Bottle Openers and 4-H, Wednesday, 7/30/14 and Thursday, 7/31/14

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

It was another nice day.  Chuck worked at the River of Gold with Joni and they were instructed to clean out the storage room where the large rat resides.  Apparently, the maintenance man did not want anything to hinder his rat hunt, so everything was removed from the room.  Joni saw the rat as they were working, and she agreed with Chuck’s proclamation that the rat was as big as a cat. 

Cindy worked at the Nevada City museum.  We sell old fashioned soda selections in bottles at all our venues including sasparilla, root beer, huckleberry soda, cream soda, etc.  Sometimes people can twist off the caps, but we have a bottle opener by each register in case they have issues with the caps.  A boy about twelve years old was having trouble and asked for assistance in removing a bottle cap.  Cindy was busy with another customer, so she handed him the bottle opener and she was then shocked when she saw him out of the corner of her eye studying the opener and trying every way but the right way to open his bottle.  Upon asking him, he affirmed that he had never seen a bottle opener and had no idea how to use it so Cindy gave him a lesson.   About two hours later a young brother and sister came in to purchase sodas and they also could not open their bottles.  Cindy gave the boy the bottle opener and asked him if he had ever seen one and if he knew how to use it.  Of course, by that time she got the answer she was expecting and wasn’t surprised when he didn’t have a clue.  She told him that she would give him a lesson but that she was going to take a picture of each of them opening their bottle. The boy opened his without too much trouble, and his sister studied him intently.  When it was her turn she had a bit more trouble and actually spilt quite a bit all over the counter and the floor.  She was embarrassed and apologized, but Cindy told her that it was just a little mess and she had done a great job opening her bottle.   Seemingly, the bottle opener is going the way of the butter churn and will soon be an exhibit at the museum.   

We got home at 6:30 p.m. and visited with the inn mates.  A group of archaeologists will be staying in Virginia City next week and will need to use the facilities in the rehearsal hall.  Therefore, the inn mates were asked to remove all their food from the refrigerator, and now the refrigerator in the Bonanza Inn is stacked so that no one can tell what is in it.   We managed to dig out the ingredients for a salad and a sandwich and we all ate around the small table in our kitchen while we bemoaned the coming week without the luxury of the internet and extra kitchen space. 

Thursday, July 31, 2014

 About one hundred and fifty 4-H leaders and teens from all over the country have descended upon Virginia City for the 4-H Western Heritage Project.  Youth in the project wear period clothing, shoot old west firearms, and become more familiar with the lifestyles of those who settled the west.  There will be workshops held for the youth at Nevada City and other locations throughout Virginia City.  Some of the topics covered will be leather work, wheelwrights, frontier fashion, maintaining old west guns, wagon teams, soap making, hardtack for hard times, Dutch oven cookery, and much more.   The event will conclude on Saturday with a national 4-H Western Heritage shooting championship, and that evening they will all attend the lantern tour at Nevada City.  Wow!  We salute the 4-H program and their leaders who had the vision to plan such an interesting event for their members. 

 

We worked together today at the River of Gold.  The weather was not too hot and we were not overwhelmed with tourists, so we had a pretty nice day.  Connor had the day off today, and as we were leaving for work we saw him sunning himself on top of his vehicle.  He must have sunned himself a bit much as he was looking rather red and feeling the effects when we got home at 6:30 p.m. 

As we mentioned yesterday, we took all our food out of the refrigerator in the rehearsal hall, so we will be cooking and eating together in cramped quarters for the next week and a half.  Today we made crock pot chili which we served the inn mates for supper.  When we arrived at work this morning, we were instructed not to enter the rehearsal hall until Sunday afternoon as the 4-H people would be using the building this weekend.  The building is empty this evening, but we have congregated in lawn chairs on the front porch of the rehearsal hall so we can use the internet.  While we were sitting on the porch, the 4-H group went by on a ghost tour.  We were totally incredulous when the tour leader opened the door of the Bonanza Inn (our home) and let the group all take turns looking inside.  Chuck could have ignored that, but when a half dozen people started leaning against his new truck he went over and asked them to get off.