Update from August 2023 to May 2025

 The last time I wrote was August 2023 - two months after I became the Associate Director of Gammelgården Museum. Between then and now, I have become the Executive Director of the museum (since January 2024). 

These 21 months have been exciting, challenging, and rewarding. I've had opportunities to oversee the historic restoration of a 1930s building, revamp the way the museum presents exhibits, improve the way artifacts are stored, began the digitization of the museum's collection by using a collections management system that not only benefits the museum, but that the public can see on MNCollections.

We have had many major community events that have grown in size from a couple hundred of people in 2023 to over 1,000 people in 2024. Our Season Opening Day this year had over 960 people - up from about 250 last year. 

The number of staff and interns are increasing which enables us to accomplish even more. 

With all of the good, though, comes the loss of balance and free time. I have struggled with trying to find the things that I once enjoyed - photography, gardening, quilting, and having enough time to spend with my family. My goal is to get my life in better balance during the 2025 season. 

Below are some photos that I have taken recently. I've taken more photos on my camera which I have yet to download to my computer. There's not enough time it seems. 

At any rate, here are some photos that represent my life over the past year.

I have been photographing artifacts at the museum so we have a digital record of each one that staff and volunteers can use plus the public can see. Below is a courting candleholder. 

At the museum's Season Opening Day, we had farm animals from Little Blue's Traveling Zoo. This is Melvin. He's a Scottish Highland Cow. The stuffed cow is something that we bought for the museum as one of our mascots. This breed of cow is the only one that legally can be kept outdoors during the winter in Sweden. 

One of the things that is important to me is providing training opportunities for tour guides. Below is the meeting in April with our returning and new tour guides. It's in the classroom where the main exhibit is shown (which was still being installed at this point).

Scandia Fire & Rescue held a fire extinguisher training so tour guides and staff could get experience with using them. 

Here's another item in the museum's collection that I photographed. It is one of hundreds of Charlotte Weibull dolls in the collection. These are all handmade dolls, some representing different provinces in Sweden.

During January through April 2025, I was photographing and entering information about artwork and other artifacts into CollectiveAccess. This had never been done. Now, we have over 660 items in the collection that are in the database. This is just a fraction of what we have. I was told we had about 3,500 items. 

In doing this project (along with another co-worker), over 37% of the items entered were not accessioned prior to my start as the Associate Director/Executive Director - which means information about the item was never recorded. So, we have no idea how the piece was acquired or any history about it. 

In March, I drove to Kansas for an open-air museum conference which was informative and relevant to what I am doing now. One of the classes I enjoyed taking was about historic shoes. This is a sampling of shoes and tools that were used to make and repair them.

This photo shows how the soles of shoes were attached to the vamps/uppers - by pegs. These are all little wooden pegs that went around the perimeter of the shoe.

Another class I attended at the conference related to condiments used in the 1800s. 

During the conference, there was an opportunity to visit the Arabia Steamboat Museum which was a fascinating museum. This is one of the pairs of shoes that were restored and are on display. During our visit, we had the opportunity to go behind the scenes to see the restoration and cold storage areas. They are still working on the hundreds of artifacts that are in cold storage. 

 

Part of the open-air museum conference was held at Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop in Olathe, Kansas. It's a nice facility with well-presented exhibits. I particularly enjoyed seeing the farm animals, including this sheep. 

 

I also had the opportunity to visit the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library. Not having ever visited a Presidential Library, I didn't know what to expect. The exhibits were fascinating and I learned a tremendous amount while there. 

Back at the museum, I was purchasing items for the current exhibit, including this print of a watercolor by a Swedish artist. 

In March, Sophia and I took care of my grandnieces for a couple of weekends. We had some craft projects for them to work on which they enjoyed doing. 

We took them to the museum. I was surprised to hear they had never been to a museum, so this was a good experience for them to see what one was like. Maya enjoyed the wool processing exhibit. 

We taught the girls how to make pancakes. Maya learned how to crack an egg which she was proud about doing.

We played games with the girls as the dogs, Danny and Ellie, wanted to be a part of the action. 

We visit the St. Croix River. There was still ice on part of the river (look to the right of the photo). Surprisingly, there were people already fishing on the section with open water.

In February, I went to Karpeles Manuscript Library on my way to Grand Marais. I had never been to this museum and it was well worth the stop. There were documents and images that have been collected by a family that are being shared with the public. This one was from Martin Luther King, Jr.

Karpeles also had a display about historic telephones. This one was an unusual one.

In Grand Marais, I took a class about Swedish embroidery. I was impressed with this 3D installation that was done by various art/education instructors - each depicting a different craft or skill taught at North House.

My hotel room faced Lake Superior and one morning there was smoke coming off the water. It was beautiful.

During the embroidery class, we made pouches that could hold embroidery tools - scissors, needles, pins, and a small project. My project is on the far right - the purple one. 

One of the projects that I am happy about is the non-lending resource library that we created at the museum. There were literally hundreds of books that were never accessioned into the collection. If they are not historic or fragile, they were put in this library for the public to browse and read. Some of the books are in English and others in Swedish. 

I also created a Board and Card Game Library - something that is new to the museum and community. People can come to the museum to play a game. The goal is to get away from technology and do something fun with friends and/or family.

Here's another piece I purchased for the museum. It is over six feet tall and is all hand-felted. It's two birch trees which are significant to both the Ojibwe and Swedish immigrants who lived in this area. 

Winter always seems to offer stunning sunsets. 

This is Ellie with the girls at Christmas 2024. She is our newest dog after multiple and unexpected deaths of pets from 2022 through 2024 (Scooby - November 2022 from some type of weird bacterial/viral infection that got progressively worse; Aspen - December 2023 went in for surgery to remove three masses. When she was recovering from surgery, she was anxious and doing a lot of panting, and - to make a long story short - developed a twisted stomach which was too far along by the time we got her to an emergency hospital, and Cooper January 2024 from Hemangiosarcoma - a type of cancer that only dogs get. No one knew he had it - us or the vet).

On a more positive note, this is what the museum's second floor looked like at Christmas. This exhibit had lots of different mini-themes that showed what the holidays in Sweden look like. The tables are set for the Luciadagen breakfast that was served after the program in the Old Church. 

From August 2024 to March 2025, we had kitten - Juniper - who we rescued from being outdoors. She was by herself, tiny, and hungry. She lived with us and had an active and full life until the last week in March. She developed a neurological condition that would have severely impaired her life. Her condition appeared almost as if she had a stroke. The emergency vet said she would have had seizures for the rest of her life, be unable to walk steadily due to issues on her left side, etc. It was devastating. 

The girls and a couple of their friends doing the annual puzzle competition at the museum.

Sophia brought Olivia her birthday cake to celebrate her 22nd birthday.

Sophia helped serve food for a volunteer and member appreciation event at the museum in January 2025.

My sister and nephew were at the volunteer and member appreciation event. 

This was Juniper at Christmas 2024. She received gifts...just like everyone else did. She loved playing with the crumpled-up paper.

Danny was intrigued with the gifts at Christmas. His favorite gift was the one for him: dog treats!

Sophia helped at the coffee parties at the museum. I appreciated her help during the busy holiday season. 

Just a final photo of Olivia with Maya and Emma plus Melvin the Scottish Highland Cow who, interestingly, was afraid of the stuffed Scottish Highlight Cow. 

And...there we have it. An update from August 2023 to May 2025. Certainly this didn't include everything that happened, but it was a glimpse into this period of time. 

My Favorite Photos - May 2023

 This month I didn't take nearly as many photos as I have in past months. It's felt like I've been working a lot and have little time to take photos of things beside work (with the exception of Sophia's graduation from college). 

The month of May started out with an event I coordinated at the museum - the season's open house. There were lots of hands-on activities - some old favorites (like "milking" a cow) and many new ones.

The museum partnered with the Living History Society of Minnesota. There were about a half dozen volunteers who dressed in outfits typical of the late-1800s. The women sew all the clothing they wear which is very impressive!

After the open house, there was a 51st birthday party for the museum. My sister and nephew were there. A friend who I've known for many years also showed up and we all had a nice conversation that evening.

The following week, I was assigned to go on a field trip to the Minnesota Zoo because there was a student who has a track record of just getting up and leaving when he no longer wants to listen or be a part of the activity. He and I get along well, so we go to spend the day together. I brought my camera and let him use it. He had never held or used a camera before. 

Within a half hour of being at the zoo, another student who I enjoy working with asked if he could be chaperoned by me. The teacher gave her permission, so the two sixth-grade boys and I spent the day together. Between the two of them, they took over 400 photos. 

We enjoyed exploring the zoo together at our own pace and having lunch together. It was starting to sink in that we only had a few more weeks together before summer break and of them both going to middle school next year. 

One of the things that saddened me was the snow monkey who somehow found a piece of gum and was playing with it. I later found out it was one of the sixth grader's chewed gum that the monkey had. I'm not sure if she spit it into the monkey's enclosure or if it fell out of her mouth. Regardless, it showed me how careless and thoughtless some kids can be. I'm glad I was with the two boys I was with that day. They, like me, were sad about the snow monkey and how a lot of kids were laughing at it as it played with the gum. 

Back to more cheerful subjects. I got assigned again to help the two sixth-graders on track and field day. Both challenged themselves to do the hurdles which was something neither had done. They both did well. Did they receive a ribbon? No, but they pushed themselves to do something different. 

Around the 20th of the month, I went to an exhibit at the county historical society. The museum is very well done.

Fast forward to the end of the month. Sophia's social work pinning ceremony was on the night before she graduated from college. Each of the social work students had a display board that presented their research findings based on their senor field work. 

That evening, we went to dinner at a Thai restaurant. The spring roll were delicious! I would definitely order them again. 

On Saturday, May 27th, Sophia graduated from college with a 3.94. So, the top honor: summa cum laude. 

The purple stole is for being a Page Education Foundation scholar. The foundation provided funding to Sophia to help with her education.

  

It is so hard to believe that she was once a little girl who I homeschooled. We learned, laughed, and discovered so much together. Now, she far exceeds me academically and did work that was out of my realm of experience and knowledge.

After graduation, we all went to dinner at Namaste, an Indian restaurant. It reminded us of our trip last year to London where there were a lot of Indian restaurants. 

After graduation, we moved both the girls out of their dorms/suites. Olivia was done right away. Sophia, on the other hand, had a much more extensive packing and cleaning job. It took much of the day to get her moved out. This is Olivia by the dorm she lived in during her freshman year.

After dropping off Olivia at home, I went to the museum for Immigrant for a Day. I had planned all the activities, but others (staff and volunteers) set it up for me. This was one of the activities - a miniature box baler. This (on a larger scale) was how hay and straw was baled. 

Another activity was writing on a slate like they would have done on the late-1800s. 

On Memorial Day morning, Sophia - who just had graduated from college two days earlier - was headed to the Baltics with the Wind Symphony. It was their final international trip of their college career.

While she was flying overseas, I was at the local cemetery listening and watching the Memorial Day ceremony. When my dad was buried at Fort Snelling, there was a multi-gun salute. I kept two the metal cases from the bullets...just like I did with the bullets from the salute to him. 

And that's May.