Photo Session

Recently I took some photos of my niece and her family.   It was a fun afternoon.   Chance went along…he loves the little girls.

He would follow the littlest deep into the woods.

The oldest.

The two in the middle.

Yes there are four little girls! 

My niece Stacey and her husband.

They are expecting their fifth child in the late winter.  We asked if she was going to have the ultrasound and find out if they are expecting a boy or a girl?  Yes they are having an ultrasound but this time they want to be surprised!  I said “Oh, a surprise girl!”

I got some good photos, the dappled sun/shade in the woods was a challenge…and sometime the littlest would just not smile…with her it was all or nothing!

Proof that a little girl can smile with her mouth, nose and eyes all at the same time.

October is here

Leaf mulching has begun.  I did the whole yard yesterday.  Every couple of days I will mulch leaves until they overcome me and I have to use the rake or until the trees are bare.  We had a bit of a frost that nipped one of the marigolds and killed my last sunflower.

The grass is green and still growing.

There are no real pretty trees in our yard but a friend has some beautiful Maples in her yard.

We have been working on something from our list every day.  We filled in the hole a certain dog dug after his pool was put away for the summer… we lost misplaced used up a whole bag of grass seed…either that or we are both going nuts.

We had a real adventure the day we decided to take off the front door, load it onto the wagon behind the three wheeler and take it to the greenhouse/woodshop to be repainted.  Those doors are really heavy…really heavy…we made it but there was a reason the last time it needed to be painted …I painted it in place… I was smarter then I guess.

We are working on the wood carved Christmas ornaments again, the afternoons have been too nice to be indoors.

I got the kitchen and dining room windows washed!  They look so pretty sparkling clean!

 

Bad smells

My vehicle smelled…really bad…gag a maggot bad.  Every once in a while I rolled down the window to escape the smell.  We looked all over inside the vehicle, in the trunk under the seats…in Chances blanket that covers the backseat.  We were stuck with that foul smell.  Good thing it is our Sunday car…but maybe we should use it a tad more to discourage inhabitation by small creatures…it smelled like a dead decaying mouse.

I mentioned it to our daughter Jen…she said check the cabin air filter!  Great idea…where is that exactly?  Far Guy Googled it…viola…it is under the glove compartment.  Everything had to be taken out of the glove box…and then the glove box itself and then some clips…what should Far Guy find…but a mouse nest complete with a little family…all deceased. Tragic. (Insert a mouse funeral march here.)

Went to town and got a new filter…there was no washing that one out.  A 50$ filter was on sale for 27$ …a freaking filter…a papery thing…

Oh well learn something new every day.   The other day I learned that there is a spray called poo pourri…you spray it in the water before you poop….yes everyone poops.  Has anyone out there tried it yet? 

Wistful Wednesday: Nunn’s Store

Years ago J.W. Nunn had a store in Ponsford Minnesota.

Far Guy’s Mom wrote “I remember the large J.W. Nunn store and my mother bringing several cases of eggs to the store every week to buy groceries.  Those were during my childhood years.  Also riding to Sunday School by horse and wagon to the Baptist Church in Ponsford.”

I think the Nunn store was on the North side of the street on the East side of town and it  opened in 1902.

Here is a very old photo that Jim Mack (J.W. Nunn’s grandson) shared with me. J. W. Nunn and an unknown child are in the photo.

Family Genealogy Info: Alfred and Elezebeth Nunn lived near William and Martha Abbott in Wellington County Eramosa Township Ontario Canada, they came together to the (Lake Eunice) Detroit Lakes area and then to Carsonville Township/Ponsford Minnesota around 1889.

Disappearing Sunflowers

Someone or something took my entire double headed sunflower out of my flower bed.  Snapped that stalk right off…the buggers.  It was probably a Bambi.

Then we saw two sunflowers on the way into town, they had sprouted up and bloomed in the cracks in the highway on the edge of the tar.   They were such pretty things and there were two of them standing tall and strong greeting motorists from far and wide. Their sunny little faces following the sun happily all day long.

On the way home from town they were g.o.n.e.  obviously someone wanted more than a photo of them…they wanted to take them home and put them in a vase of water and enjoy them…how does one enjoy stolen flowers?  I know there were no Bambis wandering around snapping off sunflowers stalks in broad daylight along a busy highway.

I just don’t get it…the buggers anyway.

Moon

Well our Supermoon was obscured by clouds.

We went by Steve and Jos to wait out the clouds.

By that time it was dark and more clouds moved in so we went home.

Back at home I sat outside and finally got a shot or two during the eclipse.

Not perfect photos but it was fun to try. It was very quiet out, the crickets were making their nightly noises and Bailey barked at me a few times.  I could hear people talking down at the lake. I saw a few shooting stars….and it sure was dark out there during totality.  It was a beautiful night to be outside…no bugs and about 65 F or 18 C eh!

Slow Fall Color

The trees are changing slowly, they are maybe 30% colorful.  I am not convinced that this year will be a wonderful showing of fall color.

The new passing lane over by Snellman, whatever they planted came up real green and inviting for deer on the left.

In town the other day a few trees were changing.

The trees were in bud when they started this road improvement project.  Sometimes the wheels of progress turn slowly.

Henderson MN

Years ago we visited Henderson Minnesota during Sauerkraut Days. There is usually a celebration in June complete with all the sauerkraut you can eat.  I know I ate my share.

On our recent trip to Southern Minnesota…Far Guy asked “How far are we from Henderson?”  We were about twenty miles away and it was only a few miles out of the way.

 

Main Street in Henderson.

 

I wonder how many Henderson’s actually live in Henderson?

Well… there were at least two more one day last week.

Visit to Mayo Clinic

This past week we made a trip to the Mayo Clinic.  In the world of Pulmonary medicine there are a few Doctors that specialize in Alpa1 Antitrypsin Deficiency.  Mayo Clinic has ONE Doctor and he has 60 patients with Alpha 1….he is called an Alpha Doc.  He is Doctor K.

We felt it was worth the trip…seven hours the first day because we avoided the Cities and traffic…the return trip we went through the Cities and we were home in five hours.

Chance went along and went to Doggie Day Care while we were at the Clinic.  The day we got there we took off on a recon mission to find the Doggie Day Care and where the parking garage was.  There are busses that run a shuttle to the clinic…but we got an early start and only had to park on the seventh floor of the parking garage.

It is quite a clinic, there are six elevators for the first twelve floors and six elevators for the next eight floors.  The floors are marble and I commented that it is a good thing that if you arrived in the winter in a snowstorm your feet would be dried off before you stepped a foot on those floors.

The exam rooms have marble floors and sofas.  Note: they even splurged for the sinks that have covered pipes.

They are still using Windows 7.

Dr. K. is older than me….I guessed 65 but he is 68 and Far Guy says he has credentials as long as your arm.  He was pleasant and straight forward.  He told us to keep on keeping on with what we are doing.  He suggested that we tweak a couple of medications and have some special tests…a Cat Scan, X Rays and a Liver Ultra Sound….which could be done over the next few days or we could go home and have them all done in Fargo in one day.  He said to stay away from germy people and get our flu shots.  He said that we should have antibiotics on hand at all times.

We asked about our oldest daughter that tested as an MS.  Dr. K. says that he is seeing many more people with the phenotype MS having liver problems especially liver cancer: so it is of the utmost importance that she should not smoke or drink alcohol because both will speed up the liver damage.

Dr. K. also said it is very important for anyone that is a blood relative to be tested.  Testing can be done anonymously…by a coded number.

The view out the 18th floor.

This is the tower of The Plummer Building.  The Plummer Building was built in 1926/1927 and is a historic building.  It was a clinic building for a whole group of Mayo Clinic Doctors.

We visited with a couple from Michigan….Brian and Margo they told us that the Clinic now has 2,000 doctors, their son was one of them.

Chihuly Glass Sculptures in the main part of the clinic…I didn’t notice them going in but I enjoyed them going out.

When we left you could barely see that huge expanse of marble floors…there were people everywhere.  Mainly old people, a few that were younger than us …but not many.

After our appointment we went and checked out of our motel, went out for a late breakfast and then picked up Chance who was really happy to see us and headed home.  It was good to be home before dark.

Zinnias

Zinnias are a Fall flower here in Minnesota.  With cooler night time temperatures  their colors become vibrant.

Nothin’ prettier than a Zinnia in September!

Happy Fall yall!  I hope you have Zinnias blooming near you!

Wistful Wednesday: Ponsford Minnesota

I have an old postcard of Ponsford Minnesota.

Indian Camp Ponsford Minnesota

I wrote about the bad spelling of the Ponsford sign yesterday.  Ponsford is seven miles from where we live.   Ponsford used to be one of “the” places on the map with a bank, two boarding houses, grocery stores, Post Office, gas stations and even a movie theater. Then a new highway was built and Ponsford became one of those forgotten towns.

Ponsford and Pine Point Indian Reservation are one mile apart. Once a year on the 4th of July there would be a big gathering and a party in Ponsford…everyone would come.  Far Guy’s Mother remembered going there as a child.  There would be a Pow Wow and a parade.  The Ojibwe; Ottertail Pillager Band settled at Pine Point.  Some Indians were traditional hunters, gatherers…and some adopted white mans practices and built homes and sent their children to school…and some mixed part of the two cultures. The whites lived at Ponsford and the Indians at Pine Point.

The Mission:  When I was growing up we always called it “The Mission”…not Pine Point and not the RES.  Long ago they had a Mission School and a Episcopal Mission Church, and a Catholic Mission Church on the reservation. 

One of the first teachers at the mission school in 1890 was Orville D. Ponsford.  He taught for two years and then went back to farming.  The school had troubles and was taken over by the Government…then it was called the Government School and it boarded the students there during the school year.

In 1890-1891 the residents wanted their own Post Office so names were sent in…Pine Point was one possibility but it was rejected because another place was using that name. The petitioners sent in their own names and as it happened Mr. Nunn underlined Ponsford’s name so the Post Office became Ponsford. The Nunns remained in the area for years and still have descendants in the area…and Mr. Ponsford well he visited Ponsford twice before he died.

Spelling

Remember those spelling tests in school.  I pretty much memorized the words.

I have the most problems with definately/definitely, diahreah/diarrhea, glamerous/glamorous…sometimes I think I should write them 100 times on a sheet of paper just like in the old days…thank goodness for spell check.

This sign has bugged me for years.  This is on Hwy 44 heading west.

This is near Hwy 44 headed east. 

Of course we all know they are the same town.  But someone besides me should know about this spelling error…so now you all know.  The 20 people or so who live in Ponsford probably don’t care.

In Town

Thank you for all the birthday wishes!  Far Guy took me out for supper; salad and steak my favorite foods! I was busy all day long…not sure what I got accomplished…just organizing “stuff.”

Town has calmed down…the tourists have left.  Some days you could shoot a cannon down the highway and not hit a soul.  I took this photo one day about lunch time.

We only need the four traffic lanes during the summer.

Far Guys old house is on the right…it used to be white now it is grey.  They still have that big hole in the back yard…Far Guys Dad filled it in several times…it was always a mud hole after a rain. It is still a mud hole…Far Guy says the story about a fuel tank being buried there might be true.

It is a relief that the summer traffic is gone…you could possibly make a left turn again…carefully!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Yes siree another year older, oh well it is better than the alternative …

I totally skipped 63 as I was 62 for two years…not sure how that happened but it did.  Funny how your mind works…or doesn’t work.

Wasn’t it the Beatles “Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I’m sixty-four?”

How’s that for an ear worm that will drive you nuts today?

Not sure what we will do today, maybe a Sunday drive with my best guys.

This card from a friend made me laugh out loud! 

Adam:14 and Finally a photo

We didn’t get to see Adam for his birthday because they had a virus going on at their house.

So here he is 14 years and 15 days old!

He is very tall.  He is in the 99.9 percentile… that means only .1 kids his age are taller than him.

Here he is …all 72 and 1/2 inches of him…that is 6 feet and one half inch…1 1/2 inches behind his brother at 6 ft 2 inches and 3 1/2 inches before he passes his Dad.

He might look a little older than he is…because some girls at the movies asked him for his phone number…and he doesn’t have a phone….well other than a home phone.  Good thing too as every time I call and he answers…he never knows anything or the whereabouts of his family members.  In desperation I usually ask how Miney and Little Elvis are!

Yesterday in school they had a paper airplane flying contest…he did well but didn’t take first place. During a demonstration at home he managed to come real close to me…I wonder …was he aiming?

He can still make faces that make me giggle!

Adam is in the Eighth Grade this year, he plays the Cello and is going to play basketball this winter.

 

Can you tell he likes Legos?  He does.

Dear Adam,  I loved you instantly when I heard your first cry!  Thank you for always making me smile and for the great hugs…even though sometimes you are just trying to butter me up for…computer use, popcorn, chocolate milk or maybe a Tootsie Pop for the ride home. I am sorry but you are always going to be the baby of the entire family…even WHEN you are the tallest!  Love Grandma