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Here's an update on what I've been doing at work!
The Fort was pretty busy getting things prepared for Memorial Day, new employees starting and also organizing for Good Ol' Days that's coming up next weekend (June 7&8).
As far as museum stuff goes Alan and I cleaned a carriage house out because Kelley (the Chief Park Ranger) wanted that to be able to be opened for the public to see. Inside there is an 1830s Conestoga wagon and a buggy. Here's some info about the wagon - that first picture on the right is similar looking, but we don't have the top portion, just the base with the wheels and all. So it needed to be cleaned, which meant I got into the wagon and shop vac'd and brushed the wagon and I also did the buggy and we did the floors. It was a lot of work and we were filthy at the end of the day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conestoga_wagon
During Memorial Day weekend there was some living history going on at work and I portrayed a laundress that traveled with the army. So I've been doing some research for that and it's interesting. Saturday morning about 5 am it really started to storm horribly and woke me up. Saturday was our main day of the weekend, so I was a bit worried that visitors wouldn't come because of the rain, but I was wrong. It cleared up and didn't rain and we had a decent turn out of visitors too. I was at the laundress station with two other women and one of them was cooking for the staff and volunteers. Because of the rain we had to cook inside and cooked over a fire in a fireplace with cast iron skillets and pots! We made chicken and rice with some carrots and celery, cornbread and strawberry shortcake (someone had brought some sourdough muffins, so we just cut the strawberries). I did the main speaking at the station when people came to the laundress quarters. It was a long day. Then Sunday and Monday it rained and there weren't as many visitors, but I did give a more formal "talk" those days and I didn't have to wear the laundress outfit (2 petticoats, dress, apron, bonnet, stockings and shoes) that day. I would type out my talk, but I'm sure some of you aren't interested in the slightest about the life of a laundress. :)
Anyhow, yesterday Alan and I light cleaned a couple of rooms - primarily the laundress area since that was used on Saturday. We also moved some maps from one building into another building, sorted them, put them in the map cases and counted them. These maps are mainly building plans or something similar related to the area of Fort Scott NHS and haven't been put into the catalog yet, so will need to be archived.
Today we went and downloaded data logger information to the computer. I can't remember if I said before, but the data loggers continuously measure the temperature and humidity in the room and then we download that and have to print it out for 1 week at a time. So I spent the rest of the day printing those. That doesn't sound very exciting and it's not, but it needs to be done and it was my "Friday", so we didn't want to start a major thing before hand.
Speaking of my weekend, Greg is flying in in the morning to Kansas City and I'll go pick him up then we're driving West across I-70 to Mingo, KS to get the oldest geocache that is still active. Not sure where we'll stop, but then we'll go South for a ways and then head back East to Fort Scott. It will be neat to see more of the state and the Plains. The area where I am isn't flat like you think of when you think of Kansas, but I hear it is farther West. There's a few things we may try to do while driving around. There's apparently this "Cathedral of the Plains" that is a huge church in the middle of nowhere.
That's what I've been up to.
Alaina
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