​While we send the big sign's design back to committee, lets have a temporary sign for the Chamber visitors on Thursday to gaze at!

Our grain feeder funnel safety fence has also come to reality from rough concept.

Fourteen feet of lattice safety fence.  Super groovy, shockingly beautiful!

All so pleased to reveal our stairway illuminating windows concept is now reality in time for the Madrid area Chamber event. 

One of the windows illuminates the south stairway and one the north stairway.  We abandon the diamond window idea. 

This is the sign we have settled on.  It will be large, 4x8 feet.  Colors of black, brown and forest green.  Sign could sit perpendicular to the road, south of the driveway.

Wonderful, pleased to announce a new sign layout in time for the Madrid Chamber of Commerce After 5 event!   To be held at the Mary Helms Farm in nine days.  With my keep my money in town concept we went to Mid National Graphics for the business.  Have a look and lodge objections/support/proposed changes quickly; we need to roll the presses soon!

Thanks, happy viewing.  The sign's dimensions will be available later here and whether it is visible to north and southbound traffic.

Public safety is our primary control as we do anything.    As there is a widespread desire to get up to the Mary Helms' barn haymow during tours we respond with a staircase!

Above is the staircase concept drawing with two light-admitting diamond windows added.  The diamond windows will closely match the diamond windows in your house, one of which will be in view from the staircase landing windows!  A decorators dream come true.
​We want to take bids for adding these windows,
​I need to get a better way of explaining the grain funnel safety fence, maybe on the morrow.

Below is a shot of the east wall of the staircase.  That wall doubles as a grain bin containment wall.  When the public is on the landing the wall is only 34 inches high.  Risk assessment dictates to us that no one can use the stairs now saving the people installing the risk mitigating measures.  Illustrated below!!  (Click on the picture please)

This is our proposal for managing the risk of visitors falling into the grain grinder feeder chute.  You see, the open to the outside door, above, is where an auger moves feed from a wagon outside the barn into the funnel and down to the basement of the barn..  Cattle were waiting for the feed below.  People will fall into that funnel given the opportunity!  To bring that risk to a manageable level, we are putting out a bid opportunity for contractors to come to the rescue.
​The pencil drawing is our concept of a possible risk reducer where the transparency of the fence is see through spindles on 4 inch centers or less.  Height  could be more than waist high of the tallest expected visitor..

Two new eight foot tall concolor firs in the museum's front yard.  30JUN17

Risk assessments and scenarios, rehearsals and thoughtfulness guides our moves to prepare for visitors.  At this point of time we are engaged in a program to  enhance the safety in the Mary Helms barn.  We have budgeted several dollars to this wave of planned work.  Our purchases include walkway safety counsel and labor.

Big surprise one afternoon when we were jackhammering through a few layers of wallpaper and found this handwriting on the wall!  Just below the ceiling line at the top of the stairs is this writing by one of the builders, "Ed Conradson the painter".  It was a pretty cool surprise to uncover this signature after 115 years; just waiting under the wallpaper to finally see the light of day.  Seems it was written using a carpenter's pencil in 1902.

This is a very early picture of Charles and Mary's new home.  We suppose the hand pump to be a way to pump water from the cistern tank that still is present.  Then the windmill would pump water from the 45 foot deep well when the wind was blowing sufficiently.  Looks like the pump house was heated and quite possibly housed hired farm workers later.  In 1909 or 1910 the pump house was relocated to the east 50 feet and a garage was built to house the new automobile the couple purchased at the Iowa State Fair!
​The lone Ash tree is still on property and thriving also.