Opening Day ... and beyond!!!

Ready or not, here come the visitors ... all 276 of them!  Even though we weren’t scheduled to work on Opening Day, we wandered around the facility and enjoyed seeing all the people enjoying the events.  The highlight was probably the plowing done in the “old fashioned” way by two Percheron horses, Shorty and Duke.  Jim even took a turn at the plow (with a little help and coaching from their owner) and came away even more convinced that the early farmers were a hardy and strong bunch.

Our first day of work was pretty exciting as we donned our US Forest Service green uniforms (affectionately known as “Pickle Suits”) and heading for the pre- opening meeting. Jim manned the fee booth where he met incoming people and collect the fees ($5 per adult, kids under 16 are free). Lydia was the rover whose job involved moving around all day. She filled in for other volunteers so they got morning and afternoon breaks, and opened and closed the seven historical buildings. The schedule provided for a 45 minute lunch break that we do together. The Cradle did not have many visitors that day, so we had lots of standing around time. However, when 5pm rolled around, both of us were tired.
Later that week we had our first thunder storm. Those storms are fun in the mountains, but when you live in an RV, you have a bit more concern.The wind blew and it rained all night and all the next day. Thankfully, we both had “inside jobs” for that day. The rain kept visitors away, so we had another long boring day.

On Tuesday, Lydia went outside to relax after working and found a male Ruby Throated Hummingbird sitting on the carpet by our steps.  She picked him up and he just nestled down in her hands.  Jim got a spoonful of sugar water from the hummingbird feeder and after a few minutes he began to drink.  He stayed in her hand, drinking and resting, for about 20 minutes and then, after one long drink, zipped off in a blur.  We think he was just exhausted after the long trip north and battling the windy storms we’ve had lately.  What a special and memorable experience!!!

After working three consecutive days, we had a few days off. We spent part of our off days catching up on chores like cleaning the trailer and doing laundry. Jim collaborated with our neighbor, Bill, and they rebuilt the water dams on two trout sluices.The Cradle provided the tools and wood while Jim and Bill did the work. The Cradle will add live trout to these next week as part of the Cradle exhibits.

The Grillmeister!!

We organized our first volunteer potluck supper on Friday. We cooked the brats (Wisconsin style, of course!) and everyone else brought the rest of the meal. Since there are two teams of volunteers, we do not see the other team members except after work. We hope the potluck will be the beginning of many after hours activities for all volunteers.
We had our first taste of cold weather over the weekend. The winds howled through the mountains and shook our RV and knocked over the satellite dish several times. We awoke to 37 degrees and small piles of snow on our outside lounge chairs. I guess the local people took the cold weather in stride as the cradle had a good crowd over the weekend.
‘Til next time ….