The cleaning up of the office at the museum has begun. At least I think it has started since the Waterbury doll has headed for the doll hospital. A couple of years ago the doll traveled up from Florida and she was not in good shape since she had leakage of the sawdust.

The doll is quite old with a white leather body filled with sawdust and everywhere she was placed she left a trail of her insides. All my life I have been a doll person and I have dealt with Annabelle’s dolls in the last few years. I always headed to Byron to Joan’s and she patched up different dolls that are now in the museum.

But Joan has moved and she is no longer in the business of repairing. So when the Waterbury doll arrived, I took the doll to a local antique show hoping there might be a doll repair person at the show. There was not such a person. So my doll has been at the office at the museum waiting until I could find someplace to have her fixed. Everywhere she is placed there is a small pile of sawdust.

Two weeks ago when Kevin and I decided that the office needed to be cleaned up, I knew the doll should go somewhere. I started my research and found out that Naperville has a doll hospital. This week Steve and Cheri arrived to help me with some outdoor things. So Cheri and I went to the museum, packed up the doll, and the doll has gone to Naperville to be repaired.

So I think this means that the office is now officially in clean-up mode. Extra boxes need to be put in recycling and the Harriet Fry picture goes back up to Aplington House. I have put the new notebook on information on Aplington House together and that needs to be placed at Aplington House. All need to be aware of the timeline of redoing Aplington House and how it was rescued from being torn down.

In the museum a table needs to be cleared off and removed to make way for a big copier. Kevin will help with some of this. He has been working at the home of Dr. Burns in the newspaper room. All old newspaper books are being restacked on metal shelving. Wood shelving eventually leeches some of the surface into the books and that is why metal is better. Kevin has them all listed on the computer so we know what we have.

The wooden bookcases can come down to the museum to hold newer books and recopied information. We need to think in terms of preserving

Kevin would like to see more flowers that were typical of the prairie around Aplington House. So I got out my book on prairie flowers and Black-eyed Susan flowers could be used. At my house those flowers were taking over near my patio and Steve has moved some to other flower beds. Mine came from southern Illinois and my grandparent’s farm. Maybe some of them can go to Aplington House. We will see.

• Betty Obendorf is a retired teacher and volunteer for the Polo Historical Society.