I drive past the local college every day on my way to work. Yesterday I noticed quite a few school buses in the college parking lot, signs that the week long summer high school football camp was starting.
My agency used to be housed in a former dorm at the college, and the building overlooked the college practice field. We could watch and hear the 100 or so boys as they practiced their tackles and formations. I can’t imagine what the dorms and food service were like all week.
Our children attended music camps and Concordia Language Villages in the summer. We especially liked the Suzuki Camp our daughter attended in Montreal for a couple of summers, with an added benefit that we attended with her. I usually attended church camp a kid. Husband was a camp counselor for a couple of summers at a church camp near his home in Wisconsin. One highlight was the night the Grade 5 and Grade 6 boys in his cabin caught about 50 frogs and let them loose in the cabin. Ah, Youth!
Did you attend summer camp? How did you spend your time in the summer when you were a kid?
Happy Solstice, Midsommar, or whatever you call the first day of summer! The days are longer now, which I appreciate.
I have heard from two friends lately who have experienced some very long days. One is a college friend who lives way up north in Sweden near the Arctic circle. She posted a photo of her and her husband dropping her brother off last week at the nearby train station at 2:00 am. It was fully bright out. She then mentioned that when she and her husband arrived home at 3:00 am, the sun was starting to rise. It must have not got dark there at all! She and her husband are evangelical ministers. I doubt they will be doing too much carousing at Midsommar festivities, which I understand can get pretty wild.
I also heard from my friend the international pet sitter. Her most recent gig took her and her husband to Dawson City, Yukon, to take care of a Great Pyrenees dog. It was a huge, friendly dog who wanted to sit on her lap. They loved the Yukon. The permafrost makes it impossible to pave the streets. The local liquor store and Drivers License Bureau share the same office space. She took a photo at 10:00 pm and it looked like she took it at noon.
I think the farthest north I have been is Gimli, Manitoba. I like it dark when I sleep, and I don’t think I would adjust well when it would be light all day.
What us the farthest north you have ever been? Any Midsommar celebrating today and tomorrow?
Having YA living here makes me ruminate on almost a daily basis about how much the world has changed.
She’s in San Antonio now, at a conference. For once she is a participant, not a staff and she is enjoying that juxtaposition. One of the things that has changed significantly in the travel/meeting/conference world is the choice of activities. I organized a group in San Antonio once and the activity options were golf, tennis and the San Antonio city tour (with lengthy stop at the Alamo). Golf was the activity of choice on almost all trips except Hawaii, where the catamaran tour was always the big winner. As the years went by, people got more adventurous and wanted more options. Golf fell out of favor and “experiences” got more popular. Cooking classes, art encounters, biking, kayaking, horseback riding, ATV adventures. Zipline infrastructure grew and grew as did the number of folks wanting to try it.
The activities that YA had to choose from included morning walks, morning jogs, the traditional city tour, Seaworld and…. puppy yoga!
I’d never even heard of yoga until I was in college – heard a talk about transcendental meditation and Ram Das and yoga. That was it for probably over a decade. Once onboard a ship with a client, I did a session of yoga with her and promptly pulled a muscle in my back that took weeks to feel better.
Now there are multitudes of yoga types (Kundalini, Kharma, Buti, Tantra) but lots of stranger versions that I’ve seen. Hot yoga is done in an overheated environment that encourages sweating. Naked yoga – well, I don’t have to explain that. Goat yoga. And, of course, the popular puppy yoga. YA signed up for puppy yoga on both of her allotted activity days. She has sent quite a few photos and it doesn’t look like any yoga is getting done at all. That’s my girl!
Have you ever tried yoga? Do you have a favorite activity when you’re traveling?
The Baby Sprinkle held at our Son and Dil’s home on Saturday was a lot of fun. It was attended by us, Dil’s mother, and six couples and their children, the couples being family friends. Their children are all the same age, between Grades 1 and 4. .
The women spent the Sprinkle coloring funny pictures on diapers and onesies, while the guys were in the downstairs playing a new, baby-oriented Dungeons and Dragons game Son had developed. Many of the families have children who attend the same Boys and Girls Club daycare as our grandson.
It was really funny to hear the moms talk about their amazement at the vegetables their children eat at Club and not at home. The children have been coming home asking for “those crescent-moon shaped green beans” (lima beans) and the little cabbages (Brussels Sprouts) that they get at Club. Grandson declares he loves romaine lettuce as long as it has French dressing on it. He is a very picky eater, and the lettuce is a real surprise. He has never eaten lettuce at home prior to this.
These kids are eating vegetables because they see their friends eating vegetables! How wonderful! No amount of parental pressure could accomplish this at home.
What were your favorite and least favorite vegetables as a child? How were you positively influenced by your peers? Ever play Dungeons and Dragons?
A couple of weeks ago I was straightening up some papers in my “maybe I’ll scrapbook this” box and came across a bookmark advertising The 26th Annual Shepherd’s Harvest Festival”. It was in the box next to some other items that clearly came from the Eco Building at the state fair. I don’t remember picking it up but where bookmarks are concerned, I’m a little like a crow and shiny objects.
The festival was a week away and even though I’m not a knitter or wool person, it seemed like it might be a fun way to wile away a few hours. Just half an hour from home and only a $5 entrance fee. Dog herding demonstrations, sheep shearing, food trucks and a LOT of vendor exhibits were promised. It was the dog herding that was the top of my list.
When I headed off Saturday morning (a gorgeous day), my plan was to see the dogs, look around the rest of the festival and then maybe see the dogs again during their second demonstration. I never made it back to the dogs a second time because the rest of the festival was fascinating. I got to pet several kinds of sheep (including cashmere), got to watch two different sheep get haircuts (this goes much faster than I thought), listened to some music and had a Grilled Cheezey from a food truck.
And then there were the vendors. My oh my. There was one building with vendors doing classes and then an additional four buildings stuffed full of folks selling anything you can imagine having to do with wool Spinning wheels, combs, spools, drop spindles of all kinds and designs, needles, dye, hooks, stitch markers, patterns and, of course, wool. Wool straight off the sheep in plastic bags, wool in every color imaginable, yarn by the mile. I’m not sure how anyone who is in the market for wool goods can decide what to get. If I were a knitter, I’d have to back a u-haul up to the festival gates. It was a lot of fun to look at, but my pocketbook was really glad I didn’t have anything invested in this craft.
I did end up purchasing some fun soaps called “felted soaps”. They are made with sheep’s milk, brightly colored and fantastically scented – and they are wrapped tightly with a think layer of wool. It acts as a washcloth of sorts and shrinks down as the soap gets smaller. I can’t wait to see how it works out.
Robin was there on Saturday as well, although we didn’t have each other’s cell phones, so didn’t manage to run into each other. It would have been nice to have a “tour guide” but I might have held her back. Maybe next year.
Do you knit? How old were you when you learned? Or better yet, do you have any favorite woolens?
The church choir year is winding down for us, and I couldn’t be happier. We have sang and rang bells since September, and now have one more service to ring at next Sunday. Then we are done for the summer.
There are only eighteen active musicians at our church, plus two organists. Many of us perform in both the choir and the bell ensemble. We are a rather large congregation with around 500 members, but it is only we few who keep the music going. That gets a little disappointing and exhausting at times. The congregation is quite thrilled with the music we provide.
We were pretty tickled at choir last week to hear that a congregation member who is a rancher wanted to thank the musicians for all our work, and donated 100 lbs of ground beef from his own cows to us. It came in 2 pound packages and had been processed at a butcher shop in Belfield, a little town just west of Dickinson. It was a rather unusual gift, but certainly heartfelt. It was also a reminder that we truly live in the West. We will all be fortified to start in again after our summer off.
What are your experiences in music ensembles? What are your favorite bird songs?
We will travel to Brookings, SD early next month for a Baby Sprinkle, a smaller sized Baby Shower that is being put on by friends of our son and dil who are expecting their second child in August.
I never heard the term Baby Sprinkle before, but I gather it is now the term for used when someone already has had a child and doesn’t need as many things as first time parents do. Son and dil are pretty well stocked with equipment from the birth of their first child seven years ago. We are so happy for them.
I have some baby afghans crocheted by my maternal grandmother from when our children were born and I plan to bring them, as well some other things I have in a cedar chest like family christening outfits. It will be fun.
What are some new terms or phrases you have encountered lately? What would you bring as a gift to a baby shower or sprinkle?
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!!
The Badlands Opera Company staged Into The Woods last weekend at the local college auditorium. It was a fantastic and absolutely professional production. Costuming, special effects, and tech were superb. The cast was comprised of all local folks, and their voices were fabulous. The director/ Cinderella’s Prince was a 30 something local man who had made good as a theatre professor in another state. This was his directorial debut. About half of the cast are members of our Lutheran Church.
The oldest member of the cast was our church organist. She played Jack in the Beanstalk’s mother. She is a feisty 76 year old with a huge soprano voice, wonderful acting skills, and a sharp tongue. Most of the other leads were in their mid to late 30’s, and I realized I have watched many of them grow up through church and school productions. We were at the infant baptisms of the Baker and the Witch! Cinderella’s parents are wonderful ranch people who I have known for years and worked with when they were foster/adopt parents. We sat with them at the Friday night opening and talked and joked. It was wonderful. Little Red Riding Hood’s dad is Husband’s real life barber!
When we got home from the performance I took a look around our home, a pretty modest home for the most part, and saw the family mementos and possessions we have, and thought about the relationships we have built over the decades, and I considered how priceless they all are. They wouldn’t be priceless in the marketplace, but they are irreplaceable to us.
What are the things and memories and relationships that are priceless to you? What is your favorite scene from Into The Woods?
The robins have been snowed on twice now. Once more and we should be good to go. I see the turkey vultures have returned, we’ve seen and heard sandhill cranes, I’ve heard there’s rhubarb coming up, and we’re starting to see hints of green in the lawn and in the rye that I planted as a cover crop. Spring is coming. Oh, and nettles are growing. Why do the weeds always get the upper hand?
One day last week I found both the lost pen and pencil from two days before, and a water bottle from about three weeks ago. The water bottle was in the office at our Townhall. I remember stopping there to look through some files, would not have remembered that I had a water bottle with me, I just knew that there used to be two in the refrigerator and now there was only one. And I was pretty sure I had put the pen and pencil in my pocket one morning, but that afternoon they were gone. Three days later I found them in a box I had bent over to pick up. There’s always, usually, almost always, a rational explanation for missing things.
Last Saturday, Governor Walz held a Townhall meeting in Rochester at the largest high school auditorium we have in town. Three days before, I got an email asking if I would be free on Saturday to work lights and sound for this event. Details were still being ironed out, and on Thursday I found out they were asking about various locations at the college, as well as various high schools in Rochester. Buried in an email someone said they were not expecting a very big crowd. I had to laugh at that. I don’t know why anyone would’ve thought that. A few years ago, yeah, small crowds, not these days.
One of my jobs is doing technical support for community education events, or anything that’s not school related, in the public school auditoriums. So it’s pretty basic lighting and sound. We don’t do anything fancy, I don’t do video, but I can get him a microphone and turn on the stage lights.
I train in college kids to do this job and then ideally they can cover many of these events, most of which are dance recitals or various meetings. I keep the interesting things for myself. Like governors. But I did bring along a college student to train.
The large high school was finally selected and we did a walk-through there Friday afternoon with security and the governor’s staff. Saturday morning we were there at 7:30 AM and I observed this meeting of security personnel out in the hallway:
It sounded like this crew was searching purses and bags. I hope the big guy got to do more than search bags. I know the local police department was around, and I’m sure there was other security person that went unnoticed by me. From my position up in the balcony I really couldn’t see much.
I worked an event for Governor Walz several years ago at the college and it was much more low-key than this one. As we finished up and were leaving, we saw the black SUVs with the tinted windows.
Some of you know Governor Walz would stay and take questions all morning if he could. He was only scheduled to speak for an hour, and they had started to make some indications they needed to wrap up. Shortly after the one hour mark, his wife Gwen, who had been sitting on stage, approached him and placed her hand on his shoulder. Governor Walz finished his thought and quipped, “You can see who holds the real power around here.“ and gave her the microphone. She spoke, she got the crowd up and on their feet and cheering and they both waved and exited. What a perfect way to wrap this up. The governor never had to say he had to go, no one had to cut them off, nobody plays the bad guy. Just smile and wave. Smile and wave. Well done.
I make a show file on the lightboard for these events, and I have a ‘general’ file, which I then created a sub folder, ‘Walz’. Hence, GENERAL WALZ, which sort of made me giggle.
On the farm front, I didn’t get much accomplished this week on the farm. I hope to clear a down tree off the field on Friday, before it rains and gets muddy again. And I’m hoping to get some straw spread where I had the dirt work done last winter so that I don’t get any more erosion from the snow melting and spring rains. Still sorting bolts, but I am just about done with that, they don’t quite fit back where they were so I’m still figuring it out as I go.
Electricians should be there on Monday to get the electrical done in the shop. I picked up the electricians scissor lift and will get the lights mounted on the ceiling prior to their arrival.
I’m looking forward to having a door opener installed, plus some exterior lights and more outlets in the shed.
And then I really need to stop spending money on this place.
The chickens followed me to the barn one day, eager for corn. And they got a drink while they were there. The ones with their head up are swallowing.
Trail Baboon 