I See You

Here we go again.

I'm not making any promises about this space. I may update again soon - or maybe not. But I've had this story penned for months, so I'm sharing it. I wanted to freshen up my blog's appearance first, but I've obviously I've given up on that for now. Since the last time I blogged, I moved from Flagstaff, Arizona to Little Rock, Arkansas to Cody, Wyoming! Lots of change, and not a lot of updating.

Anyone who knows me is aware that my time in Wyoming has been filled with enjoying beautiful vistas and watching wildlife. I’ve had several amazing wildlife experiences, but one of my favourites occurred almost exactly one year ago, in October 2018. Let me set the scene.

A bull elk in the East Yellowstone Valley

The Great Yellowstone Thaw
Before I moved to Wyoming, I watched a documentary on Netflix - The Great Yellowstone Thaw. It follows several animals, including a great grey owl, through the seasons. Now, I knew nothing about these owls before I watched this film, but I was fascinated to follow along as the film crew observed a couple of owls through the year. They spoke of the warming trend seen in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), and how it effects the owls, who in the winter plunge through the snow to nab their prey. With warmer weather over the winters, the snow is melting and refreezing, creating a hard crust that is difficult for the owls to penetrate.

Great greys are the largest species of owl in North America but are relatively rare. In the U.S, you can see them in a small strip of land from the Canadian border down to the Tetons, and in Yosemite. I had noticed on social media that a few great greys had been spotted by wildlife watchers in YNP and, for some reason, I had my hopes up that I might see one that weekend.

Playing Hooky 
Road construction meant the road from the East Entrance (the entrance closest to Cody) and the YNP interior was closing for the season early. Snow was in the forecast for the weekend, and as I drove to work on this beautiful Friday morning, I realized that I wasn't going to make it into the park for a last visit before winter. "It's such a beautiful day out." I commented to my boss. "Why are you even here?" She responded. Good question. "You should just go, it's so nice."

Still, I sat down at my computer, booted it up and worked for an hour, all the while contemplating my upcoming hiatus from the park. I did some calculations in my head and realized I could take the rest of the day off. "I'm leaving," I called out as left work to spend the day in Yellowstone.

East Yellowstone

It’s an hour drive from my apartment to the East Entrance of Yellowstone and I spend that time listening to music, listening to podcasts, or just speaking with God. On this particular morning I put on some instrumental music and started praying. I was headed into the park later than I liked, as wildlife are particularly active early and late.

Still, amongst other, more worthy, requests, I said to God, “Of course I’d like to see a ton of wildlife. But if I can see just one thing, please let it be a great grey owl.”

I saw a herd of elk, and a bald eagle, and eventually stopped to photograph a coyote. As I was getting out my car and gathering my gear, a woman came over to me.

“Excuse me. Do you want to see a great grey owl?”

I think I stared at her blankly for a few moments, my eyes blinking in incredulity, before I blurted out, “Are you serious?!?”

“Yes, my husband is over there, and they’re watching a great grey.” She pointed to a meadow and I noticed, about half a mile off the road, a few people lined up with tripods. I seriously could not believe it. I knew the chances of me seeing a great grey owl that day had been slim. And had I not stopped for that coyote, I would have missed it completely. Had this woman not chosen to approach me, I would have missed it. And so, we walked across the snowy meadow to find the owl.

My first view of the owl. This is good example of how difficult
it can sometimes be to spot wildlife

The Great Grey Owl
And what an owl. These guys are huge, with a wingspan that can exceed five feet. Yet they glide through the air almost silently. She would sit there, occasionally gazing our way, but mostly watching the ground for a glimpse of her next meal scurrying through the grass. She perched low, and each dive took only a few seconds. Along with several other photographers, I watched her hunt for a couple of hours, until my frozen feet and fingers could take no more.

A Perfect Day
This is such a fun bird, and this would have been a special encounter no matter what. But it was more than that. It was a reminder of the providence of God. It was exactly what I needed, when I needed it. God doesn't always work this way. He's not a genie or a cosmic vending machine, just dispensing everything we ask for when we ask for it. But on this day, he seemed to be speaking to me, as he often does, through nature. I've had one other wildlife encounter similar to this one (though that encounter involved three bears) and, while to some it may seem silly, I think we all have those special ways where we hear God say, "I see you."

And so this owl, the image at the top of this post, is on a canvas in my living room, staring down at me as a constant reminder of this perfect day and of the love of God.

Winter Scenes

I won Visit Arizona's January photo contest with this submission to the theme "winter." This was one of the first photos that I took with my new DSLR, which I purchased less than a week before I snapped this photo. The following is the blog post I wrote for the Visit Arizona website.

Last October I left the great state of Texas and moved to Flagstaff. I must confess, I knew almost nothing about Flagstaff. Like many people, when I thought of Arizona I thought of the Arizona desert – the blistering heat, desert sand and tall saguaro cacti.

But this state has a breathtaking array of climates and landscapes. Perhaps nowhere in Arizona is this more evident than in Flagstaff. At 7,000 feet and in the middle of a huge Ponderosa Pine forest, Flagstaff’s climate is not what one expects to find in Arizona.

Flagstaff is a laid-back, eclectic mountain town. It is perfect for nature lovers and the San Francisco Peaks to the north provide picturesque views throughout Flagstaff. I love mountains and am constantly on the lookout for good photo opportunities.

One evening in early December, this opportunity arose. The view of the peaks from the Museum of Northern Arizona’s research center, where I work, is fantastic. As I leave work each day, I look up at the mountains and soak in the beauty.

On this particular day, the mountains had been shrouded in heavy clouds. After several rainy days I was looking forward to a covering of snow at the higher elevations. I headed outside after work and noticed that the clouds were parting. Hoping to capture fresh snow on the peaks, I grabbed my camera, found a good spot and began shooting. As the sun dipped below the horizon behind me, the last beams of sunlight glinted off the snow and cast a pink glow on the mountain.

This photo captures the majestic peaks, the fresh coat of snow and the wispy, low-lying clouds. This is the beauty of Flagstaff.

2014

2014 was an interesting year. A good year.

The close of one year and the opening of another is often bittersweet, but now that we're almost one full month into 2015, these emotions have mostly passed.

Do You Want to be a Korean?

The customary Childers' kid pose. Though usually Joel doesn't look high.

In 2014 I graduated with my Master's degree. Am I even old enough to have a graduate degree? Somehow it doesn't seem possible. I made some wonderful friends at Baylor, and completed a degree in Museum Studies.

In a conversation about my degree, I once had someone ask if I was planning to be a Korean. After some initial confusion on my part, I realized what they were asking. "Oh, a curator?" I responded, barely holding back my snickers. "I actually want to work in collections." Confusion regarding my career path is not uncommon. People usually don't know much about what museum staff do, though they often know the term 'curator.' Either that or they say, "Oh, like Night at the Museum." Well, no, not really. As of yet nothing has come to life in my museums.

But there's a first time for everything.

Thankfully, my career working with old stuff seems to be off to a great start. I spent 2014 working with a variety of collections - from Mark Twain letters and women red cross uniforms to Torah scrolls and beaded deer skulls.

My cohort at Baylor and one of our professors. Love these ladies.

Horse Capital of the World
In 2014 I took a trip to Kentucky, the horse capital of the world. Everyone knows my passion for horses, and all things horse-related. Mom and I spent almost a week in Kentucky, touring horse farms, horse museums, horse parks and horse racetracks. We threw in a bourbon distillery along the way (because Kentucky is famous for bourbon and horses), a tour of the Mary Todd Lincoln house and a visit to Cane Ridge. Other than that we kept to horses and we saw more horses than most people probably care to see in a lifetime.

Not me of course. I'm still nowhere near to getting my fill of horses, but Kentucky certainly made this girl happy.

I watched the top female jockey in the world win a race under the iconic twin spires at Churchill Downs. I ate a hot brown in Louisville, where the tasty dish was created. I met the jockey who rode Seattle Slew to the Triple Crown. I stood at Secretariat's grave after petting a horse that won the Kentucky Derby and one who is insured for over 55 million dollars. Horse lovers heaven, ya'll.

War Front - the leading sire in North America. Stands for $150,000!

Jean Cruguet, Seattle Slew's jockey. I'm taller than him!

Biblical Proportions
In 2014 I spent several months interning at the Museum of the Bible in Oklahoma City. I am still a bit in awe that I worked at a museum that has fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Seriously, how cool is that? I sat in on planning meetings for the large museum that will open in DC in 2017. I met some wonderful people while in Oklahoma, and was blessed with two wonderful places to live for the summer.

City of Seven Wonders
In 2014 I began my first "real" job in a museum. I began a new adventure and moved to Flagstaff, Arizona for a year. I'll be here in Flag until September, at which point I will likely find a new adventure. Flagstaff is a fascinating city. It's small, but due to its arrangement on a mountainside and along the railroad it is fairly spread out.

Flagstaff is beautiful. It sits in the middle of a large pine forest and at the foot of the San Francisco Peaks. The Grand Canyon is 70 miles away and the red rocks of Sedona are just over 30 miles away. I see deer a few times every week, though I have yet to see any elk or bald eagles.

I work with archaeology objects, which I think is pretty neat. Because the Museum of Northern Arizona interprets the history of  the Colorado Plateau, much of the collections are Native American. I am loving this opportunity to explore an era of history that I find fascinating and and to experience the natural wonders of the Colorado Plateau.

And that's what I did in 2014. Not a bad year, I must say. What's in store for me in 2015? I can't wait to find out!

Life in a Chicken Coop

I have now been in Arizona for four weeks, and I feel that I am finally settling in a bit. I've driven around Flagstaff, learned the lay of land (to some degree, anyway) and visited some sites around the city. 

And I am living in chicken coops. 

Me and my chicken coop

The museum is kind enough to provide temporary housing on the museum campus for new employees. This is known as "the coops" and, as the names suggests, consists of several buildings that are actually renovated chicken coops.

Take it from me, this is much nicer than it sounds. First of all, think of the structure part of a chicken coop, not the chicken-wire part. Each coop is really a cozy little cabin, with a bed, desk and closet. And because Mom drove up here with me I have the largest coop which, in order to accommodate two beds, is about double the size of most of the coops.

Really the only downside is that the bathroom and kitchen are a short walk outside. This isn’t so bad in the middle of the day, but early in the morning when it’s 20 degrees out and the roofs are covered in frost or late at night when it’s dark and cold, it’s not as fun. It also wasn’t too fun when I locked myself out of my room without my phone and had to sleep on the couch in the common room.

Then again, on my nightly walks to the bathroom I’ve seen two herds of deer, a big jackrabbit, heard coyotes singing and seen three shooting stars. I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

Most of my work here will be done in the old collections storage. However, a large portion of the collection is in a fairly new, state-of-the-art collections center. The Easton Collections Center is amazing, and basically a collection’s manager’s dream. It has great security, a large amount of storage space and good climate control. 

The Easton Collections Center

The building was designed with input from three perspectives. Because it is a collections storage facility, typical collections care issue were addressed, including the HVAC system, physical access and the storage concerns for a mixed collection. For example, the building is heated and cooled through pipes in floor, rather than blowing air, which keeps blowing dust to a minimum. 

The ECC at sunset

Another important issue was that of sustainability. Most of the materials are local, including wood from a railway trestle that lay submerged under the Great Salt Lake. The high salt content naturally treated the wood and it now repels insects. In addition, the grass on the roof acts as an insulator and helps keep energy usage down.

Finally, the museum drew heavily on the perspectives of the local American Indian communities. 

The center is meant to blend in with the landscape, and the façade is reminiscent of pueblos. Doors and windows face east, and from several spots in the building there are views of the San Francisco Peaks, which are sacred to local tribes. All funerary objects and human remains are housed in another building.

In the large foyer there is a tall, thin, rectangular window. Sunlight comes in through the window and shines on the wall. On the solstices, it shines directly on the center of the large steel doors that lead to the actual collections storage space and on the equinoxes it shines on the corners. On the solstices and equinoxes, the doors are opened and the band of light shines onto the collections so that the objects can know the time of year.

As I mentioned, most of my work will not be done in the fancy building I just described. One of the big projects I am working on is a major inventory. The room that I am inventorying has about 75 units, and each unit has six shelves. Each shelf typically contains about four to ten boxes. While some boxes only have one or two objects, the majority have ten to thirty, and some boxes have a couple hundred. It may sound strange for a box to have 200 hundred objects, but it makes a little more sense when you consider that these are archeological collections. So, we’re talking potsherds, ground stone and lithics – small fragments of pots, arrowheads, pestles, axe heads and (at least to my untrained eyes) rocks. In other words, this is a very large undertaking.

Because the collection has moved a lot, this inventory is incredibly important. It's also a good way to familiarize myself with the museum's database (ARGUS) and the collections and it's strange numbering system (most definitely not the typical three-part number).

I will work on a wide variety of projects while I am at the Museum of Northern Arizona, and hopefully I will share some of the more interesting things on here!  And I will most certainly enjoy this beautiful place, surrounded by forests and mountains.

The San Francisco Peaks

My Mountain is Waiting

You're off to great places, 

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting, 

So...get on your way!

~ Dr. Suess

I am excited to share with everyone my next adventure. I will spend my next year in Flagstaff, Arizona as the Anthropology Collections Assistant at the Museum of Northern Arizona.

Flagstaff, Arizona
A few weeks ago I knew almost nothing about Flagstaff other than the fact that it is in Arizona. Everyone immediately thinks of the Arizona desert, the blistering heat and tall saguaro cactus. But Flagstaff is different. If in doubt, just take a look at these photos (which are not mine) from Flagstaff.

The highest temperature ever recorded in Flagstaff is 97, and it is apparently the only city Arizona that has never recorded a temperature of 100. With cool temperatures and a high elevation comes winter snow. In fact, Flagstaff averages 100 inches of snowfall a year, making it the fifth snowiest city (with a population of 50,000 or more) in the US. And yep, that's a ski lift right there. Just 7 miles outside of Flagstaff. Who knew?

Through my internet exploration I have discovered several random and interesting facts about Flagstaff:

• Pluto was discovered at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff
• Coconino County is the second largest county in the contiguous United States
• Flagstaff's elevation is just under 7,000 feet. That's high up there, folks!
• Flagstaff sits on the historic Route 66 (as does Yukon, OK, where I spent a lot of time this past summer)
• While Flagstaff is not a huge city (just over 68,000 residents), Northern Arizona University adds an additional 25,000 people to the population
• Because of its high altitude, olympic athletes like to train in Flagstaff
• Flagstaff is just a 90 minute drive from the Grand Canyon

Yes, I'm Terrified
Is it fair to say that I'm a little terrified? You bet. I'm about to drive over 800 miles across a barren wasteland to live in a city I've never been to. Yep, terrified would be one word for it.

But I'm also excited. I'm excited about this new adventure, the work I will do and the things I will learn. Per the job announcement, I will work on a variety of collections projects at the museum. The Museum of Northern Arizona serves as a repository for some National Park Service collections, so I will be working with archaeological artifacts, including Coconino National Forest collections, Bureau of Indian Affairs collections and other NAGPRA projects. For those of you not up to date on the lingo, NAGPRA is the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. This federal law was enacted in 1990 and involves human remains, funerary objects and religious artifacts.

Museum of Northern Arizona and the Colorado Plateau
The Museum of Northern Arizona collects, studies, preserves and interprets the natural and cultural heritage of the Colorado Plateau. The Colorado Plateau is basically the four corners region of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. In this area are 10 national parks and 17 national monuments. In other words, the Colorado Plateau is filled with cultural, geological and paleontological treasures. MNA's ethnological collection includes significant Hopi and Navajo collections, Zuni and Apache objects, and smaller numbers of objects from a variety of Pueblo tribes.

The Colorado Plateau (In case you were wondering, I didn't take this picture either)

Later this week I will make the drive out to Flagstaff. I plan to update this blog on a more regular basis, but I will admit that I often don't post as often as I would like. I'm also more likely to post on

other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, where posts require little more that the push of a button - so follow me there!

It's hard to leave Texas behind. It's hard to leave my friends and family behind. But my mountain is waiting, and it's time to get on my way!

44,000 Object Files

My street. The house I'm staying in is just to the left. 

Hobby Lobby

I have now completed my second week at the Museum of the Bible. It’s already been an interesting experience, very different from my past museum work.

The museum collection is housed at Hobby Lobby’s corporate headquarters. Yesterday I got to take a tour of the Hobby Lobby campus, which includes some six million square feet of warehouse, manufacturing and office space.

Hobby Lobby began as a framing company and its original name, Greco, is still evident in the framing department. Greco comes not from the ancient Greek world, but is a combination of the Green’s name and that of his original partner.

We took a couple of motorized carts around and saw people making items like ficus trees and barn wood frames. One made a stop at the layout room, which is a full-size mock-up of a Hobby Lobby store. In here, they work out which items will remain on the shelves and which will be replaced with new items. They can also look at the layout of the store (hence the name). Each item on the shelf has an attached sticker. This sticker indicates how many of that item was sold in the last month, so they can get an idea of what is and isn’t selling.

What happens to the cake?

One of the most interesting sections is the art department. Here, graphic designers create patterns from art and then use this new art to make anything from fabric to gift bags to wall decorations. Also in the art department we saw the area where they make the inspiration sheets that you can find throughout the stores. These sheets include ideas and directions for completing crafts with store supplies. While we were there, they were working on a cake shoot. Bakers had made beautiful themed cakes, decorated with fondant, and people were working to create elaborate scenes around the cakes. I don’t know what happens to the cakes after they are photographed, but I can tell they aren’t sent over for the museum staff to enjoy. Shame.

If the whole museum thing doesn’t work out, maybe I’ll look into this. These employees spend the day decorating cakes or trying new craft projects. Sounds like a good time to me!

MOTB

Of course, while my job site is Hobby Lobby corporate, I am really working with a separate entity, The Museum of the Bible, or MOTB. Still, I really enjoyed seeing the behind-the-scenes working of a major corporation.

I am joined this summer by two other interns. The other interns don’t have museum experience, but instead are completing theology and biblical language degrees.

Therefore, due to my experience with collections work, I was assigned to work with the registration staff, while they are working with the curators.

I joined them one day this week and worked on their current project, which is measuring scrolls. This first involves unrolling each Torah scroll, of which MOTB currently has over 1,700. They take a photograph of the beginning and end of the scroll, as well as the Song of the Sea, which is in Exodus 15. This text has a different layout from the rest of Torah, which means it is recognizable even to someone who doesn’t read Hebrew.

In addition, they measure the entire length of the scroll and then count the total number of klafs. A klaf is a section of vellum or parchment, which are sewn together to create the scroll. They also count the columns in each klaf and the lines in each column. I took some photographs and counted the lines in several scrolls. I enjoyed spending some time working with the artifacts and with the other interns.

Foundational Filing

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my main project this summer is developing a filing system for the collection. The largest portion of this task is making paper object files for each object. While my hand is sometimes cramping at the end of a day of writing information on folders, I am getting a very good grasp on the scope of the collection. Each folder heading includes the object’s accession number, acquisition number, dealer and a brief one to three word description of the object. This week I’ve made files for everything from Dead Sea Scroll fragments to Torah scrolls to Elvis Presley’s Bible to cuneiform tablets. Very exciting!

It is very interesting to be involved at the start of a museum. Everywhere else that I’ve worked, these things have already been in place. For example, the Holocaust Museum has rows of filing cabinets, already full to the brim, of accession files. As new objects are accessioned, the staff makes new files. Eventually the MOTB will be at this point, but first I must make files for the existing collection.

When I sit at the table, the kitties take up position right under my chair

Does this mean that I will make 44,000 object files this summer? I doubt it. I work very fast, but I can’t make the roughly 500 files a day that this would require.

I hope to do a variety of work while I am here, but it remains to be seen if I will have a chance to do more than work on the files. Despite the monotony of the work, it is kind of exciting to be a part of this foundational work for the museum.

The Museum of the Bible

A Museum Master
It's hard to believe that two years ago I moved to Waco, began another degree and embarked on a career in museums. It is perhaps even more astounding that I  am now a Master of Museum Studies. I don't think I ever thought that I would be old enough to hold a graduate degree.

And yet here I am, with another diploma in hand and a quarter of my life behind me.

Thankfully, due to a multitude of courses, projects, internships and volunteer work I feel very affirmed in my choice of profession.

It was a great day when I realized that I could turn one of my passions into a career. I can still remember when I discovered that universities offered master's degrees in museum studies.

"Sign me up," I said. And with that, I decided to return to school.

For a variety of reasons, I chose to go to Baylor for my degree. I am now very happy with this decision. My professors are knowledgeable, and held in high-esteem by the Texas museum community. My classmates have been wonderful, and many of them have become very good friends. My classes have taught me much, and provided me with the opportunity to learn and grow.

In a field where a master's degree has become essential, I am very thankful for this opportunity.

It is incredibly satisfying to feel that I am in the right place, to discover that books I purchased for free reading are required texts for classes and that I actually enjoy some of my assignments.

So, what's next? I don't yet have long-term plans or a full-time, permanent job. Hopefully those will come in the relatively near future. I always hoped to have a job lined up upon graduation, but museum collection jobs are few and far between.

The Museum of the Bible

My work building, at the Hobby Lobby headquarters

I do, however, have another summer internship. This week I began a summer internship with the Museum of the Bible and the Green Collection in Oklahoma City. With over 40,000 objects, the Green Collection is the largest privately owned collection of biblical artifacts and manuscripts. The collection includes such treasures as fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, part of a Gutenberg Bible, and letters from Martin Luther.

Over the course of the summer, I will work with both the curatorial and registration departments, assisting with all nature of museum collections tasks. It will certainly be different from last summer, as this is a museum still in the beginning stages. The Greens began collecting in 2009, and formal organization began after that. For those wondering, the Greens run Hobby Lobby and therefore have the resources to create such a wonderful, invaluable collection.

My first task involves creating a filing system, which currently does not exist. Luckily, I have plenty of experience with filing! I will make paper files for each dealer and each object within the collection. Furthermore, I will create digital object files on the computer. And after that, who knows!

Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plains...
All of this means that I am living in Oklahoma City for the summer. One of my colleagues and his wife are currently in Rome with one the museum's special exhibits. They have graciously opened their home to me for the first half of the summer (Side note: if you know of a good place for me to stay for July, I would be very grateful!). They have a house out in the country, which I am currently occupying.

My closest neighbors. Seriously, y'all. I live closer to horses than to humans.

This house also has two cats. Two incredibly affectionate and attention-starved cats. The cats are very sweet and, honestly, nice to have around. It makes the house not quite as lonely.

Don't worry Mom, I'm not becoming a cat person, as my allergies will never allow this.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am kind of terrified of thunder, and big thunderstorms in particular. So far, we have had several massive thunderstorms roll through, one of which included 70-mph wind gusts. In other words, long nights for Rebekah.

The Non-Existance of Tornados

I am trying to pretend that this tornado shelter doesn't exist, or more accurately that the need for this doesn't exist, as I must admit that tornados absolutely terrify me. The weatherman last night seemed so excited about the storm coming through.

"Look at that beautiful formation," "See that rotation?" He gleefully announced. Yeah, I see it and I'm pretending it doesn't exist. Yes, I know how unlikely it is that a tornado will hit the house. But my slightly irrational fear of storms means I'm thankful to have access to this shelter. One particularly close lightning strike and the virtually simultaneous accompanying thunderclap made me and both cats jump. Seriously, those cats jumped a foot straight up in the air. Clearly I'm not the only nervous one here!

There is not internet at the house, so my online posts will be spotty, at least for the first half of the summer. Instagram and Twitter posts are quick and use less data, so if you want more frequent updates, check out those accounts of mine.

I'm looking forward to an interesting summer, one which I hope lays groundwork for my future career. My Bible degree and museum degree ensure that this museum collection is right up my alley and I intend to make the most of it.

Time to close up shop, disconnect from the online world again and go watch California Chrome win the Belmont Stakes.

As always, Sic 'em Bears!!