Monday, December 5, 2011

Events!

Today was the dedication of the City of Roseau scupture. The detail is wonderful! The history regarding all of the animals, humans and insects add so much to the interest of it. Following the dedication the Roseau Area Friends of the Library held their annual Christmas Treasures program and tea. Excellent music and wonderful stories. Two of our Toastmasters, Ed Alexander and Gwen Sallberg presented stories for the program. It was also enjoyable to see Daisy and Seraphina Johnston sing two songs, Away in a Manger and Angels we have Heard on High. They were precious to watch. Their mother, April, played the piano for them while dad sat near in case of problems. The two little ones were a great hit.



Next Sunday the Roseau County Historical Society will hold their Christmas program, Christmas Harmonies, at the school. It will have a wonderful selection of music and stories.

Last night, the branch had the Christmas party. We had entertainment by several of the branch members, including myself. Stories and music from religious to humorous was enjoyed. Twas the Night Before Christmas has always been one of my favorite Christmas stories so that is what I did.  I asked all children under six to come up and help me read the story by filling in the words I *couldn't remember*. They were impressive, knew all the words!

Today, Ashley flew home to her parents in Taiwan to have the baby there. One good thing, James had only three trip per month so hopefully he will be able to travel back and forth a bit between trips. A one and a half-hour trip to see your wife doesn't sound like much.

I am looking forward to retiring next June 30th. One of my goals is to see the new grandson-to-be in Hong Kong.

Last week I turned in the two Christmas socks I finally completed for the December babies born in the hospital. It brought back so many memories. James was born on December 12th so we brought him home in a Christmas sock. Sometimes it is amazing how things go around!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Smithsonian traveling exhibit - "New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music Opened Sunday!

On Sunday, the Roseau County Museum held the ribbon cutting for the Smithsonian traveling exhibit New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music. What a great exhibit, it touches on all genres of music developed in the United States and the history of the times the music was developed. Roseau County Commissioner Roger Falk cut the ribbon.


In the above photo left to right: Britt Dahl, RLou Specher, Charleen Haugen, Roger Falk,and  behind Falk, Marie Kompelien, and board members Lola Grafstrom, Ida Novacek, Harriet Heinen, and Helen Wagner.

Over 80 people attended the event which was followed by a catered dinner. We were pleased to have Elizabeth DeSoto of the Minnesota Humanities Center attend the ribbon cutting and dinner.

This was an exhibit that people thoroughly enjoyed and several came back to look at it when I went in to work Monday and Thursday. Music always seems to leave one with a memories; memories of songs sung with friends, dances, first loves, the husband and wife song, said songs that remind us of parents or grandparents who have passed on, the cheaters and heart breakers or the hymn of faith that gives us hope. This exhibit includes all of that and more.

It is amazing that the United States was the birth place of so many different types of music, rock and roll, blues, jazz, disco, country western, songs of freedom. As I walked through the exhibit it reminded me of Patsy Cline and I fall to pieces. Elvis and Love me Tender. What are you favorite songs from days past?

Harvest of Hope Ensemble



Roseau Co. Commissioners Roger Falk and Jack Swanson









As one can see this is a very fun exhibit!

Monday, November 7, 2011

New Harmonies a taste of culture in Warroad

What a wonderful concert at the Warroad School last week! It was put together under the direction of Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay and Julian Hines through the Minnesota Humanities Center in connection with our upcoming Smithsonian exhibit, "New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music." Fourteen very talented students, included several foreign exchange students entertained approximately 100 individuals at the school mini theater with song, dance, instrumental music, and poetry.

We had such wonderful responses following the program. One party emailed and said her husband had wanted her to go with him, so she did, taking her Kindle thinking she was going to get bored. She was so excited about the performance that she didn't check her Kindle once! She was looking forward to the next two programs we have this coming weekend. It is more than gratifying to receive comments like that.

These Warroad Students  Rock!



Julian Hines - one of the workshop teachers.

Julian Hines, a dancer, shows a routine during the show.

Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay, the main workshop educator,
recites an award winning poem she wrote.






David Olson strummed his grandfather, Gust Nordval's guitar. 
Gust purchased the guitar during WWII and recorded the places he was on it.



Warroad Advanced English teacher Kelsey Didrikson. Everyone was singing Happy Birthday to her.


I am looking forward to feasting on the upcoming music. We have so much going on. Saturday at 7:30 pm, we have "Stories of Music, Stories from Home" at the Roseau School Theater. During this performance, over 50 instruments will be played including some antique instruments. The program combines music and stories about community and home. On we open the exhibit! We are planning a ribbon cutting at 5 pm with a dinner at 6pm. This is going to be a wonderful event, I can just feel it!

Brian arrived from LA on Thursday. He spent most of Friday at Denise's shop putting makeup on the gals for the Diva Days Style Show at the Brick House. I think he said he did about 28 women. They looked fabulous when he was done. Nothing like have a pro put on your makeup! Saturday he had a booth at Diva Days, his first time. He is so generous, gave each person who attended the Diva Days Style Show a coupon for an eye lash curler to be picked up at his booth. Needless to say we were busy. He showed makeup tricks on several women who stopped by the booth. Many also signed up to take his Sunday afternoon and evening classed. The evening class was an advance class. I even learned some new tricks. I was his cashier. Took me a while to get use to the calculator and the credit card program, but I finally did.

James took his first real flight this past week. He flew the 340A from Hong Kong to Rome. He has three scheduled flights to Rome this month. I am looking forward to the day when I will get to fly to Hong Kong, that should be interesting.

They finally found an apartment. I am amazed at the size, it reminds me of our first apartment only I think ours was smaller, if that is possible! Their apartment is 630 square feet. Reminds me of the movie Two Weeks Notice ,starring Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock, when Hugh Grant steps out her parent's apartment.

Time to call it quits. Much to do tomorrow and I need a good nights sleep!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Project Mercy

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Matthew 25:40 
 
As I was checking out the news portion of the LDS church website, I came across something referring to ATMIT, the nutritious supplement used in several countries to fight hunger and famine. Wanted to know more, I did some research and discovered that it has its connection with Marta Gabre-Tsadick of Ethiopia, the founder of Project Mercy


In 1977, Marta Gabre-Tsadick, and her husband, Demeke Tekle-Wold, (photos of the two) and their dear friends, Pastor Charles and Fran Dickinson, established Project Mercy, Inc., an organization dedicated to providing emergency relief aid, educational assistance, and refugee relocation help to African refugees.  In the 1980s through the 1990s, Marta initiated innovative food and sewing programs that enabled Project Mercy to distribute food and clothing to hundreds of thousands of starving, needy refugees from Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Sudan, and Ethiopia.


ATMIT was developed by Marta and today is supplementing the diets of children in several countries. An LDS church website made this comment about ATMIT.

"Atmit is an excellent source of nutrition," said Elder James W. Hansen, M.D., Ph.D., a medical adviser and a missionary for the Church Welfare Services Department. "It is a milk-containing oat-flour-based nutritional product that is a good complement to whatever nutrition might be available from local sources. It has been used successfully as a well-tolerated food in some cases of extreme starvation. It encourages self-reliance by requiring some preparation by the consumer and the availability of water and fuel for cooking."

Atmit also contains sugar, salt and supplemental vitamins and minerals. The formula was recently improved by Elder Hansen and Dr. Michael L. Dunn, Ph.D., a professor from the BYU Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Science (see related article). A single serving provides 34 percent of the recommended daily allowance of protein, 43 percent of calcium, 99 percent of iron, and high percentages for a dozen vitamins and minerals for children under 5 years old. This formula helps them maintain some nutrition over a short period of time until crops are harvested and they can again thrive on a regular family diet.

For $6 dollars, US, this will feed a child for a month. What a value and what a wonderful use of our fast offering!

Friday, October 21, 2011

Volunteerism

We had a hospital auxiliary meeting on Monday evening.  One of the projects they needed help with was sewing Christmas stockings to put the babies in December in for their homecoming. I don't have a lot of time but wanted to assist this this project so took home two stocks. They are pretty cute and not hard to sew. I think I will look up the number of December births in 2010 to see how many are actually needed. My friend Mickie is also doing this project.

There is always a concern with how well the auxiliary is doing, we don't usually have many members attend the meetings but this meeting was the exception. There were about 30 there. We played a game called "Lucky Buck" where baskets are bid on. It was quite fun and an excellent fund raiser. I think over $300 was taken in on the game. All of the proceeds from fund raisers and membership go toward special projects for the hospital. I was quite impressed with what we were able to accomplish the fund raising. I will have to make some calls to find out what the projects were that the fundraising paid for.

Home for a few hours this morning before heading in to work a bit. Yesterday we completed the historical society fall newsletter and will mail that today. It is always a bit of a challenge to put together the newsletter. Right now we have so many things on our plate with the upcoming exhibit.
Britt spent the day working with the Sentence to Serve crew setting up our new exhibit platforms. They will be in again this morning. We have two new exhibits, a church exhibit and a parlor, music exhibit. It is a good thing we have the equipment we have to be able to do an exhibit such as this.
We do not have all of our exhibit poster designed yet. Have some of the info but not all of it. I would like to see us have more local photos but those don't seem to be coming in like we had hoped. Thank goodness we have photos from the Roseau Times Region from many years ago.

I just finished talking to James and Ashley. She is due to have their little boy in the beginning of February. They are very excited about that and have even considered the names already.

 They go to an English speaking branch for church. There is about fifty or sixty members from many nationalities including the US, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. On Monday they went to the temple. I hear the Hong Kong temple is beautiful.

Thought for the day:
"I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil." — Deuteronomy 30:15
"The Lord has left no doubt in defining His side and where the Saints should be in their thoughts, words, actions and practices. We have His counsel in the scriptures and in the words of the prophets. To ancient Israel, the Lord said through Moses: 'I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil' (Deuteronomy 30:15). The Lord counseled His prophet Jeremiah to instruct the people: 'Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death' (Jeremiah 21: 8). That is the contrast; that is the choice. Either we are on the Lord's side of the line or on the side of the adversary," said the late Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin during a CES ( Church Educational System) devotional on Aug. 2, 1992 (Ensign, March 1993).
"The line between those who are on the Lord's side and those who follow the adversary has been with us from the beginning. Even before the creation of this world ... [and] has persisted throughout the history of mankind and will continue until the day of judgment when Jesus comes again in His glory."
http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/61456/A-thought-from-the-scriptures.html

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Fall's Arrival

This summer complimented us with some of the nicest weather we have had for several years but like all good things it came to end last week when the temperatures plummeted thirty degrees and sent a killing frost.Our soybeans were spared damage only because they were the first crop we planted this spring. They will be ready harvest this week.

It is hard to believe that it has already been three weeks since I returned from my week in California. It went by so fast! It was the last time to see James and Ashley for quite a while. James had spent three weeks in Albuquerque in reserve working with his former unit with Ashley arriving the second week. They spent the last week in LA putting together their final shipping items. They have been staying at Cathay Pacific's hotel at the Hong Kong international airport where they have three months of time to locate an apartment. He is in ground school there now and received his roster for next month, his first flight with Cathay is to... Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Needless to say, he is very excited.

First thing, upon flying into LA, was to rent a car and head north to Michelle's and visit the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It was the first time I had seen our 18 month old granddaughter Keria and of course she was adorable. Breanne and I spend Monday in their pool. Damen and I enjoyed the time together. I found out that he loves to splash everyone and even enjoys being splashed himself.

Our sweet little Keria!

Keria and Grandma
The time went by way too fast and on Tuesday am, the highway beaconed and I was driving back to Brian's in LA.  That evening, Brian, James, Ashley and I went to dinner, something we did almost every night except the night Brian made us a fabulous chicken dinner.


We did spend one day at the beach. This sea gull decided to land about 10 feet from us. The day was beautiful and the surf something else! I am waiting for the photos the guys took of me with the surf behind me. Several people said the surf was the highest they had ever seen it. I walked out several times and when it came in a couple of time, the back flow took so much sand out from under my feet, I almost lost my balance.


Ashley and James enjoying their meal.

Ashley, James, me, and Brian at the Mexican restaurant on the last night.
Friday night, everyone wanted Mexican. I guess they don't have many Mexican restaurants in Hong Kong. This doesn't surprise me.We each had something different, but really didn't share much as we were too hungry. The night before James, Ashley, a friend of Ashley's and I went to dinner in Old Pasadena. We ate at this Argentine restaurant and I had a wonderful steak. When I am in LA, we hardly ever cook, just eat out. The variety of places to eat are endless which makes it such fun.

 We spend as much time together as possible, considering James and Ashley had many things to take care of with this being their last week of life as they knew in it the U.S.. On Saturday, it was on the two planes, one bound for Fargo ND and the other to Hong Kong, as James and Ashley entered a new phase of their life together.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Relay for Life


This year's Relay for Life was on August 12 at the Roseau City Park. The YaYa gang has their stall in the shelter on the far west near a parking lot. This is sure handy when we bring our things in.
Lots of people attended and the evening was very nice. I don't think any of the group was missing and the pot luck was delish!




This Relay for Life event honored both those who have had cancer and are survivors and those who did not survive. Within the past month, one of the families in our group had lost a loved one to cancer. A few years ago, another member had a son-in-law pass away. The luminaries tell the story of those who are now missing.My mother is one, although she was a breast cancer survivor who live an additional 30 years after having a breast removed.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

JamesUpdate.

Spoke to James this morning. He has spent the past two days taking his finals for Cathay Pacific Airlines. He received his assignment, he will be flying a  A340 Airbus. He was first told a 747 but this was recently changed. He likes the routes for the Airbus, it flies to San Francisco and Vancouver in North America. He does not know where he will be stationed so that is still to come. He has about three months of more training in Hong Kong prior to this. Some is ground school.
It is another beautiful day in the neighborhood as Mr. Rodgers use to say. We have had a fabulous summer and it seems to continue to be that way. I am excited about the forecast for the Thursday, August 25, we are to have another nice day. We are hosting the singing group The WoodPicks at the Gazebo in Roseau. They play an acoustic mix of Gospel, Bluegrass/Country and Americana music, as well as their own songs. The first time I heard them was at the county fair this year. Great fun! Five talented guys!

Family Reunion

The past three weeks were so busy. Michelle and Dave spent a week with us in July during the Roseau County Fair. Between visiting, going to the fair, and keeping up on the yard work, the week just flew.It had been several years since Michelle was home, and Dave had never been to the farm so it was great to have them both here.
Summer is her best time to do things like this as she is out of school and her students cut back on lessons so she has more free time. It will be back to school for her within a week. I think several of her music students have already started school so she is teaching more again. School starts in early August at most schools in California. They have longer breakers at other times of the year.


Today Brian and his friend, Frank, start a week-long hike in Yosemite. I would love to go along but I don't think I am capable to doing something like that anymore!  They did suggest I come out and spend a couple of days at the Meadows where they would be camping at one time. Yosemite is one of our favorite places to visit when I go to see everyone. Last time James and Michelle did the bike riding thing. She said it was great fun going off the road and onto a trail where you see things you don't otherwise.


Last weekend was the Ross Family Reunion in Grand Rapids. I had planned on spending three days but was ill on Friday so didn't go until Saturday. There were about seventy of us, mostly the Minnesota clan. My Uncle Ron from Oregon has been in the Range area since my Aunt Renee passed away and at Uncles Bryce's for several weeks. It was great to see both of them and the cousins. Bob and Marie had vacation time and encouraged Beth to bring Jon. I hadn't seen my nephew Jon in years. It was great seeing everyone.  This year we were at Shelly's lovely home on Prairie Lake with fabulous weather. The kids tubed and fished and, of course, we all ate way too much!

Monday, June 27, 2011

The latest

This has been a busy two months. Student tours and the Minnesota History Contest was on the agenda for the full month of May.We served students from Badger, Greenbush and Roseau with educational SMART board programs on Farm Animals for kindergarten and preK, Local Ojibwa History for first grade and immigration for second graders. We also had scavenger hunts for the older students. Some easier ones for the younger students.

The Minnesota History Contest went well, with Lake of the Woods sixth grade participating for the first time. I hope they felt is was valuable enough and want to participate again next year. A neighbor girl, Ivy Braaten took first place. First time Roseau has taken first place. Warroad took second and third and there was a tie for fourth. We give trophies to the first three positions and medals to the next three and all six receive $50 savings bonds. These are sponsored by Border State Bank, Citizens State Bank and Security State Bank.

The end of the month had great excitment for our daughter Michelle as she finally graduated. She now has her music degree. She will do a credinial program next. She taught piano, violin, viola, and voice this past year. She is now enjoying her summer as most of her students take the summer off.

Michelle and Dave are coming to visit during the Roseau County Fair. They will be here for a little over a week. They are looking forward to attending the fair and seeing some of her former classmates and church friends.

Ashley spent about six weeks in Austrailia with James in May and June. They took in some of the local site seeing tours. Saw the penquins, kowals, and kangaroos. Adelade is near the ocean so they were able to site see in that area also. They did quite a bit of bicycling while she was there. By chance someone who had lived in their apartment before they had left a bike and it was perfect for her.

James has about five or six weeks left in his training there. He will then go to Hong Kong for more training with Cathay Pacific Airlines. He is really enjoying this time. He enjoys learning and is challenged by the various things he is being taught.

We open a new exhibit next week, a church exhibit called Faith Matters: Churches in Minnesota's Historic  Northwest. We will add a few local churches to the mix and a list of past and present churches. Preparations for the New Harmonies exhibit with programs and exhibits are under way also.  We are going to open on November 12th with the Story of Music, the Story of Home. A musical program about the music and insturments that are a part of U.S. heritage. Today I received a list from several individuals from the western area of our county telling about the bands, dances halls and pavilions that were popular when they were young. It is going to be a busy summer and fall!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Happy Birthday, Brian!

Forty-five years ago, our Brian entered the world at 7# 9 oz and 21 inches long. We now had a girl and a boy, amazing! This little tyke grew up to be the charming man he is today.Handsome and debonair, street smart and able to understand the world he lives in.Happy Birthday, Brian!

This week has been an adventure in discovering new and different ideas about exhibit design. On Tuesday, Britt and I headed down to Fargo-Moorhead, working our way south on 32 out of Thief River Falls because of the flood Red River closing part of 29.

The Big Picture and the Little Picture… Exhibit Design Insights & Case Display Details meeting was hosted by the Clay County Historical Society at the Hjemkomst Center. Pam Burkehart and Claudia M. Pratt were our presenters. They are both excellent designers but I honestly think that Britt is every bit as clever.Her idea of using the insulted tubing used for pipes for the bars in the jail cell she created in the museum shows how creative she really is. Today is started putting the exhibit for the clay animals designed by the advanced art class at the Roseau School following the Artist-in-Residence program we partnered with the school. This partnership brought the very talented Memo to the school to spend a week teaching the students the different types of clay work. No pottery in this class, faces and animals instead.

I am in my third week of physical therapy, Pain and Torture, and that it has been. By the time we are done with the half hour session, both my therapist and I are sweating and I am half crying from the pain of it all. I have gone from 82 degrees to 105 and we are both thinking we may have to settle for that. My back was so sore last night I laid on an ice pack prior to going to sleep, one on my knee and one on my lower back.I think part of it comes from being out of shape. I need to find an all around fitness program and work at it. Perhaps a personal trainer would be a good thing for a while. I wonder if there are any in the Roseau area. Tomorrow is another day in a course of PT so I think I will hit the sack and get a good nights sleep.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Knee Replacement and return to physical therapy

After suffering in with some back pain and going to a chiropractor and massage therapist, my regular doctor finally returned from vacation and suggested physical therapy. I knew my range of motion was not good. I have been lax in doing my exercises for about a year and a half. I have done some walking but not the kind of exercises that will help the range of motion. Some people probably think whatever they have is good enough after that long. Mine ROM was 82 degrees, considering that we live in a split entry home, that is not good enough and was causing me to improvise too much.

Can I say there has been lots of pain and torture? I believe so.Each one of the last seven appointments my ROM has increased and on Friday we ended at 103. Whoo hoo!  This is going to be a life long situation I am afraid. Even as I sat in church this am I was exercising my knee. Saturday I worked out at the rehab for  about 45 minutes. I found I could ride the bike much better following the workout with the leg press machine. Where I was only able to sit at a four and bike, I could go to a three.

Today is my daughter, Michelle and her husband Dave's wedding anniversary. Congratulations you two!

On Friday Michelle had Breanne and the kids over to do an an Easter egg hunt. It is things like this that cause me to be closer to her and her children. I haven't talked to Bryce in quite  while either. It is difficult when he is in the Coast Guard and on the east coast. I am sure he gets lonesome for home. He spent about two weeks in California in February. I believe he missed his family more than he thought he had. I get to talk to Breanne and Leah often but not him. Michelle can be hard to call unless she is in the car on her way to one of her 27 music students! Good thing we have mobile phones or we hardly ever talk. Between her attending the university full-time and the music students, she is one busy woman.

Yesterday afternoon the Roseau library had a professional genealogist give a workshop through the Minnesota Arts and Culture Legacy Library funding. It was given by Rick Crume.It was very informative. He examined several websites we could find information. One of the sites that looked promising was Roots Web World Connect Project. The have approximately 644 million names and it is a free website own by Ancestry. We each received a six page paper of websites. It makes one itchy to do their genealogy when they receive information that gives good sources.

FIVE THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED IN THE PAST WEEK
  1. The Roseau library and the Roseau County Historical Society A-B-C book, P is for Pioneer went to the printers last week.
  2. I finished the historical society annual report for the meeting on Saturday.
  3. I worked out or went to PT six days last week.
  4. The Roseau River opened in three days, the ditches opened past our house two days later.
  5. We are getting things ready for the Minnesota History Contest in May.


Time to head to bed, pain and torture again at 10:30 tomorrow so need a good night's sleep.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Waiting for Spring

Today is the annual spring general conference for our church in Salt Lake City. Our family has so many good memories of us going to general conference in April.It was always inspiring to be among so many Latter-day Saints. I just turned on conference to listen and watch while I blog and President Monson announced that there is going to be a temple in Winnipeg! I am so excited! I have prayed for years to have a temple in Winnipeg. Now we will only have to drive 100 miles instead of 400 to attend the temple. Wonderful! We had a temple trip scheduled about three weeks ago. Our friends, who went were caught in a terrible blizzard on their way to the Bismarck Temple on I94. 800 motorists were rescued during that storm, including them.

This was the last week of Women's History Month so it must be time to put some photos on my blog.
This year nineteen women were selected from Roseau County cities and townships for the honor of being a One Woman.
One Women selected were Gladys Paulson – City of Badger, Alice Miller – Barnett, Alpha Darst – Barto, Marianne Kristofferson - Enstrom,  Alice Erickson – Falun, Adele Folland – City of Greenbush,  Pearl Loe – Grimstad, Avis Wiskow-Huss, Helen Bergland - Jadis, Lillian Nelson – Malung, Sadie Rygh – Mickinock (2009 selection), Dorothy Brinkman – Mickinock, Clarice Billberg – Palmville, Alma Mellquist Skime - Reine, Annette Hermansen – City of Roseau, Mary Dostal – Skagen, Frances Karlsson-Stafford, Loretta Voll-Unorganized/ Norland, and Anni Daedlow – City of Warroad. These women are well deserving of this title for their communities;  their volunteer work and serve has made their communities better places to live.

This year we were concerned about the program due the townships not sending in the name of their selections but about two months prior to March first they began arriving. This kept Britt very busy working on posters. Her creative touch can be seen throughout the museum not only in the One Woman posters she designs but in the exhibit she put together for the Women in Government area.

The programs were wonderful and well attended. Time for photos! For a closer view of the  photos click on the photo, then hold the ctrl key and increase the size by rolling your mouse wheel forward.


Thank you to all the wonderful volunteers who helped make the 2011 One Woman such a success and a special thank you to Britt Dahl our staff guru who designed all the Women in Government exhibits for the second program of Woman's History Month. Those photos will be put on in the future too.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Exhibits, exhibits, exhibits!

We are half way through the North Dakota Museum of Art exhibit "Marking the Land" now. This photo exhibit has so many novel ideas on the ingenuity of people! I especially find the photos showing the handmade Stations of the Cross in the Catholic Church photo interested as well as the many items that dot the landscape of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. The exhibit will be displayed in the Roseau City Center through February 28.

We have been unable to show certain videos on the SMART board. The SMART board uses a video application that works with only a few formats and it has been discouraging again and again to try and play videos with Real or Windows Media Player as neither show up on the board. Last Thursday, I contacted SMART concerning this problem and worked for about 2 hours will a tech person only to have her decided we needed to work with someone who was more knowledgeable. I have to say, they are awesome to work with, I have worked with several individuals over time and  they have all been very helpful and solved our problem. Yesterday the tech person she turned me over to called and we resolved the problem! Hurray! We can now show any video on the board.

We have been going into our cache of photos and showing them on the board also. Yesterday we started with Roosevelt logging photos and in the afternoon we switched to photos of the dredging of the Roseau River, taken in about 1915. These were very interesting. I thought it would be nice to have some background music and turned on a classical radio station on iTunes for this and found it to be very effective. We have a person who is always telling us we should have music in the museum, well this way we do! I think we will put together information and photos of the former One Women and put them on the SMART board during Woman's History Month.

The focus of Woman's History Month is One Woman, of course, and Women in Government. Our committee has been very helpful and we are getting down to the wire now and need to get our exhibits together. It takes so much time to do these things and volunteers are such an important part of doing the job.

I noticed a red squirrel in the yard last week one day. We have never had red squirrels here. When I told Ardmore he decided to put some sunflower seeds on the snow and see if it would come back. Now we have two squirrels visiting our bird feeders. The second time the one came he noticed seeds on top of the table on the deck where we keep our feeder.He tried to climb up the legs but they were too smooth and he fell back onto the snow below the table. After examining the area, he headed for the deck railing and climbed to the top of the railing, eyeballed the distance between the railing and the table and took the leap. Now he discovered he had much more to eat! The chickadees and red polls will have to share their food.




James seems to be enjoying his ground school with Cathay Pacific in Australia. It has been very hot at times though. About two weeks ago he said it was 105. We were sitting at about -28 that morning so it was quite a contrast. He will start fight school in about three weeks which he is very excited to start. Ashley seems to be enjoying her time with her family. They celebrated their Chinese New Year about two weeks ago. All of her family came to Dunon to be together.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Frost and Rain

On Thursday we woke up to a very foggy and frosty morning. One of our visitors told me that an old wife's tale says that heavy frost means that we will have heavy rain in six months. That would put the rain at the beginning of what could be harvest time. We will see. I am even going to put it in my phone's calendar as a reminder.


This is what it looked like outside that morning: