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Sunday, April 19, 2009
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Photo © Sarah Steinhauer
Aren't colors fun?

Updates -

UPDATE -- my spring art project with the kids
by Sarah Dake Steinhauer
Warroad, MN

Happy Spring!

It is so nice to see signs of life once again. :) This week we got our new baby chicks in the mail, five of our rabbits are due to have babies in a week, and the rhubarb and hollyhocks are coming up!


Photos © Sarah Steinhauer
Sarah sets up project, left; Kira shows off her artful egg, right.



Photo © Kjirsten Swenson
Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks, New Mexico. Where is everyone? This little park was stunning and surprisingly empty on a weekend morning in January.

In Bulletin 350, Kjirsten Swenson mentioned interviewing for her upcoming emergency medicine residency in various cities across the country. In January she visited Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico.


UPDATE -- hunting for ringnecks (and the perfect ring)
by Ben Johnson
Ashby, MN

Once again it has been way too long since I have written I will start with the trips from the last six months, first was a Duluth trip that Ashley and I enjoyed in September. We spent two days in Duluth and a day driving through the Iron Range on the way home. Lots to see.

Then came the trip I was waiting for. Our first pheasant hunting opener trip to Hettinger, North Dakota.

Four of us took off after work on the Thursday before the North Dakota pheasant opener and headed west to our snowy destination. It was a very well organized trip, I must say. The first night we thought we might have to sleep in the truck. Luckily, the house on the farm site we were staying at was opened so we had a floor to sleep on.

The next morning, as we woke up to a snowstorm in October, we started trying to reshape our backs to their normal curvature and took a gander at our job for the day, which was to transform an old railroad grain car into the hunting lodge. Oh, did I mention we were going to rough it on this trip?

That day we managed to get the holes patched in the walls, frame in the missing door, and install a wood stove for heat. (We were hoping we would not need it but it was around the freezing point and raining and snowing the whole time we were out there.) We had it pretty well done, just in time for the other three hunters to arrive and enjoy our labors. We had three phenomenal days of hunting and a very long, sore ride home.

Immediately after getting home from that trip, we got very busy at work, so my travel season was done for the year. I was called into action as a propane deliveryman at work, as they were short one driver and I had all the needed licenses. We started out with corn drying season, in which three of us hauled just over 600,000 gallons of propane -- 32,000 gallons in one day.

We then proceeded into one of the longest, coldest, snowiest winters in the past 10 years, or so. As of last calculation, we figured to have hauled another 600,000 gallons of gas. During this time, Ashley has been getting used to working normal daytime hours instead of swing shifts. She got hired at ELEAH Medical Clinic in Elbow Lake after completion of college at Alex Tech.

So, for the most part, we just glided through winter with nothing interesting happening, which I can't allow to happen for too long -- so I decided that, after four and a half years together, it was probably time to propose marriage to Ashley. I went through the very nerve-wracking experience of finding the perfect ring and the right words to say. I'm still not sure which part was harder! Well, as it turns out, she was thinking the same thing and said yes.

As of this time, and I think it is pretty well set in stone, we are going to be wed on the 17th of October this year. Which is, coincidentally, one week after the North Dakota pheasant opener. We are currently planning the second annual trip to the "Five Point Lodge," as we so lovingly decided to call the rail car.



Photo © Lori Ostendorf
Chris & Jessy Chap, with Paisley.

UPDATE -- Chris and Jessy make plans for three
by Chris Chap
Fargo, ND

Last Saturday, Jessy, Mom, Caity and I met Grandpa and Grandma Anderson, as well as Eric and Leona Anderson, at Culver's in Alexandria. We wanted to meet with them because it had been a long time since we were able to visit and we also wanted to celebrate Grandma's belated birthday. We got there first and were able to arrange a big table so we could all sit together to visit.

After Grandpa and Grandma arrived, we waited for Grandpa to ask us his usual question: "When am I going to have a North Dakota grandbaby?" After waiting for a few minutes, and not being asked the usual question, we finally had to break the news. Jessy is pregnant! It was very exciting to get to tell them in person.

Just as we broke the news, Eric and Leona arrived and were able to share the news with them, as well. We then enjoyed a nice lunch together and visited for a while.

Jessy will be in her 13th week of the pregnancy on April 19th. Our baby is due on October 26th. She is very excited to have a Hallowe'en baby and can't wait to find out whether we are having a boy or girl. We will try keep people updated on how everything is going and any exciting news that we have, we will make sure to get the word out.


Photo © Donald W. Anderson
Jessy, Chris, Donna, Dorothy, Eric, Leona & Caity at birthday lunch.


Day to Day R
With Donna Mae
Ashby, MN


Photo © Donna Johnson
Easter Egg Hiders: Ashley, Eric, Ben, Wyatt, Weston, Leona, Beaver, Lori, Chris.

Easter Weekend Egg Gathering

We had a lovely weekend gathering with all of our "kids," grandkids and various pets, plus Eric, Leona and Ozzie. Loved every minute of each of them being here!

We had egg filling, coloring, hiding and hunting. We had good visiting and excellent eating, as usual! Jessy and Chris brought a beautiful Easter Lily and three knock you out scrumptious desserts and snacks, Weston brought chips and peanuts, Eric and Leona brought a yummy tuna salad, Jolene made wild rice casserole (lots of good onions and mushrooms), Wyatt brought candy and dollars to help fill the eggs, Lori made a beautiful salad and I provided ham, two pork roasts, au gratin potatoes and various other items. Needless to say, we ate well!


Photo © Donna Johnson
Easter Egg Hunters: very front: McKenna & Camryn; middle row: Brooklynn, Jayce, Vincent Finkelson, Rylie; back row: Caity, Jessy in her first egg hunt at the farm, Grant Finkelson. Buckets on hunters' heads is an Ashby farm tradition.


Photos © Lori Ostendorf
Jessy & Camryn, left; Chris with Kierra & McKenna, right.


Photo © Donna Johnson
Caity, Jessy, Chris, Becky, Weston, Leona, Beaver & Eric.


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

EARLY DEADLINE NEXT WEEK!

The next Bulletin will "go to bed" on Wednesday instead of Friday so we need your news for Bulletin 358 by early next week -- the sooner the better. Late news will wait for the next issue.


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. Frans de Been and Donna Johnson supplied last week's mystery photos.


How many can you identify? What's going on?

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

Editors' Note: Correct guesses appear in bold face type and incorrect guesses in normal type ... generally in the order we receive them, so the first guess received is on top.

By the way, I've never met him, but I think I'd recognize Beaver anywhere. I don't know who the lady is.

Dan Mellon
Alta Loma, CA


My guess this week for the first mystery photo is Rian de Been. The other one is my big brother Beaver, probably outside the Terry Redlin Art Center.

Mitzi Swenson
Dickinson, ND


I am reasonably sure that Beaver is in the picture on the right. I do not know who is in the other picture, but that is certainly a large split tree.

Earl Stahlecker
Gatesville, TX


I think I have a guess this time for the mystery pictures. The first one is Rian in Netherlands, and the next one is Beaver. Thanks for an easier one this time -- IF I got them right.

Betty Weiland Droel
MoundsView, MN


Memory Lane

A series of recollections, of the five years when Bill and Lois Dake and their family lived in Minnesota, began with the episode in Bulletin 343. It's too soon to tell just how many parts there will be in this series, just after World War II. In Bulletin 349, I told more about polio (once called Infantile Paralysis) via two links, Polio and Sister Kenny, to minimize disruption of the narrative flow about Lois and Bill Dake. Both documents are posted as a series of scanned images. We can't edit them or correct typos and they will not respond to font changes or printer settings as regular Bulletin pages do.


Dorothy Dake, 20, hand tinted portrait, 1946.

Carol Arrives, Right On Schedule
by Dorothy Dake
Howard Lake, MN

Tonight, Blanche and I are going shopping. We hadn't planned on it until that phone call this morning. I heard the telephone ring at about 6:30 and went to the top of the steps to listen, as early calls are almost always important ones, and this one certainly seemed like it might be THE ONE we have been waiting for.

It sounded so promising I had to check it out even before I was dressed, so I slipped on my housecoat and scooted down just in time to hear Blanche say, "Wonderful! So now I am an aunty ... red headed you say ... Oh, cute! How did things go? Great! Now then, what is her name? Carol Elaine! That sounds just RIGHT!"

I scooted into the bathroom (which is downstairs) and got ready for school. When I finished and came out, we discussed the news as I helped Blanche finish getting breakfast -- and then Blanche told me to draw a big box around December 4, 1946, on the calendar and add the name Carol Elaine Dake.

Then, when Jim came, he had to hear the news and we had to hurry and sit down to a quick breakfast and some plan making. We just have to get down to see the newest member of the family and her proud parents -- but we will have to wait until Friday night, as it is too far to go on a week night. We think we will go on Friday night, right after we get home from school. So that means that we have to go shopping tonight.

On the way to school, Blanche was telling me some interesting details. She said Mom told her she guessed they had a granddaughter when Billy came whistling up early this morning. She says he is one happy daddy!

I guess it was a really tense trip from Cokato to Watertown. (I think it is about 18 miles.) It started to snow as they were making a call to Dr. Roholt. He made the decision from the information they had that they had better get on their way to the hospital (the same one I went to when I was coming down with polio last spring).

The snow got thicker and finally there was virtually a whiteout from Howard Lake to Waverly. I guess Brother Bill had to hang his head out the window and keep an eye on the side of the road, but lucky for them it cleared up a bit from Waverly across country to Watertown -- as he would not have been as familiar with that road.

They arrived with no further problem and the delivery went smoothly, so now is our opportunity to shop for our little miss ... couldn't do it earlier, as we didn't know what to get. But I have a feeling we won't have a hard time to find some nice, cute things.

You just know that little Miss Carol is going to be a queen to rule over this little kingdom of hers. She is the first granddaughter for the Bill Dakes and the Coy Gandys, also the first great granddaughter of several sets of older folks, too. And personally, of course, she is my very first NIECE! I thought of the thrill of it all to help me through a lot of lonesome days and now I can actually be there to see her ... and later to get to hold her! I can hardly wait.

I never said so, but I was really hoping we would get a red-headed niece (though a red-headed nephew would have had a big welcome, too! Well, even a blond or a brunette or a baldie!) We all love babies! And this one is OURS!


Lois gives Carol a bath (early in 1947).


Homesteading Days at Effie, Minnesota, as toldby Bruce McCorkell

Larry McCorkell sent us a manuscript he transcribed from his father's tape recorded memories and made it available to The Bulletin for a series of excerpts. These stories were originally tape recorded by Bruce McCorkell of his growing up days on the homestead near Effie in northern Minnesota. They were recorded from a period of the mid 1980's until the early 2000's. These are Bruce's words of happy, sad, funny, good, and hard times.


Bruce with a truckload of logs.

LUMBERJACKS

In the early days, lumber camps were big. In the later forties, or in the early forties, a lot of the lumberjacks were what they called "shackers." The loggers got away somewhat from the logging camp with a bunkhouse and the cookhouse where they ate and all that kind of a thing. If the logger wasn't very big, he'd have some shackers. He'd have a couple of guys usually in the shack, maybe only one sometimes, but a lot of times it was two. They'd get together and they'd have a shack and would feed themselves. He would pay them by the piece for cutting. They had a scale they went by. That was pretty much that.

When I was first driving pulpwood truck and lumber truck, they had big camps yet with the lumberjacks there. A lot of those lumberjacks didn't have any relatives in this country. They came from the old country and they were lumberjacks all their life. That's the only work they did, I guess, either work in the mines or cut wood. About two times a year they'd go to town, around Christmas time and in breakup time in the spring, when there would be a month or so when they didn't do anything. The snow was melting and the roads were breaking up and they'd go to town.

They'd go to International Falls or they'd go to Craigville, usually. There were a lot of these joints. That's where they'd end up. A lot of them would come in there with their wad of money. Some of them hung on to their own money, but some of them would give their money to the bartender and just tell him, "When it's gone, get me on a truck and send me back to camp."

A lot of times the boss would say, "Stop in and see if some of these guys are ready to come back, they're broke." There were always women there. They'd drink two weeks or until their money was gone. So we'd stop there once in a while. Sometimes there was an especially good man that he wanted back because they'd go to any camp. They didn't have to go back to where they'd come from, necessarily. "See if he's there."

They'd have a name, so I'd stop and see if he was ready to go back. A lot of times they were ready to go. They were still stewed and stunk to beat everything, oh mister, you could hardly stand them. I got them loaded up and got them back to camp.


Travelogue t


Photo © Kjirsten Swenson
Ibo's coast near the old lighthouse. We walked through mangrove swamps to get here one hot morning.

Mozambique
by Kjirsten Swenson
Houston, TX

On my second day on Ibo, Vidal and his friend took me on a hike to an abandoned lighthouse at the far end of the island. It was a hot walk first, through groves of coconut and banana trees. Later, we picked our way through a mangrove swamp on the coast. The lighthouse itself was little more than a set of concrete steps leading to an empty platform, but the location was magnificent. We were treated to a stunning view of the azure sea and waves crashing on the reef below.

To be continued...


Photos © Kjirsten Swenson
Vidal walking to old lighthouse, left; Ibo's coast on the way to the lighthouse, right.


Photos © Kjirsten Swenson
My guide, Vidal, and his friend admiring the view from Ibo's old lighthouse, left; natural bridge on Ibo's coast near the old lighthouse, right.


Celebrations & Observances
From the Files of
5
Hetty Hooper

This Week's Birthdays
April 19---Levi Owen Steinhauer (4 years old)
April 23---Alyssa Lynn Freesemann (12 years old)
April 23---Miss Kitty (6 years old)
April 23---Mai Tai (2 years old)
April 25---Troy LaRon Freesemann
April 25---Mia Nelson
Happy Birthday!

More April Birthdays
' 
April 2---Duane Miller
April 2---Jess Cloyd
April 4---Meryl Hansey
April 4---Barb Dewey
April 6---Dusty Meyers
April 9---Richard Johnson (from Oregon)
April 9---Dorothy Dake Anderson
April 10---Brenda Anderson Hill
April 10---Lisa Kae Anderson
April 10---Shawn Ostendorf
April 15---Melinda Miranowski

April 26---Heidi Johnson Henderson
April 27---Steve Rodriguez
April 27---Peggy McNeill
April 28---Justin Blackstone
April 29---Kelly Kay Larson Seaman
April 30---Kurtis James Larson

April Special Days
O
April 1---April Fools' Day
April 10---Good Friday
April 12---Easter Sunday

Miss Hetty's Mailbox:


Ready for Spring: Shawn, Lori, McKenna & Kierra Ostendorf.


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?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Click here to review last week's Bulletin

Dorothy,

You look wonderful in your photo, and I hope you are feeling as well as you look! I am particularly enjoying your journal stories. What a gift to all of us!

Dan Mellon
Alta Loma, CA


I am in full agreement with Aunt Gert about those awful brown cotton stockings. I was a skinny little kid ... and Mother apparently thought I'd catch my death of pneumonia when I started school in Texas. So every winter day, she sent me off in those baggy (skinny legs!) brown full length socks (held up by some sort of garter belt, if I remember correctly). Needless to say, some of the other school kids thought I was a bit strange ... NOBODY ELSE'S mother put them in those kind of things for the mild Texas winter! But I survived without permanent physical or psychological damage, as far as I know.

It was nice to see the picture and introduction by cousin Judy McCalla. I remember seeing you at Grandpa and Grandma Dake's farm when we were small, Judy!

This is a more recent picture of cousins Eric and Jana Printz. I thought you might enjoy seeing it after the one taken of them as babies in the Guess that was in The Bulletin.

Carol Dake Printz
Sidney, NE


Jana & Eric Printz today.


Last Week's Bulletin Review JKL
by Betty Droel
MoundsView, MN

We definitely needed that beautiful spring flower as the first picture this week. Our snow is finally all gone, and now what we see is a lot of yard work on our acre to care for. Winter was long and cold, so I do think everyone feels the same as we welcome spring with happy smiles.

I appreciate the funeral announcements that we receive in The Bulletin. Some of the folks we know, and some we don't, but have heard of them or know the family. What a very unusual memorial card in memory of Verona Burchill. Henry Burchill has a very significant, valued part of our family back as far as 1918, or so, when my dad met him in the Manfred, North Dakota, area.

Thanks to Kjirsten for catching that beautiful full moon at dawn at Saguaro National Park.

What a precious picture of Gina, Dan and Abby in Chicago! Babies don't stay babies very long, do they?

The Family Update from Judy McCalla introduced us to yet another Bulletin family member. I was impressed with the life story Judy shared with us, and the beautiful flower pictures.

We have to admit that the grandkittens are getting cuter all the time. Thanks, Miss Kitty for the update on those cats, and the mention of the ash condition you have there in Anchorage.

I wonder who else thought that was a very beautiful picture of our Matriarch and Editor, who just had another birthday. The 83rd one! Such a youthful looking lady, and not a hair out of place. Of course, the flowers would have to be in the purple shades. Sorry we can't comment on the new glasses, as we don't even remember what the old ones were like.

I was so glad for the Memory Lane continuing, which gave us more of the life story of our Editor in the days of her teaching experiences, and all the ups and downs of starting out in the business world. I'm sure, looking at the picture now, Dorothy, of yourself leaning on the car, standing there upright, brings back happy memories of days before a wheelchair.

To read about Bruce's logging days makes you realize he knew what hard work really was. I am glad he could remember all these details so we easily can picture it. I see he did farm work for Clifford Hanson. So THAT is how and when he likely met his bride, Clifford's sister. A strong, loyal, upright family, as I remember them.

The "Easter Egg Surprise" was so well written that we could just picture that little boy with the purple face. What a shock to find out the "candy" was DYE. The needing to replace the carpet area from out of a closet was just too funny now, but for sure not then. Jerrianne practicing her clarinet. Now, that was news. We need more details on that part, Jerrianne!

The Travelogue gave us another chapter in the most interesting area of Mozambique. Kjirsten has a gift to describe and photograph just enough to give us a great account of her time there.

I read with great interest Elaine Wold's Letter to the Editor. I think we should have her write about her week more often. I think of her surviving so many things that would take most people down, and very likely the thought of starting flowers now will be quite a cheer.

I was deeply touched with the photo illustration Bitzi created by the quote of Horace Mann. I know that our greatest happiness is in having a heart that goes out of itself for others.

The Quotation for the day just fit right into that thought: Kindness is the language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see. I try not to ever miss that Quotation for the day.

We are having serious computer problems. It seems we are needing to change servers, and that will be a major re-entering of all our information, etc., but we did have this Juno account that I see is still working so decided to write the LTTE on it and see if it works.

Betty Droel


CHUCKLES


Photo © Sarah Steinhauer
C'mon, Spring, hurry up -- don't be a chicken!


To search a name in Who's Who or Who's Where: click on the link to open the page, then use CONTROL F on a PC or COMMAND F on a Mac. To search for a second occurrence of the name, use CONTROL G on a PC or COMMAND G on a Mac. (This works on ANY web page with text, unless the text is converted to an image. Chances are, it works in your e-mail, too.) HINT: Search by first name only, as most entries list the family name once but do not repeat the last name for each family member. In Who's Where you can search on state or city names, too.



Quotation for the day: What the world really needs is more love and less paper work. --Pearl Bailey

EDITOR'S POLICY: If you wish to subscribe to The Bulletin, simply send me a statement of that fact. If you wish to keep receiving it I hope you will contribute to one of the columns that are running in this family epistle (at least occasionally!). My e-mail address is dma49261@juno.com


This Bulletin is copyright Dorothy M. Anderson; the contents are also copyrighted by the authors and photographers and used with their permission, and the contents are not to be used for any commercial purposes without the explicit consent of the creators.


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