Life is busy and good

This week has seemed to fly by. I did take Wednesday off and it was a marvelous day to do so; 85, brilliant sun, a retirement party for a friend to attend, and then off to have Pam knead all the knots out of my body and send me almost into la, la land. Her massage is so wonderful!

I finished reading "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson this week. His wit was quick, his knowledge wonderful, and his stamina more than I would have had even at 20. It is amazing to think that anyone would desire taking an over 2,000 mile hike in the Appalachians. His drive was something to admire. I really enjoyed his in-depth coverage of the flora and fauna, the stories of a few of the deaths on Mount Washington, the escape during a case of dense fog, and the snow and rain that they were forced to travel through and finally the heat that did them in at the end. His friend was a trouper for even going with him. A good read.

Life has been a mist of rain quite frequently this past week. Except for Monday and Wednesday we have been cloudy and often rainy. Last night was something else.I was working late on the aerial photo exhibit at the museum and suddenly the fire alarm started sounding. Without a radio in the museum I ran to the library to see what Chuck could come up with; it was tornado watch. I went back to my cozy office with four walls and no windows and though how it was the safest place in town at that moment then got homesick for hubby and headed out the door and went home. The lightening was furious in places but all we had was a hard 15 minute rain that dumped 1/2 inch on us. The next morning, the TV reported tornadoes all over the state and several in northwest North Dakota, too. We were very lucky to escape.

Let's see, there must be five things I am thankful for tonight.
1. Our staff, they are the greatest!
2. Our cozy home.
3. Skype, I can visit with my daughter and grandchildren, face to face.
4. The scriptures, they keep me close to our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
5. Good friends and family.

Another busy day tomorrow, it is the Scandinavian Festival and we have a Story Time for Children at the museum. I can just taste that rice pudding with raspberry sauce. Yum!

The Birds!

When I came home from work yesterday the first thing I did was peer into the Robin nest under the south end of the deck. I should have ran for the camera! One little one was sitting on the edge of the nest while the others huddle together, half and half out of the nest. This morning, I grabbed the camera to take what I thought would be one last photo but they were already gone! One of the parents came swooping in and landed on the grass not far from me and kept a close eye on what I was doing. Whatever for, they had already helped the little ones in their flight to a new life? What will be the next thing to see in our yard that will give us enjoyment.

Ardmore walked to the bridge yesterday and on the way saw four baby wood chucks hardly any larger than his hands sitting out of the their tunnel. We believe the mother was killed a while back as someone had stopped on the road and then we heard a gun go off. What will these little one do if the mother is gone? Hopefully the male helps, does anyone know if a father wood chuck would step to the plate under those types of circumstances? Time for some research!

The Aerial Farm exhibits are coming along, slowly but surely. We have about 50 photos to work with now. Several for the Century Farm exhibit and some the other aerial farm exhibits. We took all the info on the mystery farms from the early 1950s Roseau Times-Region newspapers and I will now begin to call people to see if they are able to locate their family farm black and white photo. I don't think we will get the exhibit up before July first, but hope to start.

It is a beautiful day today, we are suppose to get up into the 80s. No wind to speak of either so our wheat should get sprayed some time today. We have reached a point where we are more concerned about spraying the fungicide than even the herbicide. After checking the field a couple of days ago, Ardmore reported lots of damage on the stems. We knew that would be a problem with all of the rain we have had. Pray that our area doesn't get any rain for at least a week. LOL

I stayed home today to soak up the sun and do some work at home. This afternoon is my friend Ann's retirement party. Congrads Ann!We went out to lunch yesterday. Chinese is so good!

THE STANLEY CUP IS COMING TO ROSEAU MINNESOTA!

Due to tremendous efforts of Roseau's Dustin Byfuglien and his Chicago Black Hawks team mates, the Stanley Cup will be coming to Roseau! This is the second time an individual from Roseau has won the Stanley Cup, but will be the first time it will be in Roseau.

Roseau was voted the Capital of the State of Hockey contest on www.wild.com on April 10, 2010 when the Wild hosted the Dallas Stars. Roseau has always been strong, winning their first state championship in 1946 when they were known as the Green Wave. The tremendous effort of the coaches to teach our young people to skate and play the game is renown. Even when the young boys played in youth hockey they were tough enough to go all the way to the Nationals and win.
Congratulations to Dustin Byfuglien and his team, they were deserving of the win and we are proud to be associated with them.

Scripture Study, Museum Exhibits and Exhibits

This summer I signed up for the challenge to read the Book of Mormon. I decided to use the teacher's Sunday School manual with the process and have found that this is very effective when using the internet. Dearscriptures.com is an excellent way to study the scriptures using the manual as a study guide. Hubby and I are using the SS Old Testament manual for our scripture study using dear scriptures which caused me to decided to do the same when I committed to studying with the Facebook Book of Mormon group. The one thing I really like is the ability to add comments from the lesson manual into my scriptures on "dear scriptures" It has several excellent scripture dictionaries, one can highlight or change the color of text, as well as leave comments.

Last week, Keith and Leanne Johnson setup a display of several Norwegian items. Keith is a wonderful wood carver as you can see. Leanne displayed several bell pulls, crocheting, and other piece of hand work.

The Roseau Scandinavian Festival is held June 18th and 19th, so this display is setup just in time. The museum will be hosting a Scandinavian Story Time for children on Saturday the 19th from 12:30 to 2:30.

We are hoping to open the "A Bird's Eye View of Roseau County Farms" and Century Farm exhibit just before the Scandinavian Festival, but it doesn't look like we will make it. We will see.

Today is the final game the Chicago Black Hawks will play for the Stanley Cup if they win. Go Dustin Byfuglien and your team, we are routing for you all!

Hockey and Roseau

We have had our nights taken up with watching the Stanley Cup and our own home town player, Dustin Byfuglien. It was great seeing him make two goals last night. Our goal is on seeing the Stanley Cup visit Roseau. Go Black Hawks Go!

We have been busy putting together a new exhibit at the museum. It will have two parts to it and will go along with the Smithsonian exhibit that just left us. It will examine the changes on the farm since the 1980s when there was more dairy and beef cattle so fences were seen in abundance. Today we have very few dairy farms and not many beef ranches in the county either. The exhibit will present aerial farm photos from each township, Britt titled it "A Bird's Eye View of Roseau County Farms". The second part will focus on Century Farms, there are about 60 farms that have submitted applications under the Minnesota State Fair and Farm Bureau program that honors families who own Century Farm. This has been an enjoyable exhibit to work on and especially so when I call the families and ask if they would be willing to help with the exhibit by providing photos. We have about 40 photographs in the aerial exhibit, some are in already and some will be coming in during this week. We hope to get the exhibit up by the twentieth of June. That will give time for summer visitors and family reunions to come and see how things looked on a farm in the past compared to today. One of fun things we have coming in is some the aerial mystery farms from the 1950s that were in the Roseau Times-Region.

Today was time to play catch up on some of my friend's blogs. That little guy of Desi's is so dang cute as are Appie and Dave's two little gals.

Today was our daughter, Michelle's birthday. Happy Birthday darling daughter!

Wolves howling in the night

Hubby asked me if I heard the wolves howling last night. Here I thought I had tossed and turned all night, no, I did not hear the wolves. He thought it sounded like there were about 4 or 5. Brush wolves, probably. I remember we had a brush wolf in our area several years ago. I was cultivating when I saw him. Such a scrawny animal, I felt sorry for him or perhaps it was a her and she was nursing pups, which would explain her condition. I hope these are just brush wolves and not timber wolves. If they are the size of the timber wolf we have in the museum, it
could be fearsome.

Monday's Memorial Service was such a wonderful tribute to the Korean and Vietnam vets. Aaron Nelson and his advanced history class put together a wonderful program and exhibit honoring them. Throughout the year the class had conducted oral histories from several veterans. They presented each of them with copy and also the historical society and the Minnesota Historical Society. I was very impressed with their work. Aaron and I had partnered on the project to receive equipment through the Minnesota Arts and Culture grant. We were so pleased to be able to get this grant. It provided what was necessary to do quality oral history programs, lights, camera, etc. The museum had also conducted four interviews with women who have served in the military. During the next few weeks I am hopeful that I have a couple of the students come in and assist us in organizing these interviews so we know how to handle them.

It is very humbling to participate in such a great program.