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!
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
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.
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. :)
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.
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.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
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.
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.
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