All posts by verily sherrilee

Directionally challenged, crafty, reading mother of young adult
2025, books, Family, Mysteries, Travel, Uncategorized, work

Packing

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When I packed for the book festival, I went about it like usual.  I printed out my packing list (that I keep on the computer), filled it out and started to pack.  I was gone two and a half days (six hours of which was driving) and two nights.  Since I was wearing jeans and t-shirt to drive down, all I really needed was two t-shirts, two undies, two pairs of socks, pjs, a pair of zorries for relaxing at David’s and assorted personal hygiene stuff.

Obviously I didn’t need a big bag for this so I pulled a small bag from the attic and threw everything in.  15 minutes from beginning to end.  Except then the conversation started:

YA: Are you taking that bag?
VS:  Yep.
YA:  What are  you taking (picking up the packing list and perusing it).
YA:  No extra socks or underwear?
VS:  Nope.
YA:  What two t-shirts?
VS:  The coral t-shirt with books on it and the black rocket sheep for breakfast with the boys
YA:  Nothing else?
VS:  Nope.
YA:  What if you decide you want a different shirt?
VS:  Then I’ll suffer from my poor choices.l
YA:  What about shoes?
VS:  My blue tennies.
YA:  No other shoes?
VS:  Not for 48 hours.
YA:  (sighs and walks away)

When I was traveling for work, I packed a little more robustly.  Having an extra shirt or pair of socks can’t hurt when you’re on a business trip, but I’ve always been a fairly minimal packer.  YA is completely opposite.  She packs her work uniforms then at least one full non-work outfit for each day.  Multiple pairs of shoes.   For a couple of years she used that cube system, in which you packed all your stuff into individual cube/cases and then put the cube/cases into your bigger suitcase.  Personally I never thought this was a big help to the packing process, but to each their own.  She got the cases free from work; they were popular as pre-travel gifts a few  years ago and there were always extras laying around.  I haven’t seen her using those the last year.

My packing strategy worked out perfectly.  When I got home from the festival, all I had to do was dump the contents of the bag straight into the clothes hamper.  Hygiene stuff all lives in one zipper pouch together so that’s easy to put away as well.  Two minutes to unpack.

I’m pretty sure I packed and unpacked in less time than it took to talk to YA about it!

What about you?  Over-pack or under-pack?  Do you have a “process”?

2025, Art, books, Gatherings, Travel

The Book Festival

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Barbara said last week (Where in the World is VS) that there was a book festival in Viroqua the weekend before.  Did anybody make the connection?

The first weekend of March I spent some time with my friend David, who lives in Viroqua.  His cousin lives in the Twin Cities, so I do get to see him several times a year.  In March he mentioned that this year he was the chairperson of the Ridges and Rivers Book Festival – he’s on the “board” and this year was his turn.  Is this right up my alley or what?

I put the festival on my calendar and then got busy reading.  There were about a dozen presenters and I tried to get ahold of the book that they were featuring; if not, some other recent book.  I volunteered to go down on Friday and help set up as a thank you for David putting me up.  There were a LOT of volunteers so it was actually short work.  I checked out the Viroqua Co-op for dinner – very big and nice for a small town.

On Saturday, the day of the festival, I had five presentations to go to.  The first was Keith Lesmeister talking about the EastOver Anthology of Rural Stories.  Very compelling speaker.

Next up was Maggie Ginsberg, whose first novel Still True won some awards in 2023 – she spoke well but quickly, maybe a bit nervous?

After lunch it was time for Erica Hannickel who has a fascinating book about orchids – her presentation was really well put together and included a great powerpoint with lots of pictures.

The fourth author was William Kent Krueger in the Historic Temple Theatre.  WKK hasn’t been my favorite author; I actually realized on Saturday morning that all of his books that I’ve read have been his standalones.  After listening to his talk, I decided to give his Cork O’Connor series a try.

The last author of the evening was also at the theatre – Michael Perry.  I’ve read several of his books but have never heard him speak.  He was SO funny.  His presentation was over 2 hours and all of us in the audience were just howling.

In between presentations, I walked through the book vendors and author tables.  Bought a handful of items – that was a foregone conclusion.  Had Fried Sweet Potato Swirls for lunch from a food truck and fabulous gelato from a coffee/gelato shop in town.  Really the only downside of the entire day was that I couldn’t expand time to see more of the author presentations.  Oh and the very scary 30 minute drive back to David’s house in the dark.  Geez, it’s dark in the country.

Had breakfast with my godson and his family on Sunday morning before heading back to the Twin Cities.  I will definitely go again next year!

Here’s what I read in preparation:

  • The Fastest Drummer: Viola Smith by Dean Robbins.  This is one in a series of great kids books that feature women.  Great illustrations as well.
  • Forty Acres Deep by Michael Perry.  Not his usual funny stories but a remarkable look at depression at a farmer struggling with depression. Absolutely 5 star material.
  • Halloween with Morris and Boris/Morris and Boris at the Circus by Bernard Wiseman.  These kids books came out in the 70s.  There are twelve of them altogether.  Charming and funny.
  • We Could Have Been Happy Here by Keith Lesmeister.  Short stories, heavy on the theme of missing parents (literal and figurative).  Very nice.
  • Still True by Maggie Ginsburg.  Two women in a small town – one in an unusual marriage, one in a more traditional marriage.  Both have secrets that could rip their lives apart.  Really intriguing.
  • The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger.  This is his latest standalone – and it’s actually my favorite of all that I’ve read.  A not-well-liked character is found dead by the river.  Lots of secrets uncovered as the death gets solved.
  • Driftless Gold by Sue Berg.  This was my least favorite read for the festival, although it wasn’t bad.  I think this slots into the cozy mystery genre a bit, although the main character is a male – solving a mystery involving some lost gold treasure.  This is part of series.
  • Orchid Muse by Erica Hannickel.  Fabulous look at our fascination with orchids, including some history, some art, some individuals who’ve made orchids their life’s work.  No mention however of Nero Wolfe!
  • EastOver Anthology of Rural Stories.  Enchanting collection of short stories having to do with rural life. I’m not always a fan of short stories, but these were all excellent.  The anthology was curated by Keith Lesmeister and I think he did a great job.

There were a few others I would have like to have gotten to, but couldn’t get them in time.  Maybe next year I’ll start earlier!!

What’s the last “festival” you attended?

2025, animals, Automotive, Farming Update, Nature, Seasons

May

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

The barn swallows are back.

Often we get one that stops in about this time of the year, just as the scout, and then it’s gone again until about May 6 when they generally return to stay. This year we had one back on April 26. I joked that mom came back as a barn swallow. And a few days later, she brought dad with her. And this pair moved into the usual nest on top of the Windchime next to the front door. They seem to be here to stay.

I’ve been saying I couldn’t remember what day it was for the last month. Heck, throw in a funeral and I’m totally discombobulated now. 

Finished our spring play at the college last weekend, then had a spring concert this past week. Commencement isn’t until the 14th, so this coming week, maybe I can farm a bit between other things. 

It has rained enough I haven’t gotten much fieldwork done or anything planted yet. I think the damp conditions are Gods way of telling me just to relax, it will be OK. Ha! “Relax.” Clearly God isn’t aware of how my mind works.

We moved the chicks to a bigger pen. They’re enjoying that, eating A LOT and growing well. Just starting to get some tail feathers. 

After cutting down all those trees, last week I got them all cleared off the fields. That was more involved than I expected, but it’s done. And I didn’t break anything on the tractor nor hurt myself. 

I did some repairs on something I had bent on one of the tractors last winter, and I graded the road. The chickens sure love a fresh pile of dirt or even if it’s gravel. The first grading of the spring, I’m pulling in rock from the edges, and cutting down the edges so rain water will run off the side and not down the road. It kinda makes a mess for a while. It will get better. Eventually.

I got my final rabies shot got so I got my rabies tag now.

You all know, with any death there is a lot of details. There’s a scene in one of my favorite movies, Mr. Magorium‘s Wonder Emporium, where one of the characters says he’s just the guy that makes sure all the papers are in order. I kind of feel like that sometimes. I made a lot of phone calls this week. I thought when mom passed away I would be complete blubbering mess. But honestly it was a huge relief. It felt like such a weight off. And I’m lucky that I have such a supportive family and we all get along so well. (Well, there’s that one… we’ve had enough together time for now.)

We laugh together at the meeting at the funeral home, we laugh over stories with the minister during the meeting at the church.

I asked the funeral home director for a tour. He said he couldn’t give me a tour. I told him I didn’t want to see a dead body, I just wanted to see the “backstage” areas, so he did show me the garage. I remember when Dad died, there was a framed picture of Bea Arthur in the casket room. I couldn’t figure out if she was the celebrity spokesperson or what?? Her picture isn’t there anymore. And the guy wouldn’t believe me that it was there before. But I know what I saw!

Mom had requested a private burial and then the service will be in a few weeks because all the grandchildren were already planning a “cousins reunion” and we didn’t want them to make two trips this close together.

So we’re at the cemetery for a quick little service, and I’m looking at dad‘s headstone “over there”, but the casket and hole over here. And somebody else questions that as well. Finally I get the attention of the funeral director. He went pale for a second, and he started to sweat, and then we realized they had moved the headstone in order to dig the hole and get the mechanism in place for the casket. Oh. OK, that makes sense. He teased me I was gonna give him a heart attack.

Kelly and I stayed after and talked with the cemetery crew and watched them lower the casket into the vault. It’s all part of the process.

And the world just keeps on going round.

IS THERE A CELEBRITY SPOKESPERSON YOU’D BELIEVE?

2025, Family, History, home, Stories

Mom

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Today’s post comes to us from Ben.

When my parents moved out of their house in town and into a senior living place, I wrote this short story. Several years later I found it again, shared it with the family, and one of my sisters commented that I could write another piece and update the situation. Which I did, and filed away.   When mom died last week I updated that story.

So here are some stories about my mom.

FEBRUARY 2007

Mom and Dad have finally moved. They decide to move even though the house hadn’t sold yet (maybe due to the cold and snow? Mom says she’s just tired of cleaning the house…) and low and behold the house sold anyway.

So we all met at the house one Saturday a couple weeks ago; 0 degree’s outside… Oldest sister Ellen is here [from Pennsylvania]. Ernie and Joanne decided to rent a moving van, Bob parked his pickup at the back door and started loading stuff from the basement; I loaded my truck after his and Ernie is asking what we rented the big truck for? But then we filled the big truck, and the two pickups and there’s STILL stuff left in the house…geez; where did all this stuff come from?? Didn’t think there was that much stuff?!? They cleaned all summer, threw stuff, and still….

And now the apartment is filled with boxes of … stuff. The pickups fit into the underground parking garage, but not the moving van of course. So Bob and I take turns shuttling our pickups back and forth from the elevator to the moving van to load stuff and drive back to the elevator. And from there it’s one flat cart and two shopping carts to get everything upstairs. And the place is filling up and they don’t have the dining room table or sewing table in the apartment yet. Judy [my aunt] makes lunch for us since she’s in the building too.  Eventually they rent a storage closet in the basement and the next Saturday Joanne, Arlen, Kelly and I haul some more stuff from the basement and the deck furniture and shelving and pack the storage closet.

The next week, since it’s Presidents Day and no school [Son] and [daughter] and I meet Dad at the old house and clean out his shop; Steve is taking the table saw; Matt’s getting some odds and ends, and we load my pick up with saws and ….stuff. Dad’s wood jointer / planer and …stuff… and haul it out to the farm. I put the band saw in the garage so Dad can use that; some of the ….junk…down in the old shed, other stuff in the new shed. Then back for one more trip to pick up the real junk, vacuum the shop (with his little dinky shopvac with the 1” hose and no attachments… it was kinda funny / pathetic!)  Finally, the only thing left is Mom’s sewing table and the shopvac.

April 2025

Mom’s Moves

Mom has died. 

Mom spent her first 22 years living in her parents’ home, and her first move was as a new bride into Dad’s farm house. Or rather, her in-law’s house, Carl and Helen.  Anna Conway, her Mother-in-laws mother, was also living there. Bedridden and cared for by Helen, Mom learned how to care for her. Mom said it’s where she learned not to be afraid of death. Anna lived for a few more months and mom’s compassion, home nursing care skills, and possibly entire attitude about life, came from that situation. Her Mother-in-law, Helen, had 5 sons and was pretty excited to have a “daughter” in the house and they got along well.


Eventually the in-laws moved out and mom could make it her home.  Mom and Dad lived the next 20 years in that old farmhouse which was made up of bits and pieces from the previous 100 years. Mom could have done without the snakes that came out to sun on the stone foundation or the honeybees that moved into one wall, ate through the plaster, and got inside the room late one night.


When Mom was 42 years old, the time came to build a new farm house. She moved the family into the machine shed for a few months in mid-summer. Which became fall.

And then winter. And then she moved the family out of the machine shed and into the new house.  And she made that a home for 21 years until they moved into town when the next generation took over the farm. Mom was 64.

They found an empty lot in town and started building a house and they were determined NOT to still be living on the farm when the next newlyweds moved in. She had done that and wasn’t doing it to the next couple. Their next-door neighbors in town were going to be gone for the summer, and offered that mom and dad move into their house while the new house was being finished. They didn’t have to move quite so much stuff at first, and when the new city house was done, they simply moved next door, to their new home in town.  And they lived there for 17 years until they decided it was time to move to Senior Housing. Mom was 81. It’s surprising how much stuff one can accumulate so quickly, and they spent the summer having garage sales and giving stuff away. Mom was determined to move and she worked hard to convince Dad this would be OK. He really wasn’t so sure, and he was grumpy about it all summer. And one can’t really blame him; moving from the country into town was bad enough, but now, moving from their house into an “apartment”…well, that was quite an adjustment so his anxiety was understandable.


That move took a while to sort out as many things went to temporary storage, and more stuff was given away, and it took a while to figure out what they needed in the apartment. And Dad discovered it was OK not having to worry about snow or grass. And he was able to create another workshop.  They made a nice home there for the next 8 years until Dad’s passing. Mom was 88.  And mom moved into another apartment, got rid of more stuff, and she made that her home for another 7 years.

And then she moved once more. Her last move. Into a single room with a shared bathroom.   And the kids packed up her stuff again. Mom was 95 and slowing down.

It felt different that time. She didn’t need much, nor did she have room for much. And there was a lot she wouldn’t need again. The move was her idea so that helped. Ever practical, she knew she needed more assistance. She knew it wouldn’t be perfect. “I’ll need to have a lot of patience.” she said. With her usual resilience and attitude, she made the best of it. Most of the time. Through new staff, through covid, and paper plates, physical therapy, new friends, visits from old friends, she was able to enjoy it.

She was often awake at night “thinking” about things.  She’s had a lot of thoughts over the years.

She never thought she would be blind. That’s been the hardest thing. That’s what’s gave her the most trouble of everything. As much as she would say “Oh well, God will take care of it.” she sure had a hard time rationalizing God taking care of that one. She was so close to 99, just a few weeks short. Not that that was ever a goal, no one ever heard her have a goal that was age related. Her latest goals were more of being able to walk again, or seeing. And when you think of the things she did, and saw, you would understand that.

So, finally, the best move of all: rejoining her beloved husband, and her brothers and sisters, and her mom and dad, and all her cousins and nieces and nephews. She’ll be asking everyone ‘What do ya know??’


She loved getting together with family or friends.  She always wanted to make sure everybody had a chair. She wanted to make sure everyone had something to eat.


And now she has a chair.  And she has ice cream.  And She’s really home. Again.

WHAT ARE YOU SERVING WHEN GATHERING WITH FRIENDS?

2025, books, Business, History, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Where in the World Was VS?

22 Comments

Turns out that Renee and I were both out of town last weekend.   Any ideas where I was?

  • This town was established in 1848 and was initially named Bad Axe. (There is still a Bad Axe Music Store in town.)
  • A Masonic lodge and theatre was rebuilt in 1922 (after a fire) and was a hub of the community for decades. In 1995, after being shut for several years, it was purchased and the theatre was subsequently remodeled with monies raised by the Historical Society and the surrounding community.
  • 40 years ago, a one-room Waldorf schoolhouse was established in town. It is still operating with 125 students, grades kindergarten to 8th
  • This is the home of one of the earliest organic dairy companies, cooperatively owned and managed, opened in 1988.
  • In 2012 a guy named Randy moved to the area, built himself a cabin and then built himself a wood burning stove. Folks started asking him to build stoves for them and within a couple of years he founded a company for wood heating solutions which has been a runaway success.
  • This is the smallest town in America that hosts a book festival.

Any thoughts?

 

2025, animals, Family, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized

Let the Sun Shine

17 Comments

Most years, our first foray to the zoo is during Farm Babies, which usually starts towards the end of April.  The zoo opens up the Farm and there are usually some baby animals to pet.  It’s not a big a celebration as it was in years’ past, but who can resist petting baby goats.  Not us.

This year, YA broke tradition by waking up last weekend and suggesting we go to the zoo that day.  I didn’t have any plans, so off we went.

Our normal routine is to start with the inside exhibits – first the Tropics and then the Minnesota Trail.  We skipped the Bird Show as they re-jiggered the winter show last year and we didn’t care for it too much.  Then we walked on the lake bridge to see the tigers, caribou and moose then around the Northern Trail – the Bactrian camels were all out sunning together – it looked like they were at a symposium:

The two takins that were out were having a great day, chasing each other around; we’ve never seen them that active.  One of the snow leopards was also enjoying the sunshine (see the header photo).  In fact, that did seem to be the theme of the day; many of the animals were enjoying the sunny day. 

After winding back to the main building through the Grizzly Coast, we had our lunch, augmented with french fries.  Had to hit the gift shop, although we almost never purchase anything.  Then sea lions and weedy sea dragons and sharks before we headed home.  A wonderful day.

How do you like your sunshine?  Porch?  Adirondack chairs?  Chaise lounge?  Hands and knees in the garden? Sun lamp?

2025, books, Fantasy, Words

Last Lines

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The joy of occasionally re-reading a book is that you come across phrases or paragraphs that spark recognition, especially if you enjoyed them the first time around.

I’ve been reading the Gamache series by Louise Penny recently (my other book club had the first one on it’s list earlier this year) and I’m liking them just as much as the first time around.  Yesterday I came across section in The Cruelest Month.  The characters are taking part in a séance when they are frightened by an interruption:

A window pane rattled and a horrible face appeared at the glass.  The circle gasped and recoiled.   “For Christ’s sake, Dorothy, I know you’re in there,” screamed the voice.  It wasn’t what Clara had imagined would be the last words she’d hear on earth.  She’s always thought they’d be, “What were you thinking?”

This paragraph made me laugh out loud – again.  I know there are folks that like to find out the last words of famous and a quick internet search finds a lot of hits.  The only one that I can ever seem to remember is attributed to Oscar Wilde.  “This wallpaper is killing me.  Either it goes or I go.”   I’m not sure this is accurate but because it’s the kind of thing that Oscar Wilde would have said, I’ve always remembered it.  I also remember another quote attributed to him – “Life is uncertain.  Eat dessert first.”

I’m pretty sure my last words will be “Will there be donuts?”

Anyone’s last words that you remember?  That you’d like attributed to you?

 

2025, home, Mysteries, Uncategorized, Weather

Warm & Fuzzy

29 Comments

Three weeks ago while I was folding up clean laundry I discovered that one of my green fuzzy socks was missing.  I’m pretty thorough about shaking out clothing to make sure socks are hiding but even after checking the usual suspects, I didn’t find it.  The remaining green sock went to live in the “single sock box”; it was the only inhabitant. 

On Saturday as I was getting ready for the day, I noticed the poor lonely green sock – usually if I don’t find a sock within three weeks, I never do and I was lamenting the loss the green sock.  I love all my various fuzzy socks.

Five minutes later, as I pulled clean sheets out of the closet, the errant green sock cascaded out of the fitted sheet.  I hadn’t found it because I cycle through my flannel sheets and had not pulled this set out since the sock had gone missing.  As I was happily re-joining the fuzzy pair I pondered the coincidence that I hadn’t thought about the missing sock for three weeks until just a few minutes before it returned to me.  Part of brain says “coincidence”.  Another part of my insists (fairly adamantly) that it has to be some weird confluence of the universe.  I can’t imagine why the universe would care about my socks.

How long do you keep a solo item that is missing its mate?  Where do you keep them? 

2025, Fantasy, Movies, News

Val Kilmer – RIP

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The sad news showed up late Tuesday that Val Kilmer has passed away.  He was just 65 and it was apparently pneumonia that got him in the end, although he did have quite a horrific battle with throat cancer 8-10 years back.

He had a fairly prolific career although I have heard many stories about him being notoriously hard to work with.  I can’t say that he was anywhere close to a favorite – I’ve really only seen a handful of his films, almost all of them from early in his career. 

Two of his early works I’ve seen repeatedly are Real Genius and Willow.  In Real Genius he plays a top of the charts college genius – kind of hard to tell the plot without some serious spoilers.  The movie is not even remotely realistic but it’s fun and the good guys win without guns, fistfights or even any blood. 

Willow is an amazing fantasy with witchcraft, brownies, trolls, fairies and an epic battle.  Spoiler alert – the good guys win.  In addition to Val Kilmer playing a charming rogue, the movie is graced with an incredible performance by Warwick Davis.  Here is my favorite scene (although I love lots of scenes in this film). This is as Willow (Davis) is leaving his village on his quest.

Kaya gives Willow a Braided Bush

Given my track record, the next couple of weeks will probably see me tracking down some more of his movies that I haven’t seen.  Hopefully I won’t be disappointed.

Any Val Kilmer movies that you particularly like?  Particularly dislike?

2025, books, Food, Mysteries

Glug Glug

27 Comments

You know my drill.  Find an interesting cookbook out and about.  Get that cookbook from the library.  Try out a few of the recipes.  If they turn out well, consider adding cookbook to the collection.  And the hard part, getting rid of a cookbook to make room for the newbie.

So yesterday I’m made a Roasted Tomato, Potato, Dill and Feta Frittata from a cookbook of tomato recipes.  I like to follow recipes fairly closely when I’m testing a cookbook; I think of it as giving the author a chance to really show their stuff.  After a couple of paragraphs in the recipe, I came upon this phrase – “… heat a generous glug of oil over medium heat”.

To be honest, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen “glug” listed as a measurement in a cookbook before.  I was pretty sure a glug has to do with the sound of the oil if you tip the bottle all the way up and the oil makes a glugging sound as it pushes its way out.  But for fun, I looked it up.  Internet says “about two tablespoons”.  So is a generous glug three tablespoons?  Four tablespoons would be two glugs, wouldn’t it?  Not exactly a precision measurement.

What I didn’t say is that when I read that instruction, I laughed out loud.  The reason for that is that in an earlier recipe, the author explained in excruciating detail how to make a grilled cheese sandwich.

“Arrange the cheese on one slide of bread, then put the two slices together.  Set a skillet that’s the right size for you bread (too large, and you’ll end up with burned butter), add about 1 Tablespoon butter, swirl it around to coat the skillet; as soon as it stops foaming, lay your sandwich in the skillet.”

To be fair, the grilled cheese recipe turned out great but not because I needed step-by-step instruction on how to grill a cheese sandwich but because it called for a Sun-Dried Tomato & Smoky Red Pepper Mayonnaise which was fabulous.

Glug, pinch, dash, handful…. how closely do you follow recipes?  Do you even USE recipes?