Of Course It Will Rain

One of the continual problems with outside summer activities for museums is obviously the weather. Always unpredictable no matter what the weatherperson says. Is 40% really 100%. It doesn't help checking the sky because it is continually changing. One year we had so much rain that our museum grounds were saturated all summer. We were fortunate the museum didn't flood, and that is really because of the vigilance of a group of our volunteers. Last year our Strawberry Social was celebrated July 4, the same date as the town celebration for it's 110^th anniversary. It literally rained on our parade, then later poured. Suddenly at 2:00 pm it cleared and was beautiful for our event, however it was really humid.

 

Fast forward to 2016, the morning of June 25, there were black clouds and threatening thunderstorms. We moved our event to the Legion. It was rather crowded for the band Blue Country with about 7 members and our guests, but somehow we pulled it off. We were lucky the Legion wasn't already booked, but it did eat into our fundraising money. 

 So what is the lesson learned? The date doesn't matter. Our museum proper does not have a large enough space to hold the event. Then we realized that our storage area, the old curling rink attached to the museum, that we use for vehicles almost totally empties out in the summer and with some rearranging and cleaning it could become our alternate space. Oh, yes we have no water back there. The sump pump doesn't count. The floor is dirt not mud or wood, but I am sure we will eventually get everything worked out.