Out

 Houses.   The farm where I grew up had no indoor plumbing. We had an outhouse.  We got indoor plumbing when I was 9 years old in 1960.  Having a bathroom inside the house was such a treat.  Especially since my Mom did not allow any of those covered enamel buckets in the house...she called them "piss pots."  I recall my cousins had "piss pots" and did not have to go outside to the outhouse on bitterly cold nights. 

Here is an old photo of the outhouses in Osage all painted up for the centennial a number of years ago.  They have since been demolished. 

We had two sets of outhouses at our old resort.  They came in handy if you were outside and needed to go  and one time our septic system had problems and the outhouses were a blessing.

Far Side

1991

In 1991, Osage had its Centennial.   Some how I got roped into helping with the Centennial Quilt.  Anyone in the community could make a quilt square, it was quilted and still hangs inside a glass case at the new Osage Community Center.   

 The photo was taken inside the old Community Center/Senior Center/the school where I went to 5th and 6th grade...I believe we are in the 6th grade side of the schoolhouse.  I believe my Mom took this photo.  These photos were were amongst my Mom's many photographs. 

I am at the end of the quilt in the red shirt...my shirt says Pine Springs Resort as that is the resort that we owned at that time...a summer fishing resort with eight cottages and a campground. 

All of the ladies are gone now...on the left is Grace...she made the best cookies ( she and her husband lived two farms away from us), next to her and quite hidden is Auntie Esther/Far Guy's Aunt...we loved her very much.  I am not sure who the man is in the photo...maybe Mel?   Standing talking to me is Dorothy...I went to Release Time classes at her home when I was in Grade School...in later years I helped her teach Release Time ( Release Time was always on Wednesday and was like Sunday School...called Release Time because the kids got released from school to attend...we would form a line and walk over to Dorothys house) Dorothy dedicated an area in her basement for Release Time.  Then the lady in red...is Harriet...a sweet lady...her husband Ray was a favorite ...when my baby brother and I would be with our Dad at the repair shop...he would buy us soda out of the Coke machine!  Then there in her red shoes is Olivia...in these years she always made me a cake for my birthday...she made the most delicious chocolate cake with boiled icing...sometimes when she would make the cake and it wasn't my birthday she would call me to come over to have coffee with her and Walter!  Olivia worked for my Mom for many years cleaning cottages at my parents resort...she was the best kitchen cleaner ever. Olivia also grew huge Dinner Plate Dahlias. 

I wish I could recall the conversation that day...I do not...but it was still a good day.

Grace, Auntie Esther and Olivia all stitching away.  Dorothy is in the background. 

Good memories of some great women.

Far Side

Construction

 Construction is happening in Osage.  

Far Guy took this photo near the Dam.   It was a mess on Thursday, but the wait was not long to get through. 

Yesterday Far Guy worked on his old Car Tilly, I did some laundry and cleaned out one of the grates in the walkway that catches dirt.  One more to go.   After doing one I had a nap.  We made supper together.   I am not feeling terrific....lightheaded and I hurt all over.  

One day at a time. 

Far Side

Wistful Wednesday: Post Office

How times have changed.  Far Guy signed up for emails from the Post Office.  He gets a daily email that shows a scan of what is in our mail box.   I am not certain how that bit of technology works …but it does.

Post Office Osage Minnesota in the early 1900’s.

Far Side

Area Happenings

The off sale liquor store in the small town nearby had a fire.

 

Seems it started under the building, was extinuished and later ignited again and that time  it was a total loss.

Hard to see our small town ( population 300) lose a business but I heard they will rebuild.  The population of 300 must count all the seasonal people!  

Before this was a off sale liquor store it was Joann’s Second Hand Consignment Shop …before that it was Cornelia’s Corner…Cornelia had a bit of anything and everything in that shop.  She and her husband retired to the lake and she opened a shop to have something to do and to have a bit of an income.   I cannot recall what it was before Cornelia bought it…I think it stood vacant for a number of years.

All work in the fields has come to a halt…it rained, it got colder…the rain got fatter and fatter and became snow.

Snow and other stuff

We got some more snow it brought the snow stick up a bit.

Lovely isn’t it.

We have been busy and exhausted.  Far Guy said yesterday “If I croak you will be so bored.”  This was during our second trip to town for the day…usually we go to town once a week…not twice a day.

Men do read instructions, I have proof I caught him reading the instructions to the IV Pump.  They sent a checklist so we should be able to figure it all out between the two of us.  The bill said it would be $ 2,500 weekly …so I hope insurance covers it…yes you read that right a two and a five and two zeros with no decimal point…must be the new and improved affordable care act.

The driveway.

We had a thought about ten days ago, we were in the vehicle going for a ride, it was something we should have done before we left the house but we could do immediately when we got home.  Well that was ten days ago and neither of us can remember exactly what it was.  Old age is coming on fast.

We had a long time friend who we were both very fond of.  He carried a little notebook and a pencil in his pocket of his True Value Hardware blue shirt. Now we understand.

The store in Osage was getting new shingles yesterday.

Yesterday there was a strange bright orb in the sky. I had to wear my sunglasses.

Signs

Some signs of the times.

This sign is empty; it used to advertise the Broasted Chicken and pop specials or Welcome Hunters or Welcome Fishermen, depending on the time of year.

The Post Office which is attached to the store is still open but only for a few hours in the mornings.  The steel door in the photo was installed after several break ins at the store.

The store was a mainstay in Osage for many years. We were sad to see it close.  You could tell it was coming, they added an aisle of dollar store “stuff”.  The shelves became emptier as time went on and when the coolers stood empty I began to wonder how long they would hang on.

The Millpond is frozen over.  Some idiot has a fish house out there…hope they caught something and survived to see another day without disappearing under the ice.

Foot Update:  Our daughter the Nurse Practitioner looked at my foot and declared it a Spider or something similar bite.  I am taking some Zyrtec as she suggested but it really makes me sleepy…I get to sleep 14 or more hours after taking it. AND dream oh my…Technicolor adventures for hours and hours.

Brown and Grey

The sun was out yesterday morning then it disappeared.  My spirits were buoyed for a short time.  We ran errands …mainly for the birds..needed Black Oil Sunflower Seeds and Sunflower Hearts as we use both in our feeders.

We stopped by a couple of garage sales.  I got a box of Shiny Brite Christmas Ornaments for 50 cents!

No ice on the lake yet. Our whole world is either brown or grey. 

Deer Hunting starts today. That will add a little Blaze Orange to the landscape.  We don’t hunt anymore…we used to like just being in the woods…now we live in the woods.  I have seen Deer Season bring us –20 F to 70 F (-28C to 21 C eh!) …and everything inbetween.

 

Wistful Wednesday: Another School

When the community got together and built a new elementary school, they didn’t build it large enough for the fifth and sixth grade classes.

So when it came time for me to leave the elementary school (fourth grade)…I went to the old school in Osage.

This building was built in 1938 so when I went to school here it was only 24 years old.  The building was a two room schoolhouse.  Fifth grade was on the left and taught by Mrs. Tillie Zeller, to the right was the sixth grade class taught by Mr. Martin Cox. Mrs. Zeller was a grandmotherly type teacher…ample in all the right places and kind with an endless supply of floral dresses.  Mr. Cox was very young…possibly in his first few years of teaching. He had one burgundy/maroon colored sweater that he favored…but often times wore a suit.  Both classes had about 16 students…maybe 18. 

We walked over as a group to the Elementary School to have lunch and I recall walking to Release Time Classes (Religion) on Wednesday mornings at Dorothy Noeske’s home.

There were swings in the school yard and one of those marvelous Merry Go Rounds you know the ones with heavily rutted paths all the way around.  You would grab ahold and run like the wind and then hop on…and if you were really brave you would wrap your legs around the bars and fall backwards your hair blowing in the breeze…laughing..always laughing.

Eventually the fifth and sixth graders were sent to Park Rapids to school…not sure when.

The school became a Community Center and served the Community in that capacity for a number of years.  Far Guy’s Grandmother Tracie was instrumental in it becoming a Community Center and a place for Senior Citizens Hot Lunch…her group raised funds to update the kitchen and to have the building’s roof repaired.

Now it is back to being the Osage Schoolhouse.

Times change. The township sold the building.  Last winter crews were there working everyday…electricians, plumbers and carpenters.  Finally it was done.  There is even a deck off the sixth grade classroom.

I have not been inside.   They had an open house but we missed it.  Supposedly it sleeps twenty people and has a number of bathrooms.

I remember that the oak steps beyond the front door one set going to the right and one set to the left were worn from children’s feet…and the cloak rooms had their own unique smell…wet wool….and the blackboard was massive covering most of one wall in each room.

Wistful Wednesday: Grade School

The Grade School that I went to as a child was built and completed for the start of the 1957 school year when I was ready for First Grade…I was five when school started and turned six later that month….back then I think you had to be six years old by December 31st to go to school.

My parents had purchased a farm that was near a country school (Linnell School)…you could see it from our home. I would just have a short walk to school!

The building of the new school in Osage split the community…sometimes this split is still evident.  Some were in favor of a new school building and others thought the country school was good enough…and neither side spoke to the other side unless it was necessary.

Mrs. Pearl Sexton taught first grade, Mrs. Minnie Zauche taught second grade, Mrs. Lucille Stearns taught third grade, Mr. Oscar Vaadland taught fourth grade and was the principal.  He had a yard stick with a red bow on it and if you were misbehaving you got whacked with the stick.  The school nurse came out about once a week, not sure what she did other than keep track of who had their shots.  Each classroom had their own single bathroom and there were two other proper boys and girls bathrooms in the hallway.  Not sure why the classrooms were positioned as they were: 1st, 4th, 3rd and 2nd. There was a library room, an office, a milk room off the cafeteria ( it continually smelled like sour milk) a kitchen where Arvilla Nilson was the best school cook ever, and the cafeteria/gym.  Carl Nilson was the boiler operator, janitor and bus driver.

Everyone went outside after lunch.  In the winter we played king of the hill on the mountains of snow and in the spring and fall we would take turns swinging…there were maybe six swings and some monkey bars.

The last day of school we always had a whole school picnic with our parents invited and all kinds of fun games…sack and relay races.

I rode the bus to school, the bus driver was Ivan Siegford (he owned the hardware store in Ponsford and began his route with the Ritt’s girls over on Shell Lake.)  I got on the bus about 7:45 in the morning and got off at 3:45 in the afternoon.  For me it was not a long ride to school…about 7 miles. There were only a few stops after I got on. I loved a window seat on the bus so I could look out on the passing landscape and in the winter those frosty bus windows became a canvas for thumb print designs…and whatever else I could scratch into the frost.

I took this photo the other day…it is now apartments and is owned by one of my cousins.

I learned to read ( See Dick, see Jane!), spell, write in cursive, how to add, subtract, multiply and divide.  Division was the worst for me in third grade…until one day “it clicked.”  I can still smell the thick white paste in the big jars and I remember how everyone smelled the purple mimeographed paper before beginning our work.

Chance and I

went for a ride, Chance likes demands a ride just about every day.  Far Guy was off doing “stuff” with his classmates so we did our own thing…our own thing is Chance hanging his head out the window and me looking for photo opportunities.

We made one stop where I got out of the car and Chance hung out the windows keeping one eye on me.

The leaves at the white house with the blue trim were beautiful! 

I told Chance about how an old stove reminds me of fresh baked bread slathered in butter, and bacon frying up in a pan…oh and eggs just right for dipping.  Believe it or not Chance knows the word bacon and his salvia glands started working overtime.

I guess these are more for decoration and “remembering when” instead of cooking.

Our leaves were peak last Wednesday October 7 this year…then it rained and some are still okay but we are past peak with our fall color.

Lilacs and a Cat

The lilacs are almost at an end.

A few more buds will open and then they will be done.  The  air is still heavily fragrant.

Mary never gets to see her lilacs since she only comes to visit later in the summer.

I stopped by that little white house with the handicap ramp and the blue trim.  Mary your lilacs are beautiful!

Thursday night when I came from work, a cat ran across the road into our land.  It was a black and white cat.  I warned Far Guy that is was a real black and white kitty and not a skunk!

Friday morning it was in the ditch hunting.

I rolled down the window and took a photo.   I am sure it will be Eagle food before long.  It might be a feral cat…or one that someone dropped off.  I hate to see animals out there by themselves, full of ticks this time of year, but there are rabbits and chippys to catch and mice too..so I am sure it is not starving to death.  We have water out for Chance so if it wanders into the yard it can have a drink.  Right now that is the best I can do:)

Swimming Lesson Memories

We (my brother and I ) took swimming lessons every summer. Our Mother did not swim, she never learned to swim until very late in her life.. she was always scared of the water.

Osage Beach photo taken Fall of 2009 

In the late 1950's and the early 1960's we took swimming lessons at the Osage Beach. It was the old beach then, you just walked down the sandy hill to get to the water, someone had dumped some sand in the center of the beach, there were drop offs on both sides, huge slabs of concrete had been dumped there on the south side. There was a rope swing that was hung in a tree on the north side drop off. The area to swim safely was very small. Of course you knew everyone at the swim lessons. The Moms would sit on the beach and visit. I remember that pedal pushers were very popular back then, in beautiful shades of coral and lilac. During one of those summers my Mother was pregnant with my other baby brother.

Our swim instructor was one of the Coaches and Physical Education teachers from nearby Park Rapids. He was very tall and very good looking. I believe his name was John Haugo. Classes were ten or fifteen minutes long. Sometimes we would stay until the end of the lessons to splash and play around in the water. Kids were supposed to stay out of the water during the lessons..unless of course it was time for your lesson.

One day during lessons, Mary and Margaret disappeared. They were sisters, one was a thin red head, and the other was a pudgy little gal with dark hair. They were gone, they just dissapeared just like that. Mr. Haugo dove in the water in the drop off area that had all the huge blocks of concrete, he came up with Mary first ( I think, Good Lord that was fifty years ago, I am lucky to remember it at all) she was blue, then he dove back in and got Margaret..who was pale, he worked on both of them..lifting their arms..patting on their backs..they spit and sputtered and coughed and cried and shivered..but they were alive. I am not sure how he realized what area of the water to search..those little girls were lucky that day. Until that day, I had no fear of the water, yes I had been told that people could drown, but not children at swimming lessons..I gained a new respect for the water that day and swimming lesson teachers.

One year, when I must have been nine or ten years old, the big day arrived. The testing to see if you passed from one section of swimming lessons to the other. I was so nervous, my knees were knocking together, I was sure I was going to drown. The dam was not blocked off then, it had an upper fence or railing made of horizontal bars. People used to fish from the cement platform. We were supposed to climb under the railing and stand on the pillar ( the one on the right front) and then plug our noses and jump off. Someone was out in a boat, rowing around ready to help the drowning ones. I was afraid of heights, I was afraid to jump off the dam. I was sure that if I did not drown, I would be sucked in between the bars of the bottom part of the dam and be sent under the highway and disappear forever. Someone was counting..one..two..three..jump.. they had to count several times for me..I was a big chicken. Finally I threw caution to the wind and jumped..down, down, I went, the water was a murky green color and I saw bubbles everywhere..I popped right back up to the surface like a cork..the people in the boat shouted..SWIM..so I swam to shore. I think I might have peed in the water:)

Perception

Far Guy and I do not see eye to eye sometimes.  It seems to be happening alot lately, perhaps it is the rain, perhaps we both have spring fever. Perhaps it is just perception.

Like the other day, I mentioned the millpond, at Osage.  I call the whole thing the millpond..the part with the new dam, pier, swimming area and the part of the lake before the narrows into the big lake.  Far Guy calls only the part with the new dam and the pier the millpond.  Jen our youngest daughter had her own opinion..but waffled back and forth between her parents opinions. Perhaps because it was Mother's Day she wanted to give me the benefit of the doubt, but she didn't want to totally squash her fathers thoughts either.

Years ago, in 1881  there was a sawmill built and the mill dammed up the whole lake and raised the water level by thirteen feet.  That is why there are so many deadheads on the edges of the lake..especially in the what I call the millpond area.  The sawmill became a flour mill and wheat was ground there before it was even ground in nearby big city Park Rapids.  The mill was owned by a cooperative of farmers.  They milled three grades ( patent, straight and export) of wheat..this in itself is impressive.  The dam collapsed in the spring of 1903 or 1904 ( I cannot come up with the exact date right now..lost local history book..put away too well) anyway when the dam was built it was built with a temporary piling of slabs and trees.  Over the years these slabs began to rot.   During the winter muskrats burrowed into the dam weakening it, during the spring run off the dam collapsed.

 This is the old photo postcard. The mill has fallen in.

This is a photo taken from almost the same view last weekend.  You can see the beach off to the right. In the old photo where all the people are standing is the present beach area.

On a side note, this area has caused arguements before.  Squire McKinley was the man who built the original sawmill and raised the water level.  Just down the road from us a half mile, was a farmer by the name of Siegford, one spring he noticed that the lake was coming up and water was flooding his barn.  He went to Osage, in search of Squire McKinley ..they disscussed the situation..and in a manly way solved the arguement.  Fisticuffs insued..the Squire won, and Siegford tore down his barn and moved it.

Now back to the our argument. I am no good at fisticuffs and we do not hit each other..ever. A Millpond is a pond formed by a milldam. OR any expanse of calm water OR a pool formed by damming up a stream to provide water to turn a millwheel.  Well both of these areas qualify, no one is right and no one is wrong..it is all in your perception.  So Far Guy is half correct and I am half correct..exactly 50%. No more, no less..50 % wrong too..I can live with that.  Now finally we can put this argument to rest:)