Flies 432, Visitors 11

Today was a much better day in Afton -- except for the FLIES! Clearly, they are attempting a complete takeover of my Station. Not to be on the losing end of this battle, we brought out the big guns -- the disgustingly smelly fly trap I bought about a month ago. Actually, it has been in use for the whole month, but its unbearable stench caused us to hang it in the work room, where it caught exactly 1 fly. Today, in desperation, we brought it out and hung it in the front room, where it did its job with flying colors (no pun intended). If you hate gross stuff, scroll past the next photo. It's the fly trap with part of its quarry. Just by hanging there, exuding the aroma of cow dung, and containing some sort of fly sex hormone, it managed to snag a couple of hundred flies in just two or three hours. Score!

Fortunately, today there weren't TOO many visitors to whom we had to explain the malodorous state of the museum. Those who did come understood our plight and withstood the nastiness. Our visitors came from Claremore OK, Fort Worth TX, Melbourne Australia, Melbourne FL (coincidentally both Melbourners were there at the same time!), DesMoines IA, Woodstock IL, and Baxter Springs KS. Dean "Crazy Legs" Walker came for a short visit and amused the couple from DesMoines with his trick of turning his feet 180 degrees backwards. The woman was quite astounded. The two brothers from Claremore had quite the collection of bumper stickers, and were interesting in that they were spelunkers. I didn't realize there were many caves in Oklahoma, but they assured me that there are enough to keep them occupied.

The construction of the new showroom is finally under way. The land has been cleared and the stone bedding for the footers has been delivered. The actual construction parts are on the site. Ron M., who was with me today, took this photo and we will be following the stages of construction with pictures.