The Powers That Be (The Church Council) at Central Freeborn Lutheran Church decided to end the summer of 2014 with a bash – namely the annual Soup and Pie Supper the last day of summer, Monday, Sept. 22, 2014. (In many circles, this is also the Social Event of the Year!)

Once again the Church Council proved their prophetic ability. There was no wind, no rain, the sun shone brightly, temperature in the low 70s, even a few summer-ending mosquitoes. It was so nice that some of the attendees enjoyed their meal while sitting on the veranda patio overlooking a beautiful view of the valley.

The parking lot attendants (Bob Hanson, Wayne Indrelie, and Barry Moszer) did an excellent job, as no paperwork was needed for any car insurance company or OSHA. Their motto of, “A full Driver is a Happy Driver,” was also fulfilled (Thanks to their fellows inside, the church workers).

You entered a special door, paid for the meal and decision time began. A gluten-free soup was fixed by Sue. Wild rice soup was fixed by Donna, Mary Lee, and Audrey. Chili was fixed by Kathy and Karen. Potato soup was fixed by Carol and Dianne. Chicken noodle soup was fixed by Evelyn and Mary Ann. After selecting your choice of soup and choice of beverage, a place was found for you to sit down and test the elasticity of your undergarment with more soup or your choice of pie with or without Blue Bunny vanilla.

If you had to wait to be seated to eat, you could wait in the church proper with music provided by Ken Bertelson, Orville and Irene Goskeson or Clarence Heavner. (Clarence even strolled through the dining room with music flowing from his squeeze box.)

Six hundred and 20 people came, got out of their vehicles and walked at a fast pace to get in to eat. The same 620 people left at a much slower pace!

Who were these 620 people? Their ages ranged from very young to very young at heart. Some were making Social Security deposits while others were taking Social Security withdrawals. Their occupations ranged from teachers to preachers to pancake flippers to homemakers to home builders to money lenders to retired money spenders. You name the occupation and it was represented.

The following clans of a town were represented with a VIP: Tesch, Waseca; Olson, Hartland; Tollefson, New Richland; Groskreutz, Wells; Sommers, Ellendale; Langlie, Ellendale; Haug, Clarks Grove; Peterson, Alden; Anderson, Albert Lea; Thompson, Albert Lea, plus many other clans and towns.

I am snowed with the following request I was given: “Please put in your column, ‘Fritz and Snickle-Fritz were here, too.’” (The request is now honored.)

The Freeborn County Historical Museum and the local “Y” were recipients of the net proceeds from this year’s Soup and Pie Supper. They did an outstanding job in greeting people, serving people and cleanup.

A very special thinks to the people at Central Freeborn Lutheran Church for making this event a success. Mary Ann Atchison was the chair with Dianne Thompson, Sharon Johnson, and Sue Mickelson, the three co-chairs. They surrounded themselves with good workers and the results showed it!

Workers and attendees, once again you showed, in person, the true meaning of “Rural America.”

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Bob is a retired AAL (Aid Association for Lutherans) agent, currently working on his master’s degree in Volunteering. His wife, Genie, is a retired RN, currently working on her doctor’s degree in Volunteering. They have two children, Deb in North Carolina, and Dan in Vermont. Bob says if you enjoy his column, let him know. If you don’t enjoy it, keep on reading, it can get worse. Words of wisdom: There is always room for God.

I love the novel The Hobbit. I used to teach it in 8th grade, and I’m sure many of my former stars fondly remember my Gollum voice (or not). We used to have great fun with that book, even watching the horrid cartoon version of the movie that came out prior to the excellent current movies.

However, one year I asked myself, “Why am I teaching this? Is there something of true value to the students or is it just because it’s one of my favorite books?” I tried to rationalize that exposing students to a genre that they might not normally read, fantasy, was valuable. However, the latter reason was, sadly, much more true.

I miss teaching that book, but I’ve found other books that are excellent and that my students enjoy. (We’re currently finishing True Shoes, by Doug Wilhelm, an outstanding novel about the positive and negative aspects of texting and social media in middle school. Check it out!) There are times that we just need to face up to new ideas, and sometimes we find that they’re beneficial in the long run.

I’ve written before about change in education and the difficulty embracing it. As you read this, the NRHEG Secondary School will have finished the first round of a big change, the first of its kind since I’ve been here: an adjustment to parent-teacher conferences.

When a group sat down last year to hammer out this year’s calendar, changing conferences became a talking point. For years, both the Ellendale and New Richland buildings have had two sessions of conferences at the end of first quarter and midway through third quarter. While those work nicely in an elementary setting, the first set seemed too late for the secondary building. After all, first quarter is done, and nothing can be done to save struggling grades.

Thus, we took a look at putting one night of conferences per quarter, right around mid-term. That way parents would have a chance to visit with teachers and figure out a plan to turn around any struggles. That right there is one big change, and I was all for it.

Then I got to thinking about it. I actually like parent-teacher conferences. That eight hours of time twice a year gave me a chance to meet more parents and establish relationships with people that I might see a lot over the years. There wasn’t much time to do that, as I limit conferences to five minutes per student so as to see as many people as possible.

That will be more difficult now. In reality, these mid-term conferences are really aimed at those people whose children are struggling. There may be a number of people who decide not to come since they won’t have much chance to see all the teachers in a four-hour time frame. I’ll miss that.

But, much like with The Hobbit, I had to really ask myself if the potential benefit to students and parents outweighed my enjoyment of socializing. That was pretty easy. As a professional educator, the answer is a resounding yes.

This leads to a further question. At a secondary level, do we even need to set aside time for parent-teacher conferences anymore? Honestly, most of the people I’ve seen over the years are not the people I REALLY need to see. Like I said, it’s nice to meet parents and discuss the progress of children, but conferences feel like they’re becoming outdated, at least at our level.

Most parents have Internet access and constant accessibility to the grades in every class. Our online program even allows parents to set up email alerts when a child doesn’t turn in an assignment or falls below a certain percentage in classes. I get frequent emails or phone calls when this happens, which is wonderful. Why not work on the problem the instant it starts instead of waiting?

I get the feeling some parents show up at conferences because they feel it’s expected of them, even if their student is doing very well. Maybe, like so many other things that are changing in education, it’s time to look at the true value of parent-teacher conferences. Perhaps our change to mid-term conferences will be the right step, or it might even be the first move toward eliminating something else that continues because it’s always been that way.

Word of the Week: This week’s word is a fortiori, which means for an even greater reason, as in, “Conferences were used as a means of communication and a fortiori for socialization.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!

The scurs slipped up on the temperature control lever on the Weather Eye. Must’ve thought they’d slid it left and instead slid it right resulting in colder conditions over the weekend. Will the scurs’ memory be tested once again? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with a slight chance of an overnight shower. Highs in the mid-60’s and lows in the upper 30’s. Partly sunny on Thursday and Friday with highs in the mid-50’s and lows in the mid-30’s both days. Partly sunny and slightly warmer on Saturday with a slight chance of a shower by evening. Highs in the upper 50’s and lows in the low 40’s. Mostly cloudy on Sunday with an increasing chance for showers by evening. Highs in the upper 50’s and lows in the low 40’s. Mostly cloudy for Columbus Day and Tuesday with a good chance of showers Monday lingering into Tuesday a.m. Highs in the mid-50’s and lows in the mid-30’s. The normal high for October 13th is 61 and the normal low is 38. In their spare time, the scurs will be watching to see how many people grab the Post Office door Monday by mistake.

As mentioned last week, the total lunar eclipse will appear at 5:25 a.m., several hours ahead of the Star Eagle being in your mailbox, so if you’re reading this now, you missed it. The 8th also brings us the Full Moon for the month. It goes by several names including the Full Hunter’s Moon and the Full Blood Moon. It was at this time the settlers and Native Americans were busy packing their larders with wild game for the long winter ahead. The Ojibwe knew this as the Falling Leaves Moon and the Sioux called it the Moon of Falling Leaves. At the ranch it is known primarily as the “Burn Electricity to do Chores Moon.”

Harvest was at a standstill for much of last week with rainfall dampening the opportunity for soybean combining. Cool, cloudy early November-like conditions following the precipitation slowed drying with soybean harvest very hit and miss late week through the weekend. Soybeans were still in many cases uneven and while the weekend frost helped some, there are still a lot of fields with green soybeans and leaves on in places as of this writing. Corn remains wet and again while some picking has been done, most are waiting to get their beans out first before running the dryer on corn that tests in the upper 20 and low 30-percent moisture range. The good news is the rainfall last week wasn’t a real game changer. The bad news is stalk rot rearing its ugly head in many fields and several forecasters are predicting a wetter second half to the month. Oh goody.

Luckily at the ranch we were able to harvest much of the remaining garden produce ahead of the frost both Sunday and Monday morning. It has been a harvest likely to mirror what will be found in the fields. There is plenty and enough that we could share the abundant portions such as the tomatoes with lots of people. It was not without its disappointments however. For the number of hills of vine crops, one would’ve expected better production. In a cool summer though, it’s probably unrealistic to expect a bumper crop of squash and pumpkins. Ditto with the Indian corn. Planted late with standing water on it in June, it struggled to produce the number of big, showy ears we would’ve liked. That’s one of the reasons we maintain our diversity however. When something bombs, at least there are other vegetable crops that come through with flying colors. Sometimes that’s a lesson we tend to forget in this day and age.

Phenologically speaking this was a banner week. During the rainy weather this past week, salamanders were crossing the road. I found one by a water bucket in the barn and just for laughs decided to see how well they can swim. Very well I discovered. Monday after the frost there were still monarch butterflies floating past. Somehow it appears that word of their demise appears to be greatly exaggerated. Bluebirds are frequently passing through at the ranch as well as at the kindly neighbors’. The last hummingbird at the ranch was spotted on Saturday the 4th and that same day, there were still some barn swallows at Krause’s in Hope. On my way home from there, more were seen flying alongside the road. Robins are feasting on the nannyberries. I still enjoy snacking on the berries as well. The leathery black skins sometimes get stuck in your teeth so you can do a pretty good hockey player impression. Last but not least the juncos are back again. They’ve been seen under the four o’clocks and in several of the conifers in the yard. See? They did follow me back from Canada!

Alas, this past weekend found me battling an early season edition of the alien. The cool temps didn’t help matters as I decided it was time to find the flannel sheets and turn the floor heat on in order to stay warm. As mentioned, we had gathered most of the garden so Saturday was a good day to enjoy some of the college football upsets. I thought perhaps I was the only one who was ailing Sunday as we left for church having coughed and strained my vocal chords. When we started the first hymn, I realized my vocal range was suddenly more like Bill Medley’s rather than Bobby Hatfield’s. After we sat down, I couldn’t believe the amount of coughing from the rest of the congregation. I hadn’t witnessed that much barking since the last time Ruby and Fudgie heard the Schwan’s man pull into the driveway. After church it was quiet time. My voice was about shot and I’m sure that made Mrs. Cheviot’s day. Until I started a couple hours worth of snoring that is. Just my version of blue-eyed soul. 

See you next week...real good then.

Leon Franklin Piltz, age 91, of Waldorf, MN, died Monday, October 6, 2014 at Traditions of Waterville. Funeral services will be held Saturday, October 11, 2014 at 2 p.m. at the First Lutheran Church in Waldorf.  Visitation will be Friday, October 10, from 4-7 p.m. at First Lutheran Church in Waldorf.  Visitation will continue one hour prior to the service at the church on Saturday. Pastor Larry Sipe will officiate, and interment will be in the St. Joseph Community Cemetery in Waldorf.

A memorial service will be held at 10:30 on Saturday, October 18 at the Community Lutheran Church in Geneva for 77-year-old Ruth E. Neidermeier. Ruth passed away on September 26 in Macclenny, Florida.

Ruth was born on August 14, 1937 in Windber, PA to parents, Emmanuel and Edna Leighow Crew. 

Ruth married Wesley Neidiermeier, and in the 1980s, Wesley served as pastor of the Assembly of God Church in Ellendale. The Neidermeiers moved to St. Paul after they left the Ellendale and Geneva area. In 2009, Wesley and Ruth moved to Florida, settling in Mcclenny and attended the Christian Fellowship Temple.

Elaine Gurene Tesch, age 89, of Mankato, formerly of New Richland, MN, died Thursday, October 2, 2014 at her daughter’ s home in Mankato. Funeral services will be held Monday, October 6, 2014 at 2 p.m. at First Lutheran Church in Waldorf. Visitation will be Sunday, October 5, from 2 to 5 p.m. at Bruss-Heitner Funeral Home in Wells. Visitation will continue one hour prior to the service on Monday at the church. Pastor Michael Mathews will officiate and interment will be in the First Lutheran Cemetery in Waldorf.  Please see www.brussheitner.com to leave online condolences. Bruss-Heitner Funeral Home of Wells is in charge of arrangements.

LeRoy A. Kofstad, age 90, of Hartland, MN passed away surrounded by family on Thursday, October 2, 2014, at the New Richland Care Center. Funeral service will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, October 6, at the Hartland Evangelical Lutheran Church. Pastor Shawn Stafford will be officiating. Visitation will be on Sunday from 5 to 8 p.m. at Bonnerup Funeral Service in Albert Lea and one hour prior to the service at church. Interment will be in the Hartland Cemetery.

LeRoy A. Kofstad was born in Waseca County on November 4, 1923 to Arthur and Eloise (Katzur) Kofstad. He has been a lifelong resident of the area, graduating high school in New Richland. He married Bonnie (Pollei) Kofstad on May 12, 1946 in Mankato. 

WEM scores in final seconds to upend Panthers

By JIM LUTGENS

Editor/Publisher

Head coach Dan Stork had one word to sum up NRHEG’s Homecoming football game: heartbreaking.

The Panthers led arch-rival Waterville-Elysian-Morristown for almost all but 27 seconds of the game while falling 21-20 at New Richland Friday, Septl. 26.

“It was a heartbreaking loss for our guys,” said Stork, whose team fell to 0-3 in the conference and 1-4 overall.

For the second week in a row the Panthers outgained their opponents and, for a change, they played mistake-free football with no turnovers.

But it wasn’t enough on this night.

The Panthers led 7-0 after the first quarter on a 5-yard touchdown run by Trey Hoppe.

There aren’t many home matches this year for the NRHEG volleyball team, and the Panthers gave the home fans something to cheer about on Thursday, Sept. 25.

They hosted Nicollet in a nonconference clash and prevailed in five games, winning 25-12, 22-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-13 in New Richland.

The NRHEG boys’ and girls’ cross country teams pulled double duty last week, running Tuesday and Blooming Prairie and Thursday at Janesville.

The boys were fifth among five schools at the JWP/WEM Invitational, totaling 130 points. Faribault won with 27.

For the Panthers: Tyler Schlaak, 21st, 19:18; Josh Fleming, 25th, 19:46; Zach Mely, 30th, 20:09; Brenden McMann, 43rd, 21:08; Ben Lewer, 47th, 21:34; Aaron Seath, 53rd, 22:58.