A B.E.A.R.

Jen called Sunday morning and said “It is cloudy, do you want to go to Bergeson Gardens near Fertile MN to take photos?”  Well sure I did.

Far Guy was not feeling well..he is getting yet another cold.  I called next door neighbor Jo who was going to sew and can peaches…but I told her she could do those things tomorrow!  She is easily led astray.

The gardens were lovely, many photos were taken. 

On the way home over on Highway 113.  Jo said “There was a bear!”  I drove to the next approach “Are you sure it was a bear?”  YES. TURN AROUND.  We did and couldn’t find the bear.  I turned around again you know one of those big old U turns that I partially completed and there was a cop…darn…I motioned for him to go..he motioned for me to go…finally I backed up and he left the area.  We are still looking for the bear…Jo is sure she saw it.  We scan the trees on the way back again…there he/she is up in a tree…cars are coming and someone who is not driving says “I could get out and take some photos but what if he/she comes out of the tree?” ( I am certain that the bear could out run an old lady…and someone has to can those peaches!)

We go back to the turn around spot again.  A plan is developed, Jo will take photos going by the tree and then we will do another U turn and I will take some photos while watching for traffic.

This was my best shot!

We stopped at a nearby hobby farm to tell them about the bear…but no one was home. 

This was the first time Jo has seen a bear in the wild in Minnesota.  I have seen them twice before so this is my third sighting.  B.U.T.  My first time photographing a bear!

It is a black bear.  I suspect that he had raided the bee boxes in the next field over and was resting in the tree with a full belly just watching old ladies going back and forth down the road.

Our Drive on Saturday Night

The wheat in this area is ready to be combined.  There were three combines out in the field.  (Corporate Farming)

In this photo two are working close together.  The third one was off in the distance.  We were glad that the breeze was from the east today…blowing the grain dust away from us.

We finished our drive…didn’t see any deer…I suppose the combine noise kept them in the woods.

Stopped by to visit with Chance’s friends  Odda and Putz.

Putz and Chance played ball and then Putz talked Chance into a game of tag…herding dog games!

Odda just likes to be close to us and enjoys being petted.  Here she is cuddled up as close to Far Guy as she can get!

Steve was out in the field combining peas.  ( Non Corporate Farmer)

The peas will be hog feed.

The weather is about to turn from hot and dry to hot and wet with storms.  So farmers are hustling to bring crops in. 

I didn’t take a photo of the corn field..the non irrigated corn fields are shriveling up and dying…the rain will be too little too late to save the corn.

Death Comes in Threes

This week was a death kind of week, three people we knew died.  One was just an acquaintance, one was a old customer ( I left condolences on the Funeral Home Website.)

We attended the wake for a neighbor who died of cancer.  Bill was a local businessman for years and years, he did many selfless things for this community.  He graduated from High School with Far Guy.  One day last winter we had a really good visit with him…talking about old school photos….and how “Wouldn’t it be nice if the school kids from the Elementary School in Osage would get together and plan a reunion.”  We won’t attend the funeral, the church will be full to overflowing.  ( Too many people and too many germs and too many women with perfume.)

Do you think that things come in threes?  Usually after the second death we wonder who is next?

Up here in Minnesota a lunch is always served after the funeral…so we could have gone out for lunch three times this week.

I am almost out of sympathy cards.  I make my own cards…good thing I signed up for a retreat in September…I can get lots of card making done.

Oh Beans

The bean fields are being irrigated heavily.

 

I caught the irrigator at sunset.

I think these are some kind of pinto bean…but I could be wrong.  Minnesota farmers grow many different kinds of beans.  Of course I could walk out in the field and open a pod…but that would be trespassing and stealing..so I guess I won’t do that anytime soon.

Sometimes if the sun is just right there are rainbows at the end of the irrigators… the irrigator moves almost silently through the field.  You can be watching and then the wheels start moving all by themselves.  On a still night you can hear them moving from our yard.  One night Jen and I were at the cemetery and she said “Mom what is that noise?”   It was just the irrigators moving through the fields…or was it…I am certain it was!  

Twin Fawns Update

We saw the twin fawns and their Mom last night.

The fawns still have their spots.

We have not seen this bunch in a little while, most of the deer have moved to the bean fields.  This group was in the neighbor’s hay field eating clover.

Chance barked at them, in fact when he barked another deer came out of nowhere and ran through the field… Chance was quite impressed with himself.

The sunset was beautiful.

 

Wistful Wednesday: Marvin

My Father in Law would have been 100 years old today.   He died from complications after a procedure to drain fluid from the pleura around his lungs.  The procedure went just fine, but shortly afterwards his kidneys and liver failed. They called it Multi System failure. He died early on a Sunday morning August 28, 1994.  He was eighty years and fifteen days old at the time of his death….twenty years ago this month. He was only in the hospital for 7 days. Someone sat with him the entire time he was in the Intensive Care Unit.

Photo from the 1930’s.

Coffee so thick it barely pours, braunsweiger sandwiches, Tiparillos, Meerschaum Pipes, Cross pens, flannel shirts, deer hunting, fishing for the “big one”, big fancy cars, the color red, cameras, fried potatoes, peanut butter that had to be stirred because the oil separated in the jar, ginger snaps, solitaire card game ( always marking the aces with his thumb nail), newspapers on the floor and Atlas Maps at the ready next to his chair, Angie Dickinson from the old series Police Woman, never retiring for the night until Johnny Carson was over… so many memories.

He was a good listener, and didn’t give advice unless asked.  He loved to talk on the phone, we often encouraged our talky/argumentative oldest daughter to “Call your Grandpa and argue with him.”

He was a good Grandfather.  He was thrilled with both of our girls and with his other granddaughter too.  He spoiled them and was the creator of the “bees” that buzzed them and made them collapse in giggles.

Chance: The works

Hiya!!  It is me Chance the best blogging Border Collie in all of North Central Minnesota!

Far Side has a habit of calling someplace and says “Give Chance the works.”

So I get dropped off at the Spa and they get to go out for breakfast all alone.

I have them all fooled…I make so much racket at the spa…a mournful howling kind of racket…that they call for me to be picked up as soon as I am finished.  I am a smart dog. 

I get a bath with hypoallergenic shampoo …no fragrance allowed…a good brushing and a little clipping here and there, my anal glands get “expressed”  uffda..and my toe nails are clipped…I know the routine as soon as that is all done …I commence with the howling.

My white hair is so clean…Far Side says I am ever so handsome.

I don’t look quite as great after a few days…it has been warm and when I play hard I like to plop in my pool and get all cooled off.  I carry lots of sand in the house…I am told I leave little beaches here and there…oh well.

Here I am showing off some flowers.  Far Side points and says “I need a model Chance and you are it.”  I listen carefully so it gets over quickly.  Sit up…lay down..look here…open your eyes… okay you are done GOOD BOY!

PowWow

Every year a PowWow is held on the nearby reservation. A PowWow is a gathering much like a family reunion.  It is a special time for family to get together and dance and pay homage to their culture.

Photographs are allowed except during the Peace Pipe Ceremony.  When in doubt ...ask.

Every part of the regalia worn has meaning.  Often times special pieces of the regalia are handed down from one generation to the next.  ( Grandma’s Eagle Feather…Grandpas moccasins etc…)

The Staff and Flag Bearers

Visiting Royalty follows the flag and staff bearers.

There are many colors…these are Jingle Dancers except for the little girl on the left she is a Fancy Shawl Dancer.

This beautiful gal in the turquoise regalia is the daughter of a good friend.

Aqua and orange do go together

A young man  who’s regalia is that of a Grass Dancer

One of the littlest Fancy Shawl Dancers

This gal used some Loon fabric on her regalia.

Older women have time for beautiful beadwork.

We visited with friends and had some homemade French fries for lunch.  It clouded up and threatened rain so we headed home.  We eventually got 4/10 of an inch of rain while I was enjoying an late afternoon nap.

Logging Days

Logging Days is a celebration that happens every summer in PR (Or Park Rapids) I don’t like huge crowds of people but went anyway … most everyone must have stayed home or went to WE Fest over in DL (or Detroit Lakes).   I am not sure when we started using just the initials of these towns…but we have for as long as I can remember.

Anyways The Loon Country Carvers were there…a group which Far Guy and I belong to.  We had a table set up to demonstrate some of the talents within the group.

The menfolk had it covered so I just wandered around taking photos.

I watched the Chainsaw carvers.

I grabbed a good seat for the Lumberjack Show.

The guy in the middle was the announcer.  The guy in the blue lumberjack shirt was from Wisconsin, the guy in the red lumberjack shirt was from Minnesota…Stillwater I think.  They had some competitions, sawing logs with super modified chainsaws and one time they each used a one man buck saw.  They ran up and down poles…but what I was waiting for was the log rolling competition.

The tank with the black lining is filled with water, a log with strips of carpet or some other kind of fabric is wrapped around the log on both ends.  There is a neutral zone in the center of the log that they cannot go into and they cannot touch each other.

Kicking water at your opponent was allowed.

Distractions work as planned.

A victory jump into the water!  The lumberjack from Minnesota was victorious!

I wandered around and talked to a few people…saw some neighbors and some old friends.

The weather was almost perfect..it was overcast and about 76F or 24C eh!   It spit rain for awhile but it didn’t amount to anything, it evaporated before it hit the ground.

Hay and Oats

When I grew up on the farm, I hated haying time, it was hot dusty job, sweat rolls down your shirt and hay dust gets stuck everywhere and begins to itch.  You have to wear long sleeves and pants or you would end up with prickles all up and down your legs and arms. (Prickles = highly technical word that means the red marks left on your body from hay stubble.) You need good gloves …to avoid blisters from the twine.   Our baler baled and unloaded the small square bales that weighed about 50 to 60 pounds (sometimes more) onto the ground.  The bales had to be picked up off the ground and loaded onto the wagon.  This was a great improvement from the loose hay and hay stacks.  Later my parents bought a baler with a kicker…the bales were deposited onto the wagon…thereby eliminating one of the hot dusty jobs.   Sometime the baler would kick them out pretty fast..so several people were needed to stack on the wagon.  Staying upright on a wagon moving through a hay field is a real talent.

I believe these large round bales are plastic netted..a netting surrounds the bale and holds it together.  I think these bales weigh about 1,000 pounds and must be moved with a tractor. Todd puts most of his hay in a hay shed so it is undercover.  Some people use these large bales as a wind break for their cattle.  I have been told that these bales with their round shape shed water better than square bales.  Some people have the kind of baler that encloses the bale in a white plastic covering.

Last evening my cousin Todd was combining Oats.  It is the first oats to be ready in our area.

The fluffy rows are done…they have been combined.  The flatter rows near the center of the field have not been done yet.

Looks like a John Deere Tractor and Combine to me.  The tractor has a cab…it is reminiscent of one of the last tractors my parents had.  The oats is being combined on Far Guy’s Maternal Grandparents old farm.  Last year this small corner field was corn.

My Cousin Todd and our neighbors Steve and Donnie along with Paul are the only small farmers left in this area.  How they eek out a living is beyond me…so their equipment may be a bit old…but I know they help each other out and borrow equipment back and forth. My cousin Todd is the youngest of the group, he must be just about 50 years old…and farmer Steve turned 70 years old this week…I think Donnie is in his 60’s.  Older farmers.

Making Hay

My cousin Todd was out making hay.  Next time I see him I am certain he will say “I should have charged admission cause you guys watched so long!”

This baler is more fun to watch than the old square bale balers.

 

So much for the evening entertainment….watching the relatives work.

We saw six deer in the bean field but they were too far away to photograph.  Still dry here, no rain in sight.