Photos © Gina Henderson
Abby Henderson turns one, with presents, balloons & cake.

Photo © Sheldon Swenson
Big downed tree rests on corner of Swensons' house after storm.

UPDATE -- a tornado last July and a new house, soon
by Mitzi Johnson Swenson
Dickinson, ND

Photo © Marlee Freeseman
Sold! To Jeff & Jessica Gauderman

Photo © Char Myron
Alexa Gauderman celebrates first birthday.

UPDATE -- Alexa's first birthday -- in a new home
by Char Morgan Myron
Thompson, ND

Photo © Marlee Freeseman
Back: Jeff & Jessica Gauderman, Tim & Char & Ty Myron, Troy Freesemann; front: Alyssa Freeseman, Alexa Gauderman, Angel & Jett Freeseman.

UPDATE -- manor project for retirement tools
by Rich and Verlaine Weiland
Coon Rapids, MN

There was not a lot of fanfare on this project. We found this backyard shed prebuilt in Anoka and they brought it out and set it in the back yard. We now have a bit more room in our garage.

In the winter we store our fireplace wood and lawnmowers and summer stuff; then, in the summer, we switch it around and our snowblower goes in the shed and the lawnmowers find a home in the garage.

The fireplace wood stays in the shed year around. We had flowers in a window box and I have added a ramp to make it easier to move stuff in and out. We insulated it and put blinds in the window, so it has undergone a few changes from the time these pictures were taken.

We also rebuilt our deck this spring, after I retired, so we keep busy.

Photo © Jerrianne Lowther
Autumn color -- bridal wreath spiraea leaves turn golden. My Grandma Johnson had one of these shrubs at the northeast corner of the porch where Beaver's office is now. In the spring, when the arching branches were covered with white blossoms, she would declare it was "pretty enough for a wedding." And so it was.

Photo © Jerrianne Lowther
Some of the leaves may even turn rusty red, if they get enough sun. My bridal wreath spiraea has thrived at the southeast corner of my house in Anchorage for many years now. I made these photos yesterday and, as you can see, it's also magnificent in the fall.

Photo © Donna Johnson
The guys, right after they'd finished working, along with Buster & Lexie.

UPDATE -- Woodcutting Weekend at the farm
by Eric Anderson
Maple Grove, MN

This past weekend was woodcutting out at the Farm. It's the weekend we all meet up at my aunt and uncle's place near Ashby and spend a day or so out in the woods cutting and gathering up the dead-falls so they can be used to heat the house during the winter months. It may not be everyone's thing, but I always have a great time. It's a chance to see family we don't hook up with a whole lot, and it gives you an excuse to eat like a little piggy; after all, you worked your butt off all day! It's good, honest work too, the kind that makes you actually hungry.

This year was a little different than most, for a couple reasons, the first being the snow. We've done this project at all sorts of different times, ranging from mid-October to late-November, but, in all the years we've been helping, there's never been snow. Now this year, when we scheduled earlier than it's been in a long time, we wake up the morning of to a good inch of powder that stuck around for most of the day. It didn't make things all that much harder, which was actually kind of surprising, but it certainly made the experience interesting.

The other big difference was how many people we had out there. A couple guys (you know who you are) decided that the Gopher game was much more important than heating the homestead, so they wussed out and stayed back in the Cities. (Nah, I kid, guys. It's all good.) The other missing folks had the excuse of being two weeks away from having a baby, so they get off ... this year. That left us with only seven doing the work of what's, at times, been more than a dozen.

Considering our diminished numbers, we didn't expect to get near as much wood put up as we usually do, but that's the weird part. When all was said and done, the wood shed was filled to the brim and there was a fairly sizable pile sitting in the yard, and if my memory is correct that's about how much we put up the last couple years with the whole crew helping. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it tells me one important thing. Next year the folks who missed this year's cutting can do all the work while the rest of us come up with new combinations of Fritos and chili.

Photo © Donna Johnson
Eric throws some of the big pieces of wood off the pickup bed.

Photo © Donna Johnson
The girls came in and cleaned up first; here they are, along with their dogs: Lori & Tate, Leona & Ozzie and Jolene & Atley.

Woodcutting Weekend

Photo © Donna Johnson
Brooklynn opening her birthday gifts, with some of the onlookers: Donna Thoennes, Wyatt Johnson, John Thoennes, Brooklynn, McKenna, Rylie, Beaver & Eric Anderson. Others at the party were Jolene's parents, her brother and his fiancée & a nephew. When asked how old she was, Brooklyn said she was "five -- a whole hand!"

Photo © Donna Johnson
Besides feeding people, my job was to watch children, while their parents worked. Here Brooklynn, McKenna & Camryn are enjoying hot chocolate with mini marshmallows and cookies. As usual, Caity was a great help!

Who Is This?

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.

I really have no idea, but I'm guessing -- as that is the name of the game. I think the boy is Donald Anderson and the three girls his sisters -- but I would not know which is which, if my guess is correct.

Judy Riesenberg
Great Falls, MT

Editor's comment: Good for you! What you guessed is totally correct. Now, if no one is able to identify the sisters, then I will tell you. But perhaps someone will know!

I know the guess this time! It's my big brother Donald Anderson and we three sisters -- myself (Elaine Anderson Wold), DeLoris Anderson and Mavis Anderson Morgan. It is by the sweet pea fence at our home in Dwight, North Dakota. I think it's taken in 1937, as Mavis looks like 2 years old.

It's strange -- when Mavis was little, my mother could not get a picture of her not crying or pouting, since she had been frightened by a toy camera that shot out a fake snake, so she never liked her picture taken. However, when she grew up, she is the one in the family who perhaps has the most photo equipment, movie projectors, camcorders, and cameras of all kinds!

Elaine Anderson Wold
Wahpeton, ND

Editor's comment: And I do not think you can find a photo taken of her where she isn't looking great! Not a pout to be seen. :-) As a matter of fact, the Anderson girls are all quite photogenic. Merna Morgan Hellevang sent the photo, which she said was taken in August 1936.

Betty Weiland Droel
MoundsView, MN

Photo © Sheldon Swenson
Annapurna South.

Hiking The Annapurna Circuit
by Sheldon Swenson
Dickinson, ND

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

I'm a little nervous, as the AOL is acting up, so that I may hear the dreaded "GOODBYE" anytime, and that would be goodbye to my LTTE. It is never the same to try to re-write it, so let's hope it will say alive and well for my opportunity to thank our contributors again for another outstanding Bulletin -- Bulletin #382.

If you can imagine that! 52 weeks a year, and this is Bulletin #382. Hmmm, let's see, I will have to call my brother, Rich. He is my math guru. Oh, better yet, my dear husband, Roy, is also very skilled with math and he is right here. However, he is busy reading the Sunday paper. So, let's just accept the fact that it is an amazing number of Bulletins to keep so interesting and anticipated. (The only reason I passed to the next grade on math in school is that the teacher really loved my sister, who excelled in everything.)

Well, it happened. I had a whole paragraph disappear before my eyes, with the GOODBYE in the background, not only to AOL, but the whole computer shut down. I wonder if this is a bad time to be doing this?

What I was saying, when I was so rudely interrupted, was how nice it would be to know the background of those next two innocent-looking pictures.

The one of Brooklynn with her brand new coat for winter. I was backing up a little to the shopping experience, getting that coat. Preparing for the trip, comments on choices, store to stop at first, and size and color, etc. It is a pretty, practical, modern coat, and it will be one she can grow into.

Then Jayce, being able to play football well enough to receive a medal. No wonder he looks so accomplished and proud to display it against that black shirt. Seems he and Caity have had a lot of prizes. And a devoted Grandma that sees to it they get shared in The Bulletin.

I remember someone asked for an update on this house-moving project. We have not seen anything more about it since the picture of it going down the road. Now, we get the whole story, and thank you for sending it, even when you did not have time, either for the pictures or to write anything. We are all glad to see the progress and process, and the willing help for the most difficult part of all -- a solid foundation. So far, we see it is still upright and all in once piece.

The next Update was Wyatt and Jolene's home, looking close to being lived in and a nice big yard to mow. I thought that was such a wise investment, for Jolene to plant the apple trees furnished by her inheritance. Something to share and something to last -- a living remembrance.

The picture of those two little girls is just precious. They look like they are at total attention to someone, and if you keep that picture through the years, you may present it to her at her college graduation course as a beautician and barber.

When I saw the "Walk To School Day" story, by Jerrianne in Alaska, I did a double-take to see the caption under the picture, "Moose and beaver mascots, etc." I LOOKED at that picture, questioning Beaver having gone to Alaska to be a mascot, but then I see this beaver did not have a white beard. Jerrianne usually gives us links to follow up to learn more about her stories.

My dad used to give me a ride to high school, and I couldn't figure out why he was so impatient and wanting to get going. As I grew older and learned more about the world's affairs, I realized he had to open his shop and business so the men could get in and get to work, and I was making him late.

I wonder how many of us would do things so much differently if we had a second chance?

Oh, that story of the SOUP, etc., by Donna Mae. What a beautiful stove, and so nice for big pots like that, which don't tip off of raised burners! We see the woodcutting pictures, etc., but very rarely get in on this part of the preparation for the big event. I am so glad you shared those delicious looking pictures, and your story, as just everything is of interest to us when it's about The Bulletin family.

I finally got to the Memory Lane! Our dear Dorothy, sharing the secrets of her heart, from way back in the Good Old Days, seems to get better and better. We had hot dogs for our lunch today, but no baked beans or potato salad or lemonade. We didn't have any dessert, either.

Oh, I could just smell the dill you went and picked, Dorothy. We sometimes bought a plant or two of dill, just to have in the garden or flowers, for the smell.

I remember the boys teasing Gert, too. She was such a pretty, sweet-looking girl as she grew up, and I saw how popular she was ... so I know this is true, that Dorothy mentioned, ha. The trip, block by block, was fun to read -- once again, I should comment on what a good storyteller Dorothy is.

I am glad you didn't just skip over the part about seeing your school friends. What a heartwarming experience that would be, after all those years. I wouldn't doubt they still remember it themselves.

The long-anticipated trip home was soon to be over, and back to Bemidji again on the Greyhound bus. I can just feel the heavy vibration and motor noise as the bus backed out of the bus garage here in Minneapolis back then.

What a nice picture of you, Dorothy, with the dill! The only thing different now is the suit size. Still the same coy smile.

The Travelogue has us still up in the vast, unending miles and miles of scenery, always with the varied mountains as the backdrop. I will be so curious to know who and when of this trip would return to the areas we have followed you on since the Travelogue began. You mentioned Nepal. Surely it couldn't compare with Dickinson, North Dakota, and near family and friends. Thanks for all you have shared. Funny how "Fish Tail Peak" was ever formed, isn't it? I'm guessing Kjirsten, the doctor, is on the right on that last picture.

OK, Jerrianne, just how did you feel when you saw that great picture of your sister, Kathlyn? She sure looked good to me. We could never get through talking. I look forward to her coming to our home sometime. Arg must come along, too.

The CHUCKLES was one the children could identify with, as most loved the freedom of summer, from routine, good clothes, duties, discipline, and all things practical.

The Quotation for the day was one of my favorites. Those who matter don't mind, at all, your mistakes and feelings, etc.,

Thank you so much, and may you have an easy week, with the mailbox overflowing, with stories from all over and many pictures.

Betty Droel

Quotation for the day: There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap into this source, you will truly have defeated age. --Sophia Loren