New Life

What an exciting past few days! Sunday after church, I went back and got to play piano for about an hour and a half. After not having played in about a year, I did a lot better than I expected to. The church has an amazing Grand Piano so I expect that I will be back several more times to just be alone and play my music. It was great!!



Yesterday, I got invited back to Jessica's farm to go swim at their pond and have a hot dog cookout. The temperature yesterday was perfect for a swim while we were peeking out the window at the museum! Temperatures got to 102 degrees (hot! but NO humidity!) and everyone was using their air conditioning so much in town that there were three power surges during the afternoon. I only lost about 5 pages on the first one, and it was a pain to catch back up, but I was better prepared for the next 2. I'm almost to the point to get stressed with work...I'm not yet...but getting close. My work load is increasing and I have so much to do that takes a lot longer than I expect it to because I have meetings to go to all the time. Anyway, back to the story at hand.



After work, I ran back to the house to get my bathing suit and car and met Jessica down the road. She's having a huge family reunion this weekend so a lot of her cousins were there and went up to the swimming hole with us.





By the time we got up there, our lovely 102 degree weather had plummeted behind an ugly storm cloud. The storm hit Powell, which is about 15 or 20 miles away, so we just caught the edge of the storm with sprinkles, but it was CONSIDERABLY cooler- even I was cold! We swam anyway and had a good time. I got some really beautiful pictures up by the pond. The sun doesn't set til really late and it doesn't get totally dark til after 11 which makes it fun to be outside.


We saw a double rainbow that turned into a triple rainbow that stretched all the way across the sky. We could see both ends of it which was super neat. I think i've only seen that happen before once. I guess I should have taken it as a sign of the things to come!


Once we got back to Jessica's house, we went to look at her animals and farm (her family runs a dairy farm). We noticed that a cow was dropping its calf, so we stuck around to watch. After some time had passed, Jessica decided the cow was having troubles and went to get some help to pull it. She got her younger brother out and they started working on it. Guess who else got to help!?! ME!! It was really exciting! It turned out the calf was backwards, so it came out back end first when it is supposed to come out front end first. Samuel tried to push the calf back in til he could figure out where the other hoof was, but his arms weren't long enough, so Arley, Jessica's cousin, came over to help since his arms are a lot longer. Once he found both hooves they put on the chains. One! Two! Three! Pull! and out came the calf! I got to hold the cow's tail out of the way the entire time (which Jessica reassured me was a crucial job) so I was right in the middle of the action.


I don't think that I've ever been so close to the miracle of new life before, and it was just an awesome experience. I hope that I can help out again (I've been invited back out to the farm anytime!) and learn parts of farm life that I've never experienced before. I really like Jessica's family. They are the laid-back, simple, easy-going kind of people that I'm used to, which can be a change of pace from work at the museum. Each new place I go and new experience I have is going to make it harder and harder to leave at the end of the summer.



My trail seems to be winding around Heart Mountain (which ironically is NOT shaped like a heart, it is named after the man who discovered it whose last name was Hart/Heart), which is in turn wrapping itself around MY heart. This summer is such a great experience for me, and is a time in my life that I will treasure forever.

Amazing Day!

Today was quite an awesome day! The most important thing is that I helped birth a calf and it is definitely not an experience I will ever forget, and I hope I get to do it again! I'm really tired tonight, so i'll most definitely update more about this tomorrow after work, but this was just too good a story to pass up tonight before I go to bed. It's not every day that you get to help new life into the world! More about this tomorrow!

Days of Adventures

Family Fun Day was a huge success! I had a great time playing with all the kids and being outside for the entire day. This is my station...a puppet stand with some REALLy neat puppets!


We also had some homemade ice cream that we served after lunch. It was probably the most popular thing we did that day.

A family band came and played some songs and taught line and square dances that was really fun for the kids.

Yesterday, I went to Billings, MT to do some shopping and see some different scenery. Jessica, another girl in the Education Dept. rode up with me and we had a great time. Her family is Mormon, so they all went to the Temple while I was shopping and then we met back up again after they were finished. I got some neat stuff at Hobby Lobby, which is one of my favorite stores, and was very pleased with my entire trip.

After lunch, Jessica's cousin Arley decided to ride back with us, so we had a few more stops and made our way back home. We all stopped at the Japanese Relocation Camp about 10 miles outside of Cody, which was really neat for me to see. There are only a few building left standing because they were parceled out to homesteaders to use as houses. Jessica's grandmother lives in part of one of the barracks. Her grandfather was one of the first people to discover Buchenwald in Germany, and I got to see some of the pictures that he had taken.

This is part of the hospital complex that was in the camp.

This is inside one of the barracks. They are all boarded up so people don't mess them up, but I squeezed my camera in one of the cracks to get a clear picture.

The camp was 1 square mile of barracks, plus a couple of other buildings and facilities around it, taking up most of the valley that you can see here, with Heart Mountain in the distance.

This is probably my favorite picture that i've taken so far out here. It is absolutely beautiful. I love it out here! :)

At church today, I met a guy from Hickory! He had been out here back in college and met somebody and when they got married, they moved out here. He's also an alum of UNC so we had a big time talking about UNC stuff and Hickory/Lenoir stuff. What a small world!

Perfect Temperatures

Last night's weather was absolutely perfect. It might possibly have been the most perfect weather I have ever been in. I was out taking a walk through one of the nearby neighborhoods behind the museum because I just wanted to be outside. The temperature was about 70 or so with a slight breeze blowing. There was 0% humidity and it was perfect. I kept walking around and around just so I didn't have to go back inside! I sure hope that we have more nights like that.

Unfortunately, while I was outside enjoying the perfect weather, the mosquitos were too. While I was taking in the fresh air, they were taking in ME! I didn't think about putting on my bug spray before going outside, but believe me, I won't make that mistake again. I have 3 huge welts on the back of my leg that itch like crazy. I made it back to the house and decided to look at the back of my leg. Good thing I did because the mosquito was still attached!! I slapped him REAL fast...but it was too late. He'd already got me. Side note, I also discovered that a mosquito had mdae its way into my hair, and I have an extremely annoying bug bite in my hair. They won't catch me out with no bug spray again!

I went a few miles out of town on a short drive today just to take in some different scenery. Mike, I found some more fences, so please oblige me. I tried to take pictures of the fences with something in the background to look at so you don't just have to see the fence. A lot of the farms (I guess they are ranches out here) were irrigating right at dusk. There were a lot of deer and antelope out enjoying the freshly watered grass, so I made sure not to hit one. I then caught the end of the sunset behind the clouds before heading back to town.

For a bit of terrific news, I finished the 1894 scrapbook today!!! That was one of my big projects to be working on throughout the summer, so now that I've got that behind me, I can concentrate a lot more on specific research. No more staring at tiny newspaper clippings scanned into the computer. My eyes will thank me! I will still be using it periodically, but not everyday like I have been. Tomorrow is an exciting day, because I get transferred over to the Education Dept. for the day. They need all the help they can get with a "Family Fun Day" that they have organized. We are planning to have food, games, and educational things from the 1800's that I am TOTALLY pumped about! I'm in charge of the puppet station before we rotate around, and we have some REALLY cool puppets. Fran and Nancy are the cowgirl and girl horse, we have yet to name the boy horse but he will probably end up being Ned to go with Nancy. There's also Bill the Buffalo (I know, I know, I had to do it...we work in the Buffalo Bill Museum), Fertie the Ferret (I did not name that one), Bucky the Mule Deer, and plenty of other animals we haven't named yet. There's going to be relay races with a yoke and buckets carrying water, blind horse relays (which I practiced today in the office and it is pretty awesome), making corn husk dolls, homemade ice cream, and my personal fav, a marbles station to play marbles. It is a very ambitious day for the 7 of us that are manning the stations, but I am VERY excited. This is my first time working with the public at the museum, so the change of pace and assignment will be nice, but mostly, there's going to be KIDS there!! I'm hoping the 7 and 8 year olds make it to my puppet station because I could use some "peanut butters" to play with.

I'm planning to take TONS of pictures of Family Fun Day (when i'm not busy being a puppeteer of course), so look out for those!

A Quick Visit Home

We live in a beautiful country. Having gone across 4,000 miles total of it, I think I have a pretty good idea of what it looks like- well, at least the 20 or 30 miles I could see out my window. :) The flight from Cody to Denver and back again is gorgeous because you can see a stretch of the Rockies that still have snow on the tops.

Leaving Cody was quite an adventure. I woke up Thursday morning and thought, "Oh great. Just what I need, a thunderstorm." After I got ready amidst all the noise, I walked upstairs, looked out the window, and saw a clear blue sky. What I had heard was the wind that sounded like thunder. It had blown trees over and was like nothing I've ever seen or experienced before. Walking from the terminal outside to the plane, I almost got blown over- and it takes a lot to blow me over! One woman lost a book and somebody else lost their shoes (But I'm not quite sure how THAT happened). My connection in Denver went smoothly and as soon as I stepped outside the terminal in Charlotte, I wanted to fall over again! But this time from heat stroke. It was simply awful.

I have a nerdy, history major confession to make. All during my flights, I kept imagining myself in a B-29 bomber somewhere over France or Germany. All the little puffs of clouds looked like white "ack-ack" shot out of an anti-aircraft gun. I could imagine myself looking through the bombsight finding my target and shouting "Bombs Away!" :) Needless to say, I had a BLAST flying home and back! (No pun intended) Watching the sun dance through and around the clouds was a lot of fun too.

Jessica's wedding went off great. I'm glad I could share in her special day and be there for her. It was great to visit with her family who I haven't had the chance to see in about a year and a half. I had such a great time.

Yesterday, some of the girls from church left for their week at Worship and Music at Montreat. They don't konw how badly I want to go with them. I know they will have an awesome week- it's impossible NOT to! I am praying that their musical gifts and talents will glorify God and that they will feel His presence each time a choir sings like I have.

I'm back to work tomorrow. I'll try to share some more good stories from this weekend tomorrow or the next day. Safe travels to Mary Catherine who travels to Denmark tomorrow! I hope her flights are as fun as mine have been!

Running Around Like Chickens

The entire museum is in an uproar. Everybody is running around like a chicken with their head cut off...including me! Board meetings start on Thursday, and they are one of the biggest things that the museum does throughout the year. All the trustees of the various museums come in and they have really big meetings talking about what the museums are doing and what they want them to look like for the next year. Apparently Dick Cheney is one of the trustees for one of the museums, either Buffalo Bill or the Whitney, I can't remember. Anyway, he came to a meeting once while he was still VP and security was out of control. They had to build a special enclosed walkway from his car to the door and visitors to the museum could only bring in a wallet and a camera. Since there aren't any suspicious wooden structures outside the museum right now, I don't think he's coming. :)

I've been working early and late this week trying to get as many hours in as I can since I'll be missing Thursday, Friday, and Monday. In case you weren't aware, I'll be flying home early Thursday morning and back out here on Monday. One of my best friends from high school is getting married on Saturday and I'm one of her bridesmaids. I'm really looking forward to being home and seeing friends and family, but I will miss being out here. I was hoping that I would be here for the board meetings so that I could meet some of the trustees.

Today was really busy. I got through 11 pages in the scrapbook (which i've never gone through that many in 1 day before) and also spent 2 hours looking at prototypes and carpet samples. Matt and Dave, 2 of the carpenters, had built 2 display cases that they are testing for the reinstallation. They are really neat, and I got to watch them pull it apart and show how you can take off one side of it to change out artifacts or work on certain things if need be. The reader rail that is attached to one side pulls the entire side of the display case, including the plexiglass top and wooden bottom. There is a drawer that you can pull out on the other side that they are planning to use for interactive/hands-on artifacts. Nick, the display designer is in this week and has been looking at a lot of the prototype stuff and deciding what works and what doesn't. The main color theme throughout the reinstallation is going to be based on sage, so the carpet samples we've looked at are in the sage family. One of them is a really pretty color, but the pattern just makes my eyes distracted. I keep getting distracted by the pattern instead of looking inside the display case. I've been asked my opinion a couple of times about certain things which has been cool, but by no means does the final decision rest with me. I've just tried to mention practical things that they may or may not have thought of. Matt and Nick are trying to decide the best way to have the bottom of the display case look, whether to have the case on legs, which is easier, cheaper, and looks better, or to put a iron strip around the bottom so people won't kick the case and endanger the objects. I think that the legs look much better and classier, especially on the smaller cases, but I don't know how they can keep dust bunnies from collecting underneath the case, or what to do if somebody should drop something and it go under the case. They're pretty big, so they'd have to find a solution for that problem.

The things the planners think about are hilarious. They plan for people to do the craziest things, which DO happen, but it's funny to think about. They were talking about how to re-inforce the reader rail for when people sit on it to rest, when people sit on the drawers after they open them, how to make the drawers secure for when people slam them open and closed, how to make the label cards in a place that people can't slide things underneath the plastic cover trying to remove them (what they plan to do with it once they get it out, I have no idea!), how to lock the drawer in so that people can't lift them out and only the people who are allowed to lift them out for maintenance can, and other silly things like that. They also have to modify what was built so that wheelchairs can go underneath the reader rail, but not have the artifacts too high for someone in a wheelchair to see.

One funny story from today...a man and his son were looking at the prototype display cases today, and said, "But Dad! There's nothing in there!" (because we don't actually have any artifacts in it yet) The dad responded, "Yes they do! The air in there is air that Buffalo Bill used to use!" Good save, dad. Good save! :)

Busy Week

This past week has been really busy. As you can see from my desk, i've been hard at work! :) I've got some specific projects i've been working on this past week and particular things I'm supposed to be researching. I think my desk says it all!

This weekend has been fairly relaxing which has been super nice. I took a nap yesterday and dreamed about some of the people from Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. It was really weird, but I guess I'm learning new things!

We went to the Rodeo twice this week. The first day was fun because they had some new events that they hadn't had earlier in the summer. It was pretty cold, probably in the upper 30's or lower 40's, but I had my jacket and was just fine. The animals were really frisky and about 3 of the horses almost jumped over the rail and out of the chutes. They were ready to get the show on the road! Last night, Cody had a special event just for bull riding and bull fighting. 4 or 5 of the bull riders had really great scores which was fun to see. Usually, there's only 1 or 2 that make the 8 seconds. One of the guys that I play volleyball with was one of the bull fighters. He did really well and made it to the final round. I was really nervous watching since I actually know him. He got tossed up in the air and did a corkscrew before falling down and the scorekeepers called him off before his time finished so he wouldn't get any more hurt than he already was. I think he did something to his arm, but I'll have to wait and see if he comes to the gym Monday to know for sure. He finished 3rd out of 9 for the competition.

I'm getting ready to head home on Thursday for Jess' wedding. I'm looking forward to being home for a few days and getting to see green stuff again. I'll have to get used to hot weather again too! I've really enjoyed not being hot so far. I think it's supposed to turn warmer next week, but we'll see. Apparently it has been a pretty cold spring here.

Beautiful Day

Just a few pictures from today. I took a walk behind my house between it and the museum, and there are some beautiful lilac bushes growing alongside the road. I hope they don't mind I took a sample. They had white, light purple, and dark purple. It was beautiful!! And they smell wonderful too!

That is the view I see everyday going to work. It's always a great start to the day!

The Nature World Is Better Than The Digital World That Man Has Created

Another week down at the office. Can you believe i've been here for 3 weeks? It has flown by! Some of the other interns and I went to Yellowstone again today. We went around half of the lower loop and got pretty tired so decided to come back the quickest way possible. I'm sure we'll find our way back soon. Entrance to the park was free this weekend, so we wanted to take advantage while we could. So much has changed since last weekend, most notably the lack of snow. The pass going to the loop from the east entrance of Yellowstone was blocked for part of the morning by snow and falling rocks. We eventually made it and as we were driving around the lake, I noticed that it was almost completely melted. Last week the top was frozen over, but this week, there were only a few patches that had ice still on the top.

All the melting water was incredible. There were waterfalls of cascading water coming off the cliffs, and all the rivers were absolutely raging. I wish I could record what it sounds like. I have never heard a river rush so much.

About 2 or 3 miles on the lower loop, we ran into a huge group of cars lining the road that only means 1 thing....bear. Sure enough, we found a grizzly bear snoozing in the sun! It was pretty neat to see!

The rest of the day, we went over to Old Faithful and walked around all the trails to see all of the other geysers and hot springs. It was really neat to learn how geysers actually work (the diagrams in the info brochure really helped too!) and then see them in action.

On our way back home we saw another grizzly bear! This one was smaller than the first but looked more silvery and more what I would consider a grizzly bear. They were both incredible to see and absolutely beautiful, but I definitely wouldnt want to get too close to them.

While we were at Old Faithful, we were waiting for the geyser to blow and there was a large family sitting near us. We heard one of the kids (he was about 10) talking to one of the rangers giving a presentation, and he said, "The nature world is better than the digital world that man has created." First of all, where did this kid come from? Second, when did 10 year olds have such philosophical statements? But he is so true. I am amazed at what my camera is capable of doing, but it is only a small glimpse at what I really see. I wish I could aptly describe everything i've seen here, but words simply cannot do it justice. There are so many people that I wish I could drag to the top of the Sunlight Basin, or to the last rise of the road before heading down the hill overlooking Yellowstone Lake, or in front of the elk calves, buffalo calves, bears, and new growth throughout the park. I want to stand beside them a shake them and say "how can you not believe!?" God has created SUCH a beautiful world for us and I completely fail at thanking Him enough for what He has given us. My devotional that i've been working through is a wonderful resource (thanks Amy!) and I hope to share it with several friends and family once I get back this summer. The nature world IS better than the digital world that man created, because GOD created it all. The beauty of the land out here continues to amaze me. God is good. All the time.

Tomorrow I'm headed off to church again and then my errands for the next few weeks. I've gotten some really nice letters this week (thanks Bec!!) which were a pleasant surprise, and feel well-informed about everything that's going on at home. Tomorrow will be a busy day, but hopefully I can find some alone time to look back at what i've done the past 3 weeks. My spanish is improving, but still has a ways to go. Until then, buenas noches! :)

Shananigans

Yesterday my roommates (Jessica and Vanessa) and I went on a walk/hike 2 miles up to the dam and 2 miles back. We were pretty tired when we got back. The dam was behind me as I took this picture of the resevoir in front of us. It was really beautiful.


There was a small tunnel for us to walk through to get there. Vanessa is on the left in the brown and Jessica is on the right in black. Vanessa is from Iowa and Jessica is from Alabama.



The education department is going to put on a day of fun and games later in June and they are going to have some relay races with a yoke and water. I might get recruited to help out which I am really excited about, so today I practiced my yoke carrying techniques. I've still got some work to do. :)


I also stole/borrowed a tree from an unused office to decorate MY office and form a little barrier at the door so that I won't be bothered by people coming in and out. Basically, I just wanted the tree. :)

We have plans to go to the rodeo for the first time of the summer tomorrow night and then back to Yellowstone on Saturday. I'm really glad tomorrow is Friday!!