7/23/2013 - It was a good weekend

Normally we don't get many visitors on the weekends especially this time of year.  There is not a lot of bird activity here until closer to fall.

On Saturday I had six visitors, which was six more than the prior Saturday.  They asked a lot of questions and really enjoyed themselves.

Sunday I had twelve visitors.  First I had a 96 year old man that had help build much of the refuge between 1938 and 1940 as a CCC worker.  Click here  My dad was in the CCC and worked somewhere in the Ozark area.

This gentleman by the name of Smart now lives in California and had talked about Swan Lake for many years and wanted to come see it again.  He was brought by his sister and four sons who were also from California.  He told story after story and was very happy.  His children thanked me for all the time I spent with him, had a picnic lunch at one of our picnic tables and then  went on their way to see other area things.

Shortly after they left two gentlemen came.  One of them had lived in a town just down the road from us and had lived in Alaska and other places.  The other gentleman was from Frankfort Germany.  They kept asking what different animals were that were on display.  They were very impressed by the cougar (mountain lion) and the raccoon.  The man from Frankfort had never seen a raccoon and the other man told him about them washing their food before eating it.

Then I had a man and I think his wife or girlfriend and her son and daughter.  The son had his name drawn several years ago for one of the controlled deer hunts and got his deer.  These folks watched the bees for at least 1/2 hour and were fascinated.  They got lucky and the queen was in site so they got to see her laying eggs.  Over all they spent over an hour looking around in the museum and even got the key and went up into the viewing tower.

It sure makes the day go faster when you have visitors.

Linda did several loads of laundry and cleaned house while I manned the visitor center.

Tomorrow we leave early  and head to St. Joseph where I have an appointment at 9:00 a.m. to get the oil changed in the car and then a 11:00 a.m. appointment with my tattoo guy, Chris.  He is putting my last two grand-children's names on arm and I am not sure what else.  It is a work in process.  It just healed up from the prior pictures so I haven't posted any pictures yet.  After it heals this time I will get some taken and post them.