Photo © Mavis Morgan
On Sunday we stopped at Nancy and Kayla's to see the baby kittens. Jett is very interested in any animal.

Photos © Mavis Morgan
Cowboy Jett enjoys his farm horse, which was a gift to him from grandpa Tom when he was 1 year old, left; Kayla holds Jett as Nancy shows him a leopard frog, right. Jett learns about little frogs with Bo and Penny, the dogs, looking on.

Photos © Mavis Morgan
Cowboys need baths, too. Jett gets cleaned up and ready for bed after his busy day on the farm, left; Jett reads Come Walk With Me through the farm to learn more about animals before he goes to "rest his eyes," as he calls it.

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"Oreo weighs the most (after Cheerio's misadventure, at least) and he likes to be the center of attention," Kyra said. "I would have said that Cheerio was the adult in the bunch, but we saw how that worked out. Tabasco is the juvenile delinquent. If there is something mischievous they can do, she'll be the first to try it."

In our country, they raised excellent gardens. We lived in one of the best places and the North Bustie Road was one of the last areas of the whole area to freeze. So that was fortunate. Tomatoes would ripen and we had good corn.

We always had a large garden. Ma was a good gardener. Everybody had a good garden, but especially we did. It was just an excellent garden area there. We always had everything; potatoes, carrots, and cabbage, everything that would grow. My dad would put cow manure on there every spring. We really had a garden.

Ma canned a lot of vegetables. If it wouldn't been for that, we would have been hungry. We had a big root house. One year my ma said she canned nine hundred quarts of tomatoes. Then we had everything way into the next summer. It would just about see us through.

CULTIVATING

This is one of the things I never looked forward to doing. We had a couple of acres under cultivation. My dad usually had potatoes and fodder corn that he liked to feed to the animals. We cut it by hand and stacked it up by hand in the fall, which was no easy task either.

When this corn would get two or three inches up out of the ground, then we had to cultivate. He had an old cultivator there that we pulled with one horse. We had a good old horse, Ned, but he'd step on the corn. I had to ride horseback and my dad would cultivate and we'd go up and down. I hated that because old Ned would kick a fly with his foot and when he'd come down on it, he'd be about two feet off from where he belonged and plompo, right on a corn hill and then my dad would holler about that.

That was a job. It was usually an all day process to get that corn cultivated when we could be playing and doing important things like that. We got the corn cultivated. We used to have to do that two or three times during the summer.

POTATO BUGS

Another thing I didn't like to do was potato bugs. Potato bugs were just thick over in that country. That's one thing about that area. They'd chew up those vines if you'd let them get big. Sometimes we'd pick the leaves. They'd lay their eggs on the bottom of a leaf, like say a half an inch around or so. You'd just pinch off that part of the leaf and drop it in a little can with some kerosene in it and kill them. Then we used to spray it with this Paris Green.

That's the thing today that they're hollering about that was buried around in the country. It's similar stuff to what they killed grasshoppers with. Now it's such a bad thing they're digging up those barrels that were buried. That was in the thirties. There is a lot of it still around but we're still alive. So that was another job we had to do several times in the summer. It seemed like sometimes those potato bugs were worse than other times.

We flew from Minneapolis to Houston to Lima. It was a bit worrisome when they could not get one of the engines to start when trying to depart Houston, but after a two-hour delay, it was started and, fortunately, continued to run while flying to Lima.

The next morning involved a nine-hour bus ride to the mountain gateway city of Huaraz, gaining 10,000 feet of elevation. We would spend the next few days in Huaraz acclimatizing and preparing for the trek.

Normal people would have booked this trek in advance with a trekking agency that would have charged a lot of money and done everything for us. However, we are traveling with Kjirsten, who had assured me we will just work it out when we get there.

Huaraz

Huaraz is large, for a city in the mountains, about 90,000 people clustered into a small valley, with shops and housing very compact. With a lot of trekkers and mountain climbers coming and going, there is plenty of good lodging and a lot of very good restaurants, making this a very desirable place to be for a few days.

Once in Huaraz, we contacted a guide who said he could make the necessary arrangements for a muleteer to join us at the departure village of Pocpa. However there is no phone service in Pocpa so he would travel with us and make the arrangements once we arrived there.

We spent the next two days buying food for the planned 12 to 14 days on the trail. This included 140 pieces of bread, a lot of soup mix, cocoa powder, four 1-kilogram cans of powdered milk, cheese, a lot of fresh and dried fruit, fresh vegetables, and plenty of good, Peruvian chocolate.

Photo © Sheldon Swenson
Kjirsten, Mitzi, on top floor of Hostal Albergue Churup in Huaraz.

Mitzi's Journal

After a short overnight in Lima, Peru, we rode a bus on Monday morning for eight hours to Huaraz, where we will spend several days acclimatizing before beginning the Huayhuash Circuit trek. Hostal Albergue Churup is a great place to stay -- family run, clean and includes breakfast of bread, coffee and tea. There is a kitchen available for guest use so we go to the market to buy fruit to add to breakfast. The mangoes are the best I've ever had, as sweet as honey and not stringy. We eat lots of mangoes, peaches and mandarins over the next few days and try several fruits that are native to Peru.

We tell Juan at the hostel we'd like to hire a muleteer for the Huayhuash and he introduces us to Rodrigo Callupe, who we later find out is a mountain climber. Rodrigo grew up in Pocpa, the tiny village where we will begin our hike, and he is traveling there to visit his parents for the weekend. He will ride with us on the bus on Friday and upon arrival will make arrangements for a muleteer as there are no phones in the village.

Miss Hetty's Mailbox:

Thanks so much for the lovely anniversary greeting! Nancy and I had a perfectly enjoyable dinner at our favorite restaurant. We were able to reserve their best and most private booth. So, now we have entered the beginning of our 40th year. That's a long time! Thanks again!

Dan and Nancy Mellon
Alta Loma, CA

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They say everyone gets their turn.

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

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Finally, I'm back in the e-mail business. Just before we left for Mitch and Kim's on July 2, our hard drive died. So, to make a long story short, we're up and going again. And I missed identifying MY own lovely wife and kids to boot!

Duane is over at Dad's and if all goes as planned they are coming here tomorrow.

Steve Miller
Coral Springs, FL

I was totally absorbed in looking at that picture when The Bulletin arrived, and can hardly believe that it's not a professional photo that was purchased. Can that person actually be someone Ryan Hellevang knew? What a most spectacular shot! It would be an instant window of opportunity to ever click that pose, and Ryan was able to capture the grand spray of water. [That's Jeff Gauderman kicking up that magnificent roostertail as he rides the wake. --Ed.]

I was wishing I had a vocabulary to describe the picture as I see it. I've never actually seen that kind of spray so I was mesmerized. Then the photo of the family, also by Ryan. Quite an audience that would have seen that wave first hand. It would be most unusual for a family of 19 to be together as the Morgans were for Tom's 80th birthday. We thought Morgan Lake Retreat was on fire, but it was just Tom's cake. [Another "Find" in Ryan's web gallery.]

Rather a coincidence that I gave Roy a Norelco shaver for his birthday.

I really enjoyed seeing the group picture and trying to pick out each person named. Can anything be more enjoyable than a loving, close family? It didn't sound like rain daunted the fun. The website gallery was very interesting. We could use more of the water surfing pictures, Ryan.

We keep thinking of Virginia Adair having such a long recovery from her broken bones. Now the additional pain and time is happening. Thanks for the Updates, Cap'n Jack and Dorothy. Looks like she is accepting her lot graciously as she sits in the wheelchair.

It was great having the Update from Montana. Right now Ken and Ruth are traveling back home to Arizona from Montana and North Dakota. They will have a blast of heat as they walk into their Arizona home. We are hoping their long drive will be uneventful and safe.

The Indermarks' Update from Arizona was most welcome as we want to keep up with the children growing up so fast. Wonderful to be near Grandma Shari's house, and the pool is a plus!

Also, Devan Seaman will never forget his time at Grandma's, either.

Thank you, Miss Kitty, for the Update on the mailbox lady. You won't mind seeing the bees now that you learned how necessary they are.

Then Donna Mae once again had a most interesting account of the pig roast for the Oliva and Wolbrink birthdays. Only once have I been at a pig roast like that, and it was fabulous. So juicy and so tender. Not to be compared in any way with the oven roasted kind. I loved seeing the picture of Donna Mae and Beaver with Anita. A rarity seeing a picture of those two together. One usually has to man the camera.

We are never too old to learn something new. Now such a simple thing as the lock on the box of the roll of wrap brought to our attention. I think we all have had to fight with the roll coming out of the box.

The Bee Story was very educational, and it does not seem likely that just anyone can handle bees. Fun to read about the bear visiting.

I have been up north picking blueberries where Bruce McCorkell mentioned in his Homesteading Days story. All I remember is the bugs and flies and mosquitoes, but I also faintly remember the pies and jam that resulted. That's another world, up there in the north country.

You might know there would be some exotic flower picture in the A Long Time Ago chapter. Also, until I read the explanation I wondered whatever that picture was supposed to be of, and it was a caterpillar. The river of rocks does not look one bit inviting, but you had to take the good with the bad, evidently, on your hike. I remember reading about the Worthington Bakery in the book, Walking North. What a grand treat after a grueling hike and climb as is pictured and related again in Jerrianne's account in The Bulletin.

I read it with great interest and admiration for anyone staying with that hike from beginning to end. Thirty-five years ago seems like yesterday, according to the details we are reading.

I had to laugh at the quote from the book by Mic about not stopping to dawdle all day, ha. He was pretty anxious to keep moving, not to stop and take pictures, but thanks, Jerrianne, for persevering, as we are truly enjoying every picture you reprint for us.

WOW, AN ANNOUNCEMENT! Thank you for sharing your good news, Shawn and Lori! It will be another wonderful story for The Bulletin and for us to follow as this event occurs. We are hoping all goes well in every way, and McKenna will be ecstatic.

That was so much fun to read the letter from Donna Richards commenting on the fish fry we had. That makes it worthwhile to write an LTTE when we find out someone actually does read it.

Even Kyra sent in a comment about the picture of letting the cat out of the bag. Kyra, we need an update on YOUR three cats again soon.

Nothing from LTD Storybrooke this time, but he is totally buried in responsibility, which would leave no time for sheep stories right now.

CHUCKLES was another totally out of the ordinary pose that Ryan captured. What a camera, to take sharp and clear moving objects!

Well, after our computer crash just the evening of The Bulletin arriving, the Quotation for the day was timely. Adversity and crisis make us stronger. Roy and I should be pretty strong after this past week.

Thanks again for allowing me to comment on The Bulletin, Editor and Photo Editor and staff. I look forward to it eagerly, and only wish I could describe our appreciation of each article more clearly.

Roy and Betty Droel