The Bulletin
August 10, 2003
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When Mom and I were writing The Pudding Pack Chronicles we had to dig through the many photographs that she took on our 1976 car trip to use as illustrations in the story. While sorting them out, we came across one of Patty, Dad and myself that had an interesting feature. (See above.) Look closely at the sky behind us. See anything unusual? Mom didn't either, at first, but look closely.

Cool, huh? Okay, so we all know what it LOOKS like, but what IS it? We invite all of you amateur Paranormal Scientists to send your ideas to The Editor, care of The Bulletin at this address: dma49261@juno.com

STUDENT UPDATE
by Danny

Sorry I haven't written in a long while, I've been keeping myself very busy lately! Hope all is well down there!

Work ended for me yesterday at Seneca! I'm sure glad for that -- as that is a lot of hours! We worked pretty steady this year picking peas. We went steady about 14 hours a day, 7 days a week; we also had a few 16 hour days, so I kept really busy!

But now Ben and I will be getting ready to go up to college; the 12th is the day we're moving our stuff (then coming back down for the wedding!) It will be a fun experience, but right now I am a little lost, but I guess all freshmen are! I will let you know later what classes I take.

Love, Dan

BIRTHDAY UPDATE
by Weston

Grandma,
Thank you for sending the birthday e-card. I ended up having a pretty good day yesterday. I had to work, but I went out to Olive Garden for lunch with a few co-workers, and I got to leave work early for a going away party for a co-worker who is leaving the company after today.

We played a round of frisbee golf at a course near our office. In case you're not familiar with frisbee golf, it's like regular golf except you throw a frisbee toward the goal instead of hitting a golf ball. The goal is a metal basket, and they are placed far enough away from the starting point that it usually takes at least three throws to get to the goal. The course we played on has 12 holes and it's in the woods, so I ended up hitting at least one tree on each hole, I think.

After the round of frisbee golf, we went out to dinner. So I ended up getting two free meals on my birthday, and I worked a shorter day than I normally would.

Tonight I'm heading up north. I'll be stopping by the farm for a bit, then heading up to Fargo to visit friends tonight. Tomorrow I'm heading down to Hankinson for a friend's wedding.

Not much else is new with me. Keep up the good work on the bulletin. It has been fun keeping up with what everyone is doing, and yours and Doug's travel journal was a lot of fun.

Thanks again for remembering me on my birthday, and have a good weekend!
Weston

UPDATE -- A COUSIN CONVERGENCE
By Doug

I happened to be lucky enough to take a Friday off and drove out to Ashby to meet my sister Donna and my cousins Shari and Peggy. From there we drove to the Wal-Mart in Fergus and met Cousin Debbie, who I haven't seen since 1974! Debbie is up from Tempe, Arizona, visiting her sister in North Dakota and took time to meet us and do some catching up.

We decided on a very fine buffet that featured a nice assortment of Chinese-American cuisine and converged on it like leopards on a water buffalo. Woozy and gorged on sweet and spicy deep-fried delectables, we wandered out into the street, only to stumble onto the inevitable rummage sale.

I found a nice cotton shirt while Debsy scored two really functional teabag squeezers. Donna found a great deal on bibs for her daycare brood, Peggy got some writable CD's and Shari bought a mint condition diaper bag for her daughter, Kelli.

From there we retired to the outside patio at Mabel Murphy's and soaked in the ambience. Also the mosquitoes, as we recounted many a tale of mirth and mischief from our checkered past lives as spotty adolescents, back in a wonderful time we like to refer to as "The Sixties and Seventies."

Shari also shared her famous "Alligator Alley" story, which features herself, her daughter Kristi and a profoundly unlucky alligator, but I will not re-tell it here because she has promised to recount the entire tale for The Bulletin in her unique narrative style that rivals that of Ogden Nash or Mark Twain.

Cousin Debbie also told us about her adventures in Spain and the fun she had traveling abroad. She also promised to bring her banjo along next time, and we are going to hold her to it! We have a Hootenanny planned with Junior, Dwight and Troy that promises to be a real barn-burner!

Then the moon was high in the sky and it was time to go home. We all parted ways, concluding that it's always a good thing when cousins converge and that we would do it more often from now on.

FAMILY UPDATE
by Patty H.

Good Morning Mom,
Ben has set me up with his email. I'm very frustrated with mine, so he is going to see if he can get me another program that I can use. I've probably got a bunch of mail, but can't consistently get to it.

Marlene, Kim and I made the trek to Blaine to share in Leona's shower. It was fun getting to meet her mom, a couple of aunts, cousin and friends. They had a very nice lunch and marvelous coffee ... something us coffee lovers appreciate! Her cousin was the hostess and did a very nice job. Had a couple games (not too many) and gave Marlene and me some ideas for the day we, as aunts, will host a shower. (Not a hint at all!) I was glad we were able to go.

The boys are packing up for their move to NDSU. They will be taking up the main load on Tuesday, returning Wednesday and then moving up for good after Eric and Leona's wedding. They have the trailer full and are working on the van. Seems weird, the thought of just three left in our family! Our Sunday morning meeting is shrinking with all the kids heading off to college. Bret Barry is also heading off to NDSU. It was a last minute decision for him, but he was able to start yet this fall. That is neat ... the first in his family to go to college, so foreign territory for them. He will be living in the dorms.

Rachel is getting in plenty of hours at the nursing home. They can always use staff to call in at the last minute. She will be just on call during the school year. She is in volleyball, so her after school time is spoken for.

Curt is heading over to Hector convention grounds this morning to assist with getting the forms up for the sidewalks. It is wonderful over there. The women's bathrooms are all modernized ... all flush! Also, the men's have been updated. The number of showers has increased by many! It's nice. The laundry has been updated, as well as much better access for wheelchairs. The meeting shed of course was updated a few years back. The workers have been quite busy and many of the friends have spent time over there. Time appreciated so all of us can have the conveniences of home!

I'm just doing the same ... working too much and letting the house get too messy, but I'm getting better about not fretting so much about that. The kids actually have been helping immensely. Rachel has been doing a lot of cooking and baking ... even tried her hand at two apple pies. I hate to admit it, but her crust was flakier than mine usually is ... Beginner's luck? No real news, but wanted to get a line off to you all. Stay cool in Missouri. Talk to you later.
Love, Patty

STUDENT UPDATE
by Ben

Hey hey, wow, an email from Ben!??!? Unbelievable! Well, things are going pretty good up here. Just finishing up with work; my last day is tomorrow. Work was pretty busy this year, more so than last year; we had fewer interns so that made more work for the rest of us, which was nice. Keeps it from being so boring. I am thinking that this will be my last year at GME though; I plan on doing something next summer that is more closely related to what I want to do than GME was. It was a good experience for sure, though.

We are planning on moving up to our apartment next Tuesday. Dan and I will be living together in a 2-bedroom apartment, which will be nice. Has underground parking which will be great, being we're living in the Arctic!! I don't quite remember what classes I am taking this year, but it will be 18 credits again. A little more busy than any 18 credits I have ever taken before because some of the classes aren't just your basic 3-4 credit hours, so that kinda is a bummer, but oh well, will all work out.

Other than all that, summer has been busy with wakeboarding and a few trips here and there, over all, a good summer.
Love,
Ben

The Family Cookbook
Culinary Heirlooms
volume nineteen
by Doug Anderson

      Hello food fans, time for another gem from our North Dakota think tank. Where would we be without them? Today's recipe has some surprises; I certainly did not think pineapple was a part of zucchini bread, but it certainly all seems to work. So roll up your sleeves and dig into:

Muriel's Majestic Zucchini Bread

3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 cup pecans
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 8 oz. can crushed pineapple (drained)

Combine first 5 ingredients, set aside. Beat eggs lightly in large mixing
bowl. Add sugar, oil and vanilla; beat to creamy. Stir in zucchini and
pineapple. Add dry ingredients, stirring only until dry ingredients are
moistened. Spoon batter into two well greased and flowered 8" x 4" x 3"
loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, or until done. Cool 10 minutes
in pans, turn over on rack and cool completely.

That's another point for the North Dakotans, all you Minnesotans! Where is your regional pride? Maybe a plea to your competitive spirit will work? Anyway, thanks Muriel, your recipe was outstanding!

Keep those e-mail recipes rolling in, only a few more and we will have something publishable.

How Nightmares Are Born
by Dorothy

It started out a really enjoyable day for Gert and me. I think I was supposed to be "Baby sitting" my little sister. To the two of us, though, it was just one of the few chances we got to play together. To give us something to do that would keep us out from under her feet, Mom had hunted up two old catalogs, some scissors, paste, and some old scrapbooks. We spent the afternoon setting up our imaginary families.

Gert wasn't in school yet -- no kindergarten in the country school we went to -- but she could cut and paste and make up good exciting things for our families to do -- so we spent the afternoon very amiably. There was six years' difference in our ages and that helped her accept me as the "decider." I really didn't do a whole lot of bossing, but when I did, she pretty much thought I was probably right -- and things went along smoothly

Finally we got a bit tired of the cutting, pasting, make believe stuff. We went to the window and checked out and could see Mom in the garden, busy as could be.

I glanced at the clock: 4:30. Well, Mom and I usually milked cows starting at 5:30. Then is when I decided we could help her out and go and bring the cows from the far pasture so they could get their drink before it was time for milking.

Gert thought that sounded like fun -- she didn't get to go along very often -- so we both got our everyday shoes on, as neither of us wanted thistles in our feet or to step on things that squish! When we came out the door, our friend Tilly, our terrier friend (What else can you call such an intelligent dog?) joined us, as she could tell we might need her help! And we started off.

First we went through the cowbarn and out the back door. We shut and fastened the door. I knew we didn't want the cows in the barn yet. Then we started out past the big pile of rocks that served for the lambs to play "King of the Mountain," then we cut across over to the fence that separated the pasture from the corn field. We walked along on the path the cows had worn there, and climbed the hill toward the upper pasture. I opened the gate wide and Tilly dashed ahead toward the cattle -- only something was very wrong. There stood the cows, all right, but in front of them stood our usually placid bull -- but scary!!

He was standing there staring at us so menacingly -- and then he began to beller, and then he lowered his head and started throwing the dirt up high over his back.

"Run for the corn field, Gert!" I screamed and off we ran pell mell. I held the barbed wires apart for her to climb through. Then she very bravely turned around and tried her best to hold them for me. I managed to scramble through, caught my dress on a barb and Gert grabbed it and yanked and we scooted down the rows of corn and hid.

Only then did we notice Tilly wasn't with us. We could hear her yapping and the bull bellering. Finally, not being able to see what was going on, we sneaked back and looked out at a scene of spunky behavior that I remember yet.

Our little terrier was pushing that bull to a fury -- first she dashed in and nipped him. When he stood his ground and bellered again, she jumped into his face and grabbed his nose and held on. We were sure that big bull would kill her. He threw her and when she went to do battle again, we yelled and yelled for her to come!

And at last she decided she had taught him not to bother us! She came trotting out to be sure we were safe. We three sneaked home through the corn, the cows went home through the open gate to get their drinks and the bull went home like he had intended to right along, if we hadn't disturbed his harem.

The only thing that remained with me was a terrible nightmare that I had many times after that. I would be running from something (usually a bull) but I just couldn't move and would stand there petrified until I would finally wake myself up from fear. Just so, are nightmares born!!

Editor's Comments
Interesting Information
by Elaine

Here is a recipe you might find worthwhile reading!

PARKER'S FAVORITE

Peanut butter
Jelly
2 slices of bread.
Spread peanut butter on one slice of bread. Spread jelly on the other
slice. Put both slices together. ABSOLUTELY no butter!

This recipe is from a cookbook called PRAYERS FOR PARKER. It is a cookbook made as a fund raiser for Parker Sebens, a 3 year old boy from Milnor, North Dakota, who lost both his arms in a tragic farm accident in October of 2000. Airlifted to Robbinsdale, Minnesota, medical center, hoping to reattach the arms, he has undergone many surgeries to reattach both arms, but because of the injuries and infection they were unable to save his hands. He will have to undergo many more surgeries and in the future years will be needing prostheses. The emotional and financial strain has been hard on the family. Because of his parents' separation, he was with the father at the time of the accident, so guilt feelings have risen by the parents here also.

Now ... if you like this recipe ... remember it's a prayer for Parker, and remember TO USE YOUR ARMS TO LOVE SOMEONE AND GIVE THEM A HUG WHILE YOU CAN!