| Greetings! A cloudy, windy day, with rain in the forecast for the afternoon, but a temp of 56 degrees at North Judson at 9:00 a.m. Certainly not bad for a late November morning! Ran the flag up the pole once I signed in. I realized I'd have to take it down if it started raining. Joe Baker was working on the new electrical boxes near the museum sign at the entrance to the museum off of Mulberry Street. I drove down to the east end and found Bob Barcus taking some photos of the freight equipment. Bob says that he is going to be updating the web site. He also reported that Google is running HVRM ads on searches for the museum. Eventually made my way down to the Shop where I found the temp at 50 degrees. This is typical as the metal in the building has a tendency to hold in the cold. John La Orange had gone up to town for a firebrick which he was going to see if it would fit into the wood stove that Tom Travis had brought down a while back. John reported that the brick will fit, although slightly larger than what the wood stove calls for. When that stove is installed, it should provide for a nicer workplace in the insulated West Annex of the Shop. Speaking of the West Annex, I walked back and found Joe touching up the yellow handrails on the NKP bay window caboose. Still a lot of touching up to do, but the old 471 is looking great! Cory Bennett and Dave Cook were working on a problem with the backhoe. "Don't ask!" was Cory's comment. Ryan Kertis showed up and we decided to walk over to the storage tracks and look at some of the equipment that he had not been able to inspect since he joined the museum back in October. We managed to get into the NKP wood tool car and talked over what it would take to attempt to restore the car. Doug Kosloske and Elmer Mannen fired up EL 310, using the Alco to pull GE # 11 out of the Shop so that the big tarp could be pulled down on the number 2 shop track to provide a tight wall so that the West Annex can be heated. Bob B. joined Mark Knebel in taking the stuff out of Mark's office and putting it into the donated trailer. Mark had found a copy of an Indiana Harbor Belt timetable from 1913 which included whistle rules for calling Grasselli Tower. Neat find! Margrett Cook brought in soup and some home made pizzas for lunch. Bob Albert, Steve Newland and Jon Schmidt had been helping Bruce Fingerhut in cleaning out the old Erie Milk Station and eventually showed up for lunch. Steve fired up the Payloader in the afternoon to help in clearing out the junk in the building. The Scouts arrived and started giving Joe a hand with the work on NKP 471. Ryan also pitched in. I decided to go over to the Troop Kitchen car and do some additional sanding to try to find some additional lettering. Dave, Cory and John tackled the water pump which had given up the ghost. They found a new pump at Hoppe Hardware and spent the afternoon getting the old one out and the new one in. So we have water again in the Shop! Ryan came over and when I told him that I was not having any luck with my sanding, he pointed out a number 3, which I had missed! Turns out, with him and I working at it, we found the old U.S. Army number on the kitchen car; K-325. The old car is slowly giving up her secrets! Bob Albert came over and we showed him the Army number and also the C&EI maintenance-of-way number (A-1054) that we had found last week. There were a few raindrops and I decided to head back and take down the flag. But no rain came, and when I got to the depot, I found Mark already in the process of running the flag down the pole. The temp was still in the upper 50's. Not even the grayness of the skies could keep this from being a wonderful day! Stopped in the depot for a few minutes. Loretta Kosloske was asking folks about the possibility of a renewal of the the museums Annual Dinner to be held on a Sunday in February or March. I gave a thumbs up! Darkness is coming early to the museum at this time of the year, so I pulled the plug for the day at about 4:15 p.m. Enjoy the upcoming week everyone! Les | 
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