Gas prices and museum exhibits

I have been keeping a daily tally of the price of various commodities since September. As a farmer, I want to understand the daily fluctuations in wheat, soybeans, and canola so we can sell at the proper time. I also keep track of the cost of light crude per barrel. This has helped save several thousand dollars as the price has been such a yo yo. Right now I am disgusted with the powers that be that set the pump price. The lowest price for gas in Roseau was at the end of December,$1.70 a gallon, the price of a barrel of light crude was $39.03. Right now we are paying $1.95 and oil is only $41.68. Who is controlling the prices? Who is running off with my money?! Enough said, what do you think?

The last couple of days have seen some drastic changes at the museum. STS was in on Thursday and spent the day rearranging exhibit platforms for the upcoming education committee exhibits. Britt painted a wall in the ag exhibit so it will coordinate with the school by painting a door and a window. She is pretty talented with a paint brush! Then Helen spent three days painting the background and floor on the American Indian exhibit. It is very cool!

I stayed late on Thursday when the education committee came in and then went in to work late yesterday as I was going out to dinner with some friends in the evening and worked until that time. Every time I went into the work room I would cringe at the mess on the counter. We had stacks of photos from Key Ingredients and the 150 project. I tackled that job and packed them away, perhaps they can be used in another project sometime. No sense throwing them away, they aren't archival, and are on foam core so will last for a long time. Several shelves needed cleaning, paint is now put back on the shelves and the place looks a little neater. Now it needs a good vacuuming, but that will have to take place next week. The storage area also needs to be vacuumed too. We have had so many projects lately that we need to get them put away and clean up the messes.

STS completed stabilizing the clothing racks and put a shelve in the back for the military hats. Now we need to find a group of ladies to make some covers for the clothing racks so the clothes will be protected from dust. Whoever believes that working in a museum is boring, needs to volunteer, they would sure have an eye opening experience. But such satisfaction!

After reading about The Shack from a friend's blog, I decided to read it. Finished it on Wednesday. So much to contemplate after reading it. I highly recommend it. Now I am reading Twilight. My granddaughter, Leah, just finished it and said it was so good. I have heard nothing but good comments about it. It is written by Stephanie Meyer, the same author who wrote The Host. I read that a couple of months ago and enjoyed that so know this must be good to. Well if I am going to get to read it, it is time to stop writing and go read!

Education Committee

Last night the Women in History education committee met. They are such an enthusiastic group of women, I love working with them. They are so committed to this project, it gives me such satisfaction knowing they are in charge of the upcoming exhibit.

Yesterday we removed a couple of panels from the agriculture exhibit. We will be painting them to match the rest of the walls in the exhibit. The one thing that concerns me is the fact that they are Masonite and the rest of the walls are plywood which shows the wood grain, where the Masonite doesn't. My assistant thinks that she can paint it so it will match though. She is pretty talented so I need to have faith that she is right.

At this time, I am working on two grants. One is about ready to be submitted on line now. It is nice when they are almost identical as one can use some of the same wording in several grants as well as the financial work. It is just a matter of changing some of the areas of the project to meet the new project.

Lately my hip has been a little painful in the morning. Perhaps I am laying on it wrong. It gives me no other troubles though.

Beautiful but cold (-17F) day, the sun is giving that early morning salmon color to the walls in my bedroom. It is always a pleasure to dress under that condition. Time to exercise!

How is the hip and knee?

Perhaps it is time to put some perspective into having hip (THR) and knee (TKR) replacement for those who are contemplating it or are recovering from both or either surgeries.

It has been ten months since I had thr on my right hip. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate my hip at an 8 1/2. It is the best thing I have done for myself in many years. I had suffered with terrible back pain for quite a while and had almost given up on being able to have relief when I had an MRI that gave a diagnosis of severe hip degeneration. Once my hip was replaced, my back pain disappeared! I also didn't realize how out of shape I was. PT was a struggle but it taught me that I needed to get into better physical shape. I began exercising and walking and then decided it was time to have my knee replaced. By the time I had my knee surgery, I was walking about 2 miles and my knee wasn't as bad as it had been even though I knew it needed replacing. I think if I would have known there was going to be so much pain during the recovery and that it was going to take so long, I would not have done the tkr. Would that have been good or bad? I don't know and won't ever know. As it is right now, I can say, it is definitely improving now. my range of motion is still not what I would be happy with but I find I can climb up and down stairs fairly easily, especially after riding the stationary bike. The key to recovery from tkr is riding a stationary bike and rocking in a wooden rocking chair or glider. Bending the foot back as far as can be handled and holding there for as long as possible also increases range of motion. I enjoy walking but lately our weather is just not allowing for that outside, today we had -5F and 15 mile winds bringing the windchill to -29F. Definitely not walking weather. I have gone to Lake Therapy two times this past week and ride the bike daily or at least 5 times a week. Winter is not a good time to have tkr or thr as far as I am concerned. One is too concerned about falling, I have gotten past that point now, and the chances of it happening are greater due to the lack of balance and strength in the leg that you had the surgery in. For my knee, I requested PT for six weeks prior to surgery so I would have an easier recovery. I needed that, the recovery has been difficult. Enough about tkr and thr.

We were able to make some real progress on Friday. STS came in around 1 and spent the rest of the day working. We ran into some road blocks when we called for Masonite, it won't be in until the middle of next week. STS removed several items from exhibits and helped with other things that needed to be done.

Today, I dedicated myself to Primary and designed the calendar and the opening exercise handouts. With that done, I can now focus on work again.I started writing two grants so will try to complete them next.

For pleasure, I am reading The Shack by Wm. Paul Young. It is a poignant story about the death of child and a grieving father's recovery. Even though it is fiction, it reminds one that life it not fair and we live on earth.

I can tell it is cold tonight, the window above my head is cooler than normal. I guess that means it is time to curl under and warm up and sleep.

Social Security

Life has a way of creeping up on one and before you know it another milestone in life has arrived. Thus was the case yesterday when I received my call to sign up for social security. Yes, I will be 65 next month on the 27th. No, I am not going to quit work, that would mean boredom. I have a problem with days off as it is. I will cut back to 4 days a week starting in February though. Now I need to sign up for Medicare.

Ardmore had a problem with some bleeding the other day but it was determined to not be serious. He has been trying to figure out what caused it and now thinks it was his nose. He wakes up in the middle of the night and watches tv in the dark. He thinks that while sitting at the table he had a nose bleed and didn't realize it because of the dark. He says he has had that problem since he had some polyps removed about 2 months ago. I thought they sealed the polyps and that would take care of any bleeding, apparently not.

We have several projects at the museum for Sentence to Serve to do today. I hope they can spend the whole day. I think I will go in early so that I am there if they come in. Perhaps I can then leave a little earlier and work out at LifeCare.

One Wednesday, we took down the Minnesota's Historic NW sesquicentennial traveling exhibit. It is time to begin putting up the installation of the Woman's History Month exhibits. Time is really creeping up on us, we have only five weeks until we open the exhibit.

I attended a Roseau Rams girls hockey game last night with Micky and her mother. Roseau beat International Falls 11 to zip. The Falls team is reorganizing and had several seventh graders on their varsity team, so they will be an up and coming team to watch. Seems like that is the first time I was able to do something like that in a long time.

It was sure slick out when I went home last night. It must have started raining about 3, the windshield on the car was one solid sheet of ice. By the time I left the game it had changed to snow. This morning, it is cold, 6 below and clear. Yeah! No more ice.

Foggy and georgeous trees

This is one of those days when we can't see the river because it is so foggy. The visibility is on about 1/5 of a mile and even less at times. I drove home from Roseau on 16 this evening and couldn't see any yard lights or even the road signs. Suddenly I saw the stop ahead sign that informed that I would shortly reach 89. It came up sooner than I thought, I was glad I'd slow down soon enough as it was a little slick too.

We spent the day working on the upcoming Woman's History Month exhibits. We will have our work cut out for us. This Friday, I hope to have lots of things accomplished. We will begin to take things down so the education committee can begin to work on their exhibits. We will need to get the maps done and the photos scanned and printed. I am excited about this exhibit and how it will honor the women in our county who have contributed to much to the well being of our lives. I am glad we have such good committees working on the programs. Our volunteer coordinator is tops! The volunteers she has recruited to work on the exhibits and programs are dedicated and talented. It has been a joy to work with them.

I have been listening to several podcasts lately. One of my favorites is the CBC program The Next Chapter with Sheila Rogers. It is always interesting to listen to an author interview. Today I asked our librarian to order me a book by Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers, the Story of Success. It sounds like a good nonfiction. He does some serious research on his topic and some of the things he commented on finding when he was doing the research on this book, sounded interesting.

I have a good book, The Perfect Day by Richard Paul Evans I am reading and it is almost bedtime so it is also reading time.

Obama Presidental Inauguration

What a great wave of flags there are being waved in Washington today! The Marine band was playing Amazing Grace when I turned on C-span 2. It is so much better to watch on ABC or C-Span as it is not so political.All of the political leaders on our country, past and present make their appearance under the circumstances of a presidential inauguration. Our former presidents have just made their appearances and our new President is now sworn in. What a humbling situation to be in. He has lots of work to do as President with all of the problems we now have in the US.

Genealogy Seminar

The Roseau County chapter of the Sons of Norway asked me to offer some genealogy advice at their meeting, which was held yesterday. I was happy to have this opportunity and hope that it was helpful to those who attended. I am always a bit nervous when something like this is requested but afterward I'm glad I did it. I really encouraged the attendees to do a four generation pedigree chart first. This chart can be found at several sites on the internet, to find one, click here. Go about half way down the page to where it says download, you can click there and download a chart as a PDF and save to your computer and then print it as needed. To fill in the data, one starts with oneself as the first person, then parents, grandparents and so on. Each family also should have a family group sheet, which lists parents and children and spouses.

Thoughts on media

Yesterday an American Airlines plane went down in the Hudson River in New York after birds flew into both engines causing them to quit operating. There were 155 passengers on board, all of which miraculously escaped being killed due to having an experienced and dedicated pilot in charge. The people evacuated onto the wings and were rescued by boats in the harbor who do emergency rescues. The media did an excellent job of coverage except for one person who I thought they went a bit too far in interviewing too long. A man in a tee shirt, couldn't tell if it was long or short sleeved, doesn't matter either) was being interviewed about his experience. There he stood, surrounded by media all in winter clothing and not one of them even offered him their coat or requested a blanket for him. He told them his pants were frozen, still no response, the questions kept on coming. I thought I could see him changing color as he stood them. COLD, is cold and he had to be freezing. Must the media be so self-serving as to not look at the person, only the story?

Very Cold...and Total Knee Replacement Frustration

We woke up to a very cold morning. The temp outside was -42 farenhite, with a wind chill of -55. I often wonder why Ardmore's family decided to stay in this cold climate, but being from Norway they probably didn't think much of the cold.

With weather this cold, one can understand why years ago, people wore night caps. The houses were not as well insulated as today and furnace systems were non-existent. Pioneers relied on wood heat from a fireplace or the Franklin stove, then the space heater came along, which burned kerosene or fuel oil which wasn't the most even heat. If one lived in town, water heat was common. The water would be heated in a central heating plant and pumped to the houses and businesses in the town as steam or hot water heat. I lived on Minnesota Iron Range in my youth and remember that Virgina and Hibbing heated the homes and businesses with steam from a municipal heating plant. Virginia first operated their plant in 1905.

I recall visiting my aunt and uncle in Virginia and hearing the hiss of the radiators when the steam would escape the valve. Our school in Aurora also had radiator steam heat with a boiler in the basement of the school. I often wonder if this isn't a more efficient way of heating homes in town now days. I would think that research would be done on this. If anyone knows of any, please let me know.

I read several blogs regarding Total Knee Replacement - tkr and read so much NOW about the frustration most people have with their recovery. I can definitely go along with their complaints. It is so interesting to remember that my range of motion was 114 when I completed that part of my pt. I am very diligent about doing my exercises, riding the stationary bike, walking, doing everything that I can think of to increase my range of motion so that climbing stairs (I live in a split level home with 14 steps to the main floor from the family room in the lower level) and whatever else is required. I do know that swimming is wonderful, but when it is below zero, I have no desire to go swimming and then get in a cold car to drive home, so I compensate with other exercises. None of these seem to be helping me gain back that range of motion. I can't be much more than about 100 right now. When I climb stairs it can be very uncomfortable, but I know with time this will improve although it may take at year or two. Many people complain of swelling and pain, ice often. I do not ice often. I find that I have just as much pain following icing as I did prior to icing. I do find that rest following extreme workouts and walking helps as well as propping my leg up. It is now time to rock and then ride my stationary bike.

Because it is so cold today, I wanted my thought for the day to be about summer so found a poem that was fitting.

Thought for the day

Summer Interlude

Under the shadow-lace of trees
Spilling gold on the warm green grass,
Lulled by the humming of honey bees,
Long summer interludes come to pass.

Playhouse furnished with make-believe,
Mud pies baked on a sun-hot stove,
Daydreams spun in fanciful weave
And hearts sing music in bright bell tone

Bring on the dishes, small butter chips,
The acorn cups and the cambric tea,
The old rag doll with the bright red lips,
The teddy bear and the lamb, maybe.

Under the poplars' rustling silk,
Pour out the tea in each small cup;
Add plenty of sugar and lots of milk,
Learn well the art of growing up.

Secrets and news and goodness knows
What conversation, the laughter, joy
Where the roses bloom and the clover grows
And life is golden with no alloy.

Ruth B.Field

Think Summer!! You enjoy your winter away from home, Leanne. I will sit and read a bit or watch a movie, but I am not going outside today!

Deer tracks in the soy bean field

It is a known fact that deer love soy beans. We see them all fall on the edge of the soybean fields nibbling the almost ripe beans and leaves. Now we see that even in the winter they are drawn to the soybean fields; we have tracks running across the field on 89 with areas where the deer have pushed the snow away to get at the beans. Today, I decided to take some photos of these tracks and the areas they have cleared to access the soybeans. Click to enlarge them see the tracks.








Today I stayed home. I have quite a bit of vacation and comp time and need to take some before we start working on the upcoming exhibit for Woman's History month in March. I baked chocolate chip peanut butter oatmeal cookies. They turned out so delicious. I did a twist on a Pillsbury Bake Off recipe. Here is the recipe

Preheat over to 370
Ingredients

1 12-oz package of your favorite chocolate chips

1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine - I use butter
1/2 cut creamy peanut butter
2 eggs
1 tbsp milk

In a separate bowl mix together
2 cups all purpose or unbleached flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1 cup chopped walnuts

Cream together sugars, butter, peanut butter, eggs and milk, add all the dry ingredients at once and mix well. Add the chocolate chips, we love the dark chocolate and the mint chocolate chips so I divided the recipe in half after adding the dry ingredients, mixing well.
Drop on cookie sheet using the small scoop (Pamper Chief one), I made round balls and flattened them a bit. Bake 5 minutes, turn pan and bake 4 minutes until light brown.

Serve warm with milk - nothing is better than warm cookies and milk.

I recently talked about doing the bridge for my back, I realize some people may not be familiar with this exercise so decided to do a couple of links. It is a yoga move.
Link 1
Link 2 This one has a photo with it.
Hope this helps those who struggle with back pain. It helped me tremendously.

Clearing the roof and where my tkr is now.

Yesterday I came home to a house with a foul odor and tried to find the source. Finally this morning, I realized it was coming from the bathroom and decided that the vents on top of the house must have snow over the top of them and be plugged. Hubby climbed up and started clearing it off, lots of snow, he even had to use the shovel handle to break through one of the vents. I decided a photo of him on the roof doing this was appropriate.


When I took the camera in, climbing over the snow he had shoveled in the front of the house. I decided to gab a shovel and clear the snow on the sidewalk, he was clearing the back of the house. All of a sudden this snow started filtering around me and then there was a plop on my head! Hubby had come across to the front and was clearing more snow off the roof and dumped it right on top me. I ended up with one more shovelful cascading down on me before he heard me shouting. I had snow in my coat hood, all down my back on inside of my coat. What a struggle to remove that coat and unload all the snow in the hood. When I got into the house, my shirt was white with snow on the back and I was very cold. I just snuggled up with a good movie and let hubs finish the shoveling, it was a much better thing to do. My exercise for the day ended up being a 3/4 mile walk to our mailbox about an hour later instead.

The seventh was the sixth month since my total knee replacement. Here is an update on the knee:

1. Depending on the weather, there usually isn't a lot of pain except when I first ride my stationary bike or come down the stairs before I do some knee stretches or exercises.
   
2. Sleeping is usually not a big problem. I sleep through most of the night (about 7 hours) with only one nature call. No more incontinence! That is usually a problem for quite a while after either tkr or thr. The Kegal exercises along with the exercises for improving hip muscle strength helped tremendously with this.
   
3. I sleep on the side which I did not have knee replacement (I had thr on that side) most nights but can sleep comfortably on both sides. I do use a pillow for the knee when I sleep on the thr side. Not between my knees but beside me with the bottom leg straight and the tkn leg bent or straight. If I do not get sufficient sleep, I have more pain.
4. I do my physical therapy exercises about 2-3 times a week, go to the gym about 2 -3 times a week, ride the stationary bike almost daily, rock in the rocking chair every day - several times a day (this is a great help), walk about a mile plus 2-3 times a week and swim at least once a week. I alternate these.
5. My knee on the outer side is still numb or tingly, due to the nerve over the knee being cut during surgery. This is the case with everyone who had had tkr. The area is suppose to get smaller with time.
6. I ice very seldom, only when I feel real tightness and have very little problem with swelling now.
   
7. I continue to take 250 mg Vicodin at night prior to going to sleep.
8. All of the above will vary from person to person.
   
9. Watch my diet and take a good woman's vitamin. I like the GNC vitamin the best, also take calcium, potassium (keeps the Charley horses from torturing me), and a baby aspirin.
10. I basically can do everything I want to do now and usually with little pain.
    

I hope this helps anyone has tkr. Everyone responds differently, but has some areas that are similar.

Museum Trips

Britt and I spent an exciting three days going to Brookings South Dakota for some training on the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Between Fences Monday through Wednesday. We managed to squeeze in three museums and besides the South Dakota Agriculture Museum where the Between Fences was displayed.

About 12 of us met for the workshop which was very enlightening. It will be enjoyable to design exhibits to highlight our area and how fences/borders affect our way of life. Living on the Canadian border gives us a way to expand our exhibit.

Snow fences will be added of course! Monday when we left it was 40 below Fahrenheit. That is cold! We never saw anything below -1 F while gone, and I didn't see snow either although there was ground drifting on the way home most of the way.

For several years, I had been wanting to see the King Tut exhibit but it was always too far away. We were driving in Watertown on Tuesday, after going to the Terry Redlin museum, looking for a place to eat when Britt noticed a sign advertising the King Tut museum. It was on display in Watertown! Needless to say, on Wednesday morning we went to the exhibition. We spent about two hours examining this wonderful collection. I was very disappointed to see we were the only ones there.

The Terry Redlin museum is always an enjoyable experience. They have put a cabin in the lower level now which adds a new dimension. I counted the number of art pieces he did in 1980 and came up with 10. It is amazing to think he could do ten in a year with the wonderful details he places in his work. I purchased a puzzle and will have to set it up tonight.

The thing that pleased me most was the fact that I could be on my feet so much without any back or knee pain. I did get a little stiff and sat in the hot tub on Tuesday night but other than that it was a piece of cake. I can see that both the thr and tkr have made a lot of difference in my quality of life. It was nice to be back in my own bed last night though.


Well today will be spend working on a grant, it needs to be sent off.

Musings

I have a busy week coming up with driving 400+ miles two times so decided to stay home and rest today. Good thing too, I had a very restless night again last night. I often wonder why, is it the hip or the knee, is it age, or is it just the way I am?

Gas is edging up again. I keep track of certain commodities, grains and light crude. Light crude has gone up over $7 in the past 3 days, which added 15 cents at the pump, we are now at $1.84. Just when we adjust to one price, it spirals again.

Thought for the Day:
"It's not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gies us integrity."
Frances Bacon, Sr.

I love Saturdays

Ah, Saturday, a day to watch a movie, read, relax, scrub the kitchen floor, dust, wash clothes, change bedding, so tired...

What a surprise to wake up to another snowy day. I really didn't expect to see it coming down as hard as it did and decided to film it. I opened the door was so surprised to see it wouldn't open more than about 15 inches, the snow had drifted onto the porch and was keeping the door from opening. I did my filming, with the wind swirling around and the snowflakes landing consistently on my sweatshirt. The soles of my shoes were chunked with snow but with my slippers close at hand my feet didn't get too cold. About an hour later, it was back outside to do some shoveling, realizing that hubby would have to snow blow the yard...again, third time this week! It took him about 3 hours to do the driveway this time.

I shouldn't have bought so much plain and peanut M&Ms and sugar jellies for the Christmas candy dishes, they are so tempting. Thank goodness there is only enough to fill the candy dish one more time. We need to put them in a tin and put them in the trunk of the car! With the snow and the cold weather we have had lately, we wouldn't even be tempted to go that far to get them. Ah, the holidays with all their tasty snacks.

Where does the time go?

I have problems sleeping all night. Last night was good though and I only woke up at 5:30 then fell right back to sleep. Sad part was when I woke up again it was 7:30 and I wanted to just lay there a little longer and fell asleep again only to wake up at 8:34. I really had to hustle to get ready for work after that. I had planned to stay home today but decided I had a couple of projects that couldn't be left, especially when two of us will be gone for Monday through Wednesday.

I started our research guru on a new project, copying the photos in the files into pdfs or jpegs so we could put them into our museum software. This is a project that will take a long time but will be very valuable. All photos, not just the cataloged photos will be done, which will give us wonderful access to the photograph collection.

On Wednesday, I started another staff person on the project of making a data base of the files and what photos are in them. When both of these projects are completed, we will be able to locate photographs and replace them in the correct file each time they are used. Our museum software program, PastPerfect, will give their location. An opportunity for a volunteer, someone out there in our area want to help with this project?

There is an endless opportunity to do projects in the museum and none of them seem to be dull. I love to watch a person take on a new project that they were leery about being able to do and then the see the confidence they gain when they find out it wasn't as hard as they thought it would be.

Ardmore
finally
cleaned
off
the
deck
and
the
table.
What
a
lot
of
snow!

Five for Friday

1. Name your favorite TV show - Extreme Makeover - Home Edition, I love the service rendered by this program.
2. Name your favorite author - Richard Paul Evan, he tells the best stories that tug at the heart.
3. Name your favorite winter activity - surfing the Internet. I love to read blogs, especially blogs about books and from friends.
4. Why live in Minnesota? - Spring, winter, summer, fall, we have them all.
   
5. What are you the most thankful for right now - having no back pain.

Have a great weekend!

Beautiful Day!

This morning the snow was falling ever so slowly, there was wasn't any wind to speak of, and best of all, it was warming up! The trees are a winter wonderland with the snow on the evergreens and laying on each branch of the oaks. Breathtaking. I opened my blinds in the bedroom, sat up and started to read, what great thing to do on a New Year's day.

Our family seems to be doing all kinds of things this week. Yesterday, Leah had friends over, including her brother and his friend, they played cards and of course snacked! James was planning on going dancing, I don't know what Brian had planned. He is in southern Utah and had gone skiing the other day, said it was a perfect day with great skiing. Breanne and Josh had gone to he grandparents in Arizona for the week. Michelle and Dave watch movies at home. Although my intentions of waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square, I was sleeping by 10:30 and couldn't even wait another half hour. Today was quiet but relaxing.

I had bought a rump roast yesterday and put it in the crock pot today with a can of Campbell's beef broth and 3/4 can water, onions, carrots, spices (garlic powder, thyme, etc) and lots of dehydrated garlic. When it done, another can of undiluted mushroom soup went in. I really like the beefy mushroom best was out of it. I was able to take about 2 cups to make gravy. Drained and saved the rest of the juices and will take off the fat and us it in some soup with the last of the roast on Saturday. It really was tasty.

It has been very nice to be able to take time off during the holidays. Yesterday and today I went for walks. Ardmore walks about 3/4 mile to get our mile every day.

Michelle has been completing some of her little quilts that she has started over the years. I think she said she has finished three out of five. She will start school again next week so things will surely change for her then, between giving piano lessons and playing for a high school choir and going to school she is very busy.

Thought for the Day

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein