Thursday, January 19, 2017 – Clean the Blacksmith Shop, Clean Zone 1

Our first job this morning was to help Sis. Lee Master and Sis. Gibson clean one of the historic sites in Old Nauvoo. Sis. Lee Master & Sis. Gibson work in “Conservation.”  They are very hard working sisters. Among their many assignments they clean all of the historic sites in Old Nauvoo. This is a huge job that requires skill, patience and delicate accuracy.

As Sis. Lee Master and Sis. Gibson clean the historic sites, they also clean all of the precious artifacts and antiques on display. They not only handle these historic and one of a kind treasures with white gloves, they have to be very careful not to damage the items.

This morning they asked Sis. Johnson and I to help clean the Blacksmith & Wainwright Shops. This site is much different then all of the others they clean. No white gloves needed here. With a few exceptions most of the items on display are not antiques, they are a blacksmith’s tools of the trade and are used by the Elders everyday during their tours and demonstration. More important, the forge is coal fired so there is soot, dirt and dust all over the floor, the walls, the ceiling, the displays, all over everything. 

Sis. Johnson and I use hand held leaf blowers everyday so we were asked to bring them to blow out the buildings of all the dust, dirt, soot and cobwebs. It was a big job; you should have seen the dust fly. In my home I’m used to chasing little “dust bunnies” with my vacuum cleaner; well, today I was blowing away “dust bunnies” the size of baseballs! The leaf blowers don’t really “clean” anything but I think we helped Sis. Lee Master and Sis. Gibson get a head start on their job. At least with the dirt, dust, soot and cobwebs gone their job will be a little easier.

The grounds of historic Nauvoo are very large, over 500 acres. They contain the Historic Sites, Missionary housing, Temple Missionary residents’ as well as extensive lawns and over 5000 trees.  It is too much area for us to cover in one day or even one week. So we have divided the whole place into four zones. Our goal is to clean flowerbeds, lawns, and downed tree limbs of one zone per week.

After we finished at the Blacksmith Shop, we spent the bulk of the day driving around Zone One of Old Nauvoo picking up downed limbs. Once again there was a lot. We completely filled our trailer with downed tree limbs, branches and sticks.

 

Our final assignment for the day was to work with Richard in the propagation room transplanting Coleus plants into 3” pots. For the rest of the winter there will always be some transplanting to day now and then as Richard builds up his supply of potted plants for this spring. Being able to work indoors, out of the rain is a good thing.