Field Trip: The Miller House

 On Tuesday, we found ourselves in Jackson Hole, taking my mother-in-law up for a doctor's visit, so while she was busy with the doctor, I took the boys on a short field trip.  As you can see on the sign, the Miller House is located on the National Elk Refuge.

 It's a neat old house, and they have it open free of charge to visitors.  They have a couple of tour guides that are full of great information.  We really enjoyed our visit.

 It was a beautiful day too.

 The boys were excited to get to go in.

 My pictures from inside turned out a little blurry because I didn't use a flash.  There was already a tour in progress, which had just started, so we joined the group and I didn't want to be more of a disruption than a mother with three young boys already is :)  I have my kids well trained though.  The ten year old spotted this sewing machine and grabbed my arm to point it out to me.  He knows me well :)

 The lady on the right was our tour guide, and she was wonderful  There was a gentleman giving tours as well (not pictured) and he was also very pleasant and helpful.  Here she was explaining to us how the refuge feeds all the elk and bison, and the history of how it used to be done.  It's really quite interesting.

This is what they eat - alfalfa pellets.  This is just alfalfa mixed with clay.

 They gave each of the boys a piece to bring home.  They're going to feed them to the cows that live in the pasture next to us.

 There were some neat artifacts, and lots of pictures.

  This is a display of elk ivories - the treasure of every hunter ... well, apart from the antlers, anyway.  We're more about filling the freezer, but the extras are a nice bonus.

 There is a small gift shop inside the house too.  Really you don't get to tour the whole house - just a couple of rooms in the main floor.  The upstairs is off limits.  But really it's all about the information they share.

 I loved this old clock.

 I got to introduce the boys to an old childhood favorite of mine - the View Finder.  They had slides of the Tetons loaded in them and they were beautiful.  I almost bought them one because I think the five year old especially would spend hours with it.  I'll have to consider that for his birthday.  I bet I can find them online.

 I had to take a picture of the plow and the sign - the plows were made in Jackson, and made specifically to be able to turn over the rocky ground.  And, you could get yours for a mere $9.  Of course that was back when $9 was worth considerably more than it is today.

 I didn't get a very good picture of the plow.

 This is looking out from the back side of the house, looking over the refuge, toward the road most people see it from.  We were facing northwest. If you follow the hill on the right down the slope in the center of the picture, you would be able to see the National Museum of Wildlife Art - which is definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in Jackson.

 If you look to the south from the house, you're looking back toward the town of Jackson.  And if you really want to get to the Miller House, you need to go past the hospital and continue to the end of the street and take the dirt road.  It's only about a mile though.

 Like I mentioned, it was a beautiful day.  The clouds rolled in, but we never got rained on.

 When we came outside after the tour, the ten year old spotted this little garden right away and it was all I could do to convince him that they wouldn't allow us to pick the rhubarb - even if we asked nicely.  We have 8-10 quart sized bags of it in the freezer anyway.  Guess it's time to make more rhubarb dump cake :)

 The little cabin closer to us was actually what the people lived in while the bigger place was being build.  Yikes.  Talk about cabin fever!  I think this couldn't have been bigger than 10 x 12 or so.

He's somewhat opinionated, wouldn't you say?  I actually laughed when I was going back through the pictures because it was the first time I noticed this.  The tour guide had asked us if we were locals.  Now I see why.