Summer so far

 I haven’t written anything at all in almost a year since we returned from Alaska. Now it is nearing the anniversary of the start of our trip. I have thought occasionally about some of experiences and subjects about which I might write, but that is as far as it goes. Today, I have some blank space. Not that blank space is unusual in my life now but instead of puzzling, reading or moving the laundry around, I am here at my keyboard.

A New Car

We sold our Buick Enclave. It was somewhat unexpected in that we had just begun talking about replacing the car as it was getting a little tired. We cleaned out the glove box, and at the bottom was a handmade mask, a gift from my friend Karen Campion. The print is of the Stars and Stripes with wear and tear marks, like it was in a fire or run over. At the time, back in 2020, that seemed like an appropriate design for a COVID mask. It has little stretchy lace elastic for the ear straps, the only thing she could find at the fabric store. I think this mask should be a museum piece in the Vintage Covid 2020 section.

It just happened that our next-door neighbor in Minnesota had a low-mileage Toyota Highlander in his garage that he didn’t need and since that was one of the models at the top of our list of cars to look for, we offered him a good price and he accepted.

Then we drove the car to Kentucky and back at the end of May. It was a trip to connect up with long-time and old friends. Most of our long-time friends seem to be getting a little age on them. We stopped in Hannibal, MO to see Vivian who was married to Don’s boss from 1974-78 at the Tempo Store in Jacksonville, IL. Vivian and Dennis, who passed away in 2021, helped us in many ways and we enjoyed many holidays with them. She has 2 children, 7 grandchildren, and 15 greats. Talk about rich.

Then we went to St. Louis where we met up with Kay and Max Klinkenborg and Kathy and Jon Edwards with whom we used to ride bikes with the famous NOBEs (Numb on Both Ends) club back in the 90’s. We stayed at an old brick 2-story Air B&B in the Forest Park area where we went to theBotanical Gardens and spent an afternoon at the Zoo. We ate good food and enjoyed a couple of card games as we caught up on each other’s lives and remembered our good times together.

We spent a night in Springfield where we met up with a couple of other Tempo-era friends for dinner one night with Dwight Reese and breakfast the next morning with Chris Holloway.

We stopped in Lincoln, IL where was able to locate Mary Krusz’s grave and spend some time with her. What a privilege that I was able to share a friendship with her since we worked together in 1990.

Then we headed for Lexington, KY where we celebrated Graeme and Nancy Wilson’s 50^th Wedding Anniversary and got reacquainted with their children Chase and Drew, who are now middle-aged men. I still referred to them as “the boys” and we got some pictures that I will share here. The boys are close to my children’s age. We met Graeme and Nancy in Jacksonville when Don was selling radio advertising and Graeme worked for Sears. We celebrated Thanksgiving with them for many years as they moved around Illinois and Missouri following Graeme’s job.

Us with the celebrating couple

Graeme & Nancy with the boys

The Highlander traveled very well.

 

 

Camp Deer at Effie, MN

Way up North is a rustic resort with cabins built to house lumberjacks back in the 1930’s that still stand. In the 1950’s, my Uncle Harold who wasn’t my uncle yet, left the Air Force after fighting in WWII and purchased the place for a fishing camp. He advertised to find someone to clean cabins and my Dad’s younger sister, Aunt Ivy came to work for him. Ivy had been in California working in an airplane factory  (Rosie the Riveter) and came back to Minnesota after the war with a baby, my cousin Jim. She then married a lumber jack who took her up North and she had my cousin Kathy in 1948. Aunt Ivy then found herself the sole provider for her children so she was looking for work. She was a very hard worker and kept the place spotless as well as providing freshly baked bread for Harold and the campers. She became indispensable and of course Harold asked her to marry him at which time he became my Uncle Harold. They had a child together, my cousin Norman. Most of this story I never knew until I was an adult. Uncle Harold adopted Jim and Kathy and to me he was always their Dad.

These are all old pictures. I didn't get any this year.

Norman

The resort is still in business and looks much like it did when I visited as a young child. It is a beautiful place situated between Deer and Pickeral Lakes with the road running through it. The cabins on the Deer Lake side look out over the beach where they are provided with a splendid sunset almost every night. The cabins are rustic, meaning they have no running water. They do have electricity and a propane stove for cooking the fish that you catch out of the lakes. A bathhouse with a shower for Ma and Pa is a short walk from the cabins. The “Office” where Uncle Harold and then Norman held court and told stories is still there but there is no story-teller anymore. The coffee pot is set up to go in the morning and there are all the things you need:  night crawlers, ice, pizza, ice cream and water for purchase on the honor system. You make a note on a paper when you take an item and it gets added to your bill when you check out. It is a good system.

Jim’s widow Em is now running the place along with her sons. One son, Jeff comes up every weekend from the cities and mows the grass and helps with whatever needs to be done. Not sure how much longer this place will continue as a resort. It is just this last year that we lost both Kathy and Norman.

We went there with our boat and rented a cabin for the second week of June. My brother Dick also rented a cabin and we had visits from 2 other brothers, Mark and Doug. It was a good week. Did a little reading, fishing and enjoyed a glass of wine watching the sun set over Deer Lake several nights.

Now we are back in Coon Rapids with no more travel plans for the summer except to go the Blue Grass Festival in August. Kelly will join us for that

Rustina the Palmdale Chicken

 This story has been sitting in the back of my mind and it needs to be told though it might be old and stale by now. Chicken can get that way.

Last fall when we returned to Palmdale, our neighbor Jack, 2 doors down, had adopted an abandoned chicken that lived over the fence in the property behind the RV park. He fed her corn but he also got fed up because she was pestering him and hanging around the place all the time. Once we watched as he pitched her back over the fence to get her away. That was fine with us and we were somewhat amused. Then Jack did the unthinkable. He sold his camper, packed up and went back to Minnesota, abandoning the abandoned chicken. We discussed the best way for the chicken to travel with Jack and it was suggested that “plucked and frozen” might be best way but I don’t think he even considered that. By the way, this was a Rhode Island Red chicken we are talking about and since she was becoming a pet, people began calling her Rusty.

Once Jack left, Rusty began making friends with other Palmdale Residents. Our neighbors next door, Lyle and Judy fed her some happy hour snacks but once Rusty deposited some droppings on their patio, she was discouraged from coming back. Don fed her once, but I yelled at him that I didn’t want to encourage the chicken on our patio either.

At the Palmdale Tenant’s Committee meeting in December, Don made the announcement that Lyle and Judy would be taking charge of the chicken and her name was now Rustina because clearly Rusty is a rooster’s name and this was a hen. Our neighbors Mike and Deb across from us who live in a big fifth-wheel began feeding Rustina creamed corn and oatmeal, and making sure she had plenty of water as chickens need a lot of water. Rustina would follow us up to the Rec Center when we went up to exercise in the morning and she became quite popular around the place enjoying patio parties with various residents.

Rustina

One day, we were amused because Rustina was roosting on the chair in front of Lyle and Judy’s house. It didn’t look like a very good place to roost for a chicken. Up until then she had flown back across the fence to roost. Then things became much less amusing. We have a nicely sheltered railing by our front steps right next to our porch and Rustina decided that was her place to roost every night as the sun went down. She would have preferred being in the porch but that was never going to happen.  It didn’t take long for us to realize that this was not going to work. When we opened the door in the morning it swung across the landing and smeared chicken shit all over the place.

Christmas Eve Dinner (Dick, Terry Mike, Deb and Jean)

On Christmas Eve we hosted a dinner party and as our guests were preparing to leave we gave them instructions about how to exit our porch without disturbing Rustina too much and avoiding walking in the chicken shit. One time Deb found a white egg under her camper and brought it over to show it to us. I was skeptical about whether Rustina layed the egg as it was white but Deb was so excited that I didn’t want to disillusion her. So the story remains that Rustina laid an egg.

We decided to prevent the chicken from roosting on our porch. We shooed her away and I tried to get Don to throw her over the fence like we saw Jack do but he wasn’t into that. She kept coming back. So we started covering the porch landing with the Valley Star which we subscribe to. That worked fairly well at keeping the shit off the wood except when the wind blew the paper up on the siding. We still had the problem with the door and at times used the back door to walk around the porch. We decided to make the area uncomfortable for Rustina. Lyle provided us with some chicken wire which Don crumpled up and tied on the railing with tie straps. It didn’t take her long to get comfortable with that. Don found a board and a bunch of 3-inch self-tapping screws which he put in the board so the screws sharp ends projected up out of the board and there was no place for her to step that didn’t have a sharp screw. We watched her as she tried to settle down on the screws and the first night, she didn’t set her body down but neither did she leave. The second night she adapted to the screws and made herself at home. I googled ways to repel chickens and sprinkled cinnamon and cayenne pepper all over the board, but that didn’t make a difference.

Meanwhile, I was also talking to people and discussing where to get rid of a nuisance chicken since Rustina had clearly become that. Suggestions included calling animal control or making it the park’s problem since we are paying rent there. Meanwhile Deb continued to feed the chicken. I talked to her about how this couldn’t go on. She stopped feeding Rustina and the amount of poop was down about 90%. I felt bad about starving Rustina. Finally, I decided to call around to chicken farmers looking for advice. I found a CSA (CD&A Mini Ranch in San Benito). The lady I talked to said that they raise Rhode Island Reds and would take her off our hands.

Mike and Deb’s next-door neighbor, Grace had a couple of dog crates by their camper. They agreed to allow us to use a crate to relocate Rustina if we made sure to clean it out good which we were happy to do. Grace informed us that she is able to communicate with animals and she had discussed with Rustina the problems she was causing on our porch and our desire to be rid of her. She said that Rustina understood but she was apprehensive as you would expect her to be. She also said that we have the name wrong and her name was Beverly. So one morning in January, I rode along with Mike and Deb as we hauled Beverly in the back of their pick-up truck to the CSA and handed her off to the chicken farm where she belonged. Mike cleaned up the crate and returned it to Grace.