Tuesday, September 29, 2009

First Frost

This morning, we woke up to a sparkling white yard, yup, the first frost hit the area. I was up early, heading to a workshop in Thief River. When the sun came up it cast the most heavenly golden glow over the yard and on the wall in the bedroom.It was delightful to see we were going to have a beautiful sunny day. The drive was gorgeous!

The workshop, for history teachers, was on doing oral history interviews. This was the first time our historical societies were given the opportunity to attend this type of workshop and it was very good. We worked a little with a local teachers who has had students do military interviews in the past and is planning on doing Korean and Vietnam vet oral history interviews this year. He always makes sure the historical society receives copies for the archives so future generations can benefit. I am hopeful he will do more interviews in the future and we will be able to partner on equipment through the Legacy grant funding. It is so exciting to know this funding will be available for the next 25 years. Thank you people of Minnesota. You have always made good choices and you made another one in the voting booth last year.

Did I say we are going to be great-grandparents again? No? Well we are. I am very excited. Breanne is due in about 4 1/2 months. Damen will have a little sister or brother! Life is so good.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Shelving Installation and Exhibits

The last two weeks were a whirl wind of activity.We started putting the shelving together two weeks ago and are finally finished. As usual there is always changes. We decided to put a shelf in the work room too. The room looks so much roomier and neat with the extra boxes set on the shelf and used foam core posters laying neatly in a pile instead of on a way too small top shelf where they looked ready to fall off at any moment. The floor in the storage room is almost clear of any items that were placed in random places; now they line the new shelving, are accessible, neater, and most of all neater. The shelving for the snowmobiles is ready, all that is needed is to cut the 5"x6" boards and place the platforms with the snowmobiles on the shelves. We will need an electric forklift to take care of that.

we will begin in earnest looking at designing the upcoming exhibits. First will be the hockey exhibit. I have contacted several former hockey players requesting articles for the exhibit. Some items have been donated, others loaned. It will make for a great story. I hope to have some oral histories for our SMART board presentations. The SMART board should arrive in about a week and we will then have to install it on the wall next to my office. The dedicated laptop will be placed in the room directly behind that wall and with wireless accessibility. I am planning to request a new video camera and software so we can place the interviews on the SMART board.

We ordered the some boards to put up signage for the upcoming Smithsonian Museum on Main Street Between Fences exhibit. 1"x6" boards will be painted white and cut into pickets, which will be used sold to provided funding for our exhibit and programs. This week's newspaper article also mentions the need to land owners across the county to bring a peanut butter jar of dirt from their land into the museum so we can show a cross section of the type of dirt our county has.

The One Woman and Women in Military programs are devloping nicely for the upcoming March Women in History exhibits. I am very excited about what we will be doing in that area.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Summer, finally?

For about the past two weeks off and on we have had absolutely delightful weather. Last Thursday, I took the day off, knowing that this hot weather is not going to hold for much longer. A friend had invited me up to her cabin on Lake of the Woods; I am so glad I went. The day was hot and sunny. She picked me up with their boat and we headed between the beautiful, wooded Northwest Angle islands to their cabin at the point of a peninsula. What a treat!

After a delicious lunch we hopped onto the boat to visit an artist friend of hers and visited the hours away until almost 5:30. We quickly donned our swim suits and dove into the icy dark lake. It was so cold enough at first to take your breath away but in no time, we adjusted and enjoyed swimming.

It reminded me of the many hours I spent at Lake Vermilion with my parents and brother. My mother often would pack a fabulous lunch of fried chicken (she was a fantastic cook), potato salad, apple pie, and our favorite deviled eggs with paprika. My dad would rent a boat and off he, my mom and brother would go while would stay and play with a friend whose parents owned the resort we always went to. I can see feel the fat blood suckers that were infamous where we would go swimming. It wouldn't keep us out of the water on a hot day though; blood suckers or snapping turtles, it was just too hot to not take a dip!

Back to the Angle, about seven it started to cloud over and as we sat on their back patio we could see the lightening pulse across the sky in the south. All too soon, the day came to an end and I drove back home, through the white pines, the coniferous and deciduous trees with the deer making their presence know way too often.

Life on the farm is never dull. Yesterday, Ardmore began combining the wheat. It seems to be running ok, he said. He was not without problems though. Driving the combine home in the dark became a challenge when the water pump blew up and started spraying antifreeze. He spend today removing the pump, taking it in to be repaired, and installed it this evening. Hopefully we don't get the rain from the clouds that seem to be coming this way.

Work at the museum is moving right along. We have had Sentence to Service in the past several days installing shelving in the storage room. It is amazing to see so many things come off the floor and get installed on shelves. There will always be a few things that will have to remain on the floor, but for the most part, we will look immensely organized.

I tried to show our photos from Hanley Falls at the RCHS board meeting last night but they I couldn't get on the Internet to do it. We are not on Facebook with several photos from our trip posted on FB.

I think I will add a couple of photos from my trip to LA and Bakersfield. These are from the Huntington Library and Gardens.








Monday, September 7, 2009

Hanley Falls, Minnesota and the Installation of Between Fences

Now that the hectic, overloaded time we spent at Hanley Falls is over, I am trying to get some of the work I have here at home caught up. I arrived home at 11 pm, too tired to even bring in the suitcase.
The first of Ardmore's first cousins passed away on August 29. Jalmer Haugen's funeral was Friday afternoon. It would be family time for Ardmore's siblings. Bergliotte arrived the day before and morning I decided to have breakfast with her at the Roseau Diner. She pulled the photos of her grandchildren out of her purse to share. The photo of the Bridget's girls and Mary Beth's Corbin showed how they were aging. Mary Beth's little girl is adorable. I'm sure Mary Beth has enjoyed being home during the summer, one of the advantages of teaching. Following a breakfast of easy-over eggs and dark toast, we headed to the Roseau City Center for a tour. It will probably be the last time she will get to see the museum the way it is exhibited now. She was surprised at the collection and amazed at all that was in the storage area. The afternoon was spent at Helgeson's funeral chapel and the Badger Pioneer Cemetery visiting with relatives and friends; some we hadn't seen in many years and Ardmore didn't even recognized them. Adding onto the already busy day was supper for the missionaries.It is such a relief to be able to pull our some already cooked hamburger and mix it with a can of diced tomatoes and Prego for spaghetti. We ended the day visiting with Bergliotte, who headed back to the motel around 10.

Saturday I mowed our 4 inches tall lawn. It was a lovely day to be outside so I totally enjoyed being on the mower. There was also unpacking to do and washing to take care of. I tried to squeeze in some study time for my class but that wasn't as much as I would have liked, I was too tired and ended up napping.

About Hanley Falls...The Between Fences MOMS Smithsonian Exhibit installation, docent and interpretive workshops were informative and intense. As usually, it was a good thing we put it together as a group, there is always a few glitches, such as, installing a panel backwards, placing the wrong connectors in a panel, not having things lined up so the screws won't go into the panels or kiosk.


By the time the exhibit was installed on Wednesday we were ready for a break and some supper! We all spent some checking out the Hanley Falls exhibits. For a very small town they do a very good job. The museum has a very active board, most of them were in attendance at the installation. Britt and I were impressed with all the cataloging they had done. Each artifact was labeled with a small tag that told who the donors were, the number and the artifact object name. We know how much time it takes to accomplish such a task.

One of the interesting complementary exhibits was a fence with a tractor seat attached, to represent "fence sitters". We all know how fence sitters add to the workload of others. Do you know any examples of fence sitters in your life? Share them if you do in the comment section.