The State of North Dakota gives out the Rough Rider Award annually to native North Dakotans who have been influenced by living there to achieve excellence in their respective fields or endeavors. It is the highest award the State endows.
The plaque is fairly small, with a 3-D bust of Teddy Roosevelt in the center. The recipients are given honorary rank of Colonal in the Theodore Roosevelt ND Rough Riders. They also gets their portraits painted and hung in the capitol building. Past recipients include Louise Erdrich, Bobby Vee, Peggy Lee, Louis L’ Amour, Roger Maris, and Eric Severeid.
The first recipient of the award was Lawrence Welk in 1961. I should remind Baboons that Lawrence Welk is a particular interest of mine since my paternal grandfather’s first cousin married Lawrence Welk’s daughter, Shirley.
Imagine the consternation in ND last week when it was reported that a ND couple traveling in Brittany, France went into a thrift store there and found Lawrence Welk’s Rough Rider Award Plaque. The woman in the couple stated she saw this 3-D silver image of Teddy Roosevelt on the plaque, and was astounded to see the inscription regarding Lawrence Welk below it. How on earth could this happen?
Why in France? Did Lawrence travel much in France in the 1960’s and 1970’s? Were the Welk’s so hard up after he died they sold all his memorabilia? Did the woman and her husband somehow get the plaque and bring it to France and claim they found it, thus to increase its value? It is a mystery. I hope we can find out what really happened.
What mysteries would you like solved? What award would you like to receive?What would you like your relatives to do with your things after you are gone?
When I was growing up, ironing was as art form. In my family, EVERYTHING got ironed, from my dad’s work shirts, to shirts and dresses, towels and sheets. I don’t remember underwear getting the once over, but I could just be suppressing that memory. My mother had me ironing pretty early – starting when I was in first grade – and she instructed me in the correct way to do every kind of garment/fabric. When my dad’s ship came in, Nonny’s first luxury was to send out the laundry to be ironed. She still washed and dried everything but then it went into a bag to get picked up by the ironing person twice a week. I can still see the ironed items (in garment bags) hanging in the front closet after they were returned in pristine shape.
I do have an iron, but it gets lonely in the closet. The only thing I’ve ironed in the last year was the quilt that I inherited from Nonny (well, inherited is probably the wrong word. “helped myself to” is more like it). And the only reason I ironed it was that I was adding sticky fabric tape to several places where the fabric had basically disintegrated over the years. YA probably uses the iron and ironing board maybe once a quarter.
When I went off to college, Nonny did send a little travel iron with me. Snort. The very first things that I quit ironing were my sheets. They stretch out on your bed and you sleep on them, for goodness sakes. Sheets were quickly followed by just about everything else. I never looked back.
With this in mind, I’m not sure what the heck I was looking at on YouTube a few days ago, but for some reason, a few posts came up about how to fold a fitted sheet. Then I made the fatal error of clicking on one. Now my feed is full of folks seriously showing me how to fold a fitted sheet — all of them basically the same method – sticking the two lower corners into the top upper corners, then folding into thirds or fourths and then folding again. It LOOKS easy, but I remember trying this years ago and it’s not that simple. And if you’re dealing with slippery sheets, of which I have several sets for the summer, the method doesn’t really work at all. I did find a YouTube of how I do it…
I don’t actually chuck it into the closet. After I’ve wadded it up, I then put the folded top sheet and the pillow cases on top and then gently slide the whole pile onto the shelf. I’m not a savage.
Toward the end of her life, I know for a fact that Nonny was still ironing some of her clothing, but she had abandoned ironing the sheets, thank goodness. Whenever I would visit and help her with laundry, she would have us do the two-person fold. I’m now sure what she was doing on her own. I hope she was wadding the fitted sheet into a ball, but somehow I doubt it!
Do you fold fitted sheets? What method do you use? Do you use a top sheet? Linen closet or drawers?
When YA and I started our search for a dog, the #1 trait that I was worried about was “does this dog have a strong chase instinct”? For eleven years, Guinevere chased Nimue. It was just her instinct to chase, especially when startled. Any time the cat surprised her (like jumping off the bed when Guinevere was snoozing nearby), the dog would lunge out of her sleep. As soon as she lunged, the cat would run. The minute the cat ran, Guinevere would chase; she couldn’t help herself. Unfortunately this ended with the cat getting injured a couple of times early on. After that YA and I set up a couple of serious gates that allowed escape routes for the cat in the two places where the trouble was happening. That solved their problem – it was a pain for YA and me. We did not want to have this problem repeated with a new dog.
While Freya does chase squirrels and rabbits in the yard, she’s not shown any interest in chasing the cat. In fact, she is afraid of the cat. If Nimue is on the back porch when I open the door to let the dog in, Freya freezes on the back steps until I shoo the kitty back into the kitchen. If the cat is on the steps to go upstairs, Freya will stay at the bottom of the steps until Nimue has gone all the way up. And the only way I’ve been able to get Freya on the bed when Nimue is already in residence is with a bunch of treats; as soon as the treats are gone, the dog is gone.
Nimue is loving this. After all those years, she is definitely enjoying having the upper paw. She will turn and give the dog the stink eye. There has been some hissing and I’ve even caught her chasing Freya a couple of times.
It’s been three months and I’m starting to see the very first signs of an eventual détente. Freya is a little braver about coming in or up when she sees the cat. The cat is ignoring more. And a few times it seems clear that Freya would like to play with Nimue. She follows behind, doing some sniffing and then plopping into that classic “Wanna play?” pose with the butt in the air. Then yesterday morning, when Freya came into the kitchen, Nimue was sitting on top of the kennel. Fraya approached slowly, nose stretched out. Nimue didn’t exactly stretch to meet, but she didn’t back off and for a few moments they were nose to nose. Then Nimue moved back a bit to lay on the blanket, out of Freya’s reach.
I didn’t realize how much I was longing for this until I saw it. All my other dogs and cats have gotten along well until Guinevere came along to rock the boat. I do miss her but I don’t miss the chaos. Now I’m eager to see how long it takes for Nimue and Freya to settle into, if not friendship, or even companionship, but détente.
Tell me about someone you’ve had to learn to deal with.
When YA was four, we had a nice day at the zoo. As we went through the Minnesota Trail, there was a beautiful lynx right in the middle of its habitat. YA was mesmerized; she stood right in from of the glass and stared at the lynx. The lynx stared back; they literally had locked eyes. The two of them stood still like that for a good five minutes. YA broke eye contact to look to me and at that point, the lynx bolted for another part of the habitat. I probably should have realized at that moment that YA had some animal whisperer talent. Maybe it started that day – the lynx has always been one of her favorite animals.
We get emails from the zoo so we were aware that there were two lynx kittens born at the zoo in late spring. The email announcing that the kittens were out for viewing came a couple of weeks back; YA has been on me ever since to get to the zoo.
Yesterday, since I had Blevins in the afternoon, we zipped down to Apple Valley at opening time, 9 a.m. The plan was to go see the lynx first, then see other stuff, then circle back to the lynx before heading home.
Going in the cool morning was great! All the animals were up and about (except the beavers). We even got to see the two martins, who are NEVER awake normally. The wolves, who are usually all sacked out in the back of their area were up, rolling around and even coming right up to the windows!
Saw the red pandas, the sloth (who is usually sleeping when we’re there), all the otters, the caribou, the big moose. Even the prairie dogs were all up and working on their breakfast.
We did go back to the lynx – the kittens had found a way to climb up to the top of their habitat and were looking down at all of us. Even though we could hardly see them and they weren’t doing much, YA had us stand there almost 10 minutes.
All in all, it was a glorious day at the zoo. I think we’ll probably head out early and get there at opening from now on!
You know those colds going around? Kelly, daughter, and I all took sick days this week. Just colds, but foggy head, stuffy nose, and Kelly has a low grade temp. Naps are good.
Last weekend one of our neighbors had their annual barn dance. Music was provided by a funk band from the twin cities, ‘Tyte Phitt’. They were a lot of fun! When contacted to play here, they were interested because they’d never played a barn dance before. And the hosts said they wanted to see how a bunch of farmers would like a funk band. It was loud, but it sure was good!
Last Saturday Kelly and I mixed up 17 bags of concrete to add a little berm to the new concrete and fill in a low spot
Just enough at the door to keep the water out. Kelly learned a lot about mixing and working concrete. She says it was interesting. And it bugged her that I can smooth better than her. I’ve just had more practice is all. Someday I’d like to put an overhead door here. We’ll see.
And then Tuesday morning we had another Thunderstorm with a lot of lightning and about 6AM the electric co-op calls and tells me our power is out. I’m barely awake. It is?? (And isn’t that something; they’re telling ME it’s out.) He says there was a lot of lightning and they’ve had some meters fail. I was up with the dogs at 4AM and we had power then. Wasn’t long before a truck shows up and tells me there’s actually a tree down in the pasture, it tore down the line and broke off a pole. Yep, that would do it. One of the guys and I drive back there with the gator. Glad the neighbors took their cattle out after the previous storm because then we don’t have to worry about fences. And I had to take down part of the temporary fence we put up this spring. Then hooked up the tractor and generator and went to work. It was about 2 PM when they had everything fixed and back online.
That’s not supposed to be there…
This should be vertical
Nice oak tree. Daughter and I talked about counting rings on trees.
You can see an old manure spreader to the right of the tree. Dad used to park old worn out machinery along this tree line. Some has rotted away, some has been hauled out. I wonder why he did that? I remember a few places there used to be junk parked. Probably saving for possible parts.
I’ve mentioned before that my dad would talk about he and his brother pulling the electric lines through the pasture with horses. Then WWII put a hold on it. If I remember correctly, the farm got electricity in 1946. Mom and Dad were married in 1948, and first daughter, Ellen, was born in 1949. Mom had told Dad she didn’t want to be pregnant and using an outhouse. He finished the bathroom in 1949…before the baby, but I think it was further into the pregnancy than mom wanted.
I ordered myself an “indestructible pen”. I always carry a pen in my pocket, and often doing farm work I break them by leaning over things. Typical plastic pens don’t last long. I found this one. It comes with a titanium tip to break glass. Never in my life have I had to break out a window. Except for fun. Or as part of a show. And being how this tip is so sharp, after I gouge my palm on it a few more times, I’ll be grinding that off.
Glass breaking tip on the left.
(Preliminary question: got any good stories about breaking glass?)
I picked up 55 bushels of rye seed on Wednesday. The dealer let me borrow a seed tender, so it’s in bulk, not in bags, and I was really excited to play with that. It has a scale too! And then we got .4” rain Wednesday night and Thursday was cloudy and misty. Heck, Thursday was supposed to be nice, before it rains for a week they say. It’s all still in the shed. The point of using a seed tender, is to avoid all the bags plus it’s quicker and easier. There’s a conveyor that can be used both to add seed to the cart, then turned around and unload the cart into the grain drill. Maybe next week I can get pictures of that.
A seed tender
I spent Thursday and Friday in the office instead. I meant to do bookwork. By 2:30 in the afternoon I still hadn’t quite gotten to that. Several times I moved the keyboard and moved papers, then saw a bill or two to pay. Did that. Remembered a few more emails to do, remembered some theater stuff to do. Started a draft of this blog, moved the keyboard again to start bookwork and got an email about certifying the oat crop for an extra payment for water quality. Spent an hour doing that on my phone (Because they said it would be easier on the phone. Well maybe if you don’t have fat fingers like I do!) Had to call for help once. Had to quit and start over twice. I managed. It was worth it for the $1600 bonus payment planting oats provides for water quality grants from the SWCD. Maybe I’ll order a couple gallons of diesel fuel with that…
CAN YOU HOLD PENS / PENCILS IN YOUR HAIR? BEHIND YOUR EAR?
HOW DO YOU CARRY YOUR CELL PHONE?
(I’ve seen women walk around with them under their arm or stuck in their bra. I don’t like them in my pockets; again, I’ll break it)
A cool wet morning yesterday was perfect for some time in the kitchen. Especially since my tomato plants are still going gangbusters.
Normally I look for easy recipes but for some reason I was drawn to a complicated Macaroni & Cheese with Roasted Tomatoes and Chilis that I found in my Tomato cookbook. It had several steps that needed to be combined at the end, which always spooks me. I’m usually fairly casual about cooking so having to get everything to come together at one point isn’t my favorite modus operandi. But with nothing else on my to-do list, I thought I could handle it.
Part of the recipe was a layer of roasted tomatoes; the recipe called for big tomatoes but I have tons of cherry tomatoes, so I looked up an alternative recipe. I made this first and as the tomatoes were roasting, I laid out all the other ingredients on the counter. It felt like I was doing a cooking show! Then the poblanos got roasted over the gas flame; it’s so much fun to hear the peppers popping and sizzling! Added the peppers to the tomatoes with a couple large cloves of garlic.
Next up was the cheese sauce; it’s been quite a while since I made a roux and then a cheese sauce from scratch. SO much cheese – sharp cheddar, fontina and parmesan. And so much stirring! Managed to get the pasta cooked so that it was done right when the cheese sauce was ready. (leaf-shaped pasta that YA and I found at Trader Joe’s last weekend.)
Laid the tomato/poblano mix in the bottom of my 8” square cast iron, then layered the mac and cheese over that. Then came the breadcrumb topping – breadcrumbs and melted butter – and finally popped the whole thing in the oven for 25 minutes.
Looking at this description, it doesn’t seem as complicated as it felt at the time. The whole dish, including roasting the tomatoes and peppers, took about an hour and a half. I had thought it would take longer. I managed to clean as I went, so there wasn’t a massive mess when I was done.
It smelled heavenly and tasted heavenly as well. YA liked it as well, which isn’t always guaranteed. I guess this means I’ll have to keep this recipe in our roster for another cool rainy day!
Any foods you’re trying to eat up (or put up) this fall?
PS: The left-hand photo is before it went into the oven and the right-hand is the finished product.
Last weekend we attended my 50th high-school reunion. Boommate and I were in the same class. There were two parties-one on Friday night at a local brew pub, and a catered dinner on Saturday night. The Saturday night party was held at The Lake, a small spring fed pond that has been converted into a picnic and camping area with indoor spaces for dining.
The Friday night party was held out of doors at the brew pub. Our class had tables reserved, but it was open to anyone in the community to come and hear the live band, get a beer, and eat at the Polish food truck that had pulled up. Much of the evening was spent trying to figure out who was who. The women were easier to identify than the men since male hair loss and beard growth really changed the men’s appearances. I could hear frequent exclamations of “That’s _______? You’re kidding!”
The Saturday night gathering was fun. Husband noted that not a single person smoked, even though much of the time was spent out of doors. The main organizer had displays of our class pictures from elementary through high school. We were the largest class to graduate from Luverne High School, with around 110 students.
I had only attended our 10 year reunion prior to this one. Some had been to every reunion in the past. For some, this was the first. It was interesting to hear people confess how anxious they were prior to the Friday night party, wondering if people had changed, worrying that the same cliques would be evident. I admit that I was somewhat uneasy to begin with, as was my friend Mary, who has an M.Div degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and another female friend who was a community organizer and mediator in North Carolina, and who has worked for years to get minority individuals registered to vote. The early lessons are the hardest to unlearn, I guess, no matter what you experience later on. I am happy to report that the cliques had disappeared, Everyone was happy and friendly and incusive. Phone numbers and Facebook addresses were exchanged. As one classmate commented “I think we finally grew up”. After 50 years I should certainly hope so.
Have you attended any class reunions? Why or why not? Are you in touch with high school friends?
One of my mother’s life lessons for me and both my sisters was “who said life was fair”? This was in direct contrast to the lessons most of us absorbed from cartoons, television and movies; usually, the bad guys get their comeuppance in the end. Considering how little comeuppance a lot of current bad guys are getting, I’m glad my mom taught me some balance to always expecting fair.
Yesterday I had to run an errand over to St. Paul. On the way over, I had to go north on Highway 280 – a left exit off 94. There was quite a bit of traffic, so the last 2 miles before the exit, I just hung out in the left lane. Even though I was going about 5 miles over the speed limit, there was one person behind me who was really impatient and got pretty close. I ignored them.
Then on the way home, I had to go south on 35W, another left exit. Same scenario – about 5 miles over the speed limit and again, somebody on my butt. But this one was really aggressive and even flashed their lights at me. Good grief. They did a quick rush into the lane to the right to get around me. The car that was already in that lane actually put their brakes on. The impatient car swerved back behind me; the car in the right lane sped up a bit. The impatient car tried again to swerve over and around; again the right lane car put on their brakes. There was some long laying on of the horn and more flashing lights. When we got off at the 35W exit, I slowed down a bit so my right lane friend could get ahead of me. As we got onto 35W, the impatient car finally was able to swing out and pass us both. I was wondering if he would pull in front and then stomp on his brakes, but he just left us inn his dust.
I completely get that things like this can turn into road rage but as impatient guy raced off, I realized I had a big smile on my face, having seen some instant karma. I’m sure we didn’t make him late – the whole thing only took about 2 minutes, but I’m hoping the exasperation and anger he felt was a bit of karma coming his way (yes, I did eventually see that it was a guy). So at least for two minutes yesterday I got to see a little bit of fairness in the world!
Over the weekend I was surprised at the emotions that welled up when Renee posted Waltzing with Bears. Boy, I still miss the Late Great Morning Show.
I do have all the Keepers CDs and often ask Alexa to play a few songs from the show, but it’s just not the same. If you go to The Current/Radio Heartland online and search Morning Show Dale Connolly or Keepers Request, you can find the Keepers on Request show that Mike Pengra did for us back in 2015. I haven’t listened to it in a while but probably will today.
Another of the songs that always chokes me up a bit is The Mary Ellen Carter by Stan Rogers
And I don’t just love the mushy ones. Another of my favorites is this one:
And this one, of course.
Now I gotta go get all the Keepers CDs from the stereo cabinet.
Any favorite songs for you today? LGMS or otherwise?
Apparently, I am too easy to please. Despite the State of Minnesota spending a gazillion dollars to entertain me at the fair this year, YA says my threshold is too low. Why, you ask?
On Saturday, the company that watches over my investments (my, doesn’t that sound grand?) had a Shredding Event. They’ve done this in the past but I was never free; this year there was space on my calendar so I filled up a bag of papers to be shredded and headed to St. Paul.
It was an absolutely beautiful day and they had everything well organized; there were a couple of guys directing traffic and parking and then there were a couple more guys helping folks unload their shreddables. Since all I had was one bag, I was easy!
Something new this year was a “car show”. It was extremely low-key – about 18 cars, all just sitting out. Each one had a tag with make, model and year. Other than that, no other hoopla, although I did find a few owners standing around next to their cars. I did ask before I took the photos in the header!
I noticed the red things (my car equipment vocabulary is not robust) on the wheel so the two Mercedes-Benz’ that were there. Luckily one of the Mercedes owners was there so I asked him what the red things were.
He explained, in very simple words that even I could understand) that they were the brakes/brake pads; he even used hand movements to illustrate how brakes/brake pads work. I asked why they were red and got the answer “because that’s what Mercedes-Benz does”. Hmmmm. Sounds a bit like grandstanding to me. Another MB owner who was standing nearby commented that you can now order black ones. Guess some MB owners don’t want to stand out?
After seeing the cars, there was a complimentary food truck, so I had a nice black bean burger with kettle chips for lunch and talked to another couple at my table who were new clients. Followed that up with some cookies `n cream ice cream and conversed a bit with my two financial guys. Then I headed home – I was there about 30 minutes. Have I mentioned what a lovely day it was?
When I recounted my experience, I got a big eye roll from YA with the comment that some folks are easily pleased. I think that’s better than being HARD to please. I had a fun time, had good reading time on the way there and back (CD audio book) – what’s not to like ab out that?
Any classic/vintage car stories? Are you easy or hard to please?
