The temperature has dropped below -10 again, which is good for our ice rink.  The warm (relatively speaking) weather of the last week had turned it had turned to slush.  But now its frozen up again, just in time for the Celebration of Lights.  Patrick has been hard at work for weeks putting up all the lights, including up on the beehive burner.  The park looks lovely. 

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In other news, our furry waif has found a home.  There will be another dog for him to play with, and a lake to swim in.  He's being picked up on Wednesday.  It's for the best, but we'll all be sad to see him go. 

Perhaps we should change our name

Our gift shop manager found a puppy outside her house this morning.  Not having a lot of time, she brought him with her.  Nobody minded, as he proved to be an astonishgly well-behaved puppy, especially since he's at best six weeks old.  He frolicked in the snow, chewed his toy (he's teething) and napped.  Stairs are still something of a challenge.  Whenever Kathy got up, he would pad along after her.  The SPCA has been phoned, but he needn't worry, he'll have a home even if no one claims him.

We're making a hobby of this animal rescue thing.

Winter has arrived, and in spectacular fashion.  The perfect day to be snug and warm indoors.

Catching up

On October 30, the museum hosted its 3rd Annual Hallowe'en Spooktacular, and it was a roaring success.  The forecasted rain did not appear, and almost 400 people came down to ride the ghost train and be spooked in the haunted coaches.  Our train station was transformed into a haunted house, to the terrified delight of children.  We also raised over 300 lbs of food for the local food bank, which was much appreciated.  We'll have to start planning for next year soon if we want to go even bigger (I have a dream of turning the station into Baba Yaga's house, but have yet to figure out how to make the chicken legs.  That will need some more thought.)

We had a visitor.  She was found sitting by the fire hall, clearly waiting for someone to hurry up and notice her.  A bowl of water, some food and a litter box later, she was comfortably ensconced in the office.  A week passed as we tried to locate her owner.  Just when it seemed that all hope was lost, we discovered a tattoo in the depths of her ear (they were very tiny ears).  The SPCA was called, and her owners came to reclaim her.  For such a small cat, she had wandered quite a ways.  As pleased as I was that she went home, I was also a tiny bit disappointed.  She was very personable, following visitors about as they toured the grounds.  An official museum cat would have added to the atmosphere, and dealt with the mouse problem.  I guess there's always the ferals.

We have an exciting new arrival:

A fire lookout!

Members of the Forest Service came today, bearing the tower and several complex looking sections of scaffolding.  This was the second attempt at getting us a tower.  The first went horribly awry, so we are grateful this one survived.  Having been rendered obsolete by satellites and airplanes, they're getting rare.

Our tower is currently sitting in the back of the yard, partially assembled, waiting for some concrete pads.  It should be fully set up within the next week or so,  and will then be open to the public. 

 

A plan is afoot to lay down some more tracks in the back of the yard.  As the ground back there is rather lumpy and uneven, tonnes of fill has been dumped to level it out.  The fill contains not just dirt, but also chunks of coal.  I remember reading about how the poor would dig through the mine tailings looking for stray pieces, and now we're using it as fill.  How things change.

(I have always viewed coal a little suspiciously, no doubt due to my father telling me stories about growing up in London during the 1950's.)

Anyway, since it was there, I decided to collect some of it, as one of our display buildings contains a coal scuttle.  I spent an hour out there with my bucket, humming Tennessee Ernie Ford .  It is less dirty than I thought it would be.  Later, some of us tried to light a piece, just to see what it would do.  We learned that coal is surprisingly difficult to light.  Science is occasionally anticlimactic.

Hoping for sunshine

We're having our Family Fun Day on Saturday.  As grateful as we are to finally be getting some rain, we're hoping it will hold off for one day.  The bee man will be here, and there is nothing sadder than soggy bees. 

A quiet rainy Tuesday, not that anyone minds the rain.  After a week of being enshrouded in smoke, it's nice to have clear air again.

Last Thursday