Great Group of Archaeology Buffs

A big bus rolled into the park on Sunday with the Sask Archaeological Society on board. They were touring in our area and we were very pleased that they chose our museum as one of their stops.
I met some very interesting people. One had memories of Clayton McLain and Poundmaker's Medicine Bundle which I found fascinating. One requested information about one of our artifacts that has ties to the Humboldt Telegraph Station. Others who obviously have knowledge that I would have loved to tap into more thoroughly. I contemplated locking the door so they couldn't leave so soon. ;)

Country Corner Store

 Wilbert Store is one of those places that one doesn't find very often any more. It is located at the corner of Highways 40 and 21 west of the town of Cut Knife.
The store was built in 1935 at the present location. It is a general store selling a bit of everything. Convenience store items, ice cream, gas, fireworks, a few antiques, subs and a coffee corner keep the customers coming through the door.

With living quarters attached and extensive operating hours, it has a lifestyle that not everyone could manage.
Over the years a lot of different people have stopped at the store, often with their own interesting stories to tell.
It's one of those places that one would miss if it was gone.

Some Things Never Change In the Midst of Phenomenal Change

I was invited to talk at our local high school about some of our museum's heritage buildings. The Art Class had used them as subjects for drawings and wanted more information about the structures.
The presentation went fairly well from my prospective. I had my notes about the buildings but had not been able to bring as many photos as I would have liked.
Walking into the same classroom that I spent a lot of time in decades ago was a bit strange. And then finding the same budding comedians who have frequented high schools forever gave me deja vu. And they think they are cool?? They should have seen the early 1960's variety or the 1970's variety. Now that was cool.
I would have loved to have the Smart Board technology when I taught. It's so cool. Our museum website and museum building photos were brought up on the screen in front of the class. Lord, that's cool.
If I'd known she had that technology, I could have uploaded even more pics. Boy, ..., you know, it's... cool.
There was the class: the bored ones, the late ones, the tired ones, the quiet ones, the interested ones (yes, there might have been one or two of them.) I saw sparks of intelligence in the midst of the 'coolness'.
Come on kids, take advantage of the wonderful opportunities you have of learning in today's schools - full of awesome technology and even a few teachers who are there working to help you succeed. Make them really do their job - challenge their knowledge.

Yup, school's changed, but not that much.

Small Museum Has Unique Fighter Plane

 A small museum in Quebec's Eastern Townships has an important piece of WW1 history. Knowlton Museum attained a Fokker DVII (German fighter plane) years ago and are fighting to keep it.

Sure hope they can hold on to it. A little money sent their way instead of to the big museums for a change would help.

Boy, this is a story to which I can relate.
The publicity will help their cause too.

The link to the news story is
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/09/08/f-fokker-biplane-knowlton.html

Bird Houses and Museum

So what do birdhouses and museums have in common?
Well, this one in particular was part of a fund raising effort by a few lady friends of the museum. We had a lovely time letting our creative juices flow into the small painting projects that were offered for sale in the museum this summer.
There were also boxes and trays with old Cut Knife photos.
It was fun to do and even more fun to share the time with the women.


The items sold quite well. Hopefully the purchasers enjoy them as much as I do this bird house.

Now that we are just sitting around twiddling our thumbs...

"Since the museum is now closed, what are you doing?"
There is actually more work done after the museum is closed for the season.

• All the paperwork for payroll needs to be done. Final cheques made out, ROE forms, and final grant info filled out and sent away. Fingers crossed that everything meets with their approval.
• Each month bills have to be paid. Our Treasurer never has a slow time.
• Mice have invaded our space and the trap line needs constant vigilance. :(
• Eavestroughing is being installed on Duvall House. This is being done by a commercial company but still requires some supervision to ensure it is done as needed.
• Cat tails (yes, cat tail plants) have been removed from Ovenstown eavestroughing. ??? They were growing about 2 feet tall when someone noticed them.
• Items need to be transported over to our heated office. Lots of items. May take a few more trips.
• Codes need to be changed on buildings. We have keyless entries on quite a few of our buildings and the Staff codes are changed every year.
• We are offering booked tours now. These are still being requested so tour guides need to be arranged. This can be a challenge as harvesting has begun in our area.
• Vulnerable items need covering for the winter (textile exhibits for example). But this has to wait for the last tour to go through.
• At the last moment before freeze up, the sump pump in Ovenstown needs to be pulled out so it doesn't freeze as well.
• Planning for exhibit changes begins now. Some signage improvements still are needed. Very time consuming project.
• The archival materials are in disarray in the MAC. Lots of work is needed to organize them. 
• The Collections Management program needs hours of work updating the records.
• Sales stock needs to be evaluated and plans made for 2011. 
• Fund raising is always on our minds. Does anyone have any new ideas to make lots of money with minimal effort?? lol

I am sure there are more tasks that are sitting there ready for our volunteers to do. We just haven't noticed them yet.
Yup, we are really enjoying the 'off season'.