Frozen crystals grow their own paintings...

And let us enjoy their artistic delights.

And I love Minnesota winters because... ?

The cold air has been creeping over Minnesota all day.
The wind has been whipping it to feel even colder... like 30-40 degrees below zero.

I've been finding all sorts of things to do... INSIDE!
Like clearing off the top of my desk! (Actually, I've crammed all the papers and stuff into bags that I plan to organize someday.)

But the horses need to be fed... so that means I have to go outside morning and night.
Also, one horse needs extra feed and medication, so a mid day trip is scheduled too.

Tonight I put on my winter mask and hat and snowmobile suit and headed outside.

Because I have to use a syringe to squirt the meds into Fiero's mouth, I have to take off my mitten. He decides that he doesn't want it and that means my hand gets even colder as we manuever it into his mouth.

I'm trying to warm up my hand on the way to the hillside pasture to feed some other horses. I find I have to take off my mitten again to get the right amount of supplements for them and afterwards I unzip my snomobile suit to stick my hand in my armpit to warm it up a bit.

The trouble is that the cold wind also gets inside my suit.

Heading to get the hay and loading it on the sled and tossing it over the fence means that I am getting jittery cold.

Before I head back to finish the chores at the first shed, I decide to check the automatic waterers.
Sure enough... one of them was frozen over.
This could mean getting a propane torch and/or hair dryers to heat up the pipes and generally is a pretty miserable job.

Not having felt well most of the day, I was weakening fast.
I considered shedding a few tears but then I realized that they would probably just freeze on my cheeks and that would be worse.

I headed back to the house to warm up.

I put on another winter jacket over my snomobile suit (it's amazing I could still move all bundled up like this!) and headed back outside.

I finished the chores and went to the hillside pasture with the frozen waterer. Using a pliars to open it up I found it was still heating. That's good.

Perhaps the wind temp was so cold that it had just frozen over. I cracked the ice and tossed it out.

I'll check again in the morning.

Back in the house I'm warming up with a glass of wine.

And the husband calls on the phone and asks: "When's dinner?"

Hmmmmm.

The National Figure Skating Championships being held in our state brought to mind...

A lesson in life...

from a little skater

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“Keep going…keep going…”

The voice rang out in anguished desperation across the arena.
The spectators had gasped as the eight-year-old flying across the rink in the middle of her competitive routine had caught the blade on her skate and fallen face forward onto the ice.

Whether or not she heard her mother’s cry or the gasp of the crowd, the little skater got back up and with scratched and reddened knees and hands she finished her routine in style. Coming off the rink her face showed her disappointment.But she didn’t say anything.

She had never fallen in her previous competitions, her dad explained. Just that morning she had won first place in the compulsory requirements.

But now she had to sit and wait for the scores to be made public. Her grandma sat next to her and tried to encourage her by explaining that sometimes the judges don’t take a lot of points off for falls. Actually, the little skater knew a lot more about judging than her grandma but she just quietly listened. Maybe she could still get a medal of some kind.

Finally the results were posted. She had won first place!

This story is simply being told to encourage the rest of us.

Because sometimes in life your blade catches on the ice and you fall. And you may not hear that voice in the crowd yelling, “Get back up… keep going…!”

If you need someone to yell it to you – I’ll do it!
“Get back up… keep going!”

(Will you do it for me?)


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You can depend on me…

or not!

You’re planning on having surgery for an aggressive bone-eating growth in your sinuses… and although you have some natural concerns (your sister just died of a brain tumor and your family has a history of cancer), you know you have the support of your friends and family.
Well… some of them anyway!

My husband, Paul, was in this situation.

I had planned to take him to the hospital up in the twin cities that morning. Since one headlight was out on the car, I wanted to get home before dark. He would stay overnight up there anyway. .

But I woke up sick with flu symptoms. This is the usual allergic response my body gives when it gets overdosed with molds, etc.
Between the nausea and other famous symptoms (need I explain?), I ended up calling Paul’s brother in a nearby town to take him to the hospital. Paul would drive our pick-up truck to their house so I could have the car and come up when I felt better and had the headlight fixed.

Paul headed outside with his overnight packsack and found the pickup had a flat tire.

OK. Think of “Plan B”. Time is getting short.

At this time I’m feeling slightly better and think I can drive the car back from his brother's. And the fresh would air help too.
But when I'm back home again, having had a friend fix the headlight, I’m feeling guilty for not being the “help-mate” I should be.

That night, from my sojourn on the couch, feeling lousy and emotionally torn, I looked around the house and noticed all the little mementoes we had picked up over the years. They wouldn’t have impressed anybody else. But each had meant something to one of us.

Guilt at not being at the hospital with Paul tormented me. What if there was a problem in surgery and I wasn’t there? How would it turn out?
Doesn’t it look awful that the wife isn’t there?
How do my friends who have been widowed make it through? How do they keep on? What are their answers?

Later that evening I talked to the doctor. Paul had made it through fine. I could pick him up the next morning.

But, the next morning I felt sick again… although better than yesterday. As Paul called from his hospital room I informed him that I was coming up to get him. And if I drove up via some smaller highways I could stop at our son’s house if I needed to rest a bit.

Now here comes the part where I realize that Paul is doing all right. He starts arguing on the phone about which way I should drive to the hospital.
The way I chose is dumb, he says. Take the freeway around town, he orders.

He called me stubborn and that’s when I realized that if he can argue like that, he’s back to normal.
And who’s being stubborn?

When our conversation continued in the same mode, I hung up on him! (I’m back to normal too!)

I called our kids and told them I’d hung up on their Dad. Just so they’d know things were OK.

And yes, it’s good to have him home again.


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Can you see me?

Below zero wind-chill outside... keep warm!

Sparkle, the barn cat, was allowed in the house

because of the dangerously cold weather outside.

He found a comfortable furry blanket

on the couch to nestle in.

The only problem was that

we had a difficult time seeing him!

The (Lion) King awaits...

A miniature form of the

Lion - King of the Jungle -

awaits his transportation...

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Humans are the power sources

to pull the hay and Sparkle the cat

to the horse barn.

But what's this?

The humans have gotten all tuckered out!

What is a fellow to do?

Well, Sparkle is patient. He knows they'll get moving again.

(Or get Grandma to help!)

Do you dare sneak out

of an Awards Ceremony?

Ever want to sneak out of an awards ceremony… but you were too polite?
Well, I was checking out the back row exit because I was too embarrassed!

The Goodhue County Sheriff’s Department was giving out their yearly awards. The honorees had been nominated by their fellow officers. As Sheriff Dean Albers read the nominations and gave out the plaques we heard about the dangerous situations these officers had been involved in.
One civilian being honored had saved the life of a person who had fallen in the river.

And that’s why I was so embarrassed. I was getting a citizen’s award for helping establish a partnership between law enforcement and citizens… an organization named TRIAD.

I was embarrassed because it didn’t call for any heroics on my part. It did call for time and creative energy and persistence. But that sounds familiar to any of you who are volunteers.
It was nothing special. I was just “doing what I do.”

As I heard my name called out, I cringed as I walked up to accept the plaque. (I think the camera caught my embarrassment!)

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I turned to the audience sitting in their SWAT gear and uniforms with their guns at hand and apologized. I was so humbled by the things they had done.

I explained that I had been trying to figure how to sneak out of the ceremony. The sheriff interrupted and warned: We would have caught you. "That’s what we do.”

And as I thought about it, I considered that as these officers go into dangerous situations they would probably just say, “It’s what we do.”

Following are some of the awards given to Goodhue County Deputies by Sheriff Dean Albers in 2007. Photos and information courtesy of the Goodhue County Sheriff’s Department.

Letters of Recognition:

On a wintry day last January, Goodhue County Deputy Jay Kindseth investigated the theft of a small electronic vehicle part that had been returned to an Auto Parts store for cash. His investigation of a small theft led to the identification of two suspects. One of them gave him information that helped solve numerous other thefts and burglaries in the counties of Wabasha and Olmsted besides Goodhue and also the city of Rochester. It also resulted in the recovery of much of the stolen property.

A rural burglary/theft involving thousands of dollars of stolen and damaged property was investigated by Goodhue County Deputies, Nate Timm and Jay Kindseth last March. Within three days they had identified both suspects and a confession from one of them. They recovered almost all the stolen property and determined what had happened to the rest.

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Goodhue Sheriff’s Office - Employee of the Year

As an 11 year veteran of the department, Sergeant Collins Voxland includes being a K-9 handler and supervising the program plus being a team leader on the Emergency Response Team. Voxland has been involved in over 13 successful missions this year alone.
He and his K-9 partner, Chopper, took first place in the team competition at the 2006 K-9 nationals. (Chopper isn’t in the picture but his picture is on the cake!) L-R: Calven, Collins, Jen holding Adelyn and Hayden in front.



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