Simply North Spring

Simply North Spring 2011

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9:16 AM

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Spring 2011

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SIMPLY NORTH

Live. Play. Enjoy.

Hopes &of thedreams

PAST

Make a delicious breakfast or supper

OUTDOORS

Fifty years after hiding her diary, Bonnie Selberg is able to read the pages again

4

state forests to visit

Step by Step: Build your own rustic outdoor seating POSTAL CUSTOMER ECRWSS

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SIMPLY NORTH

Live. Play. Enjoy.

May ★ June ★ July 2011

2 Flippin’ And Sippin

Food, drink and recipe

4 Eye On The Sky

Lunar tables and constellation

6 Around The Campfire

Stories, treats, tradition and legend

8 Without A Paddle

Things for everyone to do

9 Shack Docto

8 16

10 20

Simple solutions fix-ups and how-to’

16 Cabin Couture

From shacky to chic

18 Pets And Pastures

From horses and hogs to dog

20 The Frozen Gardene

Seeds, weeds and growing need

22 Off The Beaten Path

What’s going on in the woods

24 Simple Solutions

Tried and tested tips and trick

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To contribute or advertise please contact Mickie Olson a mickie@ifallsjournal.com or Laurel Beager a laurel@ifallsjournal.com 218-285-741

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Flippin’ and Sippin’

Bonfire or grill?

How about both

Make a delicious breakfast or dinner

outdoors 2

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SIMPLY NORTH

N

orthern Minnesota folks get into the woods as Old Man Winter gives way to spring. Bonfires that dispose of brush and sticks left over from winter’s fury draw us to them.

There’s nothing like sitting around the fire in the cool, damp air and creating an impromptu meal.

This is an old scout recipe from way back, according to local Stacey Cann, who says this is a fun, easy, open fire breakfast with little clean up.

Pig On a Stick Required: hotdog forks fire Ingredients: 1 package (about 10) fully cooked sausage links 1 package refrigerated breadsticks Spices Instructions: Spear a sausage link on a stick.

Lay out one breadstick dough strip and sprinkle desired spice on it.

Wrap dough around sausage and pinch the end or poke it over the stick end.

Cook over coals until the bread is browned.

With a little more effort, dinner can be delicious.

Grilled Ribs 2 slabs of ribs 2 bottles barbecue sauce, your choice 1 Weber-type grill 10 lbs. charcoal 1 gulf light lighter fluid 2 lg. sweet onions, diced

Flippin’ and Sippin’

1 lg. aluminum foil roasting pan 2 chunks hickory wood Start charcoal on the side with the side rails for the Weber-type grill. Use a starter fluid that prom ises no after taste.

Soak the two hickory chunks of wood in water for 15 minutes while the charcoal is getting ready Cut extra fat off of the two slabs of ribs.

Punch about 15 holes in the bottom of the large aluminum roasting pan. Place the ribs bone side down in the roasting pan. Place pan in the center of the grill. There should not be any fire under the pan — only on each side. Place one hickory chunk on each pile of burning charcoal.

Make sure bottom vents are open all the way and the top vent is 1/2 open. Place lid on grill and do not open for 1 hour.

This will put hickory taste into the ribs. After 1 hour lift lid and place the two diced large sweet onions on the ribs. Add eight pieces of charcoal to each side. Replace lid and DO NOT PEEK!.

Leave on 1 more hour. After this 1 hour lift lid again, add eight more charcoal coals to each side Add the two bottles of sauce to the top of the ribs with the onions on them. Replace lid and cook 1 more hour.

At the end of this hour check ribs if sauce is thick and sticking well on the ribs, go ahead and serve, if not do not be afraid to cook for another hour. You will not burn them up as long as you keep your coals to the side no fire under pan. The longer they cook the better they get!

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Eye On The Sky

The Spring Sky

S

ome constellations can be seen any time of year because they are above the north or south pole of the earth. In the northern half of the earth, you can see the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia, and the Little Dipper all year long. These star patterns seem to go around Polaris, the North Star found at the end of the handle of the Little Dipper , in a circle throughout the night. If you could look at these constellations at the same time every night for a year, you would see them do the same circle around Polaris as the year went by.

Other constellations can only be seen during certain seasons.

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Eye On The Sky

The easiest constellations to find in the evening sky during spring include: ★ Leo, the Lion, has been rising earlier in the evening as winter changes to spring.

Look for a backwards question mark and triangle which make Leo easy to find in the sky. ★ New constellations appear in the eastern sky. Two of these are best found by starting at the Big Dipper. Follow the curving line made by the dipper's handle and the first bright star you come to will be Arcturus in the constellation Boötes, the Herdsman.

Keep following the same curving line you will find a second bright star, Spica, in the constellation Virgo, the Virgin. Beginning astronomers can learn how to find Boötes and Virgo in the evening sky in spring by the rhyme "arc to Arcturus and speed on to Spica." ★ One of the most reliable meteor showers, the Lyrids, put on their annual show in

Moon Phases • Full Moon – April 18 • Last Quarter – April 25, 02:47 • New Moon – May 3, 06:51 • First Quarter – May 10, 20:33 • Full Moon – May 17, 11:09 • Last Quarter – May 24, 18:52 • New Moon – June 1, 21:03 • First Quarter – June 9, 02:11 • Full Moon – June 15, 20:14 • Last Quarter – June 23, 11:48 • New Moon – July 1, 08:54 • First Quarter – July 8, 06:29 • Full Moon – July 15, 06:40 • Last Quarter – July 23, 05:02 • New Moon – July 30, 18:40

April, with a peak on the night of April 2122. Under ideal conditions one might have hoped to see 15 or so an hour, but the light

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Around The Campfire

Tell a story

around the fire As the mud dries and the snow clears, many people will burn debris left over from the winter.

Campfires are a natural way to draw family and friends together for a meal, a beverage and maybe even a story.

From spooky to silly, a welltold campfire story will entertain people of all ages. Here’s one of each to share around the campfire this spring.

Dogs In The Wild West

10 Holes

One hot and dry day in the Wild West, this dog walks into a saloon and says, "Gimme a beer.”

Evidently this type of thing wasn’t too rare 'round those parts because the bartender said, "I’m sorry, but we don’t serve dogs here."

The dog then took out a silver dollar, dropped it on the bar, and said, "Look, I got money, and I want a beer."

This scene had the potential to get ugly. The bartender, getting a little irate, said one more time, "We do not serve dogs here. Please leave." The dog growled, so the bartender pulled out a gun and shot the dog in the foot!

The dog yelped, and ran out the door.

The next day, the swinging bar doors were tossed open and in walks the dog that had been in the saloon the day before. He was dressed all in black. A black cowboy hat, a black vest, three black cowboy boots and one black bandage. The dog looks around, waits for the talking to quiet down, and says, "I’m lookin' fer the man who shot my paw."

Once in a little village not that far from here, there was a problem. Animals had started dying off, one by one. In the morning their owners would see them lying outside with 10 holes in their chest. The people thought it was the work of their neighboring town.

Then, one night a man by the name of Fred was closing his store for the night. It was very late, and he was anxious to get home to his family. He shut off all the lights, then closed the door with a satisfying click. As he turned around to go to his car he saw a dark shape in the distance. He stood still trying to make out what it was. As it got closer, Fred turned to go.

It was the last move he ever made. The next day they found him with 10 holes in his chest.

This made the town quite worried. They were scared of more people getting killed. So, one night two brave brothers, John and Jacob went out to get rid of the problem. They each took knives, and walkie talkies. They said good-bye to their father, and kissed their grandmother on the way out.

6

The two boys decided to split up. One would go by the site of the murder, and the other would wander the streets. If one was attacked they could use their walkie talkie to contact the other. So they set off, keeping a close eye on the shadows. Nothing seemed to be happening. It was a calm night, and it seemed like they would get home safely. But then suddenly John heard a crackling in the bushes behind him. He tried to call his brother, but it was too late.

The figure leaped out of the bushes and tackled him, gouging his chest with its nails Luckily Jacob heard the commotion, and rushed to help him. He leaped through the air and cut off the creatures right hand. The creature screamed and ran.

Jacob took John to the hospital, and they bandaged him home. The doctors called them heroes, and finally they got home at 6 that morning. Only their grandmother was up, so they said good morning, then went back to bed. Neither of them noticed she was missing her hand.

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Around The Campfire

Just a Hike in the Woods A guy's going on a hiking vacation through the mountains out West.

Before setting off into the boonies, he stops into a small general store to get some supplies.

After picking out the rest of his provisions, he asks the old store owner, "Say, Mister, I'm going hiking up in the mountains, and I was wondering; do you have any bears around here?"

"Yup," replies the owner.

"What kind?" asks the hiker.

"Well, we got black bears and we got grizzlies," he replies.

"I see," says the hiker. "Do you have any of those bear bells?"

"What do you mean?" asks the store owner.

"You know," replies the hiker, "those little tinkle-bells that people wear in bear country to warn the bears that they are coming, so they don't surprise the bears and get attacked."

"Oh yeah," replies the owner. "They're over there," he says, pointing to a shelf on the other side of the store. The hiker selects a couple of the bells and and takes them to the counter to pay for them.

"Tell me something, Mister," the hiker inquires, "how can you tell when you're in bear territory, anyway?"

"By the scat," the old fellow replies, ringing up the hiker's purchases.

"Well, um, how can I tell if it's grizzly territory or black bear territory?" the hiker asks.

"By the scat," the store owner replies.

"Well, what's the difference?" asks the hiker. "I mean, what's different between grizzly scat and black bear scat?"

"The stuff that's in it," replies the store owner.

The hiker asks, "OK, so what's in grizzly bear scat that isn't in black bear scat?" he asks, an impatient tone in his voice.

Bear bells, replies the old man as he hands the hiker his purchases.

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Without A Paddle

Take a day trip to a

state forest

The huge Lake of the Woods County features different geography from its west to east and north to south boundaries.

The following are a listing of the state forests within the county, with information taken from the Lake of the Woods Tourism website. For most readers, many of these destination can be made in a day trip.

★ Blueberry Hill State Forest Located 3.5 miles west of Williams on the south side of Highway 11. The site is one of the highest points of elevation in the county. This, along with the sandy soil of the site, makes it one of the first spots for the snow to melt in the spring.

Blueberry plants are abundant in the jackpine forest and they are free for the picking. In addition to the blueberries, there is an abundance of wildlife in the area. Picnic tables and campsites are also available.

★ Pine Island State Forest The largest state forest area in Minnesota with 878,040 acres included in its borders, which include portions of Lake of the Woods and Koochiching counties. This forest offers wildlife watchers an incredible opportunity to observe the local flora and fauna of the area. Hiking trails and picnic areas are all available in this vast forested wilderness. The state forest is located in the southeast sections of Lake of the Woods County. Obtain a comprehensive forest trail map from the DNR Forestry Division or local information centers.

★ Beltrami Island State Forest With 669,000 acres of land within its boundary, Beltrami Island State Forest offers visitors unparalleled access to remote forested areas, wilderness trails and streams. The forest covers land in three counties: Lake of the Woods, Roseau, and Beltrami. No fees or permits are required for recreational use and the forest is open year round. Obtain a map from any information center, or the DNR.

★ Baudette School Forest 80 acres of wooded property with thick stands of jackpine, balsam, birch and aspen with a small watercourse running throughout the property. The school forest is also a favorite blueberrypicking destination during the summer months. From Baudette, follow Highway 11 west to Pitt, turn south on county Rd. 66 and follow to County Rd. 69, watch for the Baudette School Forest sign.

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Shack Doctor

Dear Shack Doctor,

How do I safely clean my cabin?

A

s winter releases its hold, there’s plenty to clean up.

Getting the cabin ready for fun means a few household chores must be done first.

Ridding the cabin of the dirt that has accumulated over the winter months can stir up plenty of dust. But it’s not just irritating to the eyes, nose and throat, it can be down right unhealthy if you’ve got a few mice running about.

The College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, urges people to take precautions to avoid the Hantavirus — carried most commonly by the deer mouse and shed in their urine, feces and saliva.

Inhaling aerosolized virus particles can infect humans. This can happen when cleaning structures or disturbing wild areas contaminated with rodent excrements.

And while Minnesota has had just two cases confirmed since 1993, the virus can develop into serious illness.

Tips to prevent a Hantavirus infection: • When cleaning areas known to have rodent excrements, wet down the area with a solution of 1/2 cup bleach to one gallon of water. It is very important not to vacuum or sweep the area; this will aerosolize the virus.

• Keep rodent populations low by moving trash or woodpiles away from the cabin, garage and house.

• Don't feed unwanted guests — keep pet food away from rodents.

• When camping, do not sleep on bare ground and prevent rodents from having access to food and sleeping bags

The most common symptoms are fever, respiratory distress, hypotension, and gastrointestinal pain. Diagnosis can be made from blood tests.

Treatment includes respiratory care and fluid replacement. Recovery is most often rapid from a Hantavirus infection, but may take weeks or months.

BACKUS Community Center Historic Backus/AB, a community center in the heart of International Falls, where past, present and future come together to celebrate the arts, culture, recreation and life-long learning.

EVENTS SCHEDULE: April 28 “Walk in Her Shoes” – 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Sponsored by “Friends Against Abuse” April 30 Darcie’s Dance Recital 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.

May 1 Border Concert Association – 3:00 p.m. Matinee “Romanza Tenorissimo” – 3 Canadian Tenors May 5 Soup Supper – 4:30 – 7:00 p.m.

Sponsor: Green Larsen Mortuary Inc. May 5 & 6 Family Film Festival – 7:30 p.m.

Sponsored by Falls Public Library May 7 Christian Comedian -- Dennis Swanberg – 7:00 p.m.

May 13 Hooked on Talent – United Way -- 7:00 p.m.

June 2 Soup Supper – 4:30 – 7:00 p.m.

Sponsored by City Drug June 13-17 Summer Youth Art Programs June 18 Performance – “Snow White” and Art Show - 7:00 p.m.

June 25 Community Market Starts – Saturday mornings through October July 7 Soup Supper – 4:30 – 7:00 p.m.

Sponsored by Streiff’s Floral and Gifts July 14 Rock the Border III -- 7:00 p.m.

* SUMMER FOOD SERVICE PROGRAM STARTS JUNE 6 *

Dining Room & Kitchen Facilities Available for Rent for Special Occasions. Call the Backus Office for Rental Information and Rates.

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Our Stories

The two boys in the front are Ralph and Walter Skifstrom, seated, from the left, are Edward, “Gramma” and Charles Skifstrom, and standing are Ida, baby Elaine, and Agnes Skifstrom. Elaine is Bonnie Selberg’s mother.

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Our Stories

s m a e r d d n a s e p o H of the

Fifty years after hiding her diary, Bonnie Selberg is able to read the pages again

“T

past

by BONNIE SELBERG

hey’ve found your diary!” These were the words I heard one evening when I returned home from work and listened to my telephone messages.

“WHAT? MY DIARY?” Questions careened around my mind like balls slapped about in an old-fashioned pinball machine.

“But I don’t have a diary!”

Yet, as I listened, the voice of my friend, Laurel Beager, revealed to me that indeed, my childhood diary had been found, hidden away in the floor register, tucked into some insulation where I had hidden and forgotten it almost 50 years ago.

It was found by the Olson family, who recently purchased my parents’ home on Black River Road. While remodeling my former bedroom, they came across the small red book and realized it must be mine.

The day after I heard about the diary, they returned it to me. Curiosity and even a little apprehension seized me as I turned the first page. What could I have written about so long ago? As pages fell away beneath my fingers, so did the years. I returned to the world of an early teen growing up in the country near Loman in 1962.

Most of what I had written was about everyday, childish relationships with my friends, family, and teachers. But some of my words gave clues to my future interests and developing aspirations.

On several pages I wrote about my longing to have my own horse. This was a common theme in my diary, and the love of horses has stayed with me throughout my life.

My father was not eager to buy me a horse, as he had purchased one for my sister, which

turned out to be disastrous. The first time my sister rode “Bell,” the mare bolted down the road at fantastic speed and could not be stopped. My family watched helplessly. Dad had to follow by car until the horse grew exhausted and stopped. Luckily, Linda was not hurt, but was so frightened by the event that she decided that Bell was not what she had in mind for a pet. Dad returned the horse the next day.

Of course, this made it nearly impossible for me to convince my father that it would be a good idea for me to have a horse. Dad had used horses for logging in the early days and was so impressed when new machinery cam into use that he happily said goodbye to the draft team and traded up to logging equipment. The “Bell Incident” convinced him that horses could be more trouble than they were worth.

A year or so after I had started my diary, Dad bought a neighboring farm and the peo-

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Our Stories

The original homestead.

The property on which our family lived had been homesteaded by my grandfather ple he bought it from left their small horse behind because they were moving crosscountry. What incredible good luck for me! I worked many hours with the little horse and finally proved to my father that horses and I could get along. I eventually traded the small horse for a much larger one, which I kept for many years. It was like being given my own slice of heaven!

I still owned that horse when I married my husband Jerry, who also likes horses. Over the 40-plus years that we’ve been together, we’ve always had horses, sometimes up to 21 at a time. Our entire family rides, children and grandchildren, starting before they are 2. We even go camping with the animals, hauling a four-horse slant with living quarters it is great family fun!

My diary started memories spinning, not necessarily about what I had written, but about country life as I remember it.

12

Living with no telephone, television, or computers meant my siblings and I had to invent things to entertain ourselves. Our closest neighbors were my mother’s sister and her husband, Melvin, who lived about a half-mile away. My brother Bubs (Robert) and I walked there frequently just to have one of Aunt Agnes’ homemade cookies that she always had waiting for us. My uncle was Norwegian and had a Scandinavian accent that was a delight to listen to. Our aunt’s kindness and Uncle Mel’s warm humor and hard work ethic were valuable examples for Linda, Bubs, and myself.

We enjoyed wintertime. We could usually find ponds or places on the river that made perfect skating rinks. And there were sledding parties. They usually took place at Alvin Anderson’s home and the neighborhood kids met there often on Saturday nights. I was always impressed by the older boys who did

Bonnie Selberg celebrates Christmas in years past.

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Our Stories

“My diary started memories spinning, not necessarily about what I had written, but about country life as I remember it.” fantastic tricks on their sleds and toboggans, usually quite daring and almost always unsafe.

Sometimes there were skating parties at the old Indus School.

Weather was usually very cold and the Indus rink had a warming house with a glowing, red-hot barrel stove that the older kids took turns filling. Oddly, I never heard of anyone getting seriously burned.

Summer vacation brought even more fun. My brother Bubs and I built a raft and traveled up and down the river as the days stretched out before us in a seemingly endless array of happy activities. Sometimes we were swimming in Black River and trotted along the sandbars exposed in mid-summer. Flies and mosquitoes were our constant companions as well as poison ivy.

Country kids joined the 4-H Club, which provided a social outlet as well as education in practical life skills. My mother taught my sister and I how to sew, cook, bake, and keep records of our experiences. My brother joined 4-H also, but later joined the Boy Scouts, eventually becoming an Eagle Scout. What was so terrific about these programs was that we had so much fun while learning that education just slipped in under the guise of enjoyment.

Getting together with neighbor children meant riding bike or walking. Three friends my brother and I hung out with lived a couple miles away by road. Cutting through the woods and across a pasture was much shorter so we tried that route most of the time. But there was one very large problem. In that pasture lived an enormous, cranky bull. The cows wore bells, but not that monstrous creature. It was always a shock to come out of a thicket and find him standing right there, 10 or 12 feet away, glaring at us with huge, black eyes. Depending on his mood, sometimes he would shake his head at us, while other times he’d turn and walk away.

Most of the time we could sneak around him, but sometimes we had to give up and go back.

Many afternoons I walked with my mother, Aunt Agnes, Uncle Mel, and my brother and sister into the swamp behind my uncle’s house and picked pails and pails of blueberries which we canned by the quart. Sometimes we picked wild strawberries and Mother would make strawberry shortcake. Those tiny berries added up slowly, so it took several hours to get enough to make a dessert.

But if you enjoy strawberries, there really is nothing better than wild strawberry shortcake. I usually suffered several days following the shortcake because of all the bites I got from the sandflies.

We also picked berries at Rainy Lake. My mother and father purchased an island on Rainy and we enjoyed many weekends there. Swimming, fishing, and sailing also kept us busy. At the last there were very few insects compared to Black River, but poison ivy grew in every crack and crevice in the rocks and it often accompanied me home.

In the woods I spent a lot of time alone, just thinking. I would

continued on page 14

The cabin as it is seen today. The pine was planted by Selberg’s grandfather.

This is how the cabin appeared when purchased by the Olson family.

An old logging shed still stands and will remain on the homestead as a reminder of the past.

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Our Stories

On a sunny fall day the Olson’s purchased the cabin. walk until I found a lovely spot grown up with ferns or wildflowers and just sit down beneath the canopy of tall trees overhead. As slight breezes stirred the trees, I could lay back and imagine any adventure that came to mind. I often thought of books I had read, of all the opinions expressed by authors. I would weigh out one fact against another trying to decide what was right for me and what seemed to be right for friends and acquaintances. I enjoyed these contemplations and wondered how various authors were able to express themselves so succinctly.

My father had attended a school at which the English teacher required students to memorize word for word literary works of famous and not-so-famous authors. Some of these works remain and are still studied today, while others have dwindled away into obscurity. Dad could sit for hours reciting poetry by rote. As a youngster I sometimes fell asleep listening to the well-chosen words spoken with such definite rhyme and rhythm. The images evoked were bright flashes of sound, color, an emotion. The words came alive, and as I was dozing off, in a near-dream state, I imagined I could see the words floating by, each carrying a special thought. I marveled that all of that communication had occurred because mere words were arranged “just so.”

I began to realize the power of words and became interested in how writers weave them 14

together so convincingly. Thus began my fascination with words and writing. As a child I began to correspond with some of my favorite writers (and still do today) to help me understand their craft and how they approach the business of writing.

Reading my diary, my mind wandered back beyond myself to my mother’s family history.

The property on which our family lived had been homesteaded by my grandfather, Edward Skifstrom. He was a Swede whose parents came to the U.S. and settled in Cokato, Minn. He moved north to Koochiching County along with two of his four brothers.

After Ed found a place to stay in a small settlement at the Grand Mound site, he sent for his wife, Ida, who came by train to International Falls, along with their first-born, Agnes Evangeline. Ida and Agnes waited in the little village while Ed went to construct a dwelling in the woods at his homestead. He had located the property the previous winter.

It had been very difficult to find his tract of land as there were no roads and few accurate maps. An account of his trek north to find his land was written about in The Daily Journal long ago. After childbirth Ida did not recover quickly, and when her health began to fail, it was decided to send Agnes to live with Uncle Andrew at his homestead near Ed’s as he had already built his home. Eighteen-month-old

Agnes was put in a packsack and carried through the woods 20 miles on Andrew’s back to his new home. Agnes did not see her moth er again for several months.

The move north turned out to be tragic for the family. Two more girls and a boy were born, but neither girl survived. The closest doctor was in Emo, but with poor roads and a river to cross, it was nearly impossible to get medical care in a timely manner.

Then another girl was born, my mother, Elaine. Her birth was an especially happy event and my aunt and uncles told me many times that the addition of this child was a gift of hope that carried them through the hard times that followed. She was their precious baby and she inspired in them a belief that life would always renew itself even in the midst o the most difficult of circumstances.

When Spanish Influenza came to Black River in 1918, Ida lost her best friend to the epidemic. Shortly thereafter, tuberculosis became rampant. Ida fell ill with TB and was sent to Lake Julia Sanitorium in Puposky, near Bemidji. It was believed at that time that very pure, fresh air would cure patients of this lifethreatening lung disease. Ida and other patients slept on screened porches at 20 to 30 degrees below zero. In letters home, Ida begged for warm mittens and blankets, her handwriting so unsteady from the frigid temperatures that it was barely legible. Ida did no

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Our Stories

survive; the exposure hastened her death.

Agnes, by then 14 years old, lived at Ed’s home with Uncle Andrew who stayed with the children to protect them and take care of the homestead. It was up to Agnes to raise her two brothers and little Elaine. Ed had to leave the area to work to cover the cost of medical bills. Soon the two boys were sent away for TB also. All tuberculosis patients were kept locked away in sanitoriums, almost as prisoners, so that they would not expose the outside world to this highly contagious disease. After months at the Duluth Sanitorium, homesick and isolated from their family and society, the boys finally recovered and returned home.

But the family’s troubles did not end. Eventually Elaine contracted tuberculosis and also had to go to Lake Julia to recover. She was there one year before she was released. As always, contact with the outside world was prohibited, and she was plagued with the fear of dying and never seeing her family again. By that time, however, people were no longer exposed to extreme temperatures in order to have fresh air. A new physician, Dr. Mary Ghostly, had started a better course of therapy that included lots of rest and a plentiful, balanced diet.

Mother thrived on the good food and still recalls the excellent meals today at the age of 93.

As a teenager I returned with my family to the abandoned Lake Julia Sanitorium many times.

Ida’s children walked the halls of the moldering old building searching for what they thought may have been her room. On each trip we ended up at the bottom of a broken-down cement stairway. We always climbed to the top of the stairs, turned to the right, and stepped into a tiny room that we were drawn to. It was the room where the dying were sequestered for their final hours.

I listened intently to all of the stories about our family. Gradually I began to write them down. I now have an extensive compilation of these events that happened so long ago. I have been “putting words together” so that the plight of early settlers will not be forgotten.

Living at the old country homestead meant that I was never removed from the place where it all happened. The story was then, and is now, embedded in my mind, ever present. The oral history passed to me by my elder relatives kept everything close. If I had lived in town, it would have been easier to forget those early years, easier to become involved in the swift changes of modernization, easier to never look back.

I am grateful for the opportunity to have learned about the hardships early settlers endured and I have been working on a book about the lives of my family and other pioneers.

I am also grateful to Derrik and his wife, Mickie. When I met him, he told me I could return to my old home whenever I would like.

How very generous!

As we talked, it seemed he is also interested in the history of the area. I am pleased beyond measure that the home place has passed on to someone that will appreciate and enjoy it as much as my family and I did.

Living at the old country homestead meant that I was never removed from the place where it all happened. The story was then, and is now, embedded in my mind, ever present.

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Cabin Couture

Ready to roll up your sleeves and get creative?

H

ow about a plan to add some color to your deck or flower garden, or some easy seating around your bonfire pit? Give these simple ideas for a chair planter and log benches a try. They take just a few tools, reuse old furniture and wood, and a little time.

Bonfire bench seating

Chair planter

1. Carefully fall a dead or dying tree at its base, leaving just a stump. (The stump can serve as a seat, too.)

2. Cut a couple logs from the large end of the trunk, and then cut the remaining part of the trunk into two pieces lengthwise.

3. Place a log on the ground at each end of the trunk to serve as a base. Cut a notch in the rounded side of the lengthwise cut trunk to match the log.

4. Place the lengthwise cut trunk onto the logs to serve as a long bench seat.

1. Find an old chair that has a broken seat or no seat at all. (Chairs with woven seats that have holes in them can also be easy to use by cutting a hole in the seat and placing a planter containing blooming flowers and ivy that is just slightly smaller than the hole, so the planter hangs in the woven seat.)

2. Place a wire planting basket in place of the seat. Attach the basket with wire in several places so it is secure. Place a thick layer of wet peat moss to fill the holes in the basket and add planting soil.

3. Place flowering plants that bloom all season, along with some draping ivy that will hang below the seat.

4. Paint chair parts with bright colors to compliment the blooming flowers.

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Pets and Pasture

Trainer Doug Grindall shares some wisdom on raising a good dog

Adding a new member to the

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any Borderland families may look at the spring as the ideal time to get a new puppy. The weather is nicer for potty training and, for those looking for an outdoors companion, there are still several months before hunting season.

However, adding a new member to the family is an important decision, and one that comes with many responsibilities.

Local dog trainer Doug Grindall shares some tips for getting a new dog: ★ Read as much as possible about the breed to see if a breed of dog matches your particular lifestyle. ★ To be guaranteed a good pup, learn as much as possible about the sire and dam as a lot of their traits are passed on. ★ To avoid the puppy stage with the additional work of housebreaking and having something of value destroyed by puppy teeth, consider adopting an older dog.

When a dog comes from a shelter, they generally appreciate having a good home and food every day. ★ Expect to get to know a local vet well, as the vet is a necessary part of a dog’s life.

Consider the cost of this as well as other routine expenses for food and other necessities. The average cost to raise a dog to 11 years old is $6,500, which may be a conservative estimate according to Grindall. ★ Choose a friendly dog that wants to interact with its new owner. That pup will always do its best to please and be very easy to train. ★ Commit to a decent walk at least once to twice a day to relieve extra energy, especially for larger dogs. ★ Puppies can be housebroken very quickly if someone watches their every move the first few days home so they can be placed outside when it appears they have to go. Remember they will have to go right after they eat, get up from sleeping or have been played with. ★ A lot of trainers swear by keeping a new dog in a kennel when the dog is inside and can’t be watched continuously as a dog is a very clean animal and won’t soil its own surroundings. Owners should clean up their yards of dog dropping as the snow continues to melt. A dog is a clean animal and will generally use the same area for its deposits.

Keep the yard clean. ★ Keep anything valuable out of the dog’s reach until it is trustworthy and passed the chewing stage. ★ Expose a puppy to as many new things as possible to make them a future well-

Pets and Pasture

Protect you animals from Lyme’s disease Can you feel it? It starts as a tickle on you leg. But it seems to be moving — it’s crawling up you leg. It’s the dreaded tick looking for an easy meal of human blood.

It’s likely that most Minnesotans who live, play or work in the great out-of-doors have experienced this feeling many times in their lives. And in most cases, the tick is removed and life goes on.

But of particular interest should be the blacklegged tick known as the deer tick. This member of the species can be involved in the transmission of several diseases to humans, with Lyme disease the most recognized of these diseases.

The primary hosts of blacklegged ticks are white-footed mice and white-tailed deer, although they also feed on other mammals, including your beloved canine companion.

A good percent of people with Lyme disease will develop a rash, an expanding, red circular rash, often with an area of central clearing. This rash usually occurs 3-30 days after a tick bite and may be accompanied by fever, headache, and muscle aches.

However, many dogs will not show any clinical signs of illness. Some may develop fever and lameness and in complicated cases, dogs may develop acute kidney failure or show neurologic manifestations. Dogs do not develop the rash seen in people.

Symptoms of Lyme’s disease in dogs: • Lameness • Hot and/or swollen joints • Lack of appetite • Fatigue • Fever Protect yourself and your dog when outside in areas known to be infested with blacklegged ticks: 1. When in the woods, walk on trails and avoid moving through grassy areas. Ticks are commonly found in brush and low-lying vegetation near the forest floor, and you increase your risk of ticks finding you by moving through such areas.

2. Wear protective clothing, such as long-sleeved shirts and pants that are light-colored. To maximize your protection, tuck your pants into your socks to prevent ticks from moving underneath them. The ticks will crawl up the outside of your pant legs, giving you more time to see and remove them before they bite.

3. Use repellents to protect yourself. DEET is a very effective repellent that you can apply to your clothes as well as exposed skin. It is not necessary to use concentrations higher than 20-30 percent.

Consult your veterinarian to determine which tick preventive products are best for your dog. Ideally, dog owners in the Upper Midwest should use topical tick preventatives from March through November. Repellents approved for humans should not be used for pets.

4. It is very important to check yourself and your dog for ticks after you have been in tick-infested areas, especially during summer when immature blacklegged ticks are active. Because of their very small size, nymphs can be easily overlooked.

5. Several Lyme disease vaccines are available for dogs. Consult your veterinarian to determine if your dog should be vaccinated and if so, which vaccine should be used. There are currently no Lyme disease vaccines for humans.

6. If you do find a tick attached to your skin, carefully remove it with tweezers. Grasp it around the head as close to the skin as possible and gently yet firmly pull it out. Save any ticks that are found biting so an expert can identify them later. Only blacklegged ticks are known vectors of disease in Minnesota.

rounded adult dog. Examples: Taking them for rides in a vehicle or boat. Don’t expect them to readily accept anything as adult dogs that they weren’t exposed to as puppies. Introduce new experiences in stages, not all at once. ★ Don’t start habits that the new family doesn’t want continued for the dog’s life, such as sleeping in the bed or begging for table scraps. Every member of the family must be consistent. For example, one member of the family feeding the dog from the table can ruin all training. ★ Never feed a dog prior to heavy exercise as it can cause stomach problems. ★ A puppies brain is developed to the point at five months of age that it can be taught the basic obedience commands of sit, down, stay, stand, and come. Keep com-

mands to one word to avoid confusing a dog. ★ Keep training sessions to 10 minutes twice a day, as a puppy’s attention span is short. Quit the moment that patience is wearing thin and the dog isn’t having fun. ★ Always pet the dog after it has been in the woods during the summer and fall to find wood or deer ticks. Brushing the dog often is a good way to spread the oil in its fur and find ticks. Frontline or K-9 Advantage is mandatory for every dog from April through November. ★ Don’t expose a dog to gunshots immediately. Start out slowly with a BB gun at 100 feet when it is eating. Slowly decrease the distance and size of gun in gradual increments and only if the dog shows no fear.

Never take it out around fireworks.

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The Frozen Gardener

Be careful not to lose your precious seedlings to a devious predator: The feline

Attack on theseedlings

T

he season has changed from snow pants to rain boots. The grass has begun to show through the snow and though the lake is still covered with ice, the yard has become a boot stealing, soggy mess.

Inside, the living room has taken on the glowing pinkish hue of a UFO. The grow lights are a welcome sign that the seeds have been sown and soon will be sprouting. That’s right. Our long wait for the seeds to arrive has been rewarded with a manila envelope filled to near bursting with seeds of all shapes and sizes. This year’s crop contains a number of heirloom vari-

20

eties primarily from colder regions of the world.

Our greenhouse is a simple homemade model, designed to keep the plants warm and happy and the kids and pets out. We wrapped a standard metal shelving unit with clear plastic sheeting and attached a piece of plexiglass for a door. The most expensive parts were the grow lights, to which we glued magnets so they will stick to the underside of the shelves. We start most of our seeds in old yogurt containers and mix our own soil from potting soil and compost and have installed heating mats to keep it warm. Using the squirt bottle is the

high point of the day for our son. Our daughter likes to check on the progress each afternoon when she arrives home from school.

Despite all this care and attention, we have lost our seedlings to predators in the past. You might think the children would be to blame. You might think some pest had found its way into our greenhouse and attacked the seedlings. Yet, it was a much craftier and devious predator. The feline that hides behind its cute little kitty cat exterior is actually a seedling devouring machine with a taste for tomatoes. Not only did the cat wait until our tomatoes were

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The Frozen Gardener

about six inches high and starting to leaf out before eating them down to the soil, but it waited until cover of darkness to put its plan into motion and left without leaving any sign of the crime. That is until he returned to the scene to admire his handiwork. So we now have multiple latches on the greenhouse door, but when we open the door we still have to protect the plants like a hockey goalie in overtime.

Christmas in April

These two week old cilantro sprouts are just the beginning of this year’s herb garden. winter. I kept digging and discovered some rutabagas that were forgotten as well.

These however had been snacked on over

the winter.

So I harvested my first bunch of carrots in April and headed indoors for a treat.

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With the snow melting away all sorts of surprises are discovered in the yard. Toys, pens, lost mittens. We even found a pacifier that was lost over the deck railing.

Each melt also reveals the biggest downside of owning a large dog. My favorite surprise this year though was found in the garden. I headed out on a warmer day to check on the garden for needed repairs. I was pleased to see that it will need only minor work this year and was surprised to see all of the green already. The strawberry patch was already growing leaves and continuing the takeover of the bed. The garlic had already sprouted, but what I didn’t expect to find were carrots. We must have forgotten to pick them in the fall and they had been sleeping under their blanket of snow all

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Off The Beaten Path

What’s

Mother Nature

have in store?

The toads start croaking and yellow marsh marigolds bloom in the wet woods May ★ Quaking aspen leaves unfurl. In the common vernacular this is called “green up.” ★ The buzzing of bumblebees can be heard. ★ American bitterns boom from the predawn depths of cattail marshes. ★ Spring azure butterflies dance along woodland trails. ★ Yellow marsh marigolds blot the swampy woods. ★ Red blossoms of the red maple appear before the leaves, and the greenish flowers on the sugar maples will bloom a week or two after leaves unfurl. ★ The ovenbirds, warblers known for building domed nests, ring out in song from the forest. ★ The first of the “cling-on” wood ticks can be found as early as mid-April. ★ Snoring calls from marshy ponds are the first sighs that leopard frogs have awakened. The spotted green-and-brown frogs are sometimes found on land. ★ Noisy, blacked-headed gulls, Bonaparte’s gulls, arrive in large flocks. ★ The silvery sheen of big-toothed aspens can be seen among the green of leafed-out quaking aspens. ★ Magnolia warblers return to the north woods in the spring, enticing birders from all over to see

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the colorful “winged jewels.” Most warblers winter in Mexico, Central America and South America. ★ Heading back north from Mexico and Central America is the ruby-throated hummingbird. ★ Rose family fruit trees begin to bloom — the wild plum, juneberry, pin cherry and chokecherry. ★ The American toad gives a longer call on a warmer night, and high-pitched trills can be heard near larger wetlands.

June ★ Common nighthawks return to the night sky.

Swooping and gliding, some have been recorded consuming 500 mosquitoes on a single evening. ★ Beneath pines in the sandy soil, watch for the pink-purple fringed polygala flowers. ★ The fawns of white-tailed deer lie motionless to escape detection. However, black bears are still able to locate and eat a fair number. ★ Hundreds of dragonflies, spiny baskettails, emerge and swarm near the lakeshores. ★ “Cotton” is shed by the balsam poplar and cottonweed trees. Silky-haired seeds drift in the wind from the female trees. ★ Dig wild leeks — the small but potent onionlike bulbs — now. ★ Luna moths appear around lighted areas.

They slowly run out of energy after gorging on leaves as fuel while caterpillars.

★ Eastern forest tent caterpillars, familiarly known as “army worms,” gorge aspen leaves and often strip whole forests. Droppings may be heard pattering like rain. In the cocoons, sarcophagus flies lay eggs; a once-every-11-year event. ★ Frothy masses made by nymphs of an insect called froghoppers, cling to plant stems. Also known as spittlebugs, they pierce the stem, suck up plant juices and blow bubbles. The blob protects the developing insect until adulthood. ★ The female Western painted turtles have left the water and are in search of soft soil or sand to lay eggs. She backs in and drops 4 to 8 one-inchlong white eggs after digging a hole with her hind claws, then heads back to the safety of the water after covering them. ★ Lingonberries grow in the North Woods, although few are aware of it. Locally known as mountain cranberry, the close relative of the blueberry flourishes on the rocky cold shores of Lake Superior. Blooming now, it bears red fruit in August. ★ Adorned with six black and white spots on each wing, the twelve-spotted skimmer hunts in sunny glades. Check streambanks for ebony jewelwing, the iridescent green damsel with black wings. The damselflies wings are held over their backs at rest while dragonflies keep their wings flatly spread.

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Off The Beaten Path

July ★ The showy ladyslipper, Minnesota’s state flower, starts to bloom. ★ Birds and chipmunks now feast on ripe pin cherries. Over 80 various critter species make use of the tree. ★ Pine sawyer beetles, large and slow in flight with long antennae, are out and about. although large in size, they are harmless unless annoyed.

Larval grubs of the pine sawyers make creaking sounds from dead logs. ★ Shelf-like clusters of oyster mushrooms, edible, white and fleshy, sprout from still-standing-butdying aspens. As with any wild edibles, make sure you know what you are picking before ingesting. ★ In a good year, blueberries are now juicy and plump and in a bad year, they are small and mealy. ★ The little brown bats search for mosquitoes and other insects after dark. Insects are scooped up in the tail membrane and transferred to the mouth in midair in a split second maneuver. ★ Red squirrels are dropping spruce cones at a rate of one every second and a half to store for use in the winter. Amazingly, the squirrels are able to smell buried cones under a foot of snow. ★ Bald-faced hornets catch mosquitoes and flies, bring them to their hive where they are chewed up and fed to developing larvae. ★ Black bears in their second summer are on their own. Two to three young are born in the winter den to a sleeping mom. The cubs crawl to a teet, begin suckling, and put on six pounds before spring emersion.

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Simple Solutions

Bundt pan It’s not just for cakes anymore

W

hen was the last time you made a Bundt cake?

For many of us, the answer could be hard to recall, because it was so long ago. But your Bundt pan waits patiently inside your cupboard to be used — for something.

Well, get that Bundt pan out and consider these ideas:

★ An outdoor dog bowl that stays upright With the onset of spring, many of our canine companions spend more time outdoors. Use a Bundt pan to keep your dog’s water bowl from tipping over and leaving Fido without that precious water. Put a stake — use something decorative — through the center of the pan and into the ground to hold it in place. Then fill it up with water and know that your doggie will not forgo that cool drink.

★ Corn off the cob Many spring salads call for sweet corn taken off the cob. Make getting that corn from the cob easier by using a Bundt pan to hold the cob in place. Insert the tip of the cob into the hole of the Bundt column. It will hold the cob steady while you slide a knife down the cob, allowing the kernels to fall into the pan.

★ Pretty nice ice Got a party or some other special event that your punch bowl will be invited to? Make your punch prettier with a floating ice ring. Fill a Bundt pan with water or some of the colorful punch and place it in your refrigerator overnight. Pop the ring out and place it in your punch bowl to keep drinks chilled for hours.

★ Roast chicken is downright upright Chicken will roast more quickly and evenly for better tasting using a Bundt pan. Place the Bundt pan on a flat pan to catch the drippings. Slide the chicken onto the Bundt’s column so it is standing upright. Fill the Bundt pan with vegetables and roast until veggies are tender and chicken is done.

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Simple Solutions

Let your gutters direct the water flow Spring showers bring flowers, but without properly hung gutters on your house, garage or cabin, those showers can create a muddy, mucky mess in the yard. eHow suggests these steps to ensure that your gutters will flow water to an appropriate place, whether that be a collection bucket or an area away from traffic.

You will need a power screw driver, gutter hangers, 1 1/4 inch deck screws, chalk line.

1. Snap a chalk line to run the gutters along. If the run is 35 feet or less, start 1 inch below the fascia. Slope the line down 1/4 inch for every 10 feet of gutter to the low end where you will install a downspout.

Mark the starting point and the low point and snap the chalk line between them.

2. Attach gutter hangers with 1 1/4 inch deck screws to the fascia starting about 1 inch from the end of the roof. Follow the chalk line and place one every 24 inches.

Place a hanger at the other end 1 inch away from the roof also, even if the span is less than 24 inches.

Cleaning the gutters To ensure that water flow continues, gutters should be cleaned each fall and spring.

1. Use a sturdy extension or step ladder. Make sure he ground you are setting the ladder on is firm and level.

2. Use a gloved hand to pull large debris from the gutters. If you can make a scoop to pull the muck created by decomposing sticks and leaves by finding a plastic pop bottle that fits inside the gutter. Cut the bottom off at the angle to create a scoop.

3. Make sure the downspouts aren’t clogged and run water through them to ensure they are allowing water to flow properly.

4. Run water through the entire gutter system to ensure there are no leaks and the gutters remain sloped enough to carry water toward the downspout.

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Our Stories

Recalling rail

history

Littlefork resident gears up to restore an 1880s caboose

E

rik Thompson knows retrieving a more than 10-ton abandoned railroad caboose from the woods is no easy task.

The train fanatic extracted in March an old abandoned caboose from the heart of northern Minnesota’s frozen swamps.

Thompson, moved from Chisago City, Minn., to the Littlefork area when he married Trena Peterson in January 2010.

“I have heard stories of abandoned locomotives in the woods, so one of the first things I asked when I moved here just over a year ago is if there were any in the area,” Thompson said.

Much to his delight — there was.

The tip about the location of caboose came from retired Littlefork-Big Falls teacher Dave Trappe.

“He knew about it because over the years he had done a lot of driving around looking for different history sites,” Thompson explained.

The caboose sat just off Mando’s Deer River Line, a railroad line that once ran south of Littlefork. The abandoned caboose had been resting there since 1947, after the line was torn up that summer. At the time, the Mesabi Daily News called the elimination of the line the “end of an era in rail log26

ging history.”

The March-April 1947 edition of the Mandonian notes the line was the last remnant of Mando’s north woods network of 140 miles of main track.

The caboose was one of the last cars used on the railroad that was originally constructed to tap the forest resources of northern Minnesota and to transport them to the large pulp, paper, and saw mill operations of Minnesota and Ontario Paper Company at International Falls, the newspaper reported.

“It truly is a part of the state’s history,” Thompson said.

“The caboose was left on purpose for hunters to use,” said Thompson. “But, for the last 10 years or so, it has been in a state of disrepair. My plans now are to do a complete restoration on it.”

Why trains?

In 1966, Thompson’s father and uncle established the Ironhorse Central Railroad Museum, featuring authentic railroad cars, steam locomotives and train rides in Chisago City. Thompson grew up working at the museum and developed a deep respect for trains.

“A couple of years ago, I rescued a steam engine from a shed in Enderlen, N.D.,” Thompson said. “Nobody knew it was there

by EMILY GEDDE

and it was full of asbestos.”

Thompson said the city wanted to get rid of it, so he purchased the engine, got rid of the asbestos after he became an abator, and rebuilt the entire structure to display in his family’s museum.

When Thompson first heard of the abandoned caboose in Littlefork last year, he couldn’t wait to see if it held up well enough through the years to restore.

“It was amazing,” he said of his first glimpse of the railroad car. “It was in such good shape.”

Thompson began taking photographs — he says literally thousands — of the caboos from every angle to understand how it was built.

With his mind set on another restoration project, Thompson dove into the process of finding out what he needed to do to get per mission to take over the locomotive.

Finding who and where to get that consent wasn’t easy, and took him two months.

First, he contacted the state of Minnesota and said he was shuffled back and forth talking to different people. He then contact ed the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which suggested he speak to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

“MnDOT claimed it was the Nature Conservancy who owned the land the

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SIMPLY NORTH caboose was on,” he said.

After finding out the Nature Conservancy didn’t own that particular piece of land, Thompson said he was back at square one.

Finally, after more conversations with DNR officials, the state archeologist was contacted for approval and Thompson received the permit to remove the caboose.

“I’m told that permit is next to impossible to get,” he said. “I’m lucky.”

Battling the elements The caboose was located in an area that was a challenge to access.

“We could really only get in by fourwheelers in the summer,” Thompson said.

“It was sitting in the middle of a pretty wet area. Sometimes when I’d be hiking out there with 100-150 pounds of supplies, I’d be up to my knees in water.”

Thompson carefully analyzed the structure and devised a plan to retrieve it from its resting spot of 64 years. Because it had sunk so deep into the Earth, Thompson thought he would first jack up the base, put it back on its wheels, then winch it up onto the bed of a truck.

“It was too swampy and every time I tried to put blocking in to jack it up, it sunk right

sigh

When Thompson rebuilds the interior of the caboose, he plans to build seating to replicate how it looked when it was owned by MD&W.

Our Stories

“It was really bad,” Thompson said of the winter. “I couldn’t get anyone to plow snow for me because the ground was still soft.”

Finally, on Feb. 17, conditions cooperated enough to allow Dobbs Logging Inc. to plow several miles toward the caboose and Thompson plowed a few miles himself.

On March 10, Thompson rented a 14-ton crane from Page & Hill Forest Products Inc. and Jan Maggert brought the crane to the caboose site. It was maneuvered onto a Roche’s Towing tractor trailer.

“Watching the caboose leave the woods was kind of neat,” Thompson said. “It was the first time it had been down the railroad line since 1947.”

A piece of history back down,” he said.

Thompson decided to rule out options of pulling the caboose out of the woods during the summer and prepared to use northern Minnesota’s cold winters to his advantage and get it out when the ground froze.

Mother Nature had a different idea.

Winter’s early snowfall prevented the ground from becoming completely frozen and Thompson worried that his efforts might be a lost cause.

of

Research on the caboose labeled 207 revealed it had an extensive history.

“It probably goes back to the 1880s,” Thompson said.

The list of railroads the car has worked on proves it was busy in its up-and-running days.

Although Thompson hasn’t been able to trace the first railroad the caboose followed

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Our Stories

clues on the car lead him to guess it was part of either the St. Paul and Duluth Railroad or the Northern Pacific Railroad.

“I found an old photograph of a car used by the St. Paul and Duluth Railroad and I am pretty confident it is my caboose,” he said. “There are sliding doors on each that are in the exact same location.”

From its first railroad, the caboose was sold to the Duluth and Winnipeg Railway.

“The company went belly-up and was reorganized as the Duluth, Lake Superior and Western Railway,” Thompson noted.

After two years, it became the Eastern Railway of Minnesota, and was sold later to Duluth and Northern Minnesota Railway.

“The last company, to take over the caboose was the Minnesota Dakota and Western Railway,” Thompson said.

Future plans From the interior framework to the outside of the caboose, Thompson is planning a complete rebuild of the locomotive.

“I have to go piece by piece when I replace things so I don’t lose where I’m at,” he said of his rebuilding efforts. “I created a pattern that I’m following.”

He envisions the outside of the rebuild to recreate how the caboose looked very early

Thompson approaches the caboose excited ly the first time he was able to access it. After learning the location of the abandoned locomotive, he worried it would be unsalvageable. To his surprise, the caboose was in great shape.

on. The inside will have seating to replicate how it looked with MD&W. “MD&W had coach seating to transport loggers back and forth along the line,” Thompson explained.

“There is a lot of history in this area pertaining to railroads,” he added. “I want to show that history.”

In July, the caboose will be brought to Chisago City to become part of the Ironhorse Museum. It will be placed on display and possibly used for public rides around the

museum’s 1.5-mile railroad track.

Thompson and his wife, Trena, plan to summer in Chisago City so he can work at the museum, which is open June through September.

Thompson picked through his binder of notes and photos from Day 1 with the caboose as he reminisced about his experience. He now looks forward to the pages he’l fill as the rebuild begins.

“I’m very proud of this caboose,” he said smiling. “I can’t wait to see how it turns out.”

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Til Summer

Who knew?

T

by Dana Hartje

he signs of spring are in the air, literally.

My husband looked up from his chair and proclaimed, “The gulls are back!” I quickly called The Journal editor to notify her of this breaking news.

Too late, my former boss and neighbor down the road had already called in his sighting. Shoot, just wanted to know what it felt like to be the first call into the paper. Oh, well maybe next year.

Darn retired guy, too much time on his hands!

Anyone from this neck of the woods knows what the return of the gulls means — spring is surely on its way.

Why we rely on this sign from above is beyond me. Sure, we could look at the melting snow, the budding trees and the beautiful sunshine and know that spring is coming, but instead we base our hopes for spring on some birds that like to eat from garbage dumpsters and make a mess on my house. As I think about the return of the gulls, I have to stop myself from worrying about the other half of the gull folklore. Yep, we must now endure

Photo by Chloe Lemieu

three snowstorms. That’s what the rule is, I don’t know where this rule originated. but that’s the rule. Oh no, three more snowstorms, but I was just starting to see the first layer of dirty snow melting away. With that melting I can also see that is time to clean up the mess from the dog, even with that job ahead I am ready for the snow to go away.

They say we should expect three more storms. What do you think “they” mean by storms? And who are “they?”

Three more days with snow, three more snow storms, or does mixed precipitation count too? Why worry, we have the promise of spring brought by the gulls.

As I look out at the lake, still frozen and still a city for icehouses, I have a hard time believing spring is upon us. In fact, I had a hard time believing the official start of spring is March 20. Seems like we have had a long winter, but it seems as though it’s too early to call it spring, too. It seems as though we are stuck in the middle, but we are working our way to better days. I don’t think it’s spring until I pull the lawn chairs out from storage, put them on the deck and only have to brush the snow off one time. I thought about pulling out the

chairs only a few days after the gulls arrived.

Silly me, everybody knows we have three more snowstorms to come, might as well wait for a while.

As we enjoy the longer hours of daylight, and fight the morning sluggishness from the time change, it seems as though we are getting closer to our favorite season — summer.

I love spring, my favorite day is the day you see the poplar trees explode with fresh green leaves. It’s such a beautiful sight driving east on Highway 11, coming over the overpass and seeing that bright green. It truly is one of my favorite days, everything seems new that day.

So while I am glad to see the gulls return in the middle of March, I am looking forward to a day when I can look out and see a yard with no snow and a few green buds on the trees.

Then I know spring has arrived.

But first we have to survive the next three storms, oh, and what about the state basketball tournament snowstorms, will they stay in the Minneapolis area or will that always anticipated storm travel our direction too?

Who knew waiting for spring could bring such stress?

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