According to the dictionary, a “vagabond” is a person who wanders from place to place without visible means of support. Genie and I wander from place to place without working for our automatic five times a month deposit into our bank account. I guess that makes us full fledged vagabonds.

Our most recent wandering was to Lee Summit, Mo. to visit Marv and Leona Wagner. Many moons ago, they lived in Rochester, Minn. 

And so did Genie and I. Their children, Terri, Craig and Brett, attended Harriet Bishop Elementary School in Country Club Manor along with our children, Deb and Dan. We were all members of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Rochester.

We went out for pizza, toured their town of about 150,000 people, and did a lot of reminiscing. Marv and Leona have their birthdays within a few days of each other around the first of November. This year they were each a perfect ten for the seventh time (10 x 7).

Some of the interesting things we observed on the drive over I-35 (about 365 miles each way) were:

Red Tail Hawks faked out mice by pretending to watch traffic drive by.

Some deer slept with their feet up in the air. Also, some of the deer resting in the ditch must have stomach problems, as their tummies were quite swollen. Some of those with big tummies had bad B.O.

Starting about 50 miles south of Des Moines, Ia., the farmers have corn stalks but no, or very few, ears of corn on the stalk. Also the soybean fields are of the miniature size, both in height of the plant and size of the bean.

The people in Holt, Mo., didn’t have any idea what the show “Peace and Power” is on Sunday morning TV. In fact, they didn’t have a clue as to who that Lutheran Pastor Holt is, or that he looks like six-foot ten.

The mile markers on I-35 in Missouri are every two-tenths of a mile. Why? I have no idea.

By the time you read this, Genie and I will be off on another vagabond adventure called “Deer Hunting.” I have been known to come down with a fever in this type of adventure (Buck Fever, that is).

Speaking of hunting, how do you catch a unique rabbit? Unique up on it. How do you catch a tame rabbit? Tame way, unique up on it.

Did you know that Virginia Plantage of Albert Lea is a faithful reader of this column? Virginia and hubby Ed are fellow hospital auxilians and also deer hunters.

———

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.

The scurs were looking for a cloudy, cool damp weekend and by gum we got one. Will we see more of the sun this week? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with a high of 45 – 50 and a low near 35. Partly cloudy and warmer on Thursday and Friday with highs of 50 – 55 with lows Thursday night near 35 and around 45 for Friday night. Warmer Saturday with a slight chance of rain during the day with rain likely for the overnight. Highs 60 – 65 and lows of 30 – 35. Brace yourself for Sunday, highs of only 35 and lows falling to 25. Partly cloudy to mostly sunny for Monday and Tuesday with highs of 30 – 35 and lows of 20 - 25. The sun will rise at 7 a.m. on the 8th, the same as it did before the time change back on the 21st of September. The normal high for Veterans’ Day is 44 and the normal low is 29. The scurs will be flying Old Glory proudly regardless of who won the election.

It seems odd to be looking at the calendar while seeing or hearing very little field activity. Sure, there is the occasional drone of an anhydrous ammonia rig or the odd primary tillage operation, but no corn dryers running or combines rolling up and down the fields. There are aeration fans running, but that’s just background noise. Anhydrous ammonia has gone on about as well as most can remember. The rain we received around Bugtussle in early September carried a long way and the rain on October 25th was the icing on the cake. Subsoils remain extremely dry as anyone tiling can attest. This lends credence to the last estimate of soil moisture from the SROC and the rainfall records from many area rain gauges.

In the garden at the ranch, the rains have actually made it too wet to till for fall. The amount of evaporation and transpiration when the weather is cool and the season is at its close is very minimal when the temps remain as cool as they did over the weekend. The frosty temperatures have started to take their toll on the leaf lettuce that was a hit for making BLTs. Unfortunately there aren’t many of the tomatoes we harvested that remain edible at this point, to a human anyway. The sheep on the other hand don’t seem to care. The winter radish tops are also showing signs that Jack Frost has been visiting them with greater frequency. It will soon be time to harvest and find a place to put them. A giveaway program for some may be in order as well. Hopefully the recipients won’t mind their little extra giddy-up.

With fieldwork being largely over with, it has allowed some time to get at some of those tasks that have accumulated with work being hectic, storm damaged and unwanted trees among them. The lamb crop and a few cull ewes were sold on Thursday, freeing up some time and making chores bearable once again. Doing an hour’s of chores following a 10 – 12 hour workday gets old real fast. The bumps and bruises from loading them are well worth it. Saturday meant more hay to stack and after that, cleaning up the trees behind the barn that were sawed down last spring. They’d begun rubbing on the building and since the space is tight between the tree row and barn, not a lot of room to get at them. Getting dried out with leaves still attached they were becoming a fire hazard so it was definitely a job needing doing.

Sunday after church meant more of the same, this time sawing down the bottom half of the spruce tree that the wind stuck into the side of the garage two years ago. Pruning off all the dead limbs on the rest of the spruce trees took a good chunk of the afternoon. After putting the forks on the skid loader, much of that wound up in the huge brush pile south of the house. If you look from Bugtussle and see a glow to the east, you’ll know that I lit it up. Oh, and in between these jobs, the tree watering goes on, with the hose being moved every few hours to help the fruit trees and smaller evergreen trees make it through the winter. Next up: barn cleaning and getting those leaves ground up on a dry afternoon this week.

The birds being attracted to the feeders and yard are changing ever so subtly. On Saturday, there was a bright red male cardinal under the apple trees. There are 5 of the huge blue jays that monopolize the feeders briefly and are then off to parts unknown. Chickadees are remaining loyal to this point anyway and the goldfinch numbers continue to increase ever so slightly, with a dozen now at last count. Some have pointed out the pheasant numbers still appear to be low and that’s definitely the case. I saw a couple roosters in the ditch across the road from our pasture and that’s been about it. Like last winter however, there is ample corn on the ground in the fields again this fall, largely the result of the high winds from the September 5th thunderstorms. Even though the fields have been worked, the pheasants will still have plenty of ears they can access provided the snow doesn’t become too deep or if the fields get iced over.

Was paid another visit by Vista’s noted Swedish astronomer and he left me with all kinds of wonderful information for the early morning and evening skies in November. Thus far they have been nothing short of spectacular for viewing the planets Venus and Jupiter. Jupiter rises about two hours after sunset in early November. By the end of the month it will rise about sunset. On the 10th and 11th, the planet Venus will be very close in the sky to the crescent moon shortly before sunrise. Venus rises in the east about three hours before sunrise. I think this is roughly the same time the noted Swedish astronomer gets up to check on the progress of the road construction by his house. 

See you next week…real good then.

“Where do you get your ideas for your column?” This is a question I frequently hear from readers of this weekly diatribe. 

The simple answer is they just pop in my head. I’ve got quite a list of topics compiled, and I’ve barely touched it; most weeks something comes up that seems like a good idea for a column.

I’ve loved writing since third grade. My teacher, Mr. Galvin, had us write a new story every month. 

It didn’t take me long to discover that this might be a path I would enjoy in life. As soon as I touched pencil to paper, the ideas and words would flow. 

I like to think it was partly a result of all the reading that had been done for me as a youngster and that I had done since I could decipher those letters myself.

As you read this, I will be immersed in my fourth year of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). My goal every November is to write 50,000 words of a story in that month. That’s about 1800-1900 words every day. 

I’ve been able to reach my goal every year, usually well before Thanksgiving. On a good day, I’ll whip off 5000-6000 words.

This began as a creative writing project the first year I taught 10th-grade English. The students were understandably hesitant at first, though I set their goals between 10,000-15,000 words. 

The result? Some amazing writing, especially by those who hadn’t shown an aptitude for writing in our previous experiences together.

I continued this project for the three years I taught 10th grade, but I don’t have that class this year. I’m going to miss sitting in the computer lab with my students, hammering away on our stories, listening to music, and munching on Nancy Jane’s bakery goodies. 

I’ll even miss staring at my computer screen for hours as I read every word that every student wrote for me! Luckily, I have some brave souls in my classes, as well as both my children, who are going to try this with me for the fun of it.

I’m pleased that some of the students who did this when they were forced to are trying it again! Others would like to, but I understand the difficulties of balancing school and extracurriculars without throwing in a massive writing project for the fun of it. 

One student commented it was the best month of high school, and I do remember the extraordinary writing she produced that year.

What do we get out of all this writing? For my students, it was knowing that no task is impossible. 

Many have said there hasn’t been a single writing assignment  come their way since then that intimidated them. They also learned to just write. 

Stop worrying about if it is any good until after you’re done. Just write. And in the end, most of what they wrote was pretty good. 

I’m still waiting for some of them to finish their stories for me; they reached their word count goal and stopped without wrapping up their plots!

For me, it was initially the satisfaction that I could write a novel-length story. Out of that first year came the story I eventually turned into my first published novel, Heroics 101. (Shameless plug here: it’s available directly from me or on Amazon.com, if you’re interested in getting a copy.) 

Each year since, I’ve toiled away at another story and found satisfaction in the process. It’s funny; I don’t think I could tackle this project any other time of the year. The deadline of getting done in November motivates me unlike anything else.

I’ve had my idea for this year’s writing for almost a year already. It will be about a man who arrives home to learn his wife has been killed in a car accident, but he ends up having the winning lottery ticket as well. 

How will he balance the grief and the elation and make a new life out of it? Only time will tell, but for now, I’ve got a word count to accumulate!

Word of the Week: This week’s word is obambulate, which means to walk around, such as, “President Obama was seen to obambulate while awaiting the election results.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!

Peterson returns as District 1 County Commissioner

Lori Routh, Mike Moen and Shelly Moxon were reelected to the NRHEG School Board Tuesday. The totals: Routh 1757, Moen 1529, Moxon 1384, Jay Crabtree 1354, Peggy Radjenovich 572. There were 24 write-ins.

For Waseca County Commissioner District 1, incumbent Jim Peterson was reelected over Jody Wynnemer, 1333-595.

Roger died at his home on Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012 surrounded by his loving family. He died after a courageous and unforgiving battle with cancer, at age 73.

Roger Gene Crawford was born in his home in Sheffield, Iowa on October 13, 1939 to Wilbert and Viota Crawford. He received his education there, graduating from Sheffield Community High School in 1958. He served in the US Army. On June 24, 1962 he was married to Cynthia Rohn in the First Methodist Church, Sheffield.

Ellendale City Council

By SCOTT GROTH

Contributing Writer

The Ellendale City Council met Thursday October 25, with Mayor Engel and all councilmen present. Also attending the meeting were Steele County Sheriff Lon Thiele, City Clerk Steve Louks, Roger Swearingen, maintenance, Pete Paulson-, MLS manager, Caren Swearingen, Donovan Eaker and Steele County Commissioner Bruce Kubicek.

The council reviewed the contract prepared by the Sheriff’s Department. The contract will be a one-year contract that automatically renews at the end of the current year. The agreement calls for approximately 19 hours of coverage per week and spread as evenly over seven days as possible. The contract calls for the city to pay $3,261.00 per month in 2013. Included in the agreement is a 3 percent raise each year the county provides services to the city. The contract calls for the county to provide all vehicles and maintain them. Sheriff Thiele told the council he felt the city has, over the years, received more coverage than contracted. After a few more comments the council approved the contract. 

THREE YEARS — Blondie’s in New Richland is celebrating its three-year anniversary Friday, Nov. 2. Pictured from left are owner Carly Solland and cook Angie Hoffman. (Star Eagle photo by Nicole Billing)

By NICOLE BILLING

Editorial Assistant

Where does the name “Blondie’s” come from? Not from owner Carly Solland, as some might think. 

The name comes from Hollywood blondes such as Marilyn Monroe, whose picture can be seen on Blondie’s walls.

Blondie’s has been in the New Richland community for three years now and is always busy with customers. It will perhaps be busier than usual this Friday, Nov. 2, as the restaurant holds a three-year anniversary celebration featuring a lunch special along with free coffee and treat.

Solland has been in the restaurant business for seven years and said, “I want to do this for the rest of my life. It’s not always what it’s cracked up to be, but I’m doing what I want to do. Even though it doesn’t always pay the bills, liking what I do is important.”

After one year, Helen Sawyer can say she loves it at Whispering Oak

FAMILY TIME — Whispering Oak resident Helen Sawyer, left, chats with nieces Lynn, Pat and Paulette. (Star Eagle photo by Rachel Rietsema)

By RACHEL RIETSEMA

Staff Writer

Whispering Oak and Helen Sawyer are soon to be celebrating their one-year anniversary.

And, you know what? They were made for each other.

“My stay here has been wonderful,” Helen said. “The staff is friendly and continually gives of themselves.”

Director Maryann Schlaak has nothing but nice things to say about Helen as well.

“She is very gracious and appreciative,” she said. “She’s just an all-around neat lady.”

Schlaak’s observations go far beyond just those. There’s so much more to Helen than meets the eye.

NRHEG junior finishes second in Section 2A

CRUISE CONTROL — NRHEG’s T.J. Schiltz strides out during last week’s Section 2A Cross Country Meet at Blue Earth. Schiltz finished second among the boys, earning a second straight trip to the state cross country meet. (Star Eagle photo by Nikki Erickson)

By DALE KUGATH

Sportswriter

BLUE EARTH – The Waseca and Martin County West cross country teams dominated the Section 2A Meet at Riverside Town and Country Club in Blue Earth Thursday. 

With the top two teams advancing to the State Meet, Waseca and MCW were able to advance both its boys and girls teams to the Big Show. 

Coach Mike Weber’s New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva teams had their seasons come to an end, with the exception of sophomore T.J. Schiltz. 

The Panther boys placed 15th among 17 teams with 372 points, ending the year with a 9-78 overall record. NRHEG placed 17th in the section last season.