Chance : Leaf Scout

Hiya!  It is me Chance the blogging Border Collie.  I have been out scouting leaves for Far Side.  If she leaves the yard I must accompany her..even if it means giving up a game of ball with Far Guy.

See I found her some.  Now it is time to go back home.  How many photos does she need anyway?

Hurry up slow poke I have a date with a ball.

The freaking leaves took so long he gave up and went in for a nap.  Oh well I suppose she wants to take more photos of me anyway.  I should ask for a raise.

(Chance is that a leaf on your butt?) 

Might be..whatsittoya? Leaves are all over the place:)

Sailing into Fall

Far Guy and I needed a day of R and R away.  Away from the phone..away from work..away from the house.  BUT not away from each other or Chance.

It took us forever to get through town..too many garage sales to stop at.  An undisclosed number of “treasures” were purchased.  Our destination was a hidden in the woods antique shop where Far Guy bought two boxes of trains once upon a time.  No trains were purchased this time.

We stopped for lunch at Walker Minnesota.  We took our lunch to the waterfront at Leech Lake. I saw a condo for sale there..it had a tiny yard but you could watch the sailboats come and go all summer long.  How relaxing that must be.

I could have watched them for hours.  It was great practice for the new camera.

It was a beautiful day in Minnesota 80 degrees F (26 C) and a breeze.  One of those Fall days that you must grab onto and enjoy to the fullest because you know that winter is on the way.

When we owned the resort we had a small sailboat..nothing as large as these..ours was a two person sailboat.  I was out in it a few times..I remember wishing it was a larger boat. I liked the way the wind would hit the sails and we would glide along the water effortlessly:)

September 15 2012

The luncheon was a success.  My potato salad was gone in the blink of an eye.  The only food  that impressed me was the carrot cake.. it was very moist.  I thought that the chicken soup I had came out of a can.  I must have a sophisticated palate.  Far Guy must have an ordinary everyday palate because he thought the warmed up broth was tasty.  Someday I am going to count the taste buds on his tongue.

Chance had a day at the Dogs Paw..he was happy to see me at the end of the day.  He is all clean and shiny!  He was all tired out..he probably didn’t nap at all during the day. I walked in the door at the spaw and he started howling.  I think he can hear our car. He had a cute kerchief on..it had acorns on it.  Far Guy took it off and said “It would look fine on a squirrel..but not on you Chance.”

It was a tiring week..I am tired. I am ready to be done at the museum. I am ready to be at home and do my own stuff instead of someone else’s stuff.

Half the month is over…I have today off..a vacation day!  When I go back on Tuesday I will have 10 days left.  Yes!  I am smiling:)

Finicky

I can never resist a new style bird feeder.

That one on the left is new.  It is a Thistle Feeder and I bought it at Mennards.  I liked the design.  So far it is not a hit with the birds.  The two other feeders are filled with sunflower hearts, the tube feeder has black sunflower seeds and the wire box feeder has suet. The new feeder is still as full of thistle as it was a week ago. Finicky little buggers.

You can use it just like a little peep hole to look at other parts of the yard.  It kept me entertained for quite some time.

Yesterday morning Chance was up at six..Far Guy took him for a walk on leash.  As usual whoever is trying to sleep gets a huge greeting on his return to the house.  I could not go back to sleep..so I got up and started cooking.  I was not sure if I was going to take a potato salad to the soup and salad luncheon..I am now since I had time to cook up the taters and eggs and get them in the fridge.

After work I cut up the cooled  ingredients and mixed up my potato salad.. I have been waiting for that potato salad all summer.  We had some for supper! Baked Salmon and Potato Salad and the last of the Apple Pie.  I am finicky. I put the potato salad in a cereal bowl…my stomach  has compartments and I do not like my food touching.

I created my take on Carrot Cranberry Salad too..I thought it tasted great.. I mixed Cranberry Juice with a little Miracle Whip for the dressing to moisten the shredded carrots and dried cranberries.  Perhaps I have been watching too many episodes of “Chopped.”

The fundraiser luncheon is today.  I hope that the piano player doesn’t play so loud that the guests cannot converse.  Last year we had to shout over the top of the piano music..I got many complaints.  I requested that the pianist keep it down this year.  I think she wears a hearing aid..maybe her batteries were low last year.

All of the food is donated..so it is a good fundraiser for the Museum…but it is still lots of work.  12 days and still counting:)

Cool and Windy

The weather is cool and windy..I think it must have snowed someplace or maybe an icecap is melting.  The air has a chill to it.

The animals are on the move.   Early yesterday morning Chance sounded the alarm..from his vantage point on the landing he could see through an open window and something came into his yard.  It was a porcupine that waddled on through… I saw it waddling.  I took Chance out on the leash ..Far Guy scouted around and yawned.  He said “It is just moving through.”  Maybe..

We saw some Turkeys the other day…they seem to be bunching up.

I gave Chance a lecture about the skunks and the porcupines..he is a Border Collie after all.

If he was as smart as his is handsome..we would be in business.  He challenged Sophie over at Odda and Putzer’s the other day..Sophie is the in charge welcome cat. Chance ran at her and barked..she stood her ground and tried to rub up against him..well it ain’t no fun if she doesn’t run.  Skunks run and Porcupines run..I wonder if Chance remembers his skunk encounter last year.  I have my skunk bucket all ready just incase.

My Japanese Tree Lilac that never blooms has yellowish foliage this year.

Burr Oak leaves turning brown.  Brown..brown everything is brown. It seems to early for the season of brown.

13 days and counting.  I had the day off yesterday.  Not much was accomplished I slept late..I baked some bread, did some laundry and played with the new camera.  Chance is good company:)

Wistful Wednesday: 1958

This was my first day of school in 1958.  I was in second grade.

A wonderful neighbor lady by the name of Minnie Zauche was my second grade teacher.  I adored her.  I loved reading..learning to read opened a whole new world to me.  I was a good reader.  Mrs. Zauche said I talked too much in the lunch room but I still had a fairly good year in the second grade.  Sometime during the year I had my tonsils removed and got to have soup in the kitchen with Arvilla until my throat was all better.  Arvilla was the school cook, I loved being sick enough to get special care in the kitchen.

This is the step that faced east in the old farm house.  Through the door was a porch that was cold and drafty. Another door in the porch led into the kitchen.  I think this was the year that the Christmas tree was out in the porch.

I think my coat was Robin’s Egg Blue, and my Mother sewed it for me.  The house was white..weren’t all farm houses white back then? :)

Busy as a Bee

Busy week this week.  At work and at home..next week isn’t looking real good either.  Sometimes I just have to say “No” to the extra activities that suck the life out of me.

Far Guy is going to put some extra volunteers hours in this week.  We have the Soup and Salad Luncheon fundraiser coming up on Friday.   I have all the preliminary work done for it..but there will be interruptions selling tickets this week and I have several groups coming through and one huge project and several smaller ones to complete…and who knows what else will get dropped on my desk.

I have to set a deadline for accessions so that I can get them photographed, into the computer and all the paperwork done.  I have a list of things in my head that must be completed..that list will go onto paper today..and the list will get posted for the Board Members:)  I have also scheduled work days for them:)  I have three days paid vacation coming yet this month..don’t know if I will get to take them or not.  My daughter says “Just close the doors on your scheduled days off if no one will cover for you..they will get the message that they cannot push you around.”

There will be no newsletter this quarter.  I do not have the proper program to write the newsletter unless I resurrect the old computer and get it to hobble through with the blue screen of death forty million times a day.  The proper program was ordered back in July..and it is lost in the mail someplace.

Things could be worse.  One of my long time since 1972 friends is having her leg amputated this week.  What do you say to someone who loses a limb?  Sorry about your leg..are you planning a memorial service for it?  Since her husband is also an amputee ..you are now a matched set?  You can get double the wear out of a pair of socks and shaving your legs only takes half the time?  I know she will mourn her leg. She has put up a valiant 16 month battle to keep it having endured fourteen surgeries.  ( Never..ever use a chair to reach something..get a ladder.)

I should be thanking my lucky stars to be busy, I still have two half assed good legs and a job and a husband who cooks every night and a good dog:)

Good Intentions

I had really good intentions… about buying stuff I don’t need = “more stuff.”

Then we found a whole town of garage sales.  Uffda…I was thinking about what I could get rid of or at least move into the garage.

Could I pass up two boxes of Shiny Brites in their boxes??

Blue..they were all blue…oh I so love the blue color.  I could have resisted them if they had been green..but they were blue.  And at 50 cents a box..I could not resist. This has been a really good summer for finding Shiny Brites..I have found four boxes now…plus the box that Chance bought!

A few weeks ago I bought the bottom of a Depression Glass butter dish for 50 cents.  Yesterday I found the top for 3 dollars..it must have been meant to be??

Pretty isn’t it?  So I will dust this pretty butter dish for a few years..and then sell it.  I am certain to get more than my original investment. Maybe I can even double my money!

Far Guy bought a couple of things too..oh and I bought some more old photos..they are small and lay flat and hardly take up any space at all.

Soon it will be winter and there won’t be any more garage sales..by then maybe my good intentions will resurface:)

Fall is in the air

It has cooled off. It gets down into the 40 F (4 C) range at night.

The acorns are falling.  If the windows are open we can hear them dropping on the garage or woodshed roofs.  Sometimes it is quite musical.

I collected these acorns for a friend and will mail them off soon.  There are so many of them that I wish there was something I could craft..I thought about stringing a bunch on a wire to use as a garland on the Christmas tree.  It would probably be a pain in the neck project…most of the acorns lose their caps as they fall to the ground and begin to dry out.

Far Guy has been cutting wood.

The woodshed is filling up fast.  He has enough cut for this year and is working on next years supply.

The driveway is beginning to look fall like.  I am not sure what kind of fall color we will have this year…a few more days should tell the story..it may have been just too dry for good fall color:)

Janitor or Not?

I am THE janitor at the museum.  I clean the toilets(yuck) and empty the trash and scrub some floors and Swiffer and vacuum (Far Guy Vacuums for me on the days he works.)  I dust and I think I am so happy every surface of my home is not like a museum..or is it?

Many wealthy people are little more than janitors of their possessions. - Frank Lloyd Wright

I am not wealthy BUT I still have more than my fair share of possessions.  In the past few days and I have been saying to myself “Self you must get rid of some of your stuff.” and “Self for every one thing you purchase two things should leave the house.”

For a long time I did not buy anything unless it could be used up, eaten or recycled.

( Books can be recycled ..so they don’t count.)

Some people can find a purpose for almost anything!  This Tin Man caught my eye last weekend.

This is a silver plated platter with another dish and a piece of gaudy jewelry..Garden Art!

Certainly some of the “stuff” I have can be reworked to be something special?

I hate dusting..I hate dusting some of my stuff..I hate this time of year when the cobwebs seem to grow by the minute..and if you let them go for a day or two..oh my.

Are you a janitor to your “stuff”?  Have you ever planned to retire from being a janitor to your stuff?  How is that working for you?:)

Hands On Museum Projects

Hands on for kids is spread out throughout the museum.  There is still an area in my office for the kids to write with a nib pen and a slate pencil.

Brand new to our hands on is sheep wool.  Roving, batting and raw wool.

Very few of the kids that visit the museum live on a farm..and the ones that do ..consider a farm..a dog and a horse.  Gone are farms as we knew them..at least in this area of Minnesota.

I had so much raw wool I made a Ziplock bag that says “Smell the Sheep!”  On really warm days it was a real eye opener.  Far Guy made the wool display board and the wool itself was donated by Lanny way out there at Vicktory Farm and Gardens in Roy Washington.   It is nice to have blog friend that will supply you with what you need.  Many thanks Lanny, Dirt and EBet!

This year I added a table in the basement for “hands on.”

It holds many things for kids to touch.  They can guess which furs are which. ( The names are written on the back.)  They can put pieces of paper into paper embosser/seal makers, press the handle down and then cut the papers out..many kids call it “a driver’s license.” One embosser seal says something about Park Rapids and the other something about Minnesota.  Some children like to take the edge of a pencil and gently enhance the raised part of the seal.  So far no one has embossed their fingers!  We also have a sand box that is an archeological dig in the basement…full of treasure to be discovered.

I have a typewriter upstairs in the clerks office and a scale that weighs ounces.  In the Heritage room I have two sets of stereoscopes. I always explain to children that a stereoscope was entertainment for the evening ..long ago.  I have a little girls muff in my office..even the big girls like to put their hands in a muff.  My Pheasant that kids can touch gently is always a big hit with kids.  The one room school room..is all hands on..they can sit in the desks, pretend to be the teacher and write on the chalkboard…or sit and read books.  Sometimes it is just best to stand back and let the little imaginations flow.

There is some discussion about having an area in one of the newly painted rooms as a children’s area.  So far having things spread out throughout the museum works for me and the kids seem to enjoy it.  I have a list posted of all the children’s activities.

We also have a treasure hunt for kids..but as I found out the other day..I do not know where all the items are located..so I need to make a cheat sheet just for me.  I inherited the treasure hunt and it is great fun for adults and kids. 

Time at the museum is winding down..only 17 days left:)

Child Left Behind

Sometimes it helps me to write about something that is stuck in my craw.  Today that concerns a 18 year old young lady.  She comes by the museum often…she did not graduate last spring. 

Last year she thought she would graduate..then I suspect that since she lives apart from her parents.. she slept in ..and missed too many days of school to graduate. 

She showed up at the museum..I asked her “Why aren’t you in school?” She replied “Because I am going to go to night school..I hate getting up early in the morning to go to school.”  I asked “When do you start night classes?”  She replied “I am not sure.”  I said “You better get your butt in gear..just incase it doesn’t work out..maybe you should go back to high school this year.” Nope she hates school and she hates getting up in the morning.  She is looking for a job..she had a job for three weeks then she was let go..she said “For having a bad attitude.”

I did everything I could do but stand on my head to encourage her to go back to school. I told her that without a HS diploma you are stuck with menial jobs that don’t pay well.  I told her to think beyond “small town” and to further her education she needs that diploma.

How does she survive?  Many people are enabling her.  Her parents must hand out cash on a regular basis…since they are divorced I am sure they do not communicate. Her Mom pays her cell phone bill.  She lives in a place with another gal where she only has to pay utilities ( another Mom is enabling her child).  So if you only pay part of the utilities and buy a few groceries and have enough money for gas..what more do you need?  I think Daddy bought the car and covers the insurance (another enabler). Her Grandparents ( all four) must dole out cash too..on a weekly basis.

I feel sorry for her.  No one cares enough about her to see that she went to school..to see that she was not going to graduate.  Someone dropped the ball.  Someone was not doing their job. MANY people were not doing their job..Teachers, Principals, Advisors and Parents. 

How does this happen this day and age? How can the parents be so blind to the education of their child? The child does not need a car or a cellphone..both should be taken away if she cannot pay the bill.  She should have never been allowed to leave home before she was 18..but that is water under the bridge and nothing can be done about that.

I know what I would do if she were my child.  I would pay the car insurance and the cell phone bill IF her fanny was parked on a desk in school. If not she can walk everywhere and write letters to her friends.

A long time ago when our oldest daughter was in college..she had a tough semester and wanted to quit.  I said “Sure, go ahead and quit, I can put you to work here at the resort for your room and board.”  She stayed in school:)

Wistful Wednesday: 1957 First Day of School

I started school in Ray North Dakota.  It was my first day of first grade.  Away from home..strange town, strange school..my Dad was part of a road construction crew. We were in North Dakota just for the summer..but apparently we stayed into the school year.

That is me and my baby brother.  It was not his first day of school..I am not quite sure why he was in the picture..probably just because he was cute.  We are standing just outside the door of that wicked trailer house.  It had an improper ground and if you touched the sides of the door as you went in you got a shock.  I hated getting that shock.

Here we are arriving at school in a 1955 Chevy.  I think it was green.

Doris Kaatz, Carey, Deann, Connie and Mike 1957

I am not sure of the little boy in front..he must belong to Doris..but I cannot remember his name.  This was another family who was out on “the road” for the summer.  All the kids played together…jacks and marbles being my favorite.  ( I wonder what happened to these kids? )

It must have been a cool morning since we all have jackets on.   I remember nothing of the school day..other than I was scared because I knew no one.  I remember these photos being taken and some others from that time..but school..nope no memories of a teacher or anything.

What do you remember if anything about your first day of first grade? :)

Chance: Company

Hello it’s me Chance the most handsome blogging Border Collie in Minnesota.

I had company..the beautiful Hermione (Miney) and Little Elvis.

Friends to play ball with.  I am polite and let Miney get the ball.

I would let them use my pool..but neither of them like water as much as I do.

Miney is so beautiful, I love her so much..she and I have been friends for seven years now.

Little Elvis is a pain in the leg sometimes.  I was barking whilst Far Guy dug a hole..Little Elvis would nip me in the leg and I would sit down on top of him.  He is just a little guy with a big attitude.

My flag is flying again.

That is a photograph of me, my sister had it turned into a flag for Far Side.  Not every dog can be a flag:)

Eleven Years Ago

Eleven years ago on Labor Day September 03 my youngest grandson was born.  It was a real labor day for his mother.  They had been visiting us and Jen said before she left.  “You better pack up and come along I think I might be going to have the baby!”
I knew he was a boy.  Jen and Andy were keeping it a secret but Jen slipped one day while talking with me and said “The boys.”  so I knew.  Far Guy did not want to know..so we did not tell him.
He was beautiful handsome.  I was there when he drew his first breath..I counted his fingers and his toes and tried to comfort his mother who had a very difficult labor.
Tomorrow he is headed for fifth grade.

Time goes by so fast.

It seems like only yesterday.



His mother bought three or four of these blankets.  He would chew on the outer edges..sometimes I would worry that he would stuff so much of his “blankie” into his mouth that he would choke.  His mother would occasionally “trim” the outer edges of the blankie..so it got smaller and smaller.


We had chocolate doughnuts while he was here..they are one of his favorites.

When he opened his card he knew immediately that he wanted to head to someplace that sold Legos..apparently he had his eye on something:)