This weekend a busy one at Valley museum

I'd better make this short. You guys are going to be busy this weekend. Today from 2 to 4 p.m. you plan to be at the reception for watercolorist Mechele Johnson. She's the featured artist for the month of August in the Main Street Bookstore at the Carson Valley Museum & Cultural Center in Gardnerville.

On Saturday, parents and children should come to the museum for First Saturday and the play, "Portrait of a Pioneer Woman." The museum will open at 10 a.m. and admission is free for all kids who bring an adult. There will be volunteers in costume located around the exhibits to give you an idea of what it was like "back then."

The play performances are at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. downstairs in the meeting room. Three costumed people will bring to life an oral history transcribed by Grace Dangberg, daughter of the character Mrs. John Dangberg, and Beatrice Fettic Jones, daughter of character Gene Fettic. You will be amazed at the amount of work a pioneer woman did each day and how she occupied her leisure time at night.

You'll probably just get home in time to settle the kids in with the sitter and get back for the Taste of Gardnerville at 5 p.m. You can park in the museum parking lot and join the group up front serving pizza, sub sandwiches and beverages. You'll also find many books on local history for sale right there in the parking lot. Then you can head out on Main Street to try out the restaurants and visit the shops. There is such a variety of food to sample: Basque, Italian, Mexican, Caribbean and good old American. Even the shops will offer hors d'oeuvres and the opportunity to see what they sell. Music will be played at several locations and laughter will ring out all over town. You can still get tickets at both museums and the Paradise Café. I truly recommend you join us for all the fun.

And you know there is more fun to come because you have seen the articles on the "Curse of the Hanging Tree." Tickets are on sale now, but are limited. What the papers have opted not to print is that the actors in this living history spoof may not have volunteered without, shall we say, some special persuasion. They are all people you have heard of, if you don't know them personally, and they are playing their part of the history of Douglas County without rehearsals. That means that no one has any idea where this play could end up. Grab your tickets now as it will be September before we know it and this farce is always very funny.

We're just at the start of August, but the kids will be back in school in just a few weeks. Do get them over to the museum in Gardnerville to say good-bye to Sweetheart, the cow in the agriculture room exhibit.

Sweetheart's owner Dennis Hellwinkel, will be taking her out of the museum and up to the state fair soon. She will be back, but it will sure seem lonely without her.

Speaking of time flying, I promised I'd keep this short so you would have more time for your local museums this weekend. See you there!

If you have any questions about anything mentioned here, please call the Douglas County Historical Society at the Carson Valley Museum in Gardnerville at 782-2555 or the Genoa Court House Museum at 782-4325. Visit the Web site at www.historicnevada.org.

And, if you have the time, both museums are always looking for interested volunteers.

-- Contact Ellen Caywood by e-mail at in2my2cats@yahoo.com or at 790-1565.