Category Archives: Family

2026, Family, Music, Uncategorized

Pulling Strings

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Many years ago Husband’s dad and stepmother gave him a mountain dulcimer. You can see it in the header photo. He played it on rare occasions, but it mainly sat in its case. He spent more time on his cello and guitar.

Since retiring, Husband has been playing all his string instruments more often. In addition to getting the dogs groomed in Sioux Falls on Tuesday we also picked up the dulcimer, which had been restrung. We would have taken it to my cousin in St Peter who is a luthier, but he is retired now.

I think the first song on a dulcimer I remember hearing was one by Joni Mitchell. I love this song.

Husband ‘s dulcimer never sounded like Joni’s when he tried to play it, I think because he didn’t know how to tune it or maybe the strings just weren’t installed properly. The mountain dulcimer is an odd instrument. I know it is used quite a bit in traditional Appalachian music, and is descended from the zither. I am so glad he got it restrung, since the luthier tuned it properly for the first time. As I strum it I can tell it sounds right.

I am getting closer and closer to sitting down at our piano and practicing things on my own as well as the accompaniments for some of Husband’s cello pieces. I can’t let him be the only instrumentalist in the family. There are some simple Bartok pieces I have my eye on. What else is retirement for if not to play music!

What musical instrument would you want to learn now? What instruments did you play as a kid? Favorite Joni Mitchell songs or other dulcimer songs?

2026, Art, Family, History, Kids, Nature, Uncategorized

Small World

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On Saturday, Husband, I, and Boommate met up with our son and his family for a Father’s Day hike at the Pipestone National Monument, aka The Pipestone Indian Shrine. (I don’t think 47 would like to see that name.) It is almost equidistant from both Luverne and Aurora, SD, where son and family live. Here are some park photos.

My mother’s family is from Pipestone. My Uncle Harvey’s old farm abuts the park. It is an odd place, consisting of a quartzite quarry surrounded by prairie with a creek. For hundreds of years, native tribes would come from all over the contnent and get rock for ceremonial pipes. It is a holy place, and there were many cloth prayer bundles tied up in the tree branches. There continue to be native carvers at the visitor center who make pipes. Husband’s is in the header photo. We bought it several years ago. Boommate made the case it rests on. We keep it in its case, as our native friends say it is disrespectful to display it.

On our hike through the park we ran into a graduate school friend of DIL who heads a program at SDSU for disadvantaged students to help them transition to university. The students were with him. He and DIL hadn’t seen each other for some time, and it was nice for them to meet up.

We have a Hidatsa Indian friend from the ND Fort Berthold Reserve who attended the Pipestone Indian School. It closed many years ago. He also worked briefly at the park visitor center as a pipe carver. All the staff at the visitor center are native, and Husband took a chance and asked the older woman at the checkout if she knew our friend, Leo. Well, of course she did, and knew his wife’s name and the name of the band he played bass guitar and drums in. She was so delighted she gave us a bunch of free bumper stickers!

It is a small world, and it was fun to feel connected in so many diverse ways.

When have you felt the world is small? Ever been to Pipestone?

2026, animals, Business, Family, Food, History, Mysteries, Travel

Where in the World Are VS & YA?

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It’s been a few years since YA and I traveled together.  This is a four-day weekend trip that we’ve talked about for a few years now.  Here are some interesting facts about our location:

  • Nearly half the residents of the US live near here
  • The gate to hell is hiding underneath North Street
  • Part of the Berlin Wall can be found here
  • Woody Harrelson was arrested in this city in 1982 before hitting it big in Hollywood
  • The Anthony Thomas Company makes 50,000 pounds of chocolate here daily, including their famous candy named after a state tree
  • The NFL was headquartered here from 1927 until 1938
  • Jack Hanna is Director Emeritus to one of the largest attractions of its kind in North America here.

Where in the world are we?  (Bonus points if you can say WHY we’re here!)

 

 

2026, Family, Food, Travel, Uncategorized

How Far Would You Go?

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The other night I got some mushroom ravioli out of the freezer. It was some pasta we moved from ND. It was purchased at our local ND Family Fare store.

The pasta was somewhat remarkable for being imported from Italy. It is a brand that Family Fare regularly stocks. I am not a big mushroom fan, but the pasta was pretty good. Our Boommate thought it was absolutely superb. She loves mushrooms.

It had porcini and champagne mushrooms in the filling. We looked up where we might find the brand, and it is specific to Family Fare. The closest stores to us are in Cannon Falls, Litchfield, and Northfield.

The day after we had the pasta, Boommate drove to St. Cloud for a quilt show. She reported massive construction detours, one of which took her close enough to Litchfield for her to justify a side trip to the Family Fare store. It had the pasta brand, but no mushrooms ravioli. Sigh.

I have made ravioli from scratch in the past, but I don’t think I could replicate the mushroom filling. I admire her determination to get to Litchfield. These days the farthest I drive for things is Sioux Falls.

What is the farthest you have gone to get something you really wanted? Ever made pasta from scratch? How are construction season and detours going for you?

2026, Family, Gatherings, History, Theatre, Uncategorized

Tales From The Grave

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On Saturday, the Rock County Historical Society hosted a program of reenactments of the lives of several people buried in Rock County. One was that of a priest, Father Francis Sampson, buried in Luverne’s Catholic Cemetery. He was known as the Paratrooper Padre, and served as a chaplain with the 101st Screaming Eagles in WWII. He parachuted into Normandy on D-day and was the guy who alerted the top brass that a young soldier had lost several brothers in other engagements and since he was the last of the brothers he should be sent home to their mother. Hence Saving Private Ryan, the movie.

Another compelling story was that of a young woman, Captain Lenore Hansen, from Hills (about 15 miles from Luverne and buried in the Hills Cemetery) who was one of the first women allowed to enlist into the Marines in 1945. She worked with the Navaho Code Talkers. She was noted for her really good memory, and memorized over 200 Navaho words, and was involved in creating English words for which there were no counterparts in Navaho. Thus, the Navaho words for Iron and fish were combined to represent “submarine”. She never told her family what she had done in the war. She became a special education teacher in Rochester, MN. She is said to have not told her family about what she did in the war since it was considered classified information.

I think it would be really fun to be a reenactor in these scenarios. It is really wonderful to know about the people who lived and are buried in this country. I look forward to see who they find for next year’s Tales From The Grave. Although he is buried in Pipestone County, it would be fun to see a reenactor present my great grandfather who was a grenadier in the Prussian army and who fled Germany in 1914 after being found out by the authorities to be smuggling butter on the Hamburg wharves with his dray company.

Know any women veterans? Who of your ancestors would you like to present or see presented in a historical reenactment?

2026, Family, home, Kids, Uncategorized

Scientific Furniture Shopping

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Daughter is really putting down roots in Tacoma and has purchased a condo. It is quite a bit bigger than than her apartment.

Daughter has enlisted numerous friends to help with the move. She has a dear friend who is an engineer of some sort and who has been through the house buying and refurnishing process and who has taken her in hand regarding buying new furniture.

Daughter needs a new sofa. Friend insisted that the sofa must have a frame made from wood from a certain place in North Carolina for strength and longevity, along with many other caveats for structural stability. The two young women spent the day in Seattle yesterday sitting on sofas. Daughter texted me that she found one she loved at Crate and Barrel and was deciding on fabric swatches. I do hope the internal structure met the engineer’s specifications!

I think I like the advice another friend gave daughter regarding buying furniture: “buy once, cry once”, meaning buy the best you can afford so it lasts longer.

Any furniture buying stories? How do your tastes in furniture style run?

2026, Family, gardening, home, Uncategorized

Heads And Shoulders, Knees And Toes

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The childhood song has been going through my head. Husband is 72. Boommate and I are 68. Between the three of us, I think we have one functional body (but three functional brains).

Husband has arthritis and carpal tunnel issues in both hands. Boommate has had both knees replaced. She also had a shoulder repair after getting knocked over by a horse. I was doing pretty well until recently when I seem to have developed arthritis in both my shoulders that has greatly reduced my range of motion and caused a lot of pain. The sciatica issues for me are manageable and just intermittent. I have a broken toe that healed crooked and is totally numb.

It has been interesting seeing how we have managed to get gardening and moving chores done cooperatively. I am the only one who can crawl on my hands and knees. That means I can get down really low and weed and plant and plug things in. Boommate and Husband are taller than I am, so they can stretch and reach things that I can’t. Boommate and I have great manual dexterity to counter Husband’s hand problems. Husband is very strong and can carry stuff we can’t. It is all working out!

How are you joints and tendons these days? What chores are you doling out to others? What is the best team you ever worked with?

2026, animals, Family, holidays, home, pets

Memorial Day with McGee

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YA really needed a puppy fix over the weekend, so yesterday we cajoled Jacque into lending McGee to us.  We picked him up in the afternoon and had him for about three hours.

There was a short walk up the block (it was pretty hot and he has little short legs) and then hung out a bunch in the back yard.  He was very well behaved for a puppy – no romping in my plants, no barking, no chewing on my toes.  He did find a good stick:

It was interesting to see him taking in all the new stuff in our city back yard.  Here are the things that McGee was momentarily afraid of:

    • the fire pit
    • birds flying near the bird feeders
    • the birdbath
    • the grill
    • the wind chime

Here are the things that fascinated him:

    • planes
    • the birdseed under the feeders
    • my neighbor Don who was clearing up after grilling
    • the boxer who poked it’s head out the car window and barked (friendly bark)

We pulled out the kiddie pool and lifted McGee into it twice, followed by the application of treats.  He didn’t actually seem to mind the pool but didn’t want to tarry and wouldn’t jump in on his own.  YA thought maybe it was too big a jump for him (until we moved inside and he felt quite at home jumping up on the sofa) but I think maybe the water was too chilly.  There was some tug-of-war and he was very willing to chase a toy when YA tossed it but bringing the toy back is not in his toolbox yet!  We had YA-chasing and some zoomies as well.

He didn’t stop moving the whole time we had him… Jacque, I assume he slept well last night?

How did you spend YOUR Memorial Day?

 

 

2026, Family, gardening, home, Nature

Memorial Blooms

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The iris is my favorite flower; I have always loved them.  It’s probably an inherited trait; I’m pretty sure it was one of my mother’s favorites.  To be honest, I don’t know for sure as my mom was never a flower planter.  She did like to do yard maintenance but didn’t add shrubs or flowers in any of the homes we lived in.  She did however take us kids to the Missouri Botanical Gardens every year, always during the time that the iris gardens there were in full bloom.  That can’t be a coincidence. 

Alice Hahn Goodman Iris Garden (photo credit: Heather Osborn)

I have iris planted all over my yard, front and back, and in a wide variety of colors.  The iris in the header photo is the first to bloom this season – I don’t even know the name of it.  It was supposed to be an orange variety but when it came up the following spring it was this startling white.  Gertens actually credited me for them so not only are the gorgeous, but they were free.  Two of my favorite things.

Of course this year these blooms are bringing my mother to mind so today I am remembering her and thanking her for infecting me with the love of iris!

Any blooms you’re remembering today (literal or metaphorical)?

2026, animals, Family, Gatherings, Nature, Uncategorized

Zoo Happiness

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Neither of my folks liked crowds. Long lines, throngs of folks – count them out.  I’ve never been sure why I can take lots of folks but whatever propensity I have, it has been handed down to YA. 

The two busiest days at the Minnesota Zoo are always the last Saturday and Sunday of their very popular Farm Babies program.  They have all kinds of activities and music out at The Farm and there are always plenty of babies; this year baby cows, llamas, goats, lambs and piglets.  YA and I had other things going on for the first four weekends so it was this past weekend or no Farm Babies program until next year.  We’ve been to the last weekend of Farm Babies before but it was even more crowded than we remember. 

Of course, almost everybody was a young family with kids (and those proverbial strollers – I promise I’m not whining about strollers, despite the photo above).  It was, however, truly amazing to see the number of strollers, especially when they were “parked” in several locations.  Wow!

YA and I have different modus operandi at the zoo.  She will walk at my pace but doesn’t always stay right at my side if I dilly dally.  I am more than able to stand and watch a moose do basically nothing for 10 minutes but if I do this, sometimes YA will wander off to see something else.  Conversely, she can pet a baby cow forever.  On Saturday, there was a restaurant chain sponsoring a scavenger hunt.  There were three stations that you had to find and have you little map stamped.  I thought it was a hoot but YA didn’t want to play (this was when she went off to pet that baby cow).

One of the projects in the Activity Barn was making homes for mason bees who apparently are solitary bees that don’t live in hives.  I thought this was very interesting and I let the volunteer tell me everything.  When I was done there, I found YA petting goats.  The one time we were perfectly synced was when we got hungry for lunch! 

Toward the end of our day we stopped at the Service Desk – I wanted to ask when Llama Trek was going to open and to find out if the snow monkeys (whose exhibit is being re-vamped right now) were still here in Minnesota or if they were hanging out at a different zoo until their habitat is finished.  The guy behind the desk was talkative and I’m not even sure how we got from the snow monkey habitat discussion to the Kodiak bear who broke the window at the zoo several years back.  Or how the zoo has multiple possible plans for adding new bears now that there is only one left. 

As we were leaving YA said “I didn’t think he was ever going to stop talking.”  I laughed and said “I could have stayed and listened to him talk about the zoo all day.” 

I guess it’s different strokes for different folks.  But neither of us were bothered by the big crowds!

When was the last time you visited a zoo?  Any favorite zoos?  Zoo animals?