Wash your hands. How many times have you heard those words?  It’s always important, but especially now during the cold and flu season. 

Imagine a mean little germ just waiting for a chance to come and attack you and you will remember how important such a simple thing it can be to wash our hands.

One of the first things to teach our children (and ourselves) is the importance of hand washing. It is like a "do-it-yourself" vaccine. It involves five simple and effective steps: wet, lather, scrub, rinse and dry. Regular hand washing, especially before and after certain activities, is one of the best ways to remove germs, avoid getting sick and prevent the spread of germs to others.

While my mother worked with the Head Start program, they were instructed to teach children to wash their hands as they sang the ABC song. Singing that song was just the right amount of time to do a thorough job.

Another helpful hint to help keep us healthy is to make sure things we are going to touch are clean and free of germs. It is good to see the local grocery stores have "wipes" available to use before we grab a hold of a shopping cart.

I also believe it is just as important to use the "wipes" after you shop as well. Think of all the germs you encounter in your quest for groceries. How many hands do you think touched those cans of fruits and vegetables, those boxes of cereal, that bottle of ketchup or bottles of laundry or dish soap? The list is endless.

Another thing to consider is stair railings and door knobs. They are very good and necessary items, but don't forget how many hands are put on them every day. If you can't wash your hands, please use the disposable wipes or hand sanitizers.

Another thing we don't often think about: the beds we sleep in. There is something true about the adage that the state of your bed is the state of your mind. But whose? 

There is another theory. "Opening" your bed may be a better solution than closing it up when we get out of them in the morning. Left open to the air it causes the nasty little bed mites to be exposed to air, which dehydrates them, and kills them.

Those little critters love the good bed maker who leaves nice corners and well made beds because they need the moisture and cover to survive.

Speaking of critters, we need to take a lesson from the animal world. Rabbits eat things we should eat, like carrots, greens and whole grains. "Organic" has really progressed for consumers. Some things aren't so bad if they have removable skin, like oranges and bananas, but they should still be washed before you handle them. Green beans should always be bought organic.

I don't know why, but I always wonder about all those heads of lettuce and cabbage, etc. if it has been sprayed at intervals as it is developing so it is safe to eat.

And a few more thoughts....

It if is small enough to go through a simple toilet paper tube it is a danger for small children as they could swallow it and choke. Please be careful with all those "little items" we have in our homes. We all know young children like to put things in their mouth.

How do you divide your love among your children? You don't divide it — you multiply it!

Television programs and movies used to include people smoking cigarettes in their stories, which promoted using cigarettes. We don't see that happening too much anymore, thank goodness.

But sad to say, it seems like the greedy promoters of money over peoples’ welfare now seem to be promoting wine. Wine may be fine to a point, but it is still an alcoholic beverage. Many times it appears many people treat it like a carbonated beverage instead of an alcoholic beverage.

It is always time for a new beginning. Make it happen.

How to make love endure....remember to share your hugs and kisses with your loved ones.

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It is not. —Dr. Suess

Enjoy life now, it has an expiration date. Do the best you can while you can make your life worthwhile.

Some of our Star Eagle readers have commented that they like to read about events such as family and school reunions, birthdays and anniversaries, and birth and wedding announcements. In order to read about these important things we need our faithful readers to pass along the information to us. If you have an idea for a story that you think would be of interest to our readers, please contact me. If you have birthdays and anniversaries you would like to include, or news to share, please contact me via e-mail, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., by postal mail, P.O. Box 192, Geneva, MN 56035; or telephone, 507-256-4405.

Birthdays and anniversaries:

• Thursday, March 3rd: Jeff Lageson, Terri Jensen, Charlie Hanson, Jessica Tufte, John Crabtree, Valerie Tobiason Quiring, Muarine Larson, Frank Thompson, Bill Draayer, Darlene Christensen, Terri Miles, David Underland, Darren & Christine Hanson, Angie & Jeff Rasmussen, Nicole & Nathan Milender

• Friday, March 4th: Dawn David, Teresa Hove, Larry Spear, Julia Elizabeth Neitzel

• Saturday, March 5th: Dayna Schember, Nicole Ella Schultz, Tim Toft, Vickie Haberman, Steve Van Ravenhorst, Declan Dean O'Brien, his 5th

• Sunday, March 6th: Valerie Schember, Aaron Reese, Larry Reese, Dawn Dulas, Lynda Maddox Norland, Wade Wacholz, Ryan Schimek, Marlene Peterson, Lillian Weaver, Jami Ann & Travis Marzolf

• Monday, March 7th: Jace John Goslee, his 10th; Marlee Diane Dutton, her 12th; Jake Ortiz, Emily Horan, David Otterson, Chuck Hagen, Lorna Reistad, Kenneth Peterson, Lance Cummins and Peggy Evenson

• Tuesday, March 8th: Derek Alan Lee, Janice Olson Paulson, Greg Nelson, Carla Paulsen Haugen, Melissa Trindad, Kathy & Mike Plunkett, Stephanie & Tom Pulley

• Wednesday, March 9th: Reese Sharon Glynn, her 9th; Taylor Jensen, Chris Clausen, Peter Dammel, Curtis Langlie, Mark Sawyer, Joel Wacholz, Dean Waltz, Jacklyn Cromwell Olson, Chris Farr, Joleen Thompson

• Thusday, March 10th: Julie Stieglbauer Dahl, Sue Misgen, Aaron Callahan, Travis Johnson, Michelle Olson Bedney, Tom Vavra, Heidi Mattson LaFave, Chuck Hanson, Gayle Dummer, Douglas Schmidt, Linda Anderson, DeLynn Johnson Rohrbacher, Hannah Emily Brunsen

• Friday, March 11th: Arielle Lynn McClaskey (2011), Elsie Jacobson, her 3rd; Marian Mast, Carolyn Flesche, Leroy Folie, Kari Thostenson, Jon Carlson, Michelle Meyer, Larry Richards, Tim Simon, Joan Ahlstrom Diderrich, Tanya Swearingen, Tom Arbogast, David Callahan, Dean Lembke, Spener Sebastian Sommers, his 12th; Doug Blouin, Wendell Kuehni, Paul & Shirley Nelson Gould

Wishing you sunny smiles to warm your heart on your special day!

Echoes From the Loafers’ Club Meeting

It's my birthday.

Happy birthday. I hope I look as good as you do when I'm your age.

Don't worry, you did.

Driving by the Bruces

I have two wonderful neighbors — both named Bruce — who live across the road from each other. Whenever I pass their driveways, thoughts occur to me, such as: I may be crazy, but I can go normal at any time. Everywhere I go, someone is asking for money or bemoaning the lack thereof. It’s obvious that we can no longer afford ourselves. At a church gathering, everyone was asked how long he or she had been married. One man declared 60 years of wedded bliss. We all applauded. We found out later that the 60 years had been divided among three wives.

It happens in threes

Grandma said that everything happens in threes. That explained my early difficulties with arithmetic.

Buying a calculator didn’t help. I bought a cheap one. It worked fine except it was missing the number nine.

Grandma’s belief was most often applied to deaths, but covered things both bad and good.

Iris, Ruth and Les. When it came to being nice people, they each carried a considerable reputation.

Iris Bell and her husband Harvey owned the greenhouse in Hartland for many years. Iris was fond of saying, "The world wasn’t built in a day. That’s because Agnes wasn’t in charge." Agnes was her older sister and apparently, someone who made sure things got done. Virginia Anderson, Iris’s daughter, called her mother's sayings, Irisisms.

Ruth Pedersen was a neighbor. My father, a farmer, thought "moving to town" was a euphemism for dying. Ruth didn't believe that. She moved to town and lived fully. I stopped to see Ruth one day. She and a friend were putting together a jigsaw puzzle. It was a difficult one, something like a million-piece snowstorm. I brought her a couple of jigsaw puzzles and a hammer. I thought the hammer might aid in fitting the parts together. If all you have is a hammer, the whole world is a nail. Fortunately, Ruth had more than a hammer. One of the things Ruth had was something that was supposed to help battle the ravages of rheumatism. Drunken raisins. Each day, she ate six golden raisins soaked in rum. Years later, a kind reader from North Carolina sent me a gift of drunken raisins.

Les Honstad of Freeborn and his younger brother married sisters. Les and his wife had a long-lasting marriage, but his brother’s ended in divorce. Les referred to his brother as his favorite former brother-in-law.

I’m happy that these three people were a part of my life. I'm striving to be half as nice as they were.

Q-and-A

Just as in school, the questions don’t always match my answers. I love essay tests. I can say "I don't know" in 500 words.

"How do you like your toilet paper to roll — over or under?" I don’t care. I just like the toilet paper to be there.

"How do you travel?" By request.

"What’s the name of the north wind?" Brrrrrr!

"Why are there gopher mounds in my hayfield?" The gophers are competing to be the alfalfa male.

In search of perfection

One day, I walked along Lake Superior, watching a harlequin duck and a long-tailed duck as I listened to the gunshot and thunder sounds made by cracking ice. Not long after that, I watched my son, Brian, coach his girls' basketball team to their 22nd consecutive victory. He has some talented players who buy into the program — most of the time. Perfection and humans don’t spend much time hanging out together.

My marriage and my family are as close as I’ve come to perfection. When we had reached one of those marital milestones, 25 years of wedded bliss, a friend looked at my wife and said, "It doesn't seem possible that you have been married for 25 years."

Then he turned to me and said, "Look at you. Are you sure it’s been only 25 years?"

I don’t want to be perfect. It’d get in the way of happiness.

Nature notes

"Where did all the birds go?" Bird populations fluctuate. Habitat changes--trees removed, water levels altered or new construction could be why you’re seeing fewer birds. Natural food supplies–cones, fruits, seeds and insects–vary from year to year. Birds go where the food is. Weather or predators could move birds. Such fluctuations of bird populations are typically short-term, but could become long run.

Meeting adjourned

"The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention." — Oscar Wilde

The scurs may need to do a little tweaking on the Weather Eye to keep it operating at peak performance. Will the adjustments get the temperatures warmer or are we stuck in the Kelvinator refrigerator/freezer? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a slight chance of evening snow. Highs in the low 30’s with lows in the low 20’s. Thursday, mostly cloudy with highs in the low 30’s and lows in the low 20’s. Mostly cloudy Friday with a slight chance of rain and snow in the morning and a modest chance of snow in the afternoon and evening. Highs in the upper 30’s with lows in the upper 20’s. Saturday, mostly sunny and warmer with highs in the low 40’s and lows in the upper 30’s. Mostly sunny Sunday with highs in the low 50’s and lows in the upper 30’s. Monday, partly sunny and warmer with highs in the mid-50’s and lows in the low 40’s. Mostly sunny skies for Tuesday with highs in the mid-50’s and lows in the low 40’s. We will go over 11½ hours of daylight on March 7th. The normal high for March 7th is 35 and the normal low is 19. The scurs are nearly certain we’re looking at an early start to the gardening season. Those seed packages for sale at Wagner’s don’t lie.

While March came in like a white (snowy) lamb we still have a pretty good shot of an earlier-than-normal start to spring, at least on paper. The last remaining vestiges of the earlier snow became fewer and farther between last week. Ice remains on most area lakes, although it isn’t safe enough to think about driving on anymore. There were still ice fishermen trying their luck on St. Olaf Lake Tuesday morning. A week ago Monday at the SROC, frost depth was measured at 11”. This past Monday they reported the frost to be out. I confirmed that at the ranch in the yard on the south facing slope Monday night. Using my trusty divining rod, otherwise known as an electric fencepost, I determined there was no resistance regardless of where I probed. However, the frost is not out completely in all areas as the yard on the northwest side of the house was still like concrete. And when it started to cool down in the evening, the soil began to refreeze on top rapidly.

Migrating birds lent credence to the notion that we may indeed be headed for an earlier-than-normal spring. Last week, horned larks were in evidence on area roads. Flocks of geese increasing in size Saturday made one wonder where they were all going. A small flock of swans flew by the ranch the same morning. A few red-winged blackbirds appeared in the early afternoon, followed by some good sized flocks as the afternoon wore on. We had robins feasting on the leftover crabapples and they were bobbing along the pasture, making me wonder if the frost was out already. Of course even if it was, the temperatures were likely too cold yet for much earthworm activity. 

Lambing season at the ranch always reminds one that spring will eventually be on the way. The lambing pens are starting to get full and it’s time to start moving some down to the main barn to make space. It definitely makes chores more efficient feeding larger groups as opposed to little individual pens. The dogs usually look forward to this activity as it gives them some sense of purpose. Being that third and fourth “person” does make a difference. Of course they are always ready to “help” and sometimes they actually do. Not having to get off the skidloader to close a gate is a nice perk. Keeping the cat “herded” is also a plus. Helps us avoid stepping on the poor thing when it gets underfoot as we’re carrying water buckets, feed pans and hay. 

Saturday afternoon was a good time to get a start on the main fruit tree pruning. I’d done some major surgery earlier on some obnoxious crabapple trees after being mortally wounded mowing the lawn. It went fairly quickly on the smaller trees that we’ve been staying on top of. Their shape is nice, so most of what needed to be done was to prune the excess sapwood. The Haralson presented a little more of a challenge. It got skipped a few years once upon a time and since it’s a lot older hence larger, it was more time consuming. I got the main trees done with the exception of the Fireside, which will be a several hour-long project. When I came to a stopping point I saw a sure sign of spring: A motorcyclist! Made me think about getting the Studebaker out. Seeing some water coming out in expansion joints on area roads made me reconsider that idea. It was likely laden with salt; certainly not worth the risk of getting it on a classic automobile.

Thinking about the Studebaker though reminded me that the upcoming week in March would bring about a significant date in the history of the former automobile manufacturer. Fifty years ago, on March 4, 1966, Studebaker announced they would cease automobile production at their sole remaining plant in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It came as little surprise as the company had been reeling when they closed the main plant in South Bend, IN in December of 1963. Sales and profits had plummeted further since that time leaving the company little alternative. The local dealership in my hometown, Marzolf Implement, closed the automobile portion of their dealership and focused primarily on selling Allis Chalmers agricultural equipment. The owner’s kids, however, drove one of the later model Studebakers for several years. With all the salt, the body looked a little rough, but it must’ve been a tough little car recalling some of the treatment it received. Those models in particular obviously had not yet become valuable collector cars back in the 1970s. It’s a different story today and some of us old-timers who were driving those old cars are now on the lookout for them. Gotta have fun somehow.

See you next week…real good then.