Photo © Jerrianne Lowther
Mama! Mama! Can't you SEE how HUNGRY I am? Me! Me! Me!
Click here to see Miss Kitty's Mama Robin Web Log, Third Week.

Updates -

UPDATE -- Kurt & Jeni Larson
by Shari [Miller Larson Schweiger] (Kurt's Mom)
Bradenton, FL

We just received the following e-mail from Kurtis:

Just wanted to let you guys know I got the promotion I was hoping for. I made E-6/ Electronics Technician 1st Class.*
Love,
Kurt

*This is equivalent to a Staff Sergeant in the Army. His ship the Bonhomme Richard is on its way back to San Diego [from the Persian Gulf]; they should dock in the next two weeks.  As you can imagine, Jeni (his wife) is very excited.


Kurt aboard USS Bonhomme Richard, left; with Jeni at airport, right.

Following is a letter from Kurt's wife, Jeni:
 
Here are a couple pics of us. There is one of Kurt on his ship (the USS Bonhomme-Richard), one of us at our beach wedding in Florida (November 29, 2004), one of us at the airport when I dropped him off to head out to his deployment (January 11, 2005), and one of us with Kurt's daughter, Sami from last summer ('04). Hope that's enough... :)

Jeni (& Kurt) Larson
San Diego, CA


Kurt & Jeni's beach wedding, left; with Kurt's daughter "Sami," right.


UPDATE -- New Baby!
by Brianna Anderson-Jordet
St. Cloud, MN

We are happy to announce the arrival of Oscar, a 10 month old Harlequin macaw. A Harlequin Macaw is not a parrot you'll ever see in the wild. He's a hybrid, or better yet, mutt of the parrot world. He's a mix between a Green Wing macaw and a Blue and Gold macaw. He inherited the green wing's size and a bit of coloring from both. We call him a "he" although the only way to truly tell the gender of this species is to perform a DNA test.

These birds are clowns and love to be the center of attention. They love to get into trouble. Luckily, at this moment, one of his favorite pastimes is to sit on the back of his chair, staring out the window and screeching at anyone passing by. That's harmless fun and keeps him out of my computer papers. They may also learn to talk quite well. Doug is trying to teach him to say That darn cat! We'll see how that goes in a few months.

Oscar is very intelligent. There have been studies that show they have the intelligence level of a 5-7 year old child and the emotional level of a 2 year old. So, any of you who have had a dog and remember when that dog was a puppy and was a handful, imagine having a puppy for a lifetime! Parrots can live up to 100 years of age.

His call sounds like some prehistoric raptor -- very LOUD.

The mess he creates every day amazes me. It's a good thing I love birds so much. There is a large problem of displaced birds because of some of these reasons. I've been spending a lot of time at a place in Minneapolis called MAARS (Midwest Avian Adoption and Rescue); they are a wealth of knowledge on bird care and behavior.

A lot of the birds there have had troubled pasts and have developed problematic behaviors. I was going to adopt one of their parrots, but decided my first one should be a baby. I'd rather not bring a large bird that may hate men into the home, as a lot of them have this problem. In the future, perhaps we'll adopt a companion for Oscar. That is, when we have the space.


Brianna and Oscar, her newly adopted young Harlequin Macaw.


Day to Day R
With Donna Mae
Ashby, MN

FORGOTTEN HEROES

They return from every war
Thanking God to be alive.
They meld into society,
Feeling blessed to have survived.

Some, with daily nightmares
And memories hard to bear,
Some, with physical reminders,
Of limbs no longer there.

Some, with great hopes for the future,
Discover jobs are hard to find
And feel that this Country
is neither loyal or kind.

Some of them return,
To be confined to bed and chair
And never have a visitor
To offer thanks or a word of cheer.

They are the forgotten heroes,
Who answered this Nation's call,
Our brave, American Veterans...
Who were willing to give their all.

-- Freda Fullerton


The Matriarch Speaks W
by Dorothy (Dake) Anderson
Alexandria, MN

Who Is This?

Let's Play a Guessing Game: Whenever it is handy to do so we will run a picture of someone of the subscribers or staff members of our e-magazine. Tell us who you think it is -- we will let you know who was the first to guess it right -- and the correct guess -- in the following week's Bulletin.
 
(Send us some to run; we will line them up in our staging area to take their turn.)


How many can you identify?

Answers to last week's mystery pictures (click here to review them):

Well now, I do believe that is Grandpa Dake, Wm. B. Dake, and would he be holding Duane (Miller) and Donna (Anderson)?

And if I were to take a wild guess, I wonder if the little lady would be one of Marlene's?

Ginny McCorkell
Blaine, MN

You are correct -- now we will see if any one knows her name. -- DMA


Our guess, from left to right, is Duane Miller and Donna Anderson in Grandpa Dake's lap!! As to the girl in the other picture, we don't even have a good guess. ;) ----ur brother LeRoy

LeRoy Dake
Blaine, MN

I'm guessing your dad is holding one of yours on the right, and would guess that is Donna and the other Duane, since they're only a few days apart in age. The little girl on the right looks like Marlene.

Sherry Dake, wife of LTD
Brooks, MN

You have done very good sleuthing -- the Marlene guess is the wrong generation -- but the right bloodline...


LTD Storybrooke

The Long Ride
By Larry Dake
Part Five

Rolling toward Ennis, Montana, to pick up a load of talcum powder, I pictured plastic bottles of "baby powder," with shaker tops. From the town of Ennis, I was to go thirteen miles out to a rural address. The countryside was rolling, open rangeland with the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop. The day was bright. The hills were a wintery brown, with patches of snow in the shadows. As I neared the rural location, I was having a hard time picturing a "baby powder factory" out here. A neighboring town, on the map, was named "Cowboy's Heaven" -- maybe this was "baby powder" for saddle-sore cowboys?

I arrived at the Yellowstone Talc Mine, where soft talc rock was being mined from the earth by heavy equipment, and then pulverized. My trailer was soon loaded with brown-paper bags of powder, weighing a hundred pounds each. Their delivery address was Plant Road, Ennis, Texas.

From Ennis, Montana, to Ennis, Texas, was 1,650 miles.

Ennis, Montana, was named after an early settler named William Ennis, who was born in Ireland. He came to the area in 1863 and built a store. In 1881 he became the first postmaster of Ennis.

One day while in Virginia City, fifteen miles to the west, a neighbor of William's pulled his gun and shot him. The neighbor had heard rumors that William had said bad things about him. William Ennis died from his gunshot wounds on July 4th, 1898. William's family continued to run the post office in Ennis until 1967.

From the mine, I returned to Ennis, and then headed south, skirting around the west side of Yellowstone Park. I then headed east, crossing the Rocky Mountains and the continental divide.

I was descending a steep grade on a snow-packed road, when looking into the rear view mirror I was momentarily puzzled -- all I was seeing was white-out.

Suddenly, I realized my heavily loaded trailer was trying to pass me up! I was in the early stages of a jack-knife! What I was seeing in the mirror was the white side of the trailer!

With a precipitous drop into a canyon, and a frozen creek at the bottom, this was not a good place to leave the highway at 45 MPH while being followed by 47,000 pounds of talcum powder!

On the side of the steering column was a hand operated, trailer-brake. It looked a lot like a heavy duty blinker switch.

Holding my breath, I very gently eased on the hand brake, independent of the tractor brakes, until I could feel a gentle tug from the rear. The tractor and trailer straightened out -- and I started breathing again.

It was about a three day drive to Texas. I would drive about ten hours at a time, and then sleep eight. I had started calling home once a day, and our long conversations were beginning to turn into a sizeable phone bill. The bill would take a big bite out of my paycheck.

Driving through the metropolitan Dallas-Fort Worth area, it was heavily overcast, and raining. The grey skies and urban sprawl were very uninviting.

When I got to Ennis, southeast of Dallas, it was dark. I stopped at a dimly lit dairy-store to pick up some supper, and to call home. There were two girls working at the store. They chatted back and forth, from the front to the rear of the store, in Texas lingo. I felt like I was in "a whole other country."

It was quite curious that I had traveled 1650 miles to a town of the same name as the one I'd left in Montana. It was very evident these were two very different places.

It turned out Ennis, Texas, was also named after an Irishman: Cornelius Ennis. Like William Ennis, Cornelius Ennis started by opening a store. His was a drug store in Houston, and then later he expanded into general merchandise. Cornelius became the mayor of Houston.

During the Civil War, Cornelius bought his own ironclad ship for $40,000 in gold, and was a blockade runner for the Confederate Army. He traded cotton in Havana, for guns and ammunition from England. After the war he started several railroad companies, one of which had its terminus in Ennis.

Because of the railroad that Cornelius brought to town, Ennis became known as "the place where railroads and cotton meet." At one time, more cotton was ginned in that county than in any other county in America.

As I neared the delivery address, it was clear I was no longer near "Cowboy's Heaven."

The road had been built by filling in a roadbed across a swampy area. There was standing water in both ditches, and some kind of canes were growing, perhaps as tall as twelve feet high, right up to the narrow ditches, on both sides of the road. The weather was muggy and there were wild sounds coming from the canes. Probably frogs.

At the end of the road was a paint factory. There was no one around so I backed up to the loading dock and crawled into the bunk for the night.

In the morning I discovered the factory manufactured yellow paint. The paint was sold in fifty gallon drums and was used to paint yellow stripes on roads.

The white talc from the Yellowstone mine was a major ingredient in the yellow paint. Was it possible that some of the talc I had hauled from Ennis, Montana, to Ennis, Texas, would someday find its way back to Montana, to paint yellow stripes on the highway that runs in front of the Yellowstone Talc Mine?

I may have pondered that question ... but I was on my way to a town of a different color: Greenville, Texas.


Photo © Larry T. Dake
Trucking through heavy weather: grey skies, overcast and raining...


Travelogue t

The Bolivian Beat
By Kjirsten Swenson

Editor's Note: Kjirsten returned to Bolivia for a second year of independent study, prior to entering medical school at Baylor University in Houston this fall. She is now trekking in Peru.

Puno and Arequipa, Peru

I meant to send this a week ago, but it seems I didn't...

Puno is cold and ugly, but graced by its location on the shores of Lake Titicaca.

Last week I visited a few of the Peruvian isles with a group of travelers. Our first stop was one of Los Uros, a group of islands that are actually large, floating mats of reeds. Our guide explained that during a period of tribal warfare, the peaceful Uros people escaped in their reed boats to a shallow bay in the lake. There, they tied the boats together and added layers of totora reeds, creating a reed platform one meter thick that floats in about two meters of water. Woven bunches of totora reeds were fashioned into small huts. Five hundred years later, the Uros people continue to live on the floating isles.

We descended at a typical island, about half the size of a hockey rink and home to seven families. The sensation of walking on the reeds was odd, rather springy, and as a man ran past the "ground" beneath me rocked slightly. People fish and gather eggs as they did long ago, but now tourism and development have reached the isles. Now they live primarily by selling artisan crafts bought in bulk in Puno and then sold to us. And on the "capital" island, there' s even a solar panel and telephone!

After visiting Los Uros, we traveled by boat for more than three hours to reach a large island toward the middle of the lake. Amantaní was a spectacular sight as we approached, with lovely Inca terracing and rather tidy settlements tumbling down the steep slopes to the lake shore. With no cars, dogs, or electricity, it was a peaceful place. We each stayed with a family, where we shared typical island meals of quinua soup, potatoes, oka sweet potatoes, and herbal teas. That evening I hiked to the island's highest point -- in time to see a gorgeous sunset over the lake.

Later that night, each of us dressed up in traditional clothing for a peña, an evening of traditional music and dance. The señora at the home where I stayed let me borrow one of her polleras, a typical wool skirt that is heavy and full enough to make the most undernourished islander look positively plump. The blouse was beautifully embroidered with bright flower and bird designs. And to cover my head, I was presented with a black blanket that was similarly embroidered. Too bad I didn't have a camera.

The next morning we visited Taquile, a nearby island, before returning to Puno in the afternoon. Taquile was also beautiful and quiet, and it was interesting to see the distinctive and colorful traditional dress of the local people.

This site has a dozen lovely photos of the places I visited:
http://www.therealperu.co.uk/galleries/puno.aspx

I liked these too:
http://www.culturefocus.com/peru3.htm

I arrived in Puno hoping to travel that same day to Arequipa, but road blockades forced me to spend an extra night drinking tea and shivering before traveling the next morning. Arequipa is a marvelous city, one of the most pleasant places I've encountered during my travels. It's sometimes called the white city, because in the city center many of the buildings are constructed from sillar, a white volcanic stone. The colonial architecture is lovely, the plaza is beautiful and animated, the weather's perfect, and the snow-capped volcanoes on the city's edge are spectacular.

Yesterday I visited the Santa Catalina Convent. The convent is like a mini-city, a stunning complex of exquisite arched cloisters, gardens, and chapels. Long ago, it was exclusive and luxurious ... only the daughters of Arequipa's rich could afford the "dowry" required for entrance. The nuns there enjoyed lifestyles that included none of the austerity one would expect in a convent. Their rooms were large and comfortable, and each nun had at her disposal as many as five slaves! That changed in the late 1800s, when the pope complained that the convent was more like an exclusive social club than a monastery and sent a strict nun to put things in order.

I summited Misti Volcano, elevation 19,101 feet, this morning!! It was fantastic. I'll tell you about it later. I'm feeling pretty whipped now. My bus for Lima leaves this evening and arrives tomorrow morning. See you tomorrow!

Kjirsten



London's famous Tower from Thames River cruise boat.

The Tower of London
by Weston Johnson
Maple Grove, MN

The first historical site we visited during our vacation in London was the Tower of London. The first thing I noticed is that the Tower is not really a tower at all. I hadn't been so confused since my mom told me she was taking me to a white castle when I was a kid and instead of seeing kings and knights, all I saw were deep fry vats and funny little hamburgers.

The Tower is actually much more than a single tower -- it is a walled, fort-like complex containing several structures. The White Tower, the most recognizable building in the complex, and the one featured at the center of the picture taken from the river, was the first structure built on the site, around 1070, with the remainder of the complex constructed gradually over time.

Over nearly 1,000 years the Tower complex has served a variety of purposes, including a royal palace, a storage facility for the Crown Jewels and a prison. Each of these historical uses is illustrated through the displays and artifacts now housed in the Tower's various buildings.

Our visit to the Tower began with a guided tour conducted by one of the Tower's Yeoman Warders, also known as Beefeaters. The Beefeaters were established in the 1400's to serve as Tower guards, protecting the crown jewels and the Tower's royal residents. Today, they primarily serve a ceremonial role and educate visitors about the history of the Tower. Our guide, who can be seen in one of the pictures, took particular delight in describing (in great detail) the various torture and execution methods utilized at the Tower in medieval times. Fortunately, none of those methods were on display during our visit, as the last prisoners at the Tower were held there during World War II.

Following the guided portion of our tour, which ended in the chapel, in which several former kings and other royalty attended services, we were free to roam the grounds, viewing the various museum displays that have been incorporated into the buildings.

First we viewed the Crown Jewels, which consist of an amazing array of crowns, jewelry, scepters and other items of gold, silver, diamond and other precious stones. Also included in the exhibit were china and other dinnerware used by kings and queens over the centuries. Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed in the Crown Jewel display, but I'm not sure that a camera would have done justice to the items on display, which sparkled brilliantly under the display lighting.

Next, we proceeded to the White Tower, which has been converted into a museum displaying the weapons used by Tower guards and English soldiers over the years, ranging from swords and maces to very rudimentary handguns and muskets. The White Tower also included displays of armor used by the English army and their horses, as well as armor made for several former kings of England. The armor worn by Henry VIII was on display, and is shown in one of the accompanying pictures. This picture also includes an example of a face plate from a horse's armor. It is hard to imagine men and horses trying to maneuver wearing all of those plates of metal, but one look at the displays of swords and heavy, blunt weapons from past centuries provided a clear illustration of the necessity of such heavy armor.

The rest of our tour included a palace restored to its appearance from the 1200's, a prison structure with prisoners' etchings and scrawlings still visible in the walls and the canal through which prisoners were transported directly from the river to the Tower, often never to be seen or heard from again. This entrance can be seen in the picture taken from the river, labeled dramatically as the "Entrance to the Traitors Gate." From the crowns of kings, to the weapons of soldiers, to the chains of prisoners, the Tower of London provided interesting insights into a variety of facets of London's history


Armor of King Henry VIII; left; "Beefeater" addresses tour group, right.








American Legion Color Guard at Ashby's Memorial Day parade.

Ashby's Memorial Day
Letter to the Editor:
The Grant County Herald
June 25, 2003
Reprinted with permission of the writer

Every man, woman, and child should go to Memorial Day Services every Memorial Day.

Why?

To show honor and gratitude for the suffering our veteran comrades went through going to war for the service of our country. To honor and show appreciation for the suffering of some of our men that didn't come back, or that were wounded and are still suffering from their wounds, or that came back with loss of arms or legs, and also of minds. Sitting alone in some foreign land, cold, hungry and scared.

To go to a Memorial Service once a year would be a very small price to pay for the freedom that we enjoy every day of the year because of the sacrifices that these comrades paid. Also to show appreciation to the families of these servicemen that it was not all done in vain.

Large or small town, there is no Memorial Service better than the Memorial Service put on by the American Legion of Ashby, Minnesota.

Ashby, Minnesota, population of 476 patriotic people, boasts an American Legion of 235 Legionnaires led by Commander Ruben Runningen. Also a Legion Auxiliary of 80 members.

Their Legionnaires are local people and also summer residents from North and South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois, to make up the 235 members. Outstanding for a small town. Their leadership has to be excellent and full of zip and loyalty.

What makes their Memorial Services so great? Their marching unit is 30 members, dressed in Legion Uniforms, the front row carrying the flags for the color guard. Then there are also 6 ladies from the Auxiliary that march with the unit, making 36 in all. Richard Runningen is the Sergeant at Arms and very well done. If you are sitting down when the colors come by, he gets you off your seat and on your feet to show honor to the American flag.

They have an hour-long program at the high school gym packed with 500 people. They have a speaker, first graders say a poem, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts take their turn, and the Ashby band plays.

Then they march to the Senior Citizen Center where they lower their flags to the members in the home that can sit outside on the porch and for those who look out the windows from the inside. The band plays from there to the memorial that they built on the corner of Highway 78 next to the cemetery. This is an outstanding memorial that they built 7 or 8 years ago at a cost of $80,000. It's worth a special trip just to see this memorial erected to honor the fallen and disabled comrades. To get money for this, each Legionnaire donated $100 and also others who wanted to donate.

They marched to the memorial where another 600 people stood at attention when they presented the flags, had a speaker.

After the speaker, they honored each of the 7 members that passed away during the year. They stood at attention as each of the names were read and the bell sounded for each of them. Each of them also had a military funeral.

Each man or woman that has a child should teach them the meaning of Memorial Day and why it is so important, that it means the freedom that we enjoy. We don't want them to let this day die. I'm sure that in the city of Ashby, Minnesota, it will never die.

What better way to end a great day than to be invited by the Ashby Legion and Auxiliary to have a free lunch at the American Legion Hall? About 400 people had lunch and also watched the Legion Commander, Ruben Runningen, dish out the beans.

C.H. (Carpy) Bonrud
Ashby, MN


This and That
6
by Elaine Wold
Wahpeton, ND

Memorial Day
(Parts of my speech at the Historical Society Program)

Memorial Day brings the first of summer holidays, and many turn to fun things ... picnicking, lakes, ball games, yard work, or just being lazy in the sun. My earliest memory of Memorial Day was gathering some lilacs or other spring flowers in fruit jars, and Mom would take us to the local cemetery with the flowers, placing them on the graves. Sometimes we would splurge and get a geranium to plant there, too.

Later, when my girls were in high school, a large parade was held in Wahpeton with marching bands, followed by a patriotic program in the nearby park. This has all changed with the advent of silk and plastic flowers put on graves, and with so many gone on vacations or to the lakes, the band and parade has gone by the wayside.

Memorial Day first began as Decoration Day when flowers were placed on the graves of the Civil War dead. Later, it became Memorial Day, an occasion for America to honor those who gave their lives in ALL wars, as well as decorating the graves of those family members whose memories they cherish. It is a good time to reflect on our loved ones, our heritage, and the blessings we take for granted.

Not a Memorial Day comes or goes but I think of those lines learned years ago in school:

"In Flander's field the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flander's Field."

Flanders Field is located in Belgium, and the little red poppies blowing over this field have been the symbol of a nation remembering the soldiers who fought our wars. The little red flowers sold on Poppy Day are made by disabled, wounded or elderly veterans who reside in 115 Veteran's Hospitals.

Flander's Field is one of 8 military cemeteries established after WWI. After WWII, 14 additional sites were established on foreign soils as cemeteries. Each cemetery is beautiful and has a chapel and memorial building. A white headstone marks each of the graves, a Star of David for the Jewish faith and a Latin cross for all others. Cemeteries are open to the public and an American superintendent is stationed at each cemetery to give information in locating graves. About 39 per cent of our service people are buried in foreign cemeteries, while 61 percent were returned home, at the request of next of kin. This does not include Korean or Vietnam numbers.

Next of kin of WWI casualties are given a black and white photo of the headstone and those families of WWII casualties are given a colored aerial photo of the cemetery and a small photo of the headstone. Each family also received the flag used at each service person's burial, plus a Gold Star pin for the next of kin.

Dorothy and Don were with me the day, I took the picture of Ardenees Cemetery, located in Belgium, where my brother in law Ray Wold, who was with the 8th Air Force in England, is buried. This is a 90 acre cemetery containing the graves of over 5,000 dead, many who died in the Battle of the Bulge. He is one named on the Legion Post at Galchutt, ND.

So let us pause and remember.....
"And still the poppies gently blow,
Between the crosses row on row,
The larks still bravely soaring high
Are singing now their lullaby
To you who sleep where poppies grow
In Flander's Field."


Don & Dorothy at Ray Wold's grave.


Celebrations & Observances
From the Files of
5
Hetty Hooper

This Week's Special Days:
O
May 30---Memorial Day

This Week's Birthdays:
May 29---Kristi Kay Larson Indermark
May 31---Mavis Anderson Morgan
June 1---Jeremiah Dake
June 4---Merna Hellevang

Happy Birthday!

This Week's Anniversaries:
May 31---Tom and Mavis Anderson Morgan (48 years)
June 3---Larry and Ginny McCorkell (33 years)

Congratulations!

This Week's Graduations:
May 29---Brandon Hellevang, Fargo North High School

Congratulations!

More June Birthdays:
'
June 5---Rian de Been
June 7---Shane Swenson
June 8---Ashley Huseby (2 years)
June 16---Gina Henderson
June 18---Caitlynn Mae Chap (9 years)
June 19---Doris Anderson
June 19---Ashley Meyers
June 20---Spencer Aydelotte (11 years)
June 20---Roy Droel
June 20---Julian Montford
June 21---Ary Ommert Jr.
June 24---Aiden Montford (2 years)
June 25---Ben Henderson
June 26---Greg Wm. Dake
June 26---De Myers
June 29---Tim Huseby
More June Anniversaries
Z
June 6---Wyatt and Jolene Johnson (7 years)
June 7---Clark and Susan Miller Smith (14 years)
June 10---Jim and Kristi Larson Indermark (5 years)
June 18---Jason and Tami Anderson Hunt (1 year)
June 19---Curt and Patty Anderson Henderson (23 years)
June 20---Rich and Marlene Anderson Johnson (24 years)
June 20---Steve and Marian Miller (35 years)
June Graduations
¨
June 9---Kim Johnson, at Orono High School Stadium
June 11---Graduation Reception (afternoon) for Rachel Henderson and Kim Johnson
at Curt & Patty Henderson's home
More June graduations? Please send dates and details to Miss Hetty!

June Special Days
O
June 14---Flag Day
June 19---Father's Day
June 21---Summer begins
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Miss Hetty's Mailbox:

Dear Miss Hetty,

Here's a picture of Dwight's 60th birthday. We had a few relatives over for cherry chip cake with cherry frosting and cherry nut ice cream. (Suppose his favorite is cherry???!!) He got lots of "good loot" and was happy with his party.

Probably not as happy with turning 60!

Janie Anderson
Dwight, ND


Dwight Anderson celebrates 60 -- with a little help from Jazmine.

Keep Us Posted!

Please drop Miss Hetty a line and tell us who, and what, we've missed. And how about a report (photos welcome) of YOUR special celebration?

'Many Thankse
Everyone!

Miss Hetty


+ LETTERS TO THE EDITORS?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I loved the Mama Robin Web Log ... what a great photo opportunity and someone knew how to make the best of it!
 
Ginny McCorkell
Blaine, MN


Thanks so much for doing this newsletter, Dorothy. It is so cool!! Please add me to your mailing list. Thanks! :) That is so very neat that you all are keeping up with this web page. I am very impressed! :) What a wonderful way to keep the family ties close when everyone does not live in the same area.

I know that Grandma Blanche holds a VERY special place in Kurt's heart. She has made a tremendous impact on his life. Unfortunately, she had already passed away before Kurt and I started dating, but he took me out to her grave the winter before last to "meet" her.

I am glad to get the privilege of meeting her sister, even if it is online! :)

Jeni Larson
San Diego, CA


Kurt Larson, daughter "Sami" & Kurt's Grandma Blanche Miller in 1995.


How in the world did the photographer catch me by the chocolate fountain? I was only there for a few seconds, unlike some folks I know who kept going back for more! We need to plan some sort of family celebration so we have an excuse to have our own chocolate fountain. Chocolate is known to be good for us, especially when used to coat bits of fruit ... yum!

The Bulletin was wonderful! We got to read about famous inventor Don working on a new project. Larry's photos of sheep and trucks were right up my alley. Kjirsten and Weston, as well as Doug and Brianna, outdid themselves. Their photos and articles were the next best thing to getting to be there myself. It was a great read!

Thanks Dorothy and Jerrianne, as well as to all the contributors, who put so much work into giving us a first class newsletter!

Beaver Johnson
Ashby, MN


There is always the same anxious expectation on Saturday morning. One time I wrote Dorothy to hurry up, and she wrote back ... calm, calm, calm. That has become my well used phrase now for a lot of things. Then the excitement of seeing it appear in the e-mail, and as I open it, I hit PRINT before I ever look at it, and while it's printing I scan it to see what's in it this time. How wonderful to be a part of this Bulletin Family!!!!!! Thank You.

First off, I saw the ROBIN. It is so touching and gives a warm feeling to open The Bulletin with this special picture number two of the Mama Robin series. I'm hoping it will work out to have the followups until the little birds take off from the edge of the nest, but that may be impossible to photograph. You can tell a professional photographer took the picture when you see how spaced and arranged and clear and sharp and close it is. Looks like Miss Kitty could almost reach out and snatch her, but am sure the window is latched!!!

It's always touching to see a Bride and Groom. A once in a lifetime picture, and when it's of family it is priceless. The UPDATE by Donna Johnson was interesting. Incidentally, we really like pictures, and the ones in The Bulletin are nice and big so we can easily see them and identify all the details in the background, etc. Thanks again!

I know everyone would be thrilled to get the UPDATE on that new baby, too. Not too many years down the road and that picture will be valuable, as a baby grows up too fast.

I really missed something from across the ocean this time. I looked and looked back for it, but your relation over there must have been too busy picking tulips to write.

Oh, Dorothy, the interesting story about your wheelchair dying really got interesting. Our independence is the last thing to go it seems, and you depend totally on that chair to get anywhere. What an all gone feeling in the dark and rain to have it quit. Thank goodness for your caring husband that took the situation in hand and rescued you! We were so happy to have that story, and am sure you have lots more you haven't written yet. You can always fill in a blank page with one of YOUR stories, Dorothy.

THE GUESS ................Oh, I was so happy to see that picture of Bill Dake!!! It was such a good picture, and he looks a lot younger than when I had known him. The children have me stumped of course, but wonderful seeing Bill.

Roy, of course, paged through right away to find whatever Larry had written! He was disappointed when there wasn't a story to read, but the pictures were very interesting. They will always be a good fill in, Larry, if you don't have time for more!!! Remember, we love reading whatever you write. Did you know you were a gifted scribe??????

Was interesting seeing the pictures of places we will never see, as Weston and Kristie shared of their trip. Very interesting arrangement of pictures in the Travelogue, and The Bulletin is becoming a world wide publication.

Needless to say, the Green Dodge Pickup was a winner!!!!!!!!!!!! I remember that prize possession, and must say the story by Beaver was well written. We need more of the same!!!!! Must be some about the gravel business you can share.

Of course we looked for the CHUCKLES Photo Funny.............and Larry must have submitted that one. Pretty funny!!! Wish I could think of one to send you.

Was wondering about the Portugal Travelogue section of the last Bulletin. I wondered who took the pictures, and if it was someone you/we know, and who the people are in it -- for some reason the way it was put together was so catchy and unique and interesting. With the words and pictures overlapping it piqued (is that a word?) my interest enough to study it, but I found nothing to answer my question as to just why it was included. I must have missed something here. Very nice photography, I thought with my inexperienced eye, and the way it was put together was different. I did see the name Brianna, but I hadn't heard of her before, have I?

Betty Droel
MoundsView, MN


CHUCKLES


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