Venting is needed on occasions

Sometimes I think that my being in the Rotunda is worthless. I say things and people don't listen. I would be rich if I had a penny every time any one did any of the following:

• Start any direction but from the left even after I say how the museum is laid out and that it is in chronological order (I even hand motion and point too).
• Ask me where the bathrooms are even after I pointed them out when I greeted them.
• Ask me if there is anything downstairs to look at even after I said there are things downstairs when I greeted them.
• Come back upstairs even after I say there is an exit door downstairs.
• Trip going out the front door even after I say watch your step as they leave after they came back upstairs.
• People come in at 4 or later expecting to be able to look around the museum when there is signage everywhere saying when we close with our hours. And then look at your weird you say you have to close up the building or take their sweet time walking around.
• People who walk up to the door at 4:30 asking if they can looking around.
• People who have called to talk to any of the Adminstrative staff or come by to see them. HELLO IT'S A WEEKEND PEOPLE!!!

Creek Update

We have had the trustees working on the creek now for 3 days. They have done an amazing job for just 9 of them. All the pieces of concrete have been moved from the bottom of the creek bed to the sides to reduce the washout. They were able to do it cause it has been dry now for a month or so. It was running 2 days ago but stopped since there was no more rain to feed it.

Peter is slowing trying to figure out what to do about the water situation. The damn idea is still there and in the works. It's just a matter of building it and putting the plans into action. It is going to run on a continuous cycle that peter can use to fill the duck pond and water the grounds with. Saving the museum on the water bill and utilizing the rain when it does grace us with it's presence.

Of course after they have moved all the stuff off to the banks. There has been uncovered glass so guess what I will be doing tomorrow. That's right, cleaning it out. Granted it's better than sitting in an office all day long. I will be getting some fresh air and feel good about helping out the environment. Granted don't think I'm some sort of nature freak but picking up trash is just my little thing to do. Heck if it makes the museum look nicer then why not. That and some times physical labor feels good. It won't be too hard just that it is outside in the heat. Though no booties tomorrow it is just too hot for those and no point since the creek is dry so the old running shoes will work fine.

I was also told today that I am now the proud mother/ guardian of 9 ducklings. have I named them yet? No. probably won't cause nature will take it's course. Not trying to be cruel but that is just how life is. Now to find a way to list that duties as assigned in my CV or resume; wildlife preservation and controlist maybe? LOL

At page 178 of Vol. II. :)

Edition: So this guy came in who owns/ displays/ something to the gun collection here in the Rotunda. He basically just told me I'm not doing my job in so many words. He complained about some kid marking up the display case that the guns and swords are housed in. Saying some Sunday church group or group of kids with a knife are making it up; been happening now for years- same kind of marks; and on and on and on. I was like seriously! I told him I work here and we would hear something going on and nothing has. He can't seem to get it through his brain that some times things just get normal wear and tear- it happens, deal the f with it and move on. If you don't like it being displayed here then take it out. He said that if I ever work on Sundays to keep and eye on it- hello that is my job to keep my eye on the whole place- don't tell me how to do my job and I won't tell you how to do yours; like buy some deodorant. He was basically working on the case and cleaning what was in it the WHOLE TIME I was here. That is basically about almost 8 hours. It shouldn't take you that damn long. You were blocking the restrooms with your shindig and now GET OUT! I can't help but wonder if he only said those things to me cause he thought that I was a volunteer or a student assistant. I work here buddy. This is my job. I do my job. Yeah I know that things cost and damage has been done to that place. What do you want me to do. Come up to someone who has been standing there too long with my water bottle or extra large sharpie and tell them to step back from the case. If you don't like how it is being secured- or to your impression, not being secured- take it out, install security cameras or shut up and go about your business! Rant done.

It finally rained after almost a month!

Well it finally rained after Huntsville really needed. Peter has been coming to the grounds all hours of everyday to water. They still look great!

Dress update: I have the front and back parts of my bodice sewn together just need to attach them, sew together the sleeves and then attach them to the bodice. Then work on the skirt- and then the spare shirt and sash, then a simple dress and shirt to cook in. Helen says I am doing a great job. I think I am to for only working on it a total of 2 work days. The slowest part is pinning it just right and then the hand stitching. I can't even begin to imagine how long it would have taken to make a dress all by hand. Thank God for sewing machines!

There are supposedly ducklings running around. Haven't seen them yet but will look for them tomorrow.

On Tuesday I helped Sandy mark the numbers on the furniture from Fernland. Some of it looks really great. I then learned about the various cataloging systems that the museum has implemented over the years (3 different ones so far). The most recent is called Past Perfect where you use the year the museum acquired the piece and the number it was taken into the collection. It is really a neat program. I think I have the hang of it with what little time I had with it. All self-explanatory once you know what everything means.

Through looking at that stuff I might have added another project to my list. It will be great though to add to my CV. Taking pictures of the things in the vault or collection that we don't have a picture of to put in the Past Perfect DB and in the hard copy file. Could take me ages and I might not finish it all myself but that would look sooo good.

Still no word about what we are going to do with the Library in Access other than it needs work done to it.

In looking at the Past Perfect I got to look around the vault for a little bit. A woven hair necklace made from Margaret's hair, one of Sam's letters to Margaret, the original engraving of Margaret that the copy of is hanging up in her display cabinet, original jubilee cup engraved 'Father' and some other things. You would be amazed by the amount of things in there that have no reference to Sam or Texas that was given to the museum by travelers through or what professors brought back from their travels. I was given permission to look through it anytime I want! I'm so excited. It is weird the things that Museums get but can't use or display or for lack of a better term get rid of.

Hazard pay. Some times I think I should get it. This morning I had to climb on a ladder almost to the top rung and replace a light bulb. Kind of scary, luckily Casey, the new Curator of Collections and Public Relations/Marketing Manger, was there to hold the ladder- I was doing it for her. Then while opening up the door for the A/C tech to fix the A/C, I had to get wasp spray to kill 2 nests that were hidden by the door to get on top of the Rotunda. Which by the way I have been up there and let me tell you. It's soo cool. The highest point off Sam Houston Avenue!

The museum recently got some hens- by got I mean dropped off by some John Doe. She has been named Ginger and is currently sitting on 14 eggs. Chico finally got a lady friend and they got busy. LOL

I am almost done- 30 pages to go- on the Vol. I of the Sam Houston Correspondence letters. It has been an interesting read if you can get past the I miss you will all my heart; once reunited with you I can never bear to be separated from you ever again; and so on and so forth. It is sweet and cute but after pg 300 of it you almost get tired of it. I have just now gotten to Sam Houston Jr birth and the Houston Family about to move to Raven Hill.

1 day left of 12 days

I never know I could be so drained. I feel exhausted and am absolutely sick or working. I can't seem to concentrate on anything.

Happenings up till now:

Got my pattern all cut from the extra strips of paper. Just need to pin it to the fabric to cut out of and get ready for Helen to look at. The only draw back is that I took my measurements (or at least what I think they are) and I am not sure what size to do. I am going to go with the bigger size to be safe but I am really cautious about this.

I have read 200 pages in the Sam Houston Correspondence (the book of published private letters between Sam and Margaret) all since Saturday. I am kind of tired of reading it.

The Museum grounds have been surprisingly busy with how hot it is outside. Plus SHSU is doing the freshman orientation things this Thursday and Friday so campus is backed and some spill over comes here. The ducks don't seem to be laying. The grounds- well we are, actually Peter is doing the best he can to keep the grounds looking nice but there isn't a whole lot he can do with the lack of rain. He has had a ton of random community service kids looking for hours to help him out. I don't know that we are going to do the Gulf Coast Kid for a while yet; some internal issues have been going on there.

I have been reminded today about wind that blows around inside some of the heads here. You would truly be amazed.

Tomorrow I will be in the WEC all by myself. I am looking forward to it. I will have some form of music on, that should keep me active an awake. Can't really do that in the Rotunda because it can disturb the museum experience for our patrons.

Oh... Peter and I with Mike's assistance final looked at all the photos I took of the museum grounds for the Folk Festival. I put all of the ones that we liked in a folder and labeled all the pictures. Giving descriptions so that you would be able to know what you were looking at exactly. Just waiting to take that to the board or have someone else do something to it.

Also plumber has now fell into the duties as assigned category. For some reason starting this weekend to present the toilets at the WEC have been going nuts. Most of them either won't flush or constantly run. I can't decided if they are just all acting up at once or there is something larger wrong. There is this turn and hit trick that sometimes makes the toilets stop running or flush. I have made it work before. But yesterday no such luck. I feel like we have called the SHSU plumbers out here every day this week to address the issue. Long story short there: the whole WEC needs to be re done, the AC is whack, Plumbing awful, ventilation system weird... tons of stuff. I can't wait for tomorrow to be here so I can have a break from all of this!

Day 3 of working 12 days straight.

Day 1: Swept out the historical homes. I was supposed to help Peter mow but since it is so dry we are going to put off on mowing for a little bit cause it would just cause the water to run completely off.

Day 2: Drove out to Fernland. It was so amazing out there. But the trip down there had it's hightlights. We were supposed to leave at 8. Didn't leave until about 9:15ish. I also got doughnuts for us.

On the way down we had: Helen's truck- with me and Helen; the Silver Bullet- the museum truck driven by Mike and Sandra riding it; and renting/ borrowing a university truck with Mac and Peter. Helen and I were in the lead and right when we get to Conroe we get a call from Sandra that the clutch and transmission went out in the Silver Bullet. (Which is a Ford F150 from the 80's or earlier). So we turn around to go get them.

Well I had the Fernland Key to the gate and Mac and Peter beat us there and were waiting on us to get there after we had picked up Mike and Sandra. Finally we all arrive and go to the cabins.

It was like stepping back in time to the 1800s. The cabins looked amazing the stuff in them was amazing. Just that it was put there in the 1970s by Mr. and Mrs. Thaurp. And basically hadn't been taken care of since. I forgot how the University managed to get it but it was given to the Museum. That day was the day we went down to get some of it.

Unfortunately. We can't take it all. Sandra had a list of what we were going to take. We ended up come back with 1 blanket chest, 2 beds, 1 washstand, 1 table, and 2 pie chests. Some time later on in July or the end of June Sandra, Helen, Rebecca and I are going to go back and box up some of the smaller things to bring back to the museum. We are doing that to either use or might end up selling on ebay. We might be able to get some money for some things but not really sure about the rest.

The reason we are trying to get the stuff from Fernland- a collection of Jardine, Crane and Bearbend Cabins along with a blacksmith shop, and several storage/ work sheds- is because the Unversity is planning on selling the property and basically the cabins on the land. The museum wants the Bearbend cabin but there is just so much involved in getting it to the museum and actually putting it on the grounds.

Some of the concerns involved with the adventure are:

• Funding will be needed for it- Sandra and I were talking, we are going to need more than a grant, we will need funding from an institution or organization
• When will the move take place if we can get them here?- the sooner the better so the university can sell the land
• How will it happen?- Will we hire a company to do it? Will the museum do it? Will there be a class offered to help?- It's too far to really ask for a class or trustees to help. Will it be taken apart and re assembled?- very time consuming. Will it be just loaded onto trailers and then driving up to the museum?- Where would we get the vechicles to do?- We would have to rent. Have to cut down trees to get it done. Get permits to move it on the freeway.
• Where will it go on the grounds? - There isn't a whole lot of room unless we aren't picky about where it is placed
• Who will be in charge of this?
• If the University was to keep the property and therefore the cabins down there. How would the cabins be maintained? Would need plumbing, electrity, welcomeing center, staff to be at each cabin to watch them, demonstrate or be there to talk about like a living farm. Parking would be needed, better pathways to get to each place. The rodent and insect infastation would need to be cleared out.
• And so on and so forth.......

Anyways... it took forever to pack this all up and figure out how to load it on the trucks because we had one less truck to work with. Somehow we made it all work. Well on the way back up to Huntsville we passed two tow trucks and an 18 wheeler about in the place we had left the Silver Bullet. Since the Silver Bullet wasn't running we had to call our Secretary, JoAnn (even though she does more than just secretary stuff) to call the Unversity to have them take a truck out there to pick it up and work on it.

Hopefully we will get a new truck. Unfortunately with our boss you tell him something that needs to be addressed or taken care of and you are lucky if it gets done. Peter, Mac and Mike had been telling Doc that the truck needs a new transmission, a new clutch or a new vehicle period for months now. Well the running joke now is that anything Mike drives for museum purposes breaks down and we should have done that a while ago; of course now we don't have anything that will work. So we are going to have to buy a vehicle to use now.

Back to the 18 wheeler. After we see the 18 wheeler- which by the way has a smashed front end- we wonder if accidentaly the 18 wheeler hit the truck and trailer and that is what caused the accident so we are waiting to get back to the museum to talk to JoAnn to make sure that the truck was picked up and not sitting in a montgomery tow lot.

Turns out the truck is sitting in the lot on SHSU West campus to get worked on. We finished unloading the trucks, brought the furniture into the back of the exhibit hall to be cleaned and repaired and then placed in the houses. I will be helping Sandy with that this summer at some point.

Day 3: I now know how to work a surger machine, the thing that makes a chain stitch on your clothes so it doesn't unravel. I had to surge the ends of my fabric. Then I washed it and in a few minutes will iron it to then start laying out the pattern to work on cutting and slowly putting my dress together.

Summer To-Do List

Here is a list of the tentative plans for the summer here at the office:

1. Make my day dress.
Have the material, pattern, thread, machine... just need to do it.
2. Make another work dress for me to use in the kitchen.
Indirectly have the pattern.
Just need to get the material and actually do it.
3. Do an inventory of the things in the historical houses with/for Sandy.
Not sure exactly how we are going to do this but we are going to do it. If anything thing it will be good to add to my CV
4. Vacuum out behind the display cases in the Rotunda.
i.e. become a Ghostbuster again. :)
5. Read some of the books that I have made a list of to read at work that in some way reference work and can get away with reading at work.
6. Work with Rebecca on updating the teacher packets.
Put it all in the same font and format; organize it better; save as one document in Word Publisher; update the information for k-3rd, 4th-6th and 7th-11th; possibly re write the confirmation letter; upload it to the website for teachers; possibly have a page up there for the teachers for them to find all the information that they need; and quite possibly more to come there...
7. Booklet of the Sam Houston Children
Sandy did a PowerPoint on the Sam Houston Children but that is it. So I got roped into doing a booklet for that indirectly by asking her if anyone had done anything on them. Most of them went on to be authors, novelist, politicians, writers, poets and stuff like that.
Need to do research for it.
8. Work on the Garden.
Maintain it; put veggies in there for the fall; learn more about growing vegetables.
9. There might also possibly if Peter has a say about it more tractor lessons.
10. Helping JoAnn with some filing.

I am sure that more will be added to this as it goes on.

Ghostbuster Vac and Red Hats

Today was another day that I can add to my list of things to put on my resume. (Or at least a CV. I really need to get that started or at least a list down.)

I helped the Collections Registrar clean the top of the display cases. In detail: Climb on top of a rickedy ladder behind the cases; swiffer dust cloth the dust on top of the plexi glass; vacuum up the pile with one of those vacuums you put on your back; climb down and go to the next case along with readjusting the angle of some of the lights. It was interesting because I got to go behind the cases and see what's back there. Nothing really just a little dust and extra lights and maintenance stuff like that.

The only cool thing from the experience is that the vacuum looks like a Ghostbuster's backpack. I even told Sandy that the vacuum might be lost during Halloween and use that as a costume. It would definitely be a classic. The one we have right now is in bad shape but the museum has no money in the budget to get a new one so we are going to have to make do with this one.

While doing it Sandy and I thought of a to-do thing to add to the summer to-do-list: vacuuming all of behind the cases- inside the mini walls-because there are little slots that are gathering dust.

Also 2 ladies from the Red Hat Society came in. That was a nice little diversion. I ended up googling it and reading how it started it is actually pretty interesting. It actually didn't start that long ago and has just completely come off the ground into something of its own. That and some of the things they were are fun to look at. I can see my aunt doing that unofficially with some of her friends. They get together every Thursday morning and have coffee at a hole in the wall cafe in Cali some days only a few show up others, everyone and they all can bring friends. I have even gone to a couple.