Oh my I missed Friday writing! AND IT IS THE LAST DAY OF AUGUST

The pictures from Thursday were both taken in Lidgerwood.  The first is, as anyone can see, taken of their baseball field.  It was very different when brother Ronald was playing American Legion ball in the summer.  There was an ugly green grandstand that people would sit in.  I am sure I wrote about this in the past but we went to one of his games and Ronald fouled a ball back over the grandstand and into the tall weedy grass.  People could NOT find the ball so they just gave up.  I walked back by myself and hunted for a long time before finally finding it.  I tucked it into my pocket as I felt people had given up on finding it so it was "finders keepers, losers weepers"!  I have the ball and was going to, sometime, give it to Roxanne but of course that did not happen.  Anyway the Lidgerwood ball field is very different today than long long ago.  I am actually surprised it is still used and in good shape.  The second picture is of Bergen Church that we attended until about 1963 when it was closed.  At some point it was moved to Lidgerwood and somebody used it as their house.  I looks like it is not used today.  Of course there could almost be a book of stories related to the church.  Among the headlines could be:

• the fall bazaar where I could spent my coins I earned for bringing in corn cobs for the cook stove
• playing tag around the church and among the grave markers
• ringing the bell and allowing the rope to pull me off the ground as the bell swung from side to side  (the bell is on a cement slab at the cemetery today)
• the every December practises for the Christmas program
• the Luther League programs with kool aide and cake afterwards
• the summer Bible school across the road in the school house
• the many times Mom and Dad did a song for the church program and the ONE time Rev Mailing (sp) stood up and sang with them!
• every fall one of the church council would some by to collect the yearly church dues
• etc etc etc

As one can see Bergen was a HUGE part of life growing up on the farm.  As the building rests in Lidgerwood little does it know the part it played in the demise of rural America.

I have one more chance to get some work done in the month of August.  I would say my back is getting better each day BUT it is not all that good yet.  Maybe I need to rest a few more days😐.  As we slip into September tomorrow the weather shows we MAY not see 80s again until 2020.  That seems odd and I am guessing we will see a day or two but time will tell.

I do not remember a late summer that has been so rainy.  It is great for the lawn.  I do remember back in 07, 08 09 etc the front 15-20 feet of lawn by now was pretty much little patches of grass but mostly BIG patches of dirt.  Over the last 10 years or so I have done my best to seed, water etc and today, with the nice rains, the entire front yard is green.  The green would not earn any awards but still it looks pretty decent and I think it could hold it's own against most of the lawns on Niles Ave.  I know, it still could (and will be) a lot nicer in the future.

Terry got some tomatoes frozen yesterday and we have some in the dehydrator.  The machine was making noises that it should not so I took it apart and tried to fix it.  I have not dared plug it in yet to see if my work makes any difference.  I will do that this morning. 

I am done.  I think I HAVE to get on Bentley this morning to test my back and get some exercise in.  With a temp of 58 I may need a light jacket.  Even though I finished my FP I may need to stop at the coffee shop as I need to get up to 50 stars for a free cup!!!