NRHEG football team leads most of first half but falls 38-6 at Waterville

OPEN FIELD RUNNING — Spencer Tollefson of NRHEG breaks a tackle and runs free in the WEM secondary at Waterville last Friday. The Panthers host St. Charles for Homecoming this week. (Star Eagle photo by Chris Schlaak)

By DALE KUGATH

Sportswriter

WATERVILLE – The New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva football team did its best to scare the heavily favored Waterville-Elysian-Morristown football team for the Buccaneer homecoming game Friday. 

But, after shocking the Bucs early, the Panthers turned the ball over three times inside their 20-yard line and watched WEM score 38 unanswered points. The result was a 38-6 Buccaneer victory. 

WEM won its fourth game in a row, improving to 3-0 in the AA Gopher/Valley Conference and 4-1 overall. 

NRHEG’s long season continued. Coach Dan Stork’s Panthers are 0-4 in the conference and 0-5 for the year. 

Schiltz takes first at BP, Janesville

STRONG START — NRHEG’s T.J. Schiltz and Adam Anderson take off at the start of last week’s Grizzly Invite at Janesville. (Star Eagle photos by Chris Schlaak)

By DALE KUGATH

Sportswriter

Coach Mike Weber’s New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva cross country teams continued to show improvement in a pair of meets last week. 

T.J. Schiltz and Katharine Lewer continued to pace their respective squads. Schiltz won both races he ran during the week, while Lewer cracked the top six finishers in her two events. 

The NRHEG boys placed sixth at Blooming Prairie and third in Janesville. The boys have an overall record of 3-47 in their five starts. 

By DALE KUGATH

Sportswriter

The New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva volleyball team continued its struggle to reach the .500 mark last week. 

Coach Joe Kuechenmeister’s squad won two of five games at the Class AA Showcase Tournament in Burnsville, dropped a heartbreaking five-set match to Tri-City United and closed the busy week with 3-2-1 mark at the Blue Earth Invitational. 

The Panthers are 2-2 in the Gopher Conference and 9-11-3 overall. 

Showcase

BURNSVILLE - Facing some tough competition, the Panthers managed a 2-3 record playing in the Showcase Tournament at the Midwest Volleyball Warehouse in Burnsville Sept. 21-22. 

“We ran into some great competition here,” said Kuechenmeister. “Our goal was to push some of the best teams in the state to the brink, and we were able to accomplish that.”

Gordon O. Toft, 88, of Owatonna, died Friday, September 28, 2012 at Owatonna Hospital. 

He was born November 14, 1923 in Ellendale, Minnesota the son of Irvin and Cora (Gunderson) Toft.  He was baptized and confirmed at the First Lutheran Church in Ellendale.  He graduated from Ellendale High School in 1941.  After his schooling, he worked farming and was a truck driver.  In 1948, he moved to Owatonna.  He worked at the State Theatre in Owatonna operating the projection camera from 1950 to 1962.  He then worked as the grounds maintenance supervisor at the Owatonna State School from 1961 to 1970 and the Faribault State Hospital from 1970 to 1988, when he retired. 

Eleven years ago (plus a few days by the time you read this), my wife Michelle woke me up a little after midnight, claiming her water had broken. My response: “Are you sure?” When she said no, I rolled back over and told her to wake me when she was sure. It wasn’t long after that we were headed to the hospital to welcome our daughter Jayna.

This was not the most auspicious start to my parenting career, and it is like a second career, make no mistake. With all the intensity and excitement of seeing your firstborn child, that moment sticks in my mind. The other one was when we arrived home with our precious bundle of joy and realized just how big a task this parenting thing might be without all those doctors and nurses present to help.

Are any of us ready to be a parent when that time comes? Probably not, but I’d like to think Michelle and I were as prepared as we could be. We were ready to start a family, and Michelle had read about every piece of information that was published about being a parent. There was plenty of advice from grandparents and others who had been through this before.

But that first moment at home? That moment of serene calmness (the last one for many years)? Oh, oh. What do we do now?

Many of you remember that moment as well. It is similar to staring out across a vast desert or to the top of a mountain; there is a long journey ahead, but once your child leaves home to make his or her own journey, there will be a sense of true accomplishment.

There are many trials and tribulations: the first time the baby runs a fever, the first time the child falls down and gets cut (Ahh! Blood!), the first time the youngster intentionally does something wrong. Jayna rolled off the bed, tipped her high chair backwards, and has defied us on occasion. How did we handle it? How did we know what to do?

We didn’t necessarily know the right way to handle it. We just did the best we could and used common sense. 

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how similar I realized I was to my dad; I think we often parent the way we were parented. What other model do we have? 

However, we take into account a generational change and change with the new generation. There were only three channels on TV when I grew up, so taking away the TV wasn’t as big a deal then as it is now. Spanking is no longer acceptable, though I don’t think it did me any long-lasting mental harm.

In the end, most parents do the best job they can and slowly begin to loosen those apron strings. When our kids make mistakes, we have to realize that is a good thing. 

This is how they learn problem solving skills; we certainly weren’t perfect either! As Jayna gets closer to being a teenager (the age of mistakes), it’s important to keep remembering that!

Word of the Week: Thanks to Tali Wayne for this week’s word: poppysmic. Poppysmic means the noise produced by smacking the lips together, as in, “The poppysmic she made after putting on lipstick was annoying to her roommate.” 

What’s really interesting about this word is that only one author has ever been known to use it: James Joyce in a stage direction in Ulysses. Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!

The scurs hung in there last week and did manage to correctly predict the light showers that temporarily decreased the fire danger. What’s on tap this week? Starting Wednesday, clear with highs of 65 and lows around 40. Clear again for Thursday with highs of 65 and lows near 45. Clear on Friday and Saturday with highs near 70 and lows of 45. Partly cloudy on Sunday with a modest chance of a shower. Highs once again near 70 and lows around 50. Monday and Tuesday, warmer and partly sunny to mostly cloudy with some possible showers both days.  Highs of 75 and lows near 50. Sunset will occur on the 28th at 6:59 p.m. The normal high for September 30th is 68 and the normal low is 42. The scurs will be gathering sticks and twigs for a small recreational fire to celebrate the onset of cooler evenings.

The Full Moon for the month occurs on the 29th and is known as the Full Harvest Moon. The light from the moon allowed farmers to work long into the night bringing in the harvest. Of course nowadays, nighttime field operations tend to be lit up like small cities so the moonlight becomes somewhat irrelevant. The Ojibwe knew this as the Full Rice Moon as this was the time at which the wild rice, an important part of their diet, was being harvested. The Sioux knew this as the Moon of Drying Grass, likely as we’ve seen this fall, the native prairie grasses take on their dry, brown color. At the ranch, we know this as the Moon Where We Do Chores in the Dark.

More rapid field progress this week as showers slowed operations ever so slightly on the 21st. Farmers have to be pinching themselves when looking at the calendar and the corn moisture. Recent reports are seeing 105-day waxy corn dry enough to bin without artificial drying, unheard of for September 24th. Good news in the yield department for both corn and soybeans as well. Soybean yields were feared earlier to be back to where they were last year. That hasn’t been the case in general wit most coming in between 50 and 60 bu./acre. Corn yields continue to impress and few are complaining. No reason they should. With fields to the south of here in IA running below 100 bu./acre, we have a lot to be thankful for. 

The frost pretty well ended the growing season for most things if you didn’t get them covered anyway. The low of 30 at the ranch marked the first time we’ve had freezing temperatures since April 17th. Still, it didn’t kill everything. The 4 o’clocks, which are usually relatively sensitive, escaped relatively unscathed while impatiens in pots near the house were pretty well scorched. The impatiens in a pot near the road ditch where it is lower were hardly even touched while a volunteer gourd was absolutely cooked on a higher spot on the end of the driveway. I’ve never been able to figure out why some places freeze hard when they shouldn’t and vice-versa. We did cover the tomatoes all up but it still managed to singe the upper portions of the plants. Again, no rhyme nor reason to it.

Have we seen the last of the hummingbirds at the ranch? Maybe. The last documented one we saw was on the 21st. However, looking back at last year, we thought they had left only to see them return for a brief encore appearance when temperatures warmed back up. At the feeders now it’s mostly blue jays, a hairy or two and some house finches. There are still lots of goldfinches feeding in the CRP as seed production there apparently keeps them satisfied. An immature red-bellied woodpecker has been hitting the ear corn feeder apparently, voicing his displeasure when finding the cobs bare.

Boxelder bugs have made their return. The last time they were really bad in our house was during the drought in the fall of 1988. After installing a new furnace since then that moved more air through the ductwork, most of them made a posthumous reappearance. The good news is there don’t appear to be as many Asian ladybeetles this year to annoy us. Just the boxelder bugs will probably have to suffice. 

Saturday morning before leaving for my Aunt’s 90th birthday party, I decided to build a quick corn shock as we’ve done in the past. This year was no different although cutting the Indian corn stalks with the loppers made for more bending and less fun than it could’ve been. So instead, I fired up the weedeater with the brush cutter attachment and voila! Hundreds of Julienne fries! In a matter of minutes all six rows of stalks were on the ground. I loaded the stover onto the Gator and hauled it back to the house to tie it into bundles. In order to get the shock to stay put I cheated just as in the past and pounded a steel post first before strategically setting the bundles against it. After it was completed I marveled at my new masterpiece thinking to myself, yup, just like the pioneers used to do.

The panel jumping champion ram nicknamed Sausage was put into service on Sunday afternoon. His jumping days likely behind him after spending most of the summer get fat in a pen, we managed to get him to bound into the trailer with Ruby looking on. Sausage’s weight probably hovers around 220 so he’s not exactly easy to maneuver. We got him flipped on his behind though in the confined space of the trailer to trim his feet as they tend to grow long on penned animals. Off to the kindly neighbor’s pasture where he was immediately smitten by his newly found harem and kicking up his newly trimmed heels in delight. Could there be love in the air on this Harvest Moon?

See you next week…real good then.

Echoes from the Loafers' Club Meeting

"I just came from the Eagles Club."

"Member?"

"Of course, I remember. I just came from there."

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: most things are more fun than a barrel of monkeys. 

I've learned

1. Missouri loves company.

2. You can't fight progress, but you can unplug it.

3. The stock market goes down on fears that it might go down.

The news from Hartland

Fifty-two card pick-up tournament considered a failure.

Loafer’s Shoe Store has 18-inch tall fitting rooms.

Upchuck and Ralph’s Coffee Emporium offers short, tall, grande, and hat drink sizes.

Son of superstitious parents is 12 years old one day and 14 the next.

Reconditioned peaches on sale at the Museum of Groceries.

Laidlow Cemetery forbids dancing.

School daze

It was before the Farmer Stetson (ball cap or gimme cap) was worn in schools. It was during safer times. True, there was The Cold War and the Vietnam War, but Count Chocula hadn’t yet been introduced. A favorite school custodian always carried a tape measure so that he could see how long he’d been working. I had nightmares of taking a final exam in a class I hadn’t enrolled in — a stroll down memory lane on a path not traveled before. I learned that to err is human, to add, combine. Teachers confiscated the notes I passed in class and corrected the grammar. The principal often sat in on our classes so at least one person would be able to answer a teacher’s question. It wasn’t our fault. Teachers were constantly saying, "Don’t get smart with me." We didn’t.

Cafe chronicles

I was at an eatery in a small town where 4 out of 5 people make up 80% of the population. It was the caffeine talking at an uneven table as a group of locals took on fluids, sipping hot beverages. They were bound together by caffeine. Morning is a time when most folks can justify caffeine intake. The discussion concluded that others should pay high taxes. The table talk shifted to whether more Minnesotans live in Minnesota than anywhere else or if more Iowans live in Iowa than anywhere else. Everyone put in his two cents’ worth. One put in a dollar’s worth and interjected that glaciers once covered both states, but now do so only during the winter. It was the consensus that both states are growing larger due to the expansion accompanying global warming.

Why I didn't often help at my brother’s hardware store

"You're sure this is the part I need?" the customer asked.

"Absolutely," I said confidently. "If it doesn't work, come back and I'll sell you another one."

Ask Al

"Why do older people make odd sounds when they rise from a sitting position?" The sounds are words of encouragement in a language only a body understands.

“What does ‘gesundheit’ mean?” You missed me.

“Did you milk cows?” Not only cows. I had the only chicken dairy farm in the state for a short time. It was a short-lived because chickens don’t give much milk.

Laughing in church

I attended a friend’s funeral in Albert Lea. Reverend Dwight Netzer told this story about Glenn Ruble. Glenn and his wife, Maureen, were holding a garage sale when Glenn noticed that the price tag on a statue was $5. Glenn protested that the statue was worth much more than that and suggested that the price be raised. Maureen declined, saying that she wanted to get rid of it. Later, a woman pointed at the statue and asked Maureen, "Would you take $50 for that?"

Maureen was surprised, but managed to sputter out a "Yes."

When the woman brought the statue to the pay table, Maureen noticed that the price tag read "$55."

Glenn had added another "5" to the price.

A meow and the night visitor

I awakened to a tumult. I staggered from bed, suspecting our two cats were up to something. They had been. The cats had caught a mouse as quietly as two cymbals would have caught one.

Nature notes

I saw a junco in my yard early one morning. The junco looks wintry. It’s called a snowbird because it has a gray topside like the clouds of winter and is as white as snow underneath. My father said that snow arrives six weeks after the snowbird. I hope this snowbird was misguided as I saw it on September 18.

Meeting adjourned

A kind word is a seed that once planted, flowers. Be kind.

Labor Day morning, Sept. 3, Genie and I left from Beaver Lake for our annual one week stay at Arrowhead Lodge in the Big Horn Mountains above Sheridan, Wyo. Our first year of doing this was 1973.

We hopped on I-90 at Albert Lea, set the HHR Chevrolet cruise on 75 and headed west. Our first major stop was Mitchell, South Dakota, to look at the new corn theme on the outside of the Corn Palace. This year’s theme is sports, which features different colors of corn to form participants in different sports.

Our stop for the night was in the Super 8 Motel in Wall, South Dakota. The evening meal at Wall Drug, plus saying “Hi” to T-Rex in the Wall Drug back yard, is a “must-do.” Genie and I were so happy to see T-Rex that we danced to the music in the back yard!

We stayed at the Super 8 in Wall on our way out and way back. When in Wall, you must say hi to a great lady named Donna at the Super 8.

The next morning, Tuesday, we set the cruise control at 80 and headed west on I-90 (South Dakota and Wyoming speed limits are 75 versus 70 in Minnesota). We arrived at our destination, Arrowhead Lodge in the Big Horn Mountains (832 miles from Beaver Lake), Tuesday evening. Richard, a familiar employee of about nine years, with his big black cowboy hat, gave me a big “Howdy, welcome back,” and checked us into our favorite rustic Cabin 3.

Wednesday was a day of rest, to let our bodies get used to the high altitude of 7,700 feet.

Thursday was Porch Day, so we just goofed off around the lodge.

On Friday, we hiked up Black Mountain, an elevation of 9,500 feet. On the way up, it started to thunder and rain, so Genie went as far as the sign that says the top is one more mile, and returned to the car. I continued on to the top, where I performed a random act of kindness by leaving two rolls of T.P. in the outhouse at the top (I did get a little wet).

On Sunday, we attended the Ladies’ Retreat Service at Camp Bethel By Arrowhead Lodge (Genie and I were guests). Most inspiring in a casual setting.

All the Arrowhead employees know how to give Mountain Hospitality: Melissa and Matt as cooks, Karen and Dave in general maintenance, Clay and Pat as waiters, Yuki in housekeeping, Louise as the Older, Keep Things Organized Person and Richard as check-in plus bartender. We thought we could find a bad-service employee, but once again we were wrong.

Arrowhead Lodge is also known as “The Mule Deer Capital of Arkansas.” All the Arkansas Mule Deer male hunters were successful. Their female significant others were successful also, as the balance of every credit card went up while the men were gone.

There were even three non-hunters from Arkansas (Clayton, Wanda and Kristi). They did confess their credit card balances also went up.

As usual the three Wyoming Mountain Brothers (Dan, Frank, and Fred) were at Arrowhead. They fish a lot but never have any fish to prove it.

We watched a huge bull moose rubbing the velvet off his antlers while demolishing an eight-foot pine tree. A man walked up to our car to watch. 

‘Twas then we met Richard and Betty Schroeder from Waseca, Minnesota. Small world, isn’t it, when you’re 832 miles from home and you meet people from 20 miles away!

When the urge hits you, while outdoors, you must know how to construct a “cat-hole.”

There are both black bears and grizzly bears in the Big Horn Mountains. It is strongly urged that when out walking, you carry a can of pepper spray and attach small bells to your clothing. By doing this you can tell the difference between the two, as black bear dung contains nut hulls, berry seeds and other plant residue, while grizzly bear dung contains tiny bells and cans of pepper spray!

Stacey from Belvidere, Vermont, who was celebrating her 45th birthday, and her two friends Tara and Adrianne from Florida, knew the above bear story.

To solve the potential problem, they bought a wooden baseball bat. When a bear was encountered, the one who ran the slowest got the bat!

— — —

Bob is a retired AAL (Aid Association for Lutherans) agent. 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. This is the Hanson’s 37th summer at Beaver Lake. They leave the lake in mid-October to go south — to Albert Lea — and return in April. Bob says if you enjoy his article, 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. 

Looking at the Minnesota Twins and Vikings, the immediate future looks pretty dim. However, expanding to the basketball’s Timberwolves and Gophers, the outlook is more promising. The Gopher football team’s future is uncertain. 

Jerry Kill’s football team has won four games and while Kill belongs to the Glen Mason school of scheduling, they did win. The team is off to a good start and while the opponents the Gophers have beaten barely qualify as bowl-eligible wins, the team still has a chance for a Bowl game. While we don’t know if they have a good team or not, the Gophers have been winning, which is certainly better than losing to South Dakota State or one of North Dakota’s Universities.

The other well known Minnesota football team is in the second year of rebuilding, whether they want to admit it or not. It appears that from looking at the draft choices, they are going about it in the right way; they are using their first round choice to draft an offensive lineman to protect their quarterback of the future, Christian Ponder.

The team is off to a slow start, losing to another rebuilding team by a field goal. This was one of the games they hoped to win. Now they will have to have an upset to reach my prediction of five wins on their way to next year.

I have hopes for the Vikings’ future, in part because they now have a single head of the organization rather than the triumvirate they had previously. I also believe that the Wilfs will want to put a good team in their new stadium to take full advantage of Zigiville.

The Timberwolves are still in the rebuilding mode, but they have a star in Kevin Love and a legitimate NBA center in Nikola Pekovic. The team has gotten rid of underachieving deadwood. And, if coach Rick Adelman can keep playmaker Ricky Rubio on the floor, the Timberwolves should make their way to the playoffs.

Let’s look at Tubby Smith’s Minnesota Gopher basketball team. I think it’s fair to say Smith’s teams have been a disappointment to date. They have not performed well. Perhaps the most discouraging was watching the lack of player improvement from year to year.

Blake Hoffarber did not get much better during his four years at Minnesota. While I admire his coming to his home university, he may have been better off at Duke or North Carolina where Mike Krzyzewski or Roy Williams would have taken greater advantage of his shooting skills. 

He would have gotten much more exposure and NBA scouts would have had more opportunities to admire his ability. He also would have done well financially if he had gone in the draft. He is now playing for a French team in a European league.

Another disappointment was Ralph Sampson lll. After getting off to a solid start as a freshman, Sampson continued to play at the same level and he too was not taken in the NBA draft. It seems unlikely that a 6'11" player with Sampson’s ability would not be one of the 60 players chosen during the two rounds of the draft, but it happened. Perhaps he was passed over because of his lack of passion. You would think that somebody could have instilled that in him during his four years at Minnesota. That somebody is normally the coach.

With Mbakwe coming back and a solid core returning from last year, this is the season that good things are expected from Tubby. Let’s hope Smith lives up to his reputation and salary.