘yes, yes, yes.’”

The artist continued to talk as 2-year-old Sullivan Wescott and his mom, Ellie, waited to approach.

She said the area and the Wilder homestead have changed quite a bit from the initial trip she made north from Ballston Spa for first-hand research several years ago and she was thrilled to see such large crowds.

“This is much more than I expected, and the place has expanded,” she said. “They’ve added some buildings, and even Malone looks more prosperous.”

Activities and demonstrations dotted the land as families strolled the grounds, snacked under the pavilion or caught the performance of an original play written by Curtis Winters called “Manley’s Growing Pains.”

“I’m going into the field in college and I’ve done a lot of musical theater in school, but doing community theater is also nice,” said Paige Dustin, a 16-year-old Franklin Academy High School student who played Almanzo’s older sister, Eliza Jane.

“It’s really nice to see so much going on and so many people,” she said.

William Webber, a 14-year student from Brushton-Moira, said he was glad to be part of the Wilder celebration because he enjoyed reading “Farmer Boy” so much when he first picked it up at his aunt’s house three or four years ago.