Free admission with a day full of fun activities is set for Aug. 24 as the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces hosts Community Appreciation Day.

The fourth-annual event is held to thank the community for its support and to showcase the Museum’s programs and exhibits. The fun is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Museum’s chuckwagon will be offering Dutch-oven biscuits while supplies last. Pony rides for kids are from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ($5 per ride).

The Parade of Breeds cattle program will be held in the Museum’s Round Pen from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. and again from 2-3 p.m.

Demonstrations include wool spinning, weaving, blacksmithing, corn grinding, tortilla making, butter churning, quilting, and wood carving. The Museum’s Education Department and the City of Las Cruces Parks & Recreation Department will provide activities and games for the kids. The Friends of the Museum’s living history characters will offer old-fashioned games for the kids.

Visitors are invited to interact with living history characters, shop at the plant sale, enjoy the food truck, snow cones, or check out the animals, exhibits and vintage tractors. Because of the protected museum environment and livestock on site, service dogs are the only pets that will be allowed.

Some of the exhibits currently on display are “Drawn to the Land: Peter Hurd’s New Mexico,” “Dressed for the Occasion,” “Cultivating Color by Jeri Desrochers,” “Grist for the Mill,” “The Cowboy Way: The Western Drawings of Robert “Shoofly” Shufelt,” “Saddlemakers of the Southwest,” and long-term exhibits in the Heritage Gallery that visitors can walk through.

Supporters include the Friends of the Museum, City of Las Cruces Recreation Department, the City of Las Cruces Police Department, Fort Selden Historic Site, Whataburger and Tractor Supply Company.