2023, Family, home, The Future, Uncategorized, work

Getting Old

58 Comments

In the last week I have done something rather unheard of for me-I took two full days off of work because I was tired.

I am rarely sick. I normally have enough energy to get done all the things I want to accomplish in the evenings and on the weekends. I am not doing any more than I normally do. I am in good health. Work is no more stressful than it usually is. Why, then, am I in bed most nights by 8:30? Husband is having the same experience that I am and is tired all the time.

I realized to my great annoyance that we are tired because we are aging. I will only be 66 in February. That isn’t that old. Husband will be 70, so I can understand a little more why he is taking more naps. After all, he may be retired, but he is working 20 hours a week.

My two days off allowed me to get a lot of things done at home that I would never have accomplished after work. I have to accept that I need to take more time off. With only a year of full time work left before I retire, I doubt that the administration will be too upset about me taking the occasional day off. They are hopeful I will work part-time after I formally retire, so they will be nice to me.

What about getting older has surprised and/ or annoyed you? If you are retired, is it what you hoped it would be?

2023, Family, Gatherings, holidays, Kids, Uncategorized

The Choir Sees All

41 Comments

One benefit of singing in our church choir is that we sit in the front of the church and get to watch the antics of the children in the pews during the service. Our congregation is pretty tolerant of noisy children in church. Parents of the most rambunctious children sit in the balcony so they don’t make too much of a ruckus.

The other Sunday our backyard neighbor was in the balcony with her two boys, ages 5 and 3. They are very active boys. Once, this summer we heard the mom in the backyard yell at the oldest one “Don’t you put that rope around your brother’s neck!” Neither boy would sit still in church, choosing to instead run around in the balcony and not listen to their mom. She tried her best to get them to sit quietly, but it was a losing battle, and she eventually left and went home before the sermon. 

What do you think about the Elf on the Shelf? Who were the naughtiest children in your neighborhood when you were growing up?

2023, Baboon Achievers, Food, Music, Songs, The Baboon Congress

End of an Era

16 Comments

I teared up more than I expected listening to the re-broadcast of the last Morning Show at The Fitzgerald.  Since I was in the theatre, none of the re-broadcast should have been a surprise, but 15 years does dull the memory and I ended up crying just as much as I did that day.  At the end when Neal and Leandra did “End of the World”, I completely lost it.  (I simply could not explain this to YA who happened to come upstairs right at that point.)

When I went downstairs to make a little dinner, I decided I needed comfort food; Ralston Hot Wheat Cereal was on the docket.  Ralston isn’t making the hotel cereal any longer; I’ve known this for a couple of months, but I still had my container in the freezer.  When I measured it out, I had exactly enough for one serving.  Somehow it seemed fitting that the last of one of my favorite comfort foods was eaten after hearing the re-broadcast. 

I’ve done quite a bit of research and I THINK that Wheatena may be close.  I did purchase some last month but haven’t tried it yet.  Fingers crossed that it’s close.  The Ralston has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid, so we’re talking DECADES.  I’m trying to take it in stride, but it’s hard.

Concerning the LGMS and the final broadcast, I am definitely seeing the bright side, as I would not be part of this fabulous community without the Trail! The Morning Show probably wouldn’t still be on the air at this point anyway and we baboons keep going and going!

What’s a product you’ve had to learn to live without?

2023, Family, Food, History, holidays, Uncategorized

Ich Mache Engelsplatschen (nicht)

26 Comments

I make a variety of cookies for Christmas that I send to friends and relatives. This year our son asked me to make some marzipan cookies called Engelsplatschen, or angel cookies. He provided the recipe. One of our daughter’s friends, a young woman originally from Stuttgart, also was interested in them, as she is having problems with gluten intolerance, and these only had two teaspoons of flour in them. The only other ingredients were marzipan, almonds, powdered sugar, and an egg.

I have never cooked with marzipan before. My Aunt Leona made marzipan fruits that she painted with food coloring. She learned how to make them from her mother, who was a professional cook in Hamburg. I expected the cookies to stay in the round balls I rolled them in, just like her fruits. Well, they spread out all over, ran into each other, and burned.

I did some research, found a better recipe, and ordered more marzipan. My new recipe has quite a bit of almond flour. They will still flatten out, but will have more substance. Live and learn.

What are your favorite Christmas cookies? What new things have you been learning about or learning to do?

2023, animals, Family, Farming Update, Health, home, pets, Uncategorized, work

Pause

33 Comments

Today’s Farm Update is from Ben.

Felt like a rather quiet week on the farm.

I did get snow fence installed, and driveway markers are in.

Hauled in the last of the scrap Iron I wanted to do for this year. I’ll be curious to see what my total was for scrap iron this year. Several thousand lbs. This last load was 3500 lbs and was an old disc, a bit of the old elevator frame, and some misc pieces. Price was still $100 / ton so it paid for the gas anyway.

I did an (almost) final cleaned up behind the shed one day just scraping all the brush into a pile; I wish I had done a before photo but there’s the after.

Just image it full of trees and junk and crap collected over 40 years. I’d love to put an overhang back here to shelter some machinery like the rear blade, the snow blower, the brush mower, etc. Got a pile of cement blocks to move yet.

Met our banker one day and made a plan. I’ve got most of the big bills paid. Signed the last of the papers for crop insurance, but don’t know what that’s going to pay yet.

Had two nights of Holiday Concerts at the college this past week. The choir sounds really very nice. The band is small but growing, and they’ll be really good in another year or two. The one photo is the designer, Paul, with Santa.

We’ve had a little issue with Luna and Bailey lately. They really got into a fight the day I was working on snow fence. Like a ‘to the death’ type fight. I had to separate them three times, finally putting Bailey in the gator.

We can tell Bailey seems jealous, yet she’s picking fights she doesn’t want to be in. They’re equal size and weight. It almost seems like Luna is trying to find her place in the order. Bailey is spayed, we don’t think Luna is yet. We’ve had Luna for 2 months now. She’s really settling in. Which might be what’s putting Bailey off. Any thoughts on 2 female dogs getting along would be appreciated.

Need to get the final paper submitted for class this coming week and the semester is over on the 15th.

The Rep Theater has the next phase of heating and AC going on so that will take some of my time. They have a lot of old photos out as part of the 40 year anniversary. This was me at about 20 years old at the Rep. PHOTO

I should get going on 2023 bookwork one of these days… I’ve been really lazy on that this year.

HAVE YOU GOT THINGS WRAPPED UP?

2023, Family, History, Uncategorized

Leaving a Legacy

27 Comments

There is a woman who attended our Lutheran Church for many years before she and her husband moved to Minnesota. Her lasting legacy , the thing she is remembered for, is her lefse recipe. Hers’ is the recipe we all consult when there are any doubts about how to make lefse. I think that is a pretty nice way to be remembered.

One of my Great Uncles is best remembered for being a very musically inclined bootlegger who was really good operating steam threshers. HIs children carried on his love of music by running a dance band for many years. Since Prohibition was over, they didn’t need to keep up his bootlegging when he died in the early 1930’s.

I hope that Husband and I are leaving a legacy of good psychology practice that others can learn from. I like having students and interns to teach and supervise. I only get to do a little of that, though. I guess I could consider my psychological evaluations as lasting legacies. It would be fine with me, though, if I am mainly remembered as a good cook and baker and as a kind person.

What lasting legacy would you like to leave? What skills or talents would you like to pass on to someone?

2023, Media, News, Stories, Uncategorized

A Slight Miscalculation

34 Comments

North Dakotans were rather shocked in September to hear on the news that a woman in Minot had been arrested for murdering her boyfriend with antifreeze in order to get money he was inheriting. It even made the New York Times. If you click on the headline, you can read the whole article.

What isn’t in the article is that after her arrest, it was discovered that the man was being scammed, and that the inheritance was fictitious. There never was any money. She sort of miscalculated. Oops! I hate it when that happens!

What have been some of your bigger miscalculations?

2023, Food, Nature, Travel

Henrietta Makes a Pig of Herself

55 Comments

I love bakeries – you all know this.  Luckily most of my close friends are also bakery fiends, so I never have to worry about any bakery withdrawal when I travel.

Long before I visited Pat in Nashville last month, she had emailed me a link from a bakery that she wanted to try with me.  Most mornings we made breakfast at her house but one morning we did save for The Franklin Bakehouse.

Franklin is a small community about a half hour from Pat’s home in Nashville.  I expect that the folks in Franklin would bristle at being labeled an outer-ring suburb, but as Nashville has grown, that’s exactly what it has become.  It is the epitome of a small town – lots of little shops, wide sidewalks, picturesque streets.  It didn’t hurt that it was a beautiful fall day in Tennessee, making the drive very pleasant.  There were huge pots of chrysanthemums at every corner of the “downtown” – just gorgeous.

The aroma inside The Bakehouse was amazing and the array of pastries and sweets made it really hard to choose.  I ended up getting a massive cinnamon roll and a beautiful blueberry tart, knowing I couldn’t possibly eat it all (I asked for the to-go container right away).  Pat had the dutch apple pie/bread pudding.  It’s in the picture above and was almost as big as her head.  She also ended up taking some home.  We also ordered coffee and sat at a window table and watched the world go by.  It was a fabulous was to spend an hour that morning.

Henrietta didn’t really make a pig of herself; she actually bristles at the idea as she is a peccary, not a pig!

When was the last time you were able to really relax over a nice meal?

2023, Family, Food, Uncategorized

Neurotic Rye Bread

40 Comments

Husband loves to bake bread, particularly sourdough, and he also makes his own starter. He has what I would consider conflicted ideas about sourdough starter, such as should yeast be added at all, and if so, is he violating the code of the sourdough makers, and can he truly call himself a baker if that happens? Should the ingredients be weighed or measured by volume? What about covering the starter or exposing it to the air for a while? How long? The doubts and worries go on for days. I find it really exasperating to watch.

A few weeks ago he decided to make two kinds of sourdough rye; one was a Faroe Island rye recipe from Magnus Nilsson’s Nordic Baking, and the other a New York Rye recipe from the New York Times. He has successfully made plenty of starters with white flour, but there seemed to be some issue with the rye starter recipes. He fussed and fussed and hauled up one baking book after another until the dining room table was covered with them, consulted the internet endlessly, decided on one rye sourdough starter recipe and then changed his mind and chose another until he finally decided on one that he ended up making alterations to. He made enough for both recipes but ended up changing the New York Rye bread recipe so that he needed to use the entire amount for that recipe. It turned out well. It had a pinch of yeast added to the starter and more yeast added to the bread. The sourdough starter police didn’t come knocking on the door, either.

He has yet to make the Faroe Island bread but is mulling when he could do it. He also is trying to decide between making Finnish or Swedish Limpa. There are subtle but important differences, he says. I don’t know if I can stand any more fussing, but I think he has finally settled on his sourdough method. At least the bread is really good! Of course, I never get particular about the foods I prepare!!

What cooking or other skill are you trying to perfect? What are foods you are good at making, and what are challenges?

2023, Family, holidays, home, Uncategorized

Lit Up

52 Comments

When we first moved to our house in 1988, people referred to our street, in December, as Santa Claus Lane because about four houses at the end of the street had elaborate, wooden, hand made, moving Christmas decorations in the front yard. One, the home of a piano teacher, had the swaying figure of an organist that looked like the teacher herself seated at a pipe organ, with choir boys standing along side in a row. The boys looked like the teacher’s three sons.

As the owners of the elaborate decorations aged and/or died, the decorations have been given to other residents on the street, but the decorations have aged, too, and no longer move. Most other residents opt for strings of lights on the trees and houses. All we have are four, year round LED lanterns stuck in the ground lining the edge of the front peony bed.

Our front yard isn’t conducive to light displays because of the awkward placement of the only electrical outlet on the front of the house being between the double garage doors. We would have to drive over electrical cords. I am fine with no lights. Something in me rebels about the falderal, and really, all that just takes up space in the basement 11 months of the year. Husband is even more ascetic than I am, but confessed last weekend while we were running errands to strange urges to get lights and hang the all over the front of the house. I don’t know what got into him, but I got him home as soon as I could and poured a glass of German brandy for him. that is something we usually only have around this time of year, since I need it for Stollen.

How do you decorate the outside of your house for the holidays? What is your favorite holiday beverage?