Here are at Memorial Day 2022

 TERRY

As I sit down to write it is 8:15.  Terry has NO paper today as the papers are not printed on this day.  It may be the only day that is true.  Terry is same same I would say.  So it is another day as we venture down the road of life.  We have nothing planned for the day.

May 28, 1962

As I lay in bed peeking out the west window of my bedroom it dawned on me this day was different.  Brother Dave had graduated from high school last Friday and yesterday, Sunday he had loaded his car and left.  I mean LEFT, not to live at home anymore.  He had worked the past two summers for a farmer near Kulm North Dakota and would arrive at the same farm today.  Through the summer of 1959 we had been the Lee brother of the farm.  We had picked rock by the trailer load.  We had dragged the fields before the grain came up.  We had harvested grain down south on Uncle Jim's land.  And we had harvested fields to the east and to the west of the farm.  While waiting in the truck for Dad to need the hopper of the combine smoothed out we had almost solved all the problems of the world.  AND on the land to the east of the farm we had enjoyed chokecherries from the trees on Bert's land.  Then later when the harvest was finished we had gone out with the Ford and the M and plowed until all the land was tilled up with the rich soil being on top.  During the school year we had shared the same bedroom and spent many many many nights lying awake talking about "what if" and of course girls always came into the conversation.   BUT NOW ALL THAT WAS HISTORY AS DAVE WAS 18, OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL AND INTO THE WORLD ON HIS OWN.  We had spent many many nights talking about what we wanted to do.  We had spent many many nights talking about the positivities of girl friends etc.  I will not get into what we said or what our view was of girls but I promise we were NOT into the reality of life as it played out.  BUT now everything was different.  Dave was out on his own and life would change in a big way.  

As I pulled myself out of bed and got dressed I wondered, "What will the next three years be like without my Dave.  It seemed like he was more realistic, more in tune with life and just way more adjusted to life than I.  As I climbed the steps down stairs I felt I was walking into a new life with more unknowns than knowns.  AND it turned out to be true.  

It was Memorial Day and for the past many years Dave and I would play ball, ride our bikes up to the lake and just have a fun day.  But as I sat down to Mom's pancakes with cream and syrup I felt that I would have to start over again.  AND by myself.  

For starters I decided to take the bike up to the lake to see if anybody was there so early in the day.  As I walked out to get the bike I realized that I NOW had the big bike.  In the past when Dave was home he had the big bike and I had the little bike but now I had graduated to the big bike and I was not sure IF I liked it.  Anyway I arrived up to the lake about 10 AM and there was nobody there.  The water was pretty clean but it was just too early for people to be on a picnic yet.  I rode about the east end of the lake for a bit and then headed just a short way east to where the creek came into the lake.  There was a bridge there and the water was high.  I was tempted to jump in for a swim but decided not.  On my way home I again stopped on the shores of the lake but still, at 11:00 AM now, there was nobody in sight.  I rode the half mile home and decided to hit golf balls on my one hole course.  That way I could see when people started to arrive at the lake as it was the main road past our farm that led to the lake.  Finally about noon cars started driving past our place and I knew they were one their way to a picnic at the lake.  I waited until about 12:30 and then I got my swim suit on and headed north.  I had gotten a newe swim suit in the spring so I thought for sure any girls who saw me would be impressed!!!  Well there is nothing worse than being alone, feeling pretty good but not knowing anybody and worse than than not having anybody notice you!! About 1:30 or so I decided there would be nobody I knew at the lake so I headed home to hit golf balls, three at a time.  One for Gary, one for Arnie and one for Jack.  And as you could guess Arnie always won!  

As I sit here in FL with the temp near 90, an elderly man now I sometimes think back on those days.  I think about youth.  I think about dreams.  I think about the many many years that have gone by.  And yes I think about the farm.  The fire.  The land going to George and now there is NO reminder of what WAS.  If you were to drive past where our farm WAS all you would see is a field of grain.  Yes, there is still trees to the east of the road but across the creek where there was a large shelter belt is is now a small band of trees with a deer stand in it but 95% of the shelter belt is now farm land.  Time has a way of forcing one to move on and look towards the future.  I have done that but not without memories of times of long ago.  

Well here it is 9:30.  No papers today so I will have to find something else to do with my time this morning.  I think I will go on a short bike ride and then maybe, just maybe, get some paper work done.  Of course I will care for Terry too. A short note about Joan's Quinn.  He had a brain bleed several month ago and his is still very much affected by it.  He had care givers in his life but it is a slow slow process to go though.  My prayers are with him that he may come out of this whole again.  I might add that there are three of us in the family still living.  Joan is in Utah and will turn 80 this September.  I am in Florida and will be 76 come next January and Helen is in Arkansas and will be 72 this year.  Time flies by but it does not allow for people to stay the same.  Rather life is ever evolving and we need to welcome the change and go with the flow.  Sometimes it is very difficult and sometimes it is welcome but it is ALWAYS changing.  Enough for now.

Here we are at Sunday, May 29, 2022

 TERRY

As I write Terry has the paper in bed.  I would say she is the same as she has been over the last several days.  She has not ventured into the living room for a few days now but she is in good spirits.  We did not go to the wedding and that was hard but it was the right thing to do.  So as we go forward it will be one day at a time.

Here it is pretty much a perfect day with a temp of 82 as I write and a high of 88.  That is several degrees cooler than it has been in the past and that is good.  

I do not have tennis today, Sunday, and maybe not tomorrow either.  Karl, who often puts me, in is out of town for the weekend.  So I may just go on a couple of bike rides and that will be it for the day.  OH, I do have a mess in the kitchen so will try to clean that up this morning.  As usual, I will watch church on the TV as I do not like to go to church and leave Terry at home.

I really have little to say today so I may go back in time and write about "what was".

Clean up mode in the summers of 1963,64 and 65

It was the summer after my sophomore year of high school.  I was the first year that summer would come and fall would follow with Dave not coming home.  Dave had graduated in May and in a day or two after graduation he loaded his car with things and headed to Kulm for the summer.  The difference this time is he graduated from HS and he was GONE.  He would not be back in the fall.

That left me with a void in my summer.  In the past I would keep my summer busy with work and also with doing small things knowing that Dave and I would be together again in September but this gave me an entire different feeling.  What was I to do.  Well being a farm kid on a small farm I had a lot of time.  Yes, Dad expected me to do field work, to pick rocks, to do harvest etc. etc but also there was a lot of time that I had to myself.  Meaning to my self I mean I had to fill in hours and sometimes days with things to keep me busy.  And so the summers of 63, 64 and 65 were filled with projects that I thought of myself to do to keep me busy.  I do not remember the summer time schedule of work I did as the years blended together in a hog podge of this and that.  But here are some things that I figured out to do and keep busy.

Of course the first was to clean up the old foundation from the hog barn.  That in itself was a summer long project.  There was much cement to break up and get rid of.  Some of it broke into small pieces and I used the rock wagon to load it on and haul to the rock pile.  Some of it was just so large I could not do that so I put chains around chucks of cement and pulled them behind the tractor to the rock pile.  That project was a complete summer job in itself.  Of course the self satisfaction in getting that done was huge.  

Then there was the old shed that was blown down in a storm.  I think by the 60s much of that was taken care of but still I finished cleaning up debris and then it actually had grass grow to cover the spot.  Now to be sure I had NO grass seed but maybe it would be more accurate to say it was covered with weeds but when mowed it was kind of nice!

Then there was the granary.  It had left over coal in one bin.  It had the large heater for chicks in a room.   It still housed the kerosene for the living room stove and then it had two more rooms that were scattered with junk so to speak.  I spent time cleaning and picking up so that it was kind of in nice order.  I don't really know why as the granary was old, delapatated   and really of little or no use but still it stood and did it's part as an eye sore!

Tha barn was in OK shape but by that time in the 60s it was not used for anything.  I cleaned up the hay barn which was the north end of the building.  There I put up a 5 gallon pail ten feet up and played basketball.  I did clean up some of the pens what had not been cleaned for some time but I did not fix the many broken windows!

Of course in all this I did have my golf course which was a 90 yard shot from near the front door of the house to the ditch near the mailbox.  I would play two or three balls at a time and play pretty much every Sunday afternoon.  Unless there were a lot of cars going by to the north and then I would get on the bike to see who was at the lake.  I admit sometimes there were girls!!!

By the pasture fence to the south of the chicken house there was a row of things that were not used anymore.  They were not used because they were outdated, they did not work or Dad did not need them anymore.  There were times I took the lawn mower and mowed the weeds around them so that it looked like someone cared.  To this day I can hear the one cylinder motor on the grain elevator what was music to my ears.  Actually much better music than anything on the radio!

There was the corncrib that was not used any more.  IF I could get someone to play ball it would be the back stop so to speak.  

My most important tool was the Ford tractor.  We had a scoop that would fit on the back.  That was what I used to smooth out the barn yard so I could play ball.  That was what I used to drive up to the lake and bring back a scoop of sand for my putting surface near the mailbox.  That was what I use to go over the mature pile in the barn yard and put scoops onto Mom's garden where the mature made things GROW.  AND yes with a hand cultivar I would make a habit of going up and down the rows between Mom's plants in the garden to keep the weeds down.

Perhaps I could go on for a bit longer but you get the idea.  When one is on a farm that is well past its prime and you are the only one around you find MANY things to do to keep you busy.  And I might add that often I would shimmy up the light pole by the barn door and lay on my back looking to the sky.  As planes pasted by way way up high I would be on them.  Sometimes going to places far away and have adventures that were new and exciting.   I also took time to think what I might be, where I might live and what kind of work I may do.  Maybe, just maybe, I should revisit those times and see if I had a remote idea of what was really going to happen.  Actually that may be a lost cause as I NEVER had me living in Florida!!!

So the day is now mid morning.  I have eaten, I have a messy kitchen and I have a list of things that could be done today so will sign off, sip my last sip of FP and get on with the day.

It is Saturday, the last Saturday in May of 2022

 TERRY

As I write Terry is about the same.  We did not go to Tori, her granddaughter's wedding and actually that probably was a good thing.  It would have been fun to go but for Terry going 700 miles in the car, taking in a wedding for two days and then riding back would have been difficult.  

So here we are in Naples Fl where the weather is HOT but the sun is shinning and it is a wonderful day.  

I played tennis this morning but not sure when I play again.  It is good to get on the court but still I do not feel like I am 100% in terms of physical being.  It may be old age but I suspect it is the affects of the stroke I had.

It is quiet here as many have left for the summer.  Each neighbor to the left and right are gone so it is pretty much us and that is it.  Well to be sure of the 46 units in a circle I am guessing there are about 15 or so still here and by the end of May that may be down to 10 or so.

It is Tori's wedding today and it would have be nice to be there but everything that is going on it is best that we stay put.  I am thinking that I may NOT go to Henry's graduation.  As much as I would like to be there it is NOT good for Terry to be alone and the fact that we did not go to the wedding probably means no graduation either.  The celebrations will go on without us but it, of course, would be fun to be part of it. 

So I have not much more to say today.  Here it is almost 4:00 PM so will sign off and wish everyone a very happy Memorial Day Weekend.  I have actually sat back and reflected on what Memorial Day is and it makes me sad all the lives that have been lost.  I am not sure but I do think Mom had a cousin who was assigned to a sub in WWII and he was never found.   Uncle Bob from CA was in WWII and came home with a disability which he lived with.  War is NO good but it seems there is always something going on where men and women suffer.

With that being said I will sign off with a THANK YOU to all the men and women who suffered or lost their life fighting for our freedom.

Here it is Friday, May 27th and it is Terry's birthday!

 

Here is Terry with her good friend Connie and yes it was a few years ago!!!  Terry only looks a tiny bit older now!!!  

Well I would say Terry is about the same today.  It is, of course, birthday in bed for her so a bouquet of flowers, a box of candy, a writing by me and a bowl of fruit was how we started the day.  As I write now she is into the paper.

We do not have anything going on today.  I had tennis yesterday and have it tomorrow again but not today.  So maybe, just a maybe, I may get the dining room table cleared of papers that have been there for some time now.

If you live in Naples you REALLY should stop in at Norman Love Candy store.  The have some of the best, the prettiest and tasty candy in the world.  I figured this box for Terry should last a few days!

We have a beautiful day today with the sun shinning and I think the temp should get up to almost 90.  I am not crazy about the 90 part but it is southern Florida so live in it OR move!

As I reminisce about the things Terry and I have done one one of the things that comes to mind first is our trip to Alaska.  It was a trip of a life time for sure.  We drove up and spent well over a month in the state.  Then we took the Ferry back.  The Ferry goes from Bellingham WA to Alaska at least weekly.  Alaska has enough to see that one could spend many many many months driving, exploring etc.

There was wildlife 

Fishing was good

There were waterfalls

The flowers were beautiful

AND there were glaciers as well!

So our trip was an adventure for sure and worth every penny and MORE.  

So here we are at the last Saturday of the month and expecting more and more adventures as time flies by.

I am back!!!

 TERRY

Terry is about the same.  As I write it is 6:45 and she has been up for an hour or so.  She does not want the paper yet so as I write she has the TV on.  I would say she is doing about as she has been for the last many months.

For a guy who really has little to do and not a whole lot of places to be it has been kind of a busy few days if you can believe that!

Travis arrived last Saturday and has been here for several days.  It has been a wonderful time to catch up on each others lives so to speak.  We actually did not do a whole lot of things but we did spend much time talking.  Well we did get somethings done, a little but yet some!  Yesterday Travis took down a panel from over the pool area.  We have pine trees in the back and they tend to lose needles which then fall onto the roof.  The needles then slide down to a panel that is above the pool.  So as Travis took that off and cleaned it I spend time in the front yard trimming things that line the sidewalk.  Things were getting so bad in the front that anybody who came had to kind of tip toe to stay on the sidewalk and get to the house.  I trimmed things so it is again a clear walk up to the front door.  As I was doing that Travis got the panel down from above the pool, cleaned it and put it up again!!!   One would think those were two tiny jobs but we made a big deal out of both!!!  Well that was my work for the last few days!

Travis and I went out to eat last night as it was his last day here.  We went to the fish house which some people would say is a dive but actually is a quick, fish place with good food.  We ate at home most of the time but thought one time out would be good.

The HUGE thing is we are not going to the wedding.  I sent an e-mail to Kim telling her of our decision and guess what?  She said Terry had told her over the phone that we would not be going.  It is about 700 miles to the north with the traffic taking one though Atlanta.  It would have been a two day trip, a two day at the wedding and two days back again.  Terry just was not up to that kind of trip.  So we sent our regards in a note and a wedding present.  It would have been fun to take in the wedding but the going and coming home would have been too much to do.

So Travis and I spent a lot of time catching up on life.  I did play tennis a couple of times and Travis came over and watched that.  My game of tennis is not where I would like it to be so it really was not much to watch.  

We did have a tire that was low.  As I looked at it there was a screw in it and it was in a place that it could NOT be fixed so a new tire was in order and not for a small sum either1

Well here it is the evening of the 26th and I am finished for the day.  Not much is new here in Florida.  So it is sign off and more on another day!

How about that I blogged two days in a row and even had the correct date!

 TERRY

Well here it is almost 8:30 on a Thursday.  I have been awake for some time and have made breakfast.  Terry is reading the paper and I have finished it already.  So it is on with the day in a quiet neighborhood so to speak.  I do not have any plans for the day but am getting ready for our trip up north for Terry's granddaughter's wedding.  That will take place on May 28th.  I am thinking of leaving her on the 26th and arriving there about mid day on the 27th as it is an evening wedding.  We will stay there on the 27th and 28th and head back to FL on Sunday the 29.  It is about a 700 mile trip so will take two days going and coming home again.  With the start of June we are here for the summer and the long haul.

I have tennis twice next week before we leave.  I THINK I will be OK on the tennis court now as each day I am feeling a tiny bit better.  I will take it easy to begin with in terms of going all out for the ball as I do not want to fall but am sure with care I will be fine.

I thought I would clean up the living room table and have the house looking nice but I failed to get to the table yesterday.  Maybe today, maybe!

Travis is coming down soon so that will be fun.  He is not staying very long but I have not seen family for some time so that will be fun.

I am thinking that I may just start a 2023 calendar soon.  It usually takes a lot of time to find the pictures that I want and then to get them in the right order that I want.   I have not settled on the theme but am close to making a decision.  I have a lot of time on my hands as there is not a lot to do other than tennis and keep the house in half way good order.  AND I should add that keeping the house up is not one of my strong points so it takes some effort!!!

I think I am out of words for the day.  I thought I would write about the past but not today.  I have my FP and am actually going to try and get some work done today.  TRY

Here we are at the REAL May 18th!

 TERRY

As I begin to write it is 8:45 and Terry is into the paper.  She woke maybe 20 minutes ago and is now well into the paper.  I noticed I did not post yesterday but on Monday, the 16th, I posted that is was the 18th.  Don't know how that happened but then I am getting old and coming off of some time in the hospital so that is my excuse.  Well anyway it is NOW the 18th and I will try to stay on task on the right day from now on!  Anyway I would say Terry is the same so all it OK.

It is quiet around here now for the summer.  The people on the left AND on the right have left for the summer.  We also do not have people two doors to the left and two door to the right so it is quiet, quiet and more quiet.  Yesterday I took a bike ride around our circle here.  I would say that it is maybe a third of a mile around with 46 units in the circle.  Most of the units are twin, meaning they are two units with a common wall.  I do not know for sure but my guess is that of the 46 units maybe 15 are occupied meaning 31 people have left for the summer.  I would say by the end of the month there may be 10 of us left to stay over the summer months.  People tend to start coming back in October.  By mid November most if not all are back for the winter months.  We do get some from the midwest but I would say 90% are from the east coast from Washington DC up to Maine.

I will be playing tennis for the hour and a half beginning on Friday so will see how that goes.  

I do need to start thinking about the trip to Tori's wedding, Terry's granddaughter.  The wedding is north of Atlanta about 90 miles.  I am thinking it will be a two day trip up, a two day stay and then a two day trip back again.  That means leaving about on the 26th of May and coming back on the 30th.  That may change by a day here or there but it is close.  

Travis is coming down before the wedding so that will be nice.  I think he will stay two or three days.  I have not seen family for some time so that will be welcome.  I still would like to fly up to South Bend IN for Henry's HS graduation but that, at this time, is only MAYBE.  IF I did that Terry would be alone here for some time and there would have to be help come in each day.  We will see.

THE SUMMER OF 1965

The summer of 1965 was the end of my being home with Mom and Dad.  Well I did come back for the summer of 1966 but that was it.  

I had applied to NDSU and was admitted to start college in the fall.  I got a letter in the summer saying I needed to come in August to take an entrance examine.  School would start in September.  My friend Larry and I had asked to room together so that was taken care of.  Dad took me up to Fargo in July for the entrance tests.  They said the results of those would determine what classes I could get into.  Well in Mid August I received a letter that stated I had done well in the tests (I have no idea how that happened) and therefore I would start in the fall with 10 credits to my name.  I started in the second level of math and second level of science.  So in early September I arrived at Reed Hall on the north side of campus.  Larry and I were put on the third floor.  I was assigned level two in science and math along with an English course and two other classes including ROTC.  Let me say that I did not deserve level two in either of the science or math classes BUT I did pass them but WITOUT flying colors.  I needed to work in order to pay for things so I was assigned to be a janitor as a dorm.  The regular janitor said I needed to work on weekends as those were his days off.  So I jumped into classes, got my schedule for being a janitor and I was good to good so to speak.  My first bump in the road was two or three weeks into classes I needed to take some days off to go to Dave/Marlys wedding in Jamestown.  That got me into trouble with my English teacher!  I got through that but there was another problem.  We had the food plan which meant we could eat any time and as much as we wanted.  When I left in the fall I was at 180 pounds and by Christmas I was 195!  The year ended up not too bad.  I lost the weight, I maintained a C average and I was covering all my costs with my loan, my summer money and my weekly job where I was putting in 20 hours a week.

That was my first year of college and I know that it was so so different than the first year of college for my kids and now my grandson Henry.  Things are so different now.  Before I leave this morning I will say that my summer and the following year were better.  Larry and I had a tiny apartment off campus but very near the school that second year.  Also I put my janitor job behind me and started working in the barley department at NDSU which was a very very fun job.  AND my grades improved a little bit!!!  I did go home after my freshman year to help on the farm as at that time both Ronald and Janet had died and Dad needed help at home.  I got my motorcycle before the summer so I had wheels and that was good.  So at that time my college was on the upswing but still I had NO idea what I wanted to major in.  I did take an interest test to see what I might do and it came back that I would be a good undertaker!!!  That did not fly so I shelved that idea.  That is for a later blog.  

This was my LIFE during the summer of 1966.  Most Sundays I was gone for the day.  Sometimes I would  drive up into he hills south of our place where there were lakes and many summer cabins.  I got together with Gail again that summer and that lead to marriage down the road.  This picture was taken by Gail as I visited Uncle Hugo's cabin one weekend when Gail was there.  My Harley was my life for the summer!!!

Here we are at May 18th, 2022

 TERRY

Well it is a tad past 8:00 AM and Terry is busy reading the paper.  There are no special plans for the day so it is one day at a time and we will see where it takes us.  

We are now in official summer mode.  The our left and to our right the people have left for the summer so it is peace and quiet for some time.  Now I am not saying we have noisy neighbors but still with nobody on either side of us the place is quiet quiet.  AND the person who is the second on our left has moved out and on the other side they have left for the summer as well so there is NO one to hear.  I have not gone around the circle to see who has left but my guess is maybe 70% have gone for the summer.  So it is peaceful and quiet for some time.  

We really have not plans for the day or for that matter for the week as well.  We have the wedding NEXT weekend AND it sounds like Travis is coming here next week as well.  He will only be here a couple of days but that will be great.  

I have not gotten into our trip yet but I am guessing it may be a 6 days trip or so.  It is about 700 miles north of here so a two day drive to and from with maybe 3 days there.  The wedding is on Saturday I believe.  That is the first of Terry's grandchildren to marry with a total of 6 in her family.  In mine, there are 14 grandchildren with Henry the oldest who will graduate this June from HS.  Interesting, as Terry has 4 who've graduated from college and I have ONE who will be graduating from HS.  

I am not sure how we are going to do the trip up north but I will figure things out this week so I have it all planned before Travis comes.  Once he gets here we will have 2 days before we go.  It will be an interesting trip to put it mildly.

I do not know if I am going to give tennis a try this week or not.  I THINK I am getting better slowly.  Of course the proof will come when I get on the court and try to go for a shot that I need to run!  We will see!

Not much else to say.  Maybe it is time to sign off for now and MAYBE make is a bit longer tomorrow.  I do have my FP and it is very good today!

Here it is Sunday and I missed the last couple of days!

 TERRY

As I begin to write it is almost 9:00 AM and Terry is well into the paper.  She was on her phone for some time before I woke up this morning.  I would say she is doing about the same which is good.  There is nothing planned for the day so will be homebodies I think.  We are well into summer here as each day it is in the low 90s so it is inside most of the time.

It is May 15th and about this time of the year my mind often goes back to the many many many years that I taught and at this time we were coming to the end of the school year.  Many years I was planning what I would be doing for the next 3 months.  At first it was painting for people in the neighborhood but then for the years around 80s, 90s and into the 2000s it was Servant Camp.  After I stepped down it continued to go strong and with some changes due to the pandemic it is still going.  Many good things happened during those years and of course it was not without some trying times as well.  

So here we are kind of at the closing weeks of school.  Henry is graduating  from HS and is going on to college next year BUT there are 13 more grandkids coming along and the years go so fast soon there will be more graduating.  I can not keep up with where they are in school but I do know that Liam is next as he is finishing his 10th year.  I know Leo is finishing his 9th grade and then Faustina and Audrey are right behind.  AND then there is Ruby, Agatha, John Paul, Elspeth, Jude, Veronica, Max, Leo A and Ben.  How about that I got them ALL.

Well Sunday is often a day that I take a little more time to remember times past!  So today I will reminisce about the good times that were!

School year of 1960-61

Well this was my 8th grade school year.  It was a year that was not all that exciting.  Many of the kids that we played ball with etc were a grade ahead of us so here we were with not enough good players to have a good ball game.  For that reason I decided that yes we would have ball games but I would focus much of my effort on reading.  I was not the most dedicated student but I did OK or maybe just a tad above OK.  BUT I had a lot of time on my hands.  Yes we played ball at noon and at recess but for school in general it was kind of a "ho hum"' kind of year.  Well our teacher Mrs.Oodenbrett kept us busy but really I did not apply myself all that much as it was boring so I decided that I would spend ALL my extra time reading books.  I knew we had to have 25 book reports in in order to go to the end of the year school picnic.  Well I promise you some of the kids did NOT do that but still everyone was at the picnic!  Anyway I decided that I would see how many books I could read and report on.  For a report we had to have the name of the book etc and at least a half page written about the book.  Well I started kind of early in the fall and by the time mid may came I had 100+ books reported.  AND of course the books that I like the best were any book about horses so I tried to find ALL books about them but of course our library was limited.  In doing all the reading I did keep up my studies but maybe not as good as I should have!

Well here I am at 9:30 and maybe it is time to take a bike ride for a while.  I am not doing 100% in terms of my physical being but am getting pretty close to normal I THINK.  So will sign off for now and get a short ride in.  Many people have left so it is pretty quiet around here.  I would guess that maybe 60% or more of the people have left for the summer.  My FP is half finished so will stick around the computer until it is finished and the hop on the bike.

Here they are at year 22 and as good as ever!!!

 

I would say that at year 22 they are better than ever.  Here are Amy and Aaron and they look like they just got married, right!!  Well here they are with Amy having a great job, Aaron a great job and with two kids Ruby and Leo who are doing great.  Hope today AND everyday you two continue to do great.

Love, Dad and Terry

Now on to the blog of the day.  Really I do not know what I have been doing as my blogging has been spotty at best.  Well it could be that my life is not really that busy and not much is happening either!!!  

I have yet to get onto the tennis courts.  I did hit with Phil, one of the pros, on Monday and I would say my game was a game breaker in the wrong way so to speak.  Well I did hit the ball but for sure it proved that I was NOT up to playing in a match if you get my drift!  I will get out onto the court a few more times before I am ready to play.  My problem is my time is short as many players have left for the summer but still there are a few left.  Anyway it is what it is and I will try to do my best.  I did see my Dr. and he said to take it slowly as the stroke is in the part of the brain where balance is controlled and actually I did not even need him to tell me that!!!

So Terry and I are taking it one day at a time.  Her granddaughter's wedding is coming up in two weeks and we have not even discussed that.  We will see as the time gets closer if we go or not.  Really, not a lot of time, so each day counts.  

The weather has already become hot here.  Most days it is 90 or so which keeps the AC working.  We are kind of in a dry spell and could use rain.  

Well as I sit here my mind goes way way back to the early 1960s.  This was the time of the year that I did not have sports in HS.  In the fall it was football and then winter came and it was basketball.  BUT that was usually over in early March and then it was home after school each day.  Dad actually said he needed Dave and I home in the spring to do field work after school but really that was not the case.  Yes, we did some field work during the week but not everyday and not a lot.  Dave left home after graduating in 1962 so in 63,64 and 65 it was me, myself and I guess that was it!  Really by the time school was out it was almost June and most of the springs work was done.  Yes, the were some crops that were not up so there would be some picking of rocks but that was it.  There was often a little time frame where there was little work in the fields and then came haying time but actually by the time Dave left home we had pretty much sold the cattle so that was not an issue.  

I remember the summer times well as actually Dave left home in 1962 after graduation BUT in the summer of 1960 and 1961 he worked for farmers and was not at home.  So with nobody to play ball with or other things I used my time to clean up the mess that was left from the wind storm a long time ago.  When that was cleaned up I cleaned up the foundation of the old hog barn and made that nice.  I am not sure what happened to the hogs but we never had any when I was growing up so it was long long ago that the hog barn had blown down.  I do remember the garage that blew down in the spring of 1956.  It was a large building with two sides where you could park the car and also the truck.  Dad never did build another garage so it was just a pile of junk that needed to be cleaned up.  At the same time that happened the wind charger from on top of the house blew off but by that time we had rural electrification so that did not matter. 

So here I am today.  Seventy-five years old and counting myself kind of lucky.  Ronald and Janet both died in their late 20s and Dave died short of his 76th birthday.  The farm is gone and Joan, Helen and I are scattered from Arizona to Arkansas to Florida to Minnesota.  Life is full of ups and downs.  Here it is 10:15 and time, maybe, to get some work done!!! 

Here I am on Sunday and a few days late I guess!!

 TERRY

Terry has not read the paper yet but preferred to watch TV for a while.  I would say she is about the same as the last few days.  She has been down a bit and that is understandable with her condition.  Anyway we will take one day at a time and see where it takes us.

We have nothing planned for the day.  It is cloudy and of course you could guess it is warm as well.  As I look into the future we have Terry's granddaughter's wedding over Memorial weekend and then grandson Henry's graduation from HS in early June.  Henry is the first of 14 to graduate from HS.  He is going to Notre Dame in the fall and he is so excited.  And of course the family will change a lot with Henry off to school.  AND it will not be long before the Madison Lees have Leo graduating and then the Adkins have Faustina in HS as well.  Soon there will be grandchildren scattered all over and Grandpa may not be able to keep up with them.  

Well here in SW Florida changes are taking place as well.  Neighbors or our right are gone for the summer and neighbors to our left will perhaps leave this week.  In years past we would be about ready to leave now as well but with Terry's health we will stay put for now.  

I should have started my blog with this but will say it now.  HAPPY Mother's Day TO ALL THE MOTHERS AND I DO HOPE THAT FAMILIES MAKE IT A SPECIAL DAY FOR MOTHERS WHO ARE SO SO IMPORTANT IN MAKING FAMILIES WHAT THEY ARE.  I do remember several Mother's Days when the kids were growing up.  I am not sure we made the day as special as Gail deserved but we gave it our best shot.  Often we, the kids and I, would pack a lunch and go down by the river to enjoy it.  I am not sure that it was the kind of meal that Gail would have packed but we gave it our best shot and really that is what counted.

I don't really remember much of Mother's Day when I was growing up.  I am not sure Dad took the lead in making it special.  He may have but I just do not remember.  Wait, that was a long long time ago and my mind it kind of foggy after 65 years or so!!!

I am going to sign off for now.  I have one request from family.  I am going to start on my 2023 calendar for next year.  Do you have any ideas for it?  If you do send them soon.  If not I will try to come up with thoughts of my own.  I still have some FP left so will finish that before I go on to other things.  

 

Here we arrive at Thursday, May 5th.

 TERRY

As we head towards the weekend Terry is doing about the same.  As I write she is awake and is reading the paper.  So no news is good news.  There is nothing planned for the day.

Today is Thursday and I have nothing planned for the day except to get some work done around the house.  There are papers everywhere and they need to be thrown, filed or something as the mess can not be for very much long!!!

I may need to make a quick stop at the store but that is about it.  

I THINK I am kind of feeling better as the days go by.  

So maybe I can launch a story that took place way way back on the farm.  It went like this:

It was a Friday but we had gotten lucky just a few days ago.  Fritz, the mail man, had driven up to our house and in the back seat of his car was 50 baby chicks!  We had been expecting them so we had things all in place.  There was one room in the granary that did not leak water when it rained.  That was where the baby chicks were to be.  We had a dome kind of thing with a bulb in for warmth.  We had a tall water jug that filled up the bottom all the time so we were all set.  We would keep the chicks in the granary for several weeks and then we would butcher them for the table.  Each day we would monitor them and make sure they had warmth and food.  As happens on the farm from time to time we would lose some of them to ill health etc but "for sure" after a few months we would have spring chicken and the way Mom prepared it the meal would be delicious and maybe even better than that.  On the day of butchering was not my favorite day.  There would be blood and everything else all over the yard but I guess that was par for the course if you lived on the farm and lived off the land.  Anyway I would take the good with the bad.  I did not like killing the chickens but I sure liked eating them as the way Mom fixed them they were the best.

The is it for the day.  Here it is 8:20 my time and I just may try to get some work done 

It is Wednesday, May 4th and a special day!

 

It isAgatha's birthday.  She is 9 going on 15 I think!  Here she is as a little girl and she is even more cute today than way back then.  She is smart, good in school and ready to met the world and all that it has to offer!  Agatha, have a super day and your card is in the mail!

And we head into May this Monday.

 TERRY

As I write it is 7:50 and Terry is awake.  She is looking at her phone before she gets into the paper.  I would say she is doing OK this morning.

Well we start the week with cleaning to do.  The kitchen is a mess.  The living room is a mess.  AND the TV does not work in the living room so I need to call about that.  Other than those things everything is going OK!

I do not have may calendar in front of me but I think I see the doctor early next week.  I think at that time I will be able to start playing tennis again, I think.  If I do not start then at least I will have a time line as to when I can start.  

It is starting to feel like summer here as people have left already.  The people to our left are gone for the summer and the people to our right will be gone by mid May.  For now they are gone for four days but will be back for a while after that.  I am thinking that by this time next month there will be few guys left to play tennis with.  

I do not have a lot planned for the week.  It seems I have a way of filling up the days as they come and go but really nothing planned ahead of time.  I do need to get a few things at the grocery store but not much.  After I blog I may go over to the courts to see who is playing but not to play.

I will not go into a long story about Wood Lake School but will go back a little.  May was always a fun month.  It seemed that school was almost out and there was something in the air that stated that summer was coming and it would be a good thing.  Yes, there would be the usual rock to pick on the farm and then by mid summer there would be hay to stack but really summer was a fun time on the farm.  The creek would be running for a month or two.  That would mean the rock dam below the outhouse would be a place that fish may get stuck.  I would often walk alone the creek and try to find things to fetch or catch in the creek.  It would also mean the cows would stay on the side of the creek where we would easily round them up and bring them up to milk.  AND there were always the calves that would run with the cows for a while until we penned them up so that we could milk the cows.  The one thing that I did not like was the dehorning of the calves.  We had short horn cows so the calves had to be dehorned so they would not grow long horns.  We would catch the calves and use a large knife like thing to cut the horns.  Most of the time that was it but once in a while they kept bleeding so was had to catch them and sew them up.  Not a fun job but it had to be done.  

Rocks always had to be picked but Dave and I would hope that the crops would grew quickly as we would not pick rocks after the grain started coming up.  There was a period of time between the time when we stopped picking rocks to harvest that there was not a lot to do.  Well there was a lot to done but Dave and I somehow figured out how to get out of some of the work!  Anyway from maybe the first of June kind of until the first crops came in maybe in early early August we, Dave and I, could figure out how to keep out of the way of Dad and it was kind of like out of sight and out of mind.  Yes there was work to be done but not so busy busy as some times.  It was times like this that I could practice my knife throwing and other things.  I could, if I times it right, make my way to the barn roof and dream of days ahead!!!  And yes there were days when Ricky would come down and we would play ball etc.  Of course we always had to had up to the lake on our bikes for an evening swim and if it was late enough catch some fire flies and bring home to show Mom.  

So life on the farm was fun for the most part.  Yes, there was the itchy oats which I did not like and failed to realize that with each. hopper of oats it was cash in the bank so to speak.  So life was full of fun, of work and just playing around with the calves etc.  But now the farm is no more.  If you were to go where the farm was you would just see a field of oats or some grain.  There would be NO evidence of the farm of long ago.  And in that area where there was once maybe 9 farms there are only 3.  Where we plowed with a three bottom and a two bottom plow one farmer can do the same work in maybe 1/4 the time.  Time change and that is called progress I think?  

So will wrap it up for today and maybe, just maybe, get some work done, I think!!!

Here we are at May 1

 TERRY

Terry is the same.  She is watching the "Golden Girls" and enjoying it a lot.  I admit they are funny but not for me on a Sunday morning.  Terry is doing the same so that is good.  I need to get her into the living room today as being in bed all day long it not a good thing.  Wait, the TV needs to be fixed before I change her from the bedroom to the living room.

It is a wonderful day out.  I am guessing it will get up to close to 90 today but know rain and it is sunny.  It may be a good day for a bike ride.  Also I need to go to Costco for a couple of things.  So I will do that mid morning so I can beat the rush.  Well now that we are into May Costco will not be so busy until the fall again.

Well I will write about another chapter in my life.

It was early spring of 1968

It is April 12 of 1968.  Gail and I are in the car headed to North Dakota for the weekend.  There will be a shower for Gail on Sunday.  They it will be back to Minot for the remainder of the quarter.  It will be a long but short weekend.  We arrived in Cayuga late as it was a 300 mile trip bit final arrive about 10 AM.  I wanted to leave early but I had a class and couldn't leave until that was over.  We got up bright and early Saturday and Gail had things to do of course but I not so much.  The day went quickly and we went to church on Saturday night.  While Gail was busy all afternoon I went out to visit my parents for a while.  By that time Dad had already traded in the Harley for a bigger motorcycle.  Anyway the day quickly pasted and here we were on a Sunday with the shower.  We packed up quickly and headed to Minot as it was a 5 hours drive.  

That was the beginning of a busy few weeks.  Gail had left much of the planning of our wedding to her mom as she was finishing up school.  She graduated May 30 and we headed home.  We had one day to get things in order and the next day we got married.  Then it was back to school as the next week Gail started on her masters and I had some classes to take in the summer.  I just needed some credits so as I remember one of the classes I took was bowling!  Anyway by the end of the summer we had everything figured out.  We would be in Devils Lake for the fall semester.  We would then head back to school for the winter and then head back to Devils Lake for the spring.  Then it would be time to figure out what we wanted to do.  As it turned out I signed a contract to teacher and we went from there.  It is a long story that will be continued for a time.

I am out of things to say for today.  Our neighbors to our right have left for the summer.  Our neighbors to our left are gone for a 4 days weekend and then will leave for the summer about mid May.  It will then look like a ghost town for the next few months until people begin to return in November again.  

I will sign off for now.