Wednesday, May 27, 2009

How wet is wet?

After receiving 3 inches of rain on Monday, we have come to the conclusion that we may not be able to seed any more this year. It is amazing to see how wet is it.

We are about as flat as land can get so when you look through those trees and you see the water you can recognize how we can flood. There are no hills in Roseau County to speak of, we tend to be pancake flat. We are saturated from our winter snow that didn't leave early enough and now the rain adds to that wetness. It will be a summer of cultivating fields when it gets dry enough.

Today we had the last student tour. A fifth grade class from Greenbush arrived eager to do the scavenger hunt. They always seem to enjoy it so much. Their enthusiastic is contagious. The children who live in other areas of the county don't get the opportunities to come again like the locals do. It is such fun to see them look and marvel at all the things we have. One young boy came around the corner and saw the Ojibwe a exhibit and couldn't help but get excited and call his friends over to look with him.

I am proud to live in a county and state that realizes how important our historic culture is to the next generation. With Minnesota passing the Legacy Amendment, the historical society climate may have changed a bit. Having the people of Minnesota decided that saving our state from deterioration, whether in the land and water area or the arts and history area, means that they care about how we approach taking care of the culture in our state. Minnesota has always been a forward looking state...the home of MPR, the Guthrie Theater, a Prairie Home Companion.

I look forward to seeing the improvements that may be provided to improved care to our collection due to the amendment. Perhaps in the future we will even be able to install the mobile shelving that I had planned for when we first designed the archive room. The archive room already seems too small. We can move some things into the research center if necessary. That will mean purchasing new file cabinets which are probably necessary due the type of file cabinets we now have. That would mean, we need to consider grants to provide this type of care in the future, the main purpose of the Legacy Amendment; provide funding for things that historical societies' normally can't afford.
Charleen

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