Galileo's Daughter

 Our book club will be discussing Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel, first published in 1999. (I'll miss the discussion because it will happen while I'm teaching in Thailand.) Galileo actually had two daughters but one Virginia, later Sister Maria Celeste, "... mirrored his own brilliance, industry, and sensibility, and by virtue of these qualities became his confidante." Born out of wedlock Galileo put her in a convent when she was thirteen. Much of their correspondence has been preserved and provides the gist of the book.
  Reading the book taught me much and I particularly liked the understated way the book ends on a surprising note.  (No, I'm not going to tell you; read the book yourself!)

Preparing for Thailand

  The 6th graders at Noble Academy have written their letters for me to bring to students at Wat Klang School, Ayutthaya, Thailand.  I've addressed the 5th, 6th and 8th grades at Noble about my plans to teach in Thailand for the 5th time.  I've disseminated the address of this blog so now I though I'd post some pictures from past years of  teaching in Thailand.  I'll depart on January 7, the day that Noble students return to school after vacation.

Creating an educational opportunity..

 January 7, is the departure date for my 5th Thai teaching experience and 4th at the same school.  Students at Noble Academy, where I volunteer here, are very interested in the Thai students and the Thai students in their American peers.  I'd like to be a bridge between them.
  Last year the 5th grade at Noble wrote letters to the Thai students which I delivered.  The students in Thailand wrote letters in response which I brought back.  In return the 5th graders wrote more letters which we mailed.  That is the last we heard.
  I learned that the this exchange overwhelmed the Thai students English capability.   Therefore, I've proposed to the teachers at Noble we try some different things.  One Noble class could write very short, 3 or 4 sentence letters, on one side of a sheet of paper.  On the other side they could write a  "fill in the blank" response template such as "Hello my name is ______________________.   I am _________  years old. I have ___________ brothers and _________ sisters.  I like to ________________________________.  etc.  Other ideas:  through this blog send me requests to have my picture taken with people/places/things.  Research news events and ask me what Thai media are saying about them. Other ideas from readers of this blog are very welcome.  Just post them in the comment section.
  I'm looking forward to returning to established relationships at the school and with family with home I stay.  Our recent snowy weather makes me look forward to tropical temperatures even though the house does not have air conditioning.  Even sleeping on the floor doesn't seem all bad.  :)

Thailand is coming.....

 Perhaps better said is "I'm going to Thailand.".  I'll be leaving on January 7, which will be the date of my mother's 113th birthday.  I'll be teaching in the same school and boarding with the same family.  I'll also blog more regularly.

How you can tell that your dog is your best friend!

 It was 6:00 a.m. and Trygve (dog) and I were out for daily morning constitutional.  As we passed the old Federal Building a soldier was emerging and he asked to pet Trygve.  As he was petting Trygve we engaged in a bit of conversation.
  He said he liked dogs better than people.  A dog is even more loyal than a wife and said he could prove it.  He went on "If you lock both your wife and your dog in a trunk for a couple of hours only your dog will be glad to see you when you let them out."
  People I meet.......

A Hunting Tale

  It was a Saturday afternoon about 1:30.  We were driving between hunting locations in eastern South Dakota.   L.N.  and I were in the old Ford F-250 pick-up that I keep in S.D.  We were being followed by D.N. and W.N. in W's pick up and, a few miles behind, F.A. in his Prius.  A "sproing" sound from the front of my truck followed by a change in the steering made me think "flat front tire."
  I pulled to the side of the road and got out to look but the tires were fine.  However, I could see a belt hanging below the chassis.  Opening the hood I could see that the serpentine belt was off and that the idler pulley with the belt tightener was gone.  It being the day of cell phones we started calling the nearest towns and were told that the only possibilities for repair were in Mitchell,  approximately 45 miles or Sioux Falls which was about 55 miles.
  When F.A. arrived with a tool box in his car we began the necessary dis-assembly. L.N. sat in the truck reading The Harvard Business Review.  Near us was a sign that said "Wingen's Garage, 2 miles, Epiphany.  I had one, epiphany that is, and asked W.N. to drive into Epiphany and see if the garage might be open which he did.  About five minutes later he called to say the garage was open and needed to know the model and engine of the truck.  A couple of minutes later he said "they have the parts."
  I was able to drive to the garage before the engine overheated, the belt drives both water pump and the fan.  In about 10 minutes the mechanic had installed the pulley and a new belt, charged me $12.00 for labor and we were on our way.
  How big is Epiphany?  About 35 people! :)

The lady and the loon.

  It was a beautiful October day and Trygve and I decided we'd walk around Lake Calhoun.  As we rounded the south west corner of the lake I spotted a large bird in the water not far from shore.  Just across the path directly in front of the bird was a woman on a bench facing the lake.
  Drawing nearer to the bird I could tell it was a loon.  Unperturbed by the woman on the bench nor by our approach the normally reclusive and shy loon was splashing and preening.  I envied the woman her perspective on this exotic bit of wildlife.  Momentarily I shifted my gaze from the serendipitous viewing of this migrating waterfowl to see if the woman was taking it all in.  However, she was so engaged in a conversation on her cell phone that she was totally oblivious to the scene in front of her.  I felt sad for her. 

A Grand Birthday!

  As it happened my birthday fell on a Sunday this year, October 28, to be exact.  CT has been coming from New Jersey to hunt pheasants with me for the last several years.  Since Lars and Melissa have moved to Minnesota his wife comes too.  So, it seemed only logical to use the event of their visit as opportune time to plan Sella's baptism, ie., on October 28.

  So it was that on my birthday I was invited to preside at Sella Grace Townsend Negstad's baptism at Lars & Melissa's new church, (they joined that day) Calvary, Lutheran at Chicago & 39th S, Minneapolis.  It became a most memorable birthday.  The pictures tell the story!

"You shall not covet your neighbor's wife."

  Really?  Not even a little tiny covet?  Sometimes that's hard!  Consider this.
  I advertised Big Red, in 1948 Massey Harris 55, tractor on the Internet.  (It's my plane ticket to Thailand.)  It brought a number of inquires but the first person to make an offer was PB from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. With the offer accepted we agreed on a date to meet in South Dakota to make the exchange.
  On the appointed day PB appeared in Sinai, SD with a pickup truck pulling a trailer he'd had built for such an occasion.  He was accompanied by his wife who told me that they had driven 1200 miles to Sinai. They had left home on Sunday and arrived in Sinai on Wednesday.
  As we were discussing their trip she said "We both had a week of vacation and were planning to go to the Bahamas until PB found your tractor on the Internet.  So we changed our plans and here we are in SD instead of the Bahamas."   She told this story with no trace of bitterness or frustration and that's the origin of just a teeny bit of coveting.
  Much more could be said;  "Why wouldn't one choose SD over the Bahamas?" "Why didn't I ask more for the tractor if someone would go to those lengths to retrieve it?"  etc.

  PB was a very nice tractor collector and former Massey Harris dealer who wanted a 55 for his collection.  I'm happy that it went to someone who will preserve and appreciate it.  The pictures shows it lined up in his collection.

The Wind died down....

  It had been blowing all week, what many people unused to such wind would call 'gale force'.  If I were inclined to such thoughts I'd say it was for Cathy's sake that the wind blew in grief and then stopped on the day of her funeral.  Coincidence or not it made her committal service at the cemetery more bearable.
  She was only 57, wife, mother, grandmother and our foster daughter.  She was only 15 when she came to live with us in 1971.  Mature, wise beyond her years, very intelligent and beautiful she was a joy to have in our home.  I underestimated her from the first time I met her when she was a 9th grader.
  Cathy married at age 17, and, as her legal guardian, I had to sign for her.  That was hard for me to do.  However, she pointed out that she was the first in her family to finish high school.  Years later there was little doubt that her own children (Kimberly & Derek) would go to college.
  She married well to stable, hardworking, smart, Tim who is also filled with common sense. Cathy loved to ride with Tim on HER motorcycle...she paid for it!  All summer she'd hoped to go riding but was too weak to get on.  So, Tim gave her her last ride strapping the urn holding her ashes to the motorcycle for the ride from the church to the cemetery.
  First diagnosed with cancer in 2001, she had good times and many bad.  She died as she had lived with courage, dignity, wisdom and faith.  When we were visiting her last July she was going through her clothes.  In her matter of fact style she told us "I'm packing to die."
  May God bless the memory of Cathy May.

Recommended Reading

  In the early 80s, while living in Davenport, IA, I attended  an open house for a new state representative who was back from the state legislature to give a report. His talk was all about what couldn't be done because there wasn't enough money.  The conversation was all about lack of resources and what should be cut.  What I'd now call "scarcity thinking".
  After the discussion had gone on quite awhile I proposed that a tax increase be considered.  Seldom have I ever felt such a non-person.  No one seemed to even consider that as a remote possibility and my idea died in a second.
  It was a shocking experience to find myself so totally and completely out of the mainstream.  None of the people in the room seemed to share any of my assumptions about the value of government and the positive role it can play in our life together.
  Now that I've read Goddess Of The Market: Ayn Rand and The American Right by Jennifer Burns I  better understand the resistance I encountered.   With her experience of Soviet Communism Rand advocated radical individualism and the believed that private property was sacred.  She's had profound influence on the American conservatism/libertarian-ism. The book has given me a much better grasp of  the background of the political right. Those people in Davenport had accepted the premises set forth by Rand.

Book Report

  Last month our book club read Unbroken, Laura Hildenbrand.  The story of an American POW during WW II and his return home.  I found the end a surprise.  I plan to use it in a wedding sermon this fall.  My Grandfather's Blessings, Rachel Remen was our book this month.  I think it is book full of deep wisdom.  Our next book will be Under Distant Suns, Isabel Wilkerson.  It is the story of the African American migration from the south to northern urban centers.  1491, Charles C. Mann is a popular history of the Americas before Columbus arrived.  His thesis is that the effect of Small Pox and other epidemics had radically altered Indian life and culture prior to significant European  immigration to America.  Therefore the European settlers found only a pale shadow of the great cultures that had been here.  Currently I'm reading Goddess Of The Market: Ayn Rand and The American Right, Jennifer Burns.  Ironic how this ferocious atheist became the darling of the Religious Right.
  So many good books, so little time!

Crop Report!

  Any self respecting farmer would blush.  Fortunately my corn field is some distance from the road!  Last year the field was so weed free that I was lulled into complacency this year.  With so few weeds I thought I'd be safe planting some sorghum, which is not Round-Up ready, with the corn. Big mistake!  I did spray the field with broad leaf herbicide but it only helped a little. There is a wonderful crop of wild sunflowers with a little corn here and there.
   Perhaps the planting time made the difference.  Last year it was so wet that I didn't get the corn planted until June 10, and this year I planted on May 1.  Oh well, it will be great winter wildlife cover.

Lost in translation!

 An acquaintance from Thailand posts on Facebook in Thai.  Whenever Thai appears on my Facebook page  Bing offers to translate it to English.  Today this was the translation.  "Who press lai, wishlist successfully get a blessing with phiknet and khrubaachen elements father Amen!"
  This is typical of the translations offered by Bing.  I can tell I'm missing something.  :)  

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary How Does.....

  "Mary, Mary quite contrary how does your garden grow?  With silver bells and cockle shells..." and one huge weed!   There is some nice landscaping along Nicollet Mall at 5th Street, near the Nicollet Station of the light rail.  In the middle of the landscaping is one huge weed, a Velvet Leaf.  The leaves resemble a Sunflower but unlike the abrasive leaves of the Sunflower the Velvet Leaf feels like velvet...as soft as Trygve's ear.
  So why is there?  A joke by the gardener?  Left to show that weeds, too, are pretty?  Or, did the gardener not recognize it as weed wondering what sort of plant it might be?  Look for it as you stroll Nicollet Mall.

Airplane Crash.

"Martin Bergh, age 22, Volga, SD, son of Rev. and Mrs. O.O. Bergh died in an airplane crash. Martin Bergh was a passenger in the plane.  At the Bergh farm, four miles south of Volga his two brothers, John and Alfred, were cultivating corn on the east side of the road about forty rods southeast of the school house.  As the plane neared the brothers Martin requested the pilot to drop closer to the ground so that he might wave to his brothers that they might recognize him.
Going south the plane as traveling with the wind, and as the bank was made to turn north, there was quite a tip side-wise.  Martin had been leaning to the side and it is believed that he thought he was going to fall, as he threw himself back into the plane he hit the gas throttle in the forward cockpit and shut off the engine.  The plane went into a spiral and soon made a plunge to the ground,  The pilot did everything possible in the few seconds at his command and the engine had been started again and the plane started on a straight away when it reached the ground. The accident happened on a little knoll, the highest point of ground in the field, and it is thought that if it had happened a short distance in any other direction, the plane would have been straightened out enough so that the damage would not have been great."
  Martin died shortly after a local hospital on June 22, 1920.
  Martin was my uncle and next older than my mother.  Martin and she did the farming during World War I while John and Alfred were in the army.  She talked a lot about Martin because they were very close.  I had not seen the obituary of Martin, from which the first paragraph was excerpted, until the recent Bergh family reunion at Metigoshe, ND.
   There were about seventy five descendants, including spouses, of Rev. and Mrs. O.O. Bergh, at the reunion.  I felt a pang of remorse as I read Martin's obituary for the first time and as I thought about his untimely death, wondering how many more cousins there might have been had he lived to marry.

Anything worth doing is worth doing badly!

  For years I attempted to teach seminarians, staff and others the truth that 'anything worth doing is worth  doing badly.'  This is a very important truth and one that can ameliorate the damage done by the pernicious idea foisted on many unsuspecting youth that 'anything worth doing is worth doing well.'  That's a very destructive idea that is often paired with other unhelpful advice like 'you can do it, it's easy.'  Now after hearing that why would any child try?  If he/she fails it's a double failure because he/she has been told 'it's easy' so failing is proof he/she is really incompetent.
  So what's wrong with 'anything worth doing is worth doing well?'   It's a prescription for perfectionism.  Initial attempts at anything significant are going to be very imperfect so if the person had been given permission to do it badly he/she would be more likely to persist until it may be done well.
  Let me share a personal experience that makes my point.  When I was in the Marines a few of us were recruited to help paint a married Marine's apartment.  I had no previous painting experience but was given a brush, a can of paint and told to paint that wall.  A few minutes after I began painting the Marine whose apartment we were painting came over to see how I was doing.  He watched me a few minutes and then said "Al, why don't you go buy the beer?"   I got the message.  Thinking I had to be able to do it well I avoided painting after that and to this day I've hardly painted anything.
   This all came to mind yesterday when the Curmudgeon said to the Curmudgeonette "let's wash the windows."  The way this works out is that the Curmudgeon washes and the Curmudgeonette points out streaks and missed spots.  The Curmudgeon operates from an 'anything worth doing is worth doing badly' perspective while the Curmudgeonette assumes 'anything worth doing is worth doing well.'  Besides every window should graphically show both before and after.  (Yes, being on the 15th floor does require a long ladder.)  
  But the windows are clean (more or less) and Curmudgeon and Curmudgeonette are marching toward their Golden Wedding Anniversary.

The egg lady said. "I didn't get a number."

  Saturday A & MQ had their acreage sale.  The house, out buildings, and ten acres sold for $115,000.  It was an old two bedroom in good shape.  The consensus at the sale was that it was a fair price.
  A&M had loved there many years and are downsizing to an apartment.  It was a perfect day for a sale.  It rained during the night so farmers couldn't be in the field but by sale time the sun was out, there was nice breeze and the temperature was very comfortable
  The egg lady, from whom I buy fresh eggs for $1.25 a dozen, said "I didn't get a bidding number" when I asked her what she bought.  "That's smart I said"  thinking that would keep one from impulse buying.
  I did have a number and the first thing I bought was a tap and die set, look it up in your Funk and Wagnalls if you don't know what it is.  The second purchase I made was a gift for the curmudgeonette; a recliner.  That was followed by a belt pulley. Perhaps that's what led me astray!  Because my next purchase was a tractor to go with the pulley;  a 1950 IHC Farmall M.  Then I left the sale.

Adventures in the corn field!

  Perhaps the field spraying is just not supposed to be finished.  Friday I loaded up the  4-wheeler with sprayer and drove to the field.  However, at the field the 4-wheeler wouldn't start.  So, those last thirteen rows remain unsprayed. The corn will soon to be too tall to spray.
  With the sprayer uncooperative I switched to cultivating which I accomplished with a few difficulties.  The fuel filter plugged once so I had to blow that out.  One shovel fell off  which I was lucky enough to find and replace. The tractor ran hot so I had to cultivate in 3rd gear instead of 4th. There was much new weed growth so it was helpful to get it done.
  The rain gauge at the field showed 2.2"  which came in three showers since I last cultivated...ideal!

Father's Day!

Father's Day was grand with LN, LN, MT, Mai-Evy and here for dinner.  The Curmudgeonette cooked the last of the pheasants from the freezer and a good time was had by all and Al too.  Mai-Evy's dad took a couple of pics that I like so I'll include with this post.  I'll also include one from her ND trip.

Pheasant Report.

 The winter of '10-'11 was devastating for pheasants; long, cold and lots of snow.  It was followed by an exceedingly wet spring which was devastating for pheasant nesting success.  Consequently the pheasant population was down significantly in SDak.
  The winter of '11-'12 had almost no snow and nesting conditions this year have been grand.  In conversation with a local farmer, DM, this week he reported seeing two hens that together had 54 chicks!  He had also seen a brood that were old enough that they were able to fly. Those were exceptionally large broods and those fliers were a very early hatch.

PS to Spillville

  Leaving Spillville we drove a few miles to Festina which boasts the world's smallest church which seats 8 people. It was built in 1848 by a pious woman who promised God that if her son would return safely from a war in Russia she'd build a church.  He did and she did.  Iowa is full of treasures!

Adventures in the cornfield.

  Last year my corn grew with relatively few weeds. That lulled me into complacency.  So I planted some sorghum with the corn.  The corn is genetically modified so allow spraying with Roundup. However, the sorghum is not Roundup ready.  This year there is a bumper crop of weeds; Canada Thistle, Sunflower, Foxtail and Cockle-burr.
   The weed specialist, JW, at the Sinai Cooperative Elevator recommended Moxy, the generic form of Bucktill. With a borrowed four wheel sprayer from WN I was off. All went well until, with 13 rows left, the four wheeler died. Unable to restart it I decided to let it cool its jets and took out the 1950 JD B with the mounted two row cultivator.
  Now, if I was a real farmer, I'd probably have waited a few days from spraying to cultivating.  But with rain clouds in the south west and a desire to get back to Mpls. I set to cultivating.  With more than enough weeds to go around I thought it better to get it done.
  All was going swimmingly, with only 4 rows left, the right side of the cultivator fell off the tractor.  Nothing broke.  The nut came off the main bold holding it on.  The cultivator twisted in a way that I could not move.  So, there I was in the field with two disabled machines.
  Ah, the utility of cell phones, soon WN came to my rescue.  We fixed the cultivator and loaded the 4 wheeler into his pickup and I completed the cultivating. Back at home WN fixed the 4 wheeler and I was all set to finish spraying in the morning.  When I awakened to thunder and a nice rain I decided the spraying would have to wait.

In 1928 a million dollars was a lot of money!

 We took a little IA tour over the last weekend.  We visited the curmudgeonette's college roommate, the curmudgeon's Marine Corps buddy and his ministry partner and took in Zion Davenport's 150th anniversary. A rich trip with a significant serendipity.
  The serendipity happened because the roommate, who lives in Decorah, keeps local tourist information in her guest bedroom.  We had a day to travel from Decorah to Iowa City, approximately 135 mile trip.  In that tourist information was an article about Spillville, IA. which is only a few miles from Decorah.
  I'd known for years that Antonin Dvorak spent a summer in Spillville and had written some of his music there.  It was also common knowledge that there were some clocks in Spillville.  So, with a little time on our hands, we took a very slight detour to see the museum.  But I wasn't prepared for what we found.
  The Bily (pronounced Beely) brothers, Joseph and Frank, sons of Czech immigrants indeed carved clocks. The first floor of the museum is filled with their clocks.  Upstairs is the Dvorak displays in the building in which the Dvoraks lived the summer of 1893.
  But those clocks, how can one describe the carving and mechanisms?  Stupendous?  Significant enough that Henry Ford offered a million dollars for one of them in 1928!  And the brothers wouldn't sell it.  They planned to give them to their sister but when she died prematurely they were set to burn them.  A neighbor intervened and they were placed in the museum in Spillville on the condition that they never leave town.  The Smithsonian Museum would love to have them but they cannot be moved.
  Oh, yes, the brothers never traveled more than 35 miles from home.

Goodbye for the summer!

Noble's last day of school is Friday but today was my last time 'till fall.  It was a walking field trip to a park and to the Dairy Queen in Robinsdale.  The students and teachers have become very special to me and I look forward to seeing them again this fall.  I do wonder if I will see any of them at Farmer's Market over the summer. My 'thank you' gifts to the teachers were copies of Kao Kalia Yang's The Latehomecomer. They were all familiar with the book but none had read it. I recommend it.

Fifty years and one day!

 The day went by and it didn't dawn on me what an important anniversary it was.  Important enough so at one time I used it as a way of remembering my wedding anniversary. On June 4, 1962, I was honorably discharged from the United States Marine Corps, fifty years ago yesterday.
  After two years in California, most of which was at Camp Pendleton, and a year in Asia I was due for discharge when our ship docked.  The papers should have been prepared aboard ship, the USS Princeton, so that I could of been released as soon as we landed.  That wasn't done so I had to wait, and eventually bribe some clerk, to get them typed.
  In Los Angeles, CA.,  I bought a 1954 Austin Healey, drove to San Francisco and picked up EV.  Then we drove up the coast to the Seattle's World Fair.  From the Fair we went to my cousin LN in Port Angeles.  From there EV went back to San Francisco and I drove home to South Dakota accompanied by my cousin's son PN.  It was great to be home again, the first time in two years! 

Cultivating Corn.

  While I was cultivating corn June 1, remembering that I planted on June 10, last year, I was again struck by what a slow process it is.  This year it was almost trouble free, no tractor failure, etc., and yet the rate was 1.25 acres an hour.  At points it seemed forever yet it was only a few hours.  Memories came back of all the hours I spent cultivating during my youth.
  It also made me think of my father.  He was a horse man and came to tractors late. In 1941 he bought his first tractor, all 17 horse power of it, a Farmall B. With this and a team of horses he farmed until after the war he bought a Farmall H...1948 I think.  How did he do it?  By spending hours and hours in the field.
  Perhaps he should never have been a farmer.  Born in 1883 he moved as infant with his parents to a homestead in SD.  The oldest of four children, perhaps farming was assumed.  He was a very intelligent man with wide curiosity and he loved to read.  His education consisted of a few years, maybe 6, of a few months a year, in the same one room school I attended much later.  He did take a short agricultural course as SD State one winter.
  What did he think about during those thousands of hours in the field?  My first bishop, Elmo Agrimson, said not to underestimate farmers who had all those hours to think.  My few hours in the field gave me a renewed appreciation for what he patiently endured to make a living. 

Book Report

  It seems like I must be one of the last persons to read Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand who also wrote Seabiscut.  Our book club will be discussing it at our next meeting.
  The book tells the story of Louis Zamperini an American Olympic runner whose plan crashed in the Pacific during the Second World War. He was captured by the Japanese and held as a POW until the end of the war.  His post war life was also fascinating.  I recommend the book.
  Now I'm reading 1491:  New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann.  Mann is a good writer and this is written as popular book for a general audience.  It is causing me to rethink much of what I though I knew about America before Columbus.  
  I'd appreciate comments about these books in the comment area of this blog.

Donkey, Camel and other Critters

  Memorial Day weekend found us in Fargo for a wedding reception followed by my brother's Golden Anniversary Celebration in SD.  So Lars, Melissa, Mai-Evy and Sella joined us at The Little House on the Prairie. Mai-Evy's response to the house as she ran around "This is amazing!"
  A local farmer has a menagerie that includes longhorn cattle, donkeys and camels mixed in with his horses and cattle. His farm is a bit out of town but he has a small pasture at the edge of town.  That pasture currently contains three donkeys, two horses and a camel.

  Lars and Mai-Evy hiked over to the pasture to see the animals.  The critters came to the fence and stretched out  their necks.  That gave Lars the idea of feeding them carrots so they got a handful of carrots from the house and returned to the pasture. The carrots were a big hit with the camel and donkeys feeding out of Mai-Evy's hand.  When the carrots were gone Mai-Evy picked sweet clover and kept feeding the animals.
  Unfortunately I did not have my camera but I had taken a few pictures of the critters on a previous trip which I will include.

Out of the ashes new life.

 Before burning.

 The field on fire.

 After the fire.

Now the field is green,

 A few weeks ago I burned a field of grass to suppress invasive species like Bromegrass and revitalize the Big Blue Stem and Switch grass  Now the field is green with grass about eight inches high as you can see on these pictures.

"Thank you! Mr. Al"

 Volunteering in the fifth grade classrooms at Noble School this year has been a great joy.   It's been my pattern to go any morning I'm free.  It's an ideal volunteer situation because I can just show up, I have no preparation and no discipline issues. 
  Last week the teachers asked if I could come some afternoon and we agreed that I'd do that today.  When I arrived I discovered that it was a "Thank You" party for me.  They gave me a framed picture of the class,  and two booklets containing "thank you" letters from each of the students.  The students mentioned specific things I'd done for which they were grateful.  Desperately sweet!  Then we went out on the lawn and played for an hour.

  Next year I plan to continue working, both with these students as sixth graders, and with the new fifth grade class.  One of the teachers is moving on to sixth with her class and the other is staying in fifth grade.  Sixth grade math is beyond me but I can help them with many other things.  With a potential of four classes in which to volunteer perhaps I'll spend more time there.  :)

Pics from Mother's Day

Conversations with 5th graders.

  Last week I was conversing with two girls in one of the fifth grade classes at Noble, where I volunteer regularly.  We were discussing our families and I asked C. if she had any brothers.  C. said "No".  I said "That's too bad."  L. spoke up and said "I have nine brothers."  I said to C. "Maybe you can borrow one from L. since she has nine."   L. said "I'm C.'s aunt."
  How do you teach working carefully?  Testing is incessant and much teaching is working towards the tests.  After a recent round of testing the class was working on their math skills because many had not tested very well.  I was working with a small group of students on math problems on a worksheet.  Most of them knew how to do the problems but it took 2 or 3 tries before they got the correct answer.  Why?  Careless mistakes.  Tests do not give second chances.

100 hundred trees later.....or better late than never!

 Tree planting is part of my heritage.  My grandfather, Lars Negstad, took over a partially completed homestead in Brookings Country, SD. in 1885.  He planted a large, horseshoe shaped,  grove of trees around the buildings. This grove was maintained by my father, Albert, while he farmed the land, as did my brother, David, and my nephew Wayne is doing today.  David also added terraces to the farm to control water and erosion.  On some of these terraces he planted trees.
 When I enrolled 64 acres in the Conservation Reserve Program 5 years ago some options were available under terms of the contract.  Most of the acres are in native grasses, some of which I burned recently.  There was also the option of putting 10% of the acreage into a food plot for wildlife thus my adventures in corn planting.  In addition I could plant an addition 10% in trees, which I did, planting 2400 trees.
  The Brookings County Soil Conservation District sells replacement trees for those that died at low cost.  Last year I ordered 75 Eastern Red Cedar at a dollar a piece.  There was a mix up in my order and I didn't get the trees.  This year, with the predicted drought, I decided not to order any.  However, this year the District contacted me and told me to come get my trees; the ones I ordered last year.
   It rained 4 inches on this land last week so I took the offer of trees as a sign and took them.  They actually gave me 100 trees, so Monday I hand planted them.  The moist ground gives them a good chance of survival.  They are bare root, perhaps 3 or 4 years old, from six inches to a foot tall, with at least a foot of roots.  Two years ago I planted 200 in a day while it rained.  This year it was good weather and 100 was quite enough for the day.
  The adjacent burn area is now 80% green.  I anxiously await to see how the grass grows back.
 

The Corn is Planted!

 In 2010 I planted corn in April, last year on June 10, because it was so wet and this year on May 1.  Planting  had to wait until I could retrieve free seed from SD Game Fish and Parks.  With seed corn selling for $200. per bushel, or more, a 70 mile drive to Huron for free seed seemed a good idea.  The seed was to be available at 1:00 and I was waiting when the truck arrived at 12:30.
  Thunderstorms were predicted and the stiff south wind was pumping moisture up from the gulf.  A hurried trip back followed by rapid planting meant that I just finished when the first rain drops fell.  A thunderstorm was developing over my head.  I skipped the post planting harrowing of the field and got back to town with out getting wet..
  For the first time I planted some grain sorghum, too.  By filling two end seed boxes on the four row planter with sorghum the field will have four rows of sorghum interspersed with four rows of corn.  Lacking the proper planter plates for sorghum I used corn plates.  On one row I ducked tape half of the plate's holes closed to try to limit the amount of sorghum planted.  The sorghum seeds are quite small; think of a small black peppercorn, so using corn plates with the larger holes spreads too many sorghum seeds.   I tried this sorghum experiment on about half of the field. Pheasants love sorghum but the plants are only about 30 inches tall so the corn will provide better snow and wind protection.

The Big Burn!

 Five years ago I signed a Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contract to put some of land into grass. The contract specified that mid-contract, i.e., in the fifth year of the ten year contract, some habitat renewal is necessary.  The choice is between burning before May 15, or light discing after Aug. 1.  One field of approximately 45 acres is ideal for burning.
 The major grasses in this CRP field are native to Eastern SD and are late summer, warm season grasses.  They are Big Blue Stem, Switchgrass, Side Oats Gamma and Indian Grass.  They are energized by spring fires as swept across the prairies.
  An invasive species is Brome Grass, which I think came from Russia.  It is extremely competitive and is an early spring grass that colonizes in the early season while the afore mentioned grasses are still dormant.  A spring burn knocks back the Brome Grass and sets up the warm weather grass for a good start.  After five years there was also a thick thatch that gives thistles a place to start.
  Eastern SD is still quite dry and so a burning is still in effect.  After surveying my field, the local fire chief  gave me permission to burn.  The field is ideally situated for a controlled burn.  It is boarded by a road on the west, pasture on the south and a plowed field on the east.  The only area of concern were the tree rows I had planted on the north.
   Monday I went to work on a firebreak between the grass and the trees.  Using my ancient disc to cultivate a twenty foot fire break it quickly became apparent that this would be more difficult than I'd anticipated.  The old disc works fine in plowing but on the sod it barely made an impression.  After an hour of going back and forth on the fire break the disc died. 
  A quick call and a twenty+ mile trip with the tractor I was back at work with a disc I'd borrowed from W.  It was only marginally better than my old one but persistence pays off.  By dinner I'd beaten a track into the sod that I thought would be adequate.
  A call to the Curmudgeonette got me the predicted wind speeds and directions for Tuesday.  The forecast promised light winds from the south east.  North would be better but light winds are helpful.
  At 7:00am D. and I began firing the grass from the northwest corner to widen the fire break protecting the trees.  With the dew on the track I disced we figured that there was little chance of the fire spreading north.  By the time we had fired the grass along the fire break the width of the field the wind switched.  Wind switches often raise havoc with controlled burns but in this case the wind switched to the north which was perfect for our purpose.  By 10:00 the entire field had been burned and there were only a  few pockets of fire left and by 11:00 the fire was entirely out.

  The pictures show before, from a couple of years ago, and during the burning.  The camera battery died so the after pictures will have to wait until I go back.

Backside both ways!

Thinking back on it it was rather ingenious. Certainly not my idea because I was the youngest. When L was 10, R was 8, D was 6 and I was 4. It solved a lot of problems.
We owned a '42 Chevrolet, Fleetline, 2 door. A very sleek looking car for it's day. The problem it solved was 'who sits where' when there are six people in a 2 door car? Dad drove and mom sat in the middle of the front seat but where will the kids sit? Heading out for a trip to town one of us would call, "front side going" someone else "backside both ways". The deal was that the best seat, front by the door, could be reserved one direction while a back side seat could be reserved both ways. So the person riding in the front by the door going, would switch with the person in the middle of the back, on the way home. The ones by the windows in the back could have that seat both going and coming. It saved many fights.

Remembering Bill Holm

The late Bill Holm was recognized as the 2008 Distinguished Artist by the McKnight Foundation. In the testimonial booklet that was published in conjunction with the award David Pichaske quotes Walt Whitman "Resist much, obey little." He goes on to say "In most things, Holm set himself squarely against the established power structures and received wisdom of his hometown-and America- during the 1950s, embodying the '60s version of Whitman's admonition: 'Whatever the power structure wants you to do is probably not in your best interest so do the opposite.' In an early essay titled 'The Grand Tour,' Holm wrote, 'One of power's unconscious functions is to rob you of your own experience by saying we know better, whatever you may have seen or heard, whatever cockeyed story you come up with; we are principle, and if experience contradicts us, why then you must be guilty of something.'"
This rings true of my experience and some of the most satisfying moments I had in 40 years of ministry were those time I could use what power I had to intervene on behalf of someone being mishandled by senseless bureaucracy.

More pics

Easter Pics.

The odessy of a toaster.

A year out of the Marines and my last year at Augustana College, 1963, I was living at First Lutheran Church, Sioux Falls. It was my job to lock up at night and help the custodian of this large, downtown church. Some women, among whom was Camille Newcomb, cleaned the church kitchen. They decided the Sunbeam Toaster was obsolete so they gave it to me.
It still works! In fact we used it almost every day until recently. The curmudgeonette and L2 tired of it because it doesn't do very well with ultra thin bread. It still toasts fine if the bread isn't too thin. But, it's been retired to Our Little House on the Prairie as an object d`art.
Last fall I asked C. T. to put a new electrical cord on the old toaster. After taking it apart into dozens of pieces he decided that the replacement cord I'd purchased wasn't adequate for the temperatures generated while toasting. With great patience, persistence and a dash of the miraculous he was able to reassemble it. If you visit Our Little House you'll see it standing proudly looking as it did when it was manufactured in the '40s.

My father was a horse man!

Sometimes I feel like an anachronism even more than my age would suggest. All of my grandparents were born in the eighteen fifties. My father was born in 1883 in Lac Que Parle County, MN, and moved with his parents by wagon in 1885. I remember a certificate displayed in our home that he received for being resident at the time South Dakota received statehood in 1889.
The oldest of four children he grew up on grandpa's homestead and lived there until 1962 when David came home to farm. Horses were his thing. His younger brothers were interested in mechanical things. Henry had a huge 40-80 Avery tractor he used for building roads, the rear wheels of which were eight feet high. Sam ran dads threshing machine during harvest.
Dad moved from horses to tractors reluctantly. In 1941 he bought an IHC B, a tiny little thing with 17 horse power. He was able to farm 160 acres with it, by spending hour after hour, day after day in the field. He may have upgraded to more horsepower but during WWII it was almost impossible to buy a tractor. When the war was over veterans received preference in buying tractors so it was either '47 or '48 (David says '47, I say '48) that he able to buy a Farmall H. That tractor is still in the family.
He kept one team of horses after he bought that first tractor. Their names were Bill and Daisy, gentle beasts, he used for mowing, raking and pulling hay and bundle wagons. Finally Daisy went blind and was sold. Her replacement was a bit cranky and kicked as she was being led into her stall knocking a hole in the barn wall.
Once I saw a picture of him with a dozen or more horses lined up in front of the barn. Oh how I wish I had that picture now. Dad died in 1969 at age 85.

Warren D., rest in peace.

Warren D., age 86, a thoughtful, wise, gentle, man was buried yesterday. All of his children, grandchildren and step-grandchildren were there, the farthest coming from England. In his honor, popcorn was served at the wake and hot dogs at the lunch after the funeral. There was a large crowd at the funeral and many at the wake.
I knew Warren for 49 years, ever since I began to make moves toward joining the curmudgeonette's family. Warren was married to the curmudgeonette's cousin for 62 years. Warren was not the same man I first knew those many years ago.
Why was he different? Warren has four very interesting children, all of whom have lived abroad. He travelled to visit them in various parts of the world. His grandchildren have picked up in travelling and life where their parents left off. Following the wake I had a fascinating conversation with a granddaughter and her husband about their 13 month trek around the world on their honeymoon. Warren changed because he was open to his children and grandchildren and he let their experiences influence his perspective on life and the world.
He was always a thoughtful person graduating from Augustana College (my alma mater) with a history major. His genius was allowing family, life and relationships to influence him. May he rest in peace and may we be inspired by his example to be life long learners open to others and the experiences they bring to us.

Plowing is done.

On April 2, I pretended it was the '60s. Using David's 656 IHC to pull my 4 bottom semi-mounted plow of the same vintage, I was able to plow six acres in six hours. I'd hoped to do the discing the next day but it was too cold to be on an open platform tractor so that will wait for warmer weather. It's still to early to plant corn so waiting until the ground warms is no problem.

Farming News!

The Curmudgeonette and I visited SDak for the first time this year. The good news is that I got my corn stalks shredded before the rain. The bad news is that the rain didn't amount to much. Since last July there has been very little moisture. The good news is that wildlife, pheasants included, had an easy winter and I did see a few when I was in the field. The bad news is that the fields need moisture for this year's crops.
The enclosed picture shows me standing in my Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) field. It is contracted for ten years with the USDA and I must maintain the grass cover. Mid contract, i.e., this year according to the contract, it is necessary for me to do something to disturb the grass. This is to rejuvenate it. I can burn the grass before May 15, or do light tillage during August. I'd much prefer burning so that the grass can grow and provide winter wildlife cover. However, it is so dry that there is a county burning ban so for now I'm not allowed to burn.

Sunday Presentation

Gai, Mai and youngest daughter in their tuk-tuk which was repaired after the flood with Grace' money.

Met, from the house where I stayed with Gai's son.

Grace University Lutheran sent $1631. to me in Thailand to distribute to families in need. Sunday, yes, I know it's daylight savings time, I'll report back on the use of those funds and my adventures this time.

I believe one family was rescued from near disintegration and another helped significantly. I'll show my pictures and make my presentation at 10:15, daylight savings time, in the Peace Chapel.

Generational vignette.

At the last moment I decided to go to the Synod Assembly whixh was meeting at Shepherd of the Lake, Prior Lake. I looked up the address and borrowed the curmudgeonette's car so I could use her GPS. As I neared Prior Lake I pulled off the road and entered the address which was rejected by the GPS. I had been to Shepherd of the Lake a few years ago so I had a general idea where it was so I headed off,
At a gas station an employee pulled out his PDA and looked it up, gave me directions and I was off. About 20 minutes later I was back asking directions again. The same young man pulled out an atlas from under the counter saying "I don't know use this." So I asked him to use his PDA, which he did, and gave me directions that allowed me find my destination.

More pics.

New Honda cars under water in the Thai flood.


Thai Honda factory flooded.

Bangkok sunrise

Monks in the Thai flood.

Flooded street in Ayutthaya, Thailand. I travel this street everyday I'm in Ayutthaya.

What a story.

I was at breakfast this morning with our friend Kathy B. to share travel stories, hers to Ghana mine to Thailand, she told a remarkable story. She was in Ghana to visit sites where her late husband, now dead 20 years, had served in the Peace Corps in the early 60s. As they were driving across Ghana she asked the driver to stop at one of the numerous markets they were passing. In conversation with women at the market Kathy said her husband had been in Ghana in the Peace Corps. When she brought out pictures from his time there the women said the knew one of the men in the picture. How likely is that? After 40 years at a random someone would recognize a man in the picture? The man is now a pastor about six hours from the market so Kathy was able to meet him.

Sella Grace Townsend Negstad

Lars and Melissa were in Norway on their honeymoon when they saw a picture in a museum titled "Sella, Lars' Daughter". Now they've named their second daughter Sella Grace.