A Waiting Day, a Last Visit to the Archives, and a Trip to Lander

-

 

Pronghorn antelope along the entrance road to South Pass City State Historic Site, Wyoming 
 
Pronghorn antelope along the dirt road leading into South Pass City. There are about 25 animals here- there were more to the left of the frame. This photo was taken 1-1.5 miles from our RV site.

We got up at 7:00 (Connie) and 8:00 (me). Connie made coffee and then I cooked some eggs and bacon and, once again, broke out the toaster over!

After breakfast, I went down to the archives for a little, post-volunteer volunteering. I wanted to review the invoice book I last worked on and organize the invoices I had digitized and then finished that book. This took about 3 hours, but the pace was leisurely. I hope to come back next spring in the off season to wrap this up and, based on today, I think a book day is reasonable. I should be able to easily finish this in a month. In the mean time, I will use an AI to create a database in which to place invoice results. 

I had originally wanted to do a few years to track the seasonality of life and products brought into the store. I can see a pattern, but more years will make this more informative and interesting. I see several other interesting trends, but need a bit more information to comment.

Back to the trailer and time to fry a couple of hamburgers for lunch.

While I was out, Connie baked a pecan pie to take down to the office. She invited me along, but I was quite full and passed on the pie. I know it is good and we have lots of pecans so there will be another day.

While she was out, I loaded a few last items in the truck and read. After she returned, we took a quick trip into Lander to pick a couple of items. We would have survived without them, but it was some thing to do. 

Pronghorn antelope!

We saw a herd of 30-35 pronghorn antelope on the way out of the site. Most were lying down, so it was hard to count them. As we neared Lander we saw two herds. The first and larger was 25-30 animals and the second was 10 to 15, they were near a draw, so it is possible we missed a few.

We saw these same two herds on the way out of Lander. Both were nearer the road, but the larger herd was on the edge of a gully so we saw fewer pronghorn antelope. 

Coming back into South Pass City, the herd we had see earlier was now on the east site of the road and it was 35 strong and there was another smaller herd of at least 10 in the distance. I have been told that the pronghorn antelope aggregate into large herds as winter approaches, that appears to be the case.

Back to the trailer. We relaxed a bit and then made dinner- reheated goulash and Texas toast. Afterwards, Connie did the dishes and we read and worked on the computer. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

About

-
 I volunteered at South Pass City (SPC) in May-October 2023. During that season, I read the journals written by Doctor Walter Lovejoy and his brother Fred, which had been obtained by SPC in 2007. These journals were written between 1886 and 1904, intermittently, were interesting and painted a vivid picture of life in South Pass City and early Wyoming.  The journals had served as background information for a number of interpretive writings, but I thought they warranted a more thorough presentation. So, I began thinking about publishing the journals in some format. Much of my volunteer time was spent in the recently opened Smith Sherlock Company Store exhibit- greeting visitors and telling them about the store. When I had time on my hands, I would examine the labels on canned (and other) goods in the exhibit. Later, at home, I would research the labels and learned a lot of interesting history, which I incorporated into my presentations in the store. I had the idea of presenting ...
Read more

Arrival and Week 1

-
Image
I arrived in South Pass City mid-morning on Thursday May 21 after a 1020 mile, four-day drive. I could have made it in three days, but decided to spend the night in Lander to fuel up, buy a few groceries, and relax. I checked in at the office, no one was there, but ran into Ashley, a site employee and caught up for a few minutes. Wonderful spring weather in South Pass City. As I was backing up the trailer, getting in and out of the truck to check placement in my camping pad, checking level, etc., it began to sleet, then snow. The temperature was in the 30s and the wind was blowing pretty hard. I got some assistance with backing up from Jesse, one of the seasonal employees, and Curtis, a site employee. This save a number of extra in and outs from the truck. I unhitched the trailer, hooked up the water hose, power, and sewer line and hunkered down in the trailer and set up the inside from travel mode. A little later, warmed a bit, I set up the Starlink, and eventually put the landing g...
Read more

A Day of Routine Household Activities

-
Image
  Our Clamshell shelter on the bank of Willow Creek It started off cool today, the morning low was 32, but it warmed up nicely. I did a little computer work this morning and then we took advantage of the nice weather to drag the last of our stuff out of the truck and finish setting up "camp." First, I set up our propane (Coleman Roadtrip) grill. Next, Connie and I set up our Quickset Clamshell shelter for use as a workout area. I secured the shelter with ground anchors. We'll see how it stands up to Wyoming winds. Finally, we set up a folding table that we place near our outdoor shower. We use this table and the shower spigot to wash dishes, prepare food, and clean fish. After spending $250 on fishing licenses, I hope there is a fair bit of fish cleaning this summer. We have access to a nearby garage that is owned by SPC, so we stowed a few items there, including our dumbbells. Once we get a tote to store the dumbbells in, we'll move them to the Clamshell, which is wh...
Read more