The Steele County Historical Society (SCHS) will host a Cabin Fever Reliever fundraiser inside the new History Center on Friday, January 27, 2012. This will be the first time the public will be able to view the Center since completing its construction.

 “We’re so excited to be able to welcome the public into the History Center after its much anticipated completion,” said Laura Resler, SCHS Director. “This fundraiser will provide fun family activities, great food from Culvers, and wonderful music by the Fabulous Love Handles. It doesn’t get any better than that on a January night in Minnesota!” 

  The fundraiser is part of the on-going “Burn the Mortgage” campaign to raise the funds needed for reimbursing the investors who generously funded the last portion of the building’s construction costs. Funds are also needed to furnish and finish the building’s interior.

PTO's Community Night Out set for Feb. 4

DINNER AND AUCTION — Rich (left) and Penni Mueller pictured with the “Community Night Out” poster for the NRHEG PTO fundraiser. The inaugural event is slated for Saturday evening, Feb. 4 at the Ellendale Elementary school gym. (Star Eagle photo by Jody Wynnemer)

By JODY WYNNEMER

Staff Writer

Do you need something to do on a Saturday night? The NRHEG Parent Teacher Organization is hosting its inaugural Community Night Out on Saturday, February 4 at the Ellendale Campus gymnasium.

“We wanted to try something a little different this year,” said Penni Mueller, one of the organizers of the event. “We figured a catered dinner followed by a live auction would make a wonderful night out.”

The festivities get underway with the doors opening at 4:30 p.m. Social time will be observed until the meal is served at 5:30 p.m. Diners will have their choice of roast beef or chicken breast, mashed potatoes, vegetables, salads, bread, desserts and a beverage especially prepared by Superior Foods of Ellendale.

“The live auction starts at 7 p.m.,” said Mueller. “There are many items including a television, mystery prizes, autographed photos, theatre tickets, a hotel stay and a pie a month for a year.”

Ellendale City Council

By SCOTT GROTH

Contributing Writer

The Ellendale City Council met January 12, 2012 with Mayor Engel, Councilmen Helland, Rieter and Groth present. Absent was Councilman Goebel. Also attending was Clerk Louks, Maintenance Supervisor Swearingen, Gwen Reiss and Chandler Anderson.

After approving the agenda for the evening, Mayor Engel went right into the City appointments for the New Year. The Star Eagle will remain the official newspaper and the First National Bank of Ellendale will be the official depository. All other appointments will remain the same as the previous year. The resolution was made and passed on the appointments.

Swearingen was next with his monthly report. Swearingen started by telling the council he would like the council to consider adding one more outdoor warning siren. Swearingen said the city still has one siren that will work from the ones that were purchased previously. He noted the placement of the siren could be by the #1 manhole in town. Swearingen next told the council he had been in contact with a garage door company to look at the door on the Mobil property. Swearingen noted the door is in real bad shape. The council asked Swearingen to get another quote for the project and bring the figure to the next meeting. 

As the Sleigh and Cutter festival draws near, you could win some cold, hard cash.

Up to $1,250 is waiting to be won. Someone in Waseca County has been chosen to be “Frosty,” an ambassador for the festival. All you need to do is follow the clues and try to guess who Frosty is. Even if you don’t know everyone, by following the clues you may gather enough information to win some big money. Possible tools that may help you cash in are the internet, Google, dictionaries and the love of puzzles.

Culligan Water Conditioning of Waseca has been a long-time supporter of the Frosty contest. Additional sponsors are Latham Place of Waseca, iWealth, Domino’s Pizza and Mediacom. The grand prize is $250 in cash, to the person who can identify Frosty and is determined to be the Grand Prize winner by the judges. If you are determined the winner and are present during the unmasking of Frosty at 9:30 p.m. during the Sleigh and Cutter Dance at the VFW in Waseca, you will get a $50 cash bonus from Culligan of Waseca. That is a total of $300.

2011 Year in Review, Part 3 of 4

Compiled by JODY WYNNEMER

Staff Writer

JULY

• The residents of Hope gathered at a town meeting to hear about the potential closing of their post office. The Postal Service is looking at ways to cut operational costs throughout the country.

• An equipment fire was to blame for a small fire at the WFS elevator in New Richland. No employees or customers were injured.

• The elusive Farm and City Days Medallion was no match for the Harrington family as they successfully located the prize for the second year in a row.

• Neighbor Lee Mendenhall claims to be “two years older than Gary Nordlie.”

• Dad’s Good Stuff in New Richland received a facelift as workers did some tuck pointing on the façade of the 1886 era structure.

• The Southern Storm (11 and 12 year old boys basketball team) raises funds for their trip to Nationals.

• Rev. Paul Andree is chosen Grand Marshal of the Farm and City Days Parade. Lillie Nielsen (junior division) and John Darcy (adult division) were selected as New Richland Idols.

• The New Richland High School class of 1946 held their 65th class reunion with seven members in attendance.

There is an old saying, "More time than money." It's a subject that can be debated. What do you think?

The facts are that every day God gives us 86,400 seconds as a gift of life. However, this is a gift that cannot be saved or held over for another day. There is no savings account, no checks or overdrafts or balances. Whatever part of those seconds we didn't use are gone forever. How we do use them is where the value lies.

Sometimes, it concerns me that I am not using my "money’s worth" when I waste precious time. Each morning the time account is refilled, but no one knows when the account may be closed or dissolved. There are warnings sometimes that we don't always heed and as a result, what should have been done isn't.

So what is the wise thing to do with your 86,400 seconds? Their value is far superior to the same amount in coin. Think about that. How many seconds have we wasted? How many seconds have we shared? How many seconds have we used with value doing something useful or making someone happy? Those seconds can be compared to precious jewels that sparkle and shine or cold hard stones that fail to brighten any lives.

Seconds well spent can be recycled by others and go on and on doing good. Seconds sequestered away have no value.

Some people say time flies. Others say it stands still. We know that isn't true because we see the dates on the calendar quickly pass. We remember when we were young and thought that old was old but gave little thought that we would ever be in that category, so we went our merry way, and then one day the person who looked back in the mirror was like somebody else. That couldn't be me. Why only yesterday, I was doing things and thinking of things I was going to do tomorrow. 

And there even came a day when I couldn't do the simple things that once were part of my regular scheduled life. Had I waited too long to achieve or do the things I dreamed of? Had I given others the concern I should? Where were the friends I used to talk to? When did I last phone my good friends, or write a letter, or visited, just for old times sake?

If all of a sudden you realized you had only one hour of time for only one call, who would you call? What would you say? What would you do?

Think about that and always think of this. Make good use of your time. Enjoy every minute, take care of yourself, take care of others, be happy, love deeply, share your feelings with others, treasure those whom you love and love you. Enjoy life in every way you can. Don't wait until the value is spent. 

Make investments in memories now, in kind words spoken, events that matter and things you do to make life better for others. The trick is growing up without growing old. Celebrate your age! Think of all the things you are still able to do! Remember, it's better than the alternative.

More time than money? That will always be debatable, but one thing is for sure, neither time nor money has any value if it isn't used to our best intent.

Money invested is always a gamble. It can give us security but also can be lost in a bad investment.

There is less of a gamble in time invested in worthwhile endeavors. The profit gleaned from relationships, love and being a part of a good life is profound. It is not just time spent. It’s an investment not only in one’s future but the future of others.  It can be spent over and over enhancing the lives of others.

It is good to see people who are able to spend time doing the things they enjoy before they can no longer be able to enjoy them. Isn't that what life is all about? Take advantage of each new day God has provided. It is a blessing bestowed upon us. Use it for good.

Every day is filled with good things just waiting to be discovered. A new day is a new opportunity to think positive.

Life is worth living. More time than money? God only knows.

Birthdays and anniversaries:

• Thursday, January 19th: Brian Wayne, Laura (Otteson) Ortiz, Dennis Grunwald, Steve Jon Christensen, Barb Wayne Heyer, Kent Johnson, Thomas Kasper, Francis Misgen, Peter Spande, Dick Ewing, Dick & Laurie Swift.

• Friday, January 20th: Brentson Lange, Jim Krause, Marc Nelson, Jenna Nicole Cooper, Pastor Alvin Cooper, Anthony Thostenson, Alicia Lizaazo.

• Saturday, January 21st: Joshua Dobberstien and Gerald Wobshcall

• Sunday, January 22nd: Reese Hendrickson, Taylor Lunning, Christian Sletten, Tom Haried, Lyle Shaunce, Barbara Van Gorkom, Jeff Miller, Heather Sargent.

• Monday, January 23rd: Eugene Worke, "Emeritus" Bob Hanson, Eugene Cornelius, Rodney Sorenson, Dean Broitzman, Garnet Folie, Jeff Miller, Chris Paulson.

• Tuesday, January 24th: Morgan Sophia Luhring, her 7th; Renee Polzin, Greg Menefee, Mary Cunningham, Trevor Tracy.

• Wednesday, January 25th: Calvin Thomas VanderStoep, his 3rd; Sophia Mabel Olivia Mrotz, Max Thomas Powers Brekke, his 5th; Emma Meiners, her 4th; Paula Olson, Vernon Simonson, Lana Thompsen, Troy Phagan, Ladawn Hatch.

May your special day be a happy memory and tomorrow a bright new promise.

Surprise somebody. Call someone. Send a card and make their day. Little things mean a lot.

There are some things Minnesotans never get tired of talking about like the weather, the woes of their favorite sports teams and the good old days. While the weather is always an ice breaker when starting a conversation, a person doesn’t start on a positive note when you begin a conversation with, “How about those Vikings?” As far as the good old days, that is a neverending conversation piece that I am always ready to embellish.

When talking about the good old days in the outdoors, there are a lot of fond memories that can be revisited. I always remember the days of reading and re-reading articles in my old Sports Afield or Outdoor Life magazines. My cousin Tom had gave me a bunch of his old hunting and fishing magazines when he left for the Army, which are now some of my treasured possessions. I still have some of them stored in a box in the attic. I don’t know how many times I had read many of the same articles over and over again and never grew tired of them.

In those days, reading was a very important part of my life. There were no batteries needed to read a book and if I had a certain book that I wanted to read, I can remember checking at the school library at Southwest to see if they had that book. If they did and it was already checked out, I’d keep going back until I got my chance. My main interests were stories and books about the outdoors. Jim Kjelgaard was my favorite author. 

There were also books about football that centered mainly on the Ivy League schools such as Brown and Yale. Others were rich in the history of college football and were usually about someone trying to make the team and becoming an unlikely hero. Also on my list of favorites were stories about WWII and the heroic feats preformed by real men during the war.

I was also infatuated with the stories of the early settlers and the American Revolution. This is good stuff to know; you learn how our country was formed and of the sacrifices men made to establish the freedoms that we have today. Reading books is a great way to put you in the middle of history or of getting away and visiting another place in time.

On another note, the good old days were also simpler times, but in some ways harder times. I can remember going to town on Saturday morning grocery shopping with Mom and my Aunt Ruby. There were a lot of grocery stores back then, and the one I always was impressed by was the National Tea which had an inside parking lot. 

I believe the store was located uptown across the street from the Post Office. Wheaties, (Breakfast of Champions) and Shredded Wheat were our usual cereals of choice. The shredded wheat only came in one size. That cereal also contained baseball cards which made it appealing to me. My Mother would occasionally pan fry the shredded wheat by rolling it in an egg batter and serve it with hot Karo syrup and fried Spam. As a kid, I looked at this as an evening meal fit for a king.

The good old days didn’t seem as complicated. Maybe that had to do with the fact that we had no easy access to information. We had to depend on the radio and early TV for all of that. Going to the movies would get catch me up on world events with the newsreels shown at the beginning of each show. Fishing, for the most part, was much simpler back then because it seemed all you really needed was the basic hook, line and sinker to catch fish.

Eventually, someone came up with the “green box,” which I’m sure a lot of you either remember or actually owned at one time. I had a green box I had bought from my Uncle Ben, thinking I was now into modern technology. There would be no more marking the anchor rope every 10 feet with electrical tape (duct tape wasn’t big back then). 

To be quite honest, that “box” never did work quite right. I had to send it in to the company a couple of different times to be fixed and they finally told me that they could no longer get the parts. I often wondered if they were just tired of not fixing it. When Uncle Ben sold it to me he said he had kept it in the garage for a few years and never used it because he didn’t want my Aunt Marcie to know he bought it. In hind sight, I did almost wish she had found it or he had just kept it hidden in the garage.

It seemed like each time after I had gotten that green box fixed I would check it out just to see that it was working prior to heading north. It always worked fine when I tested it, so when I arrived at the lake with my “sure fire fish finder” in tow, I just knew that the fish would be shown no mercy by the Herfindahl family fishermen. After using the thing for about two days the lights would go out and although the unit kept spinning, there was no longer a flash in the flasher. 

This happened so many times that I was almost glad when the company administered final rites to my “green box” of futility. The part that was even more depressing was the package they sent it back in for the final time. The UPS truck delivered it in a box that had all indications of a new Eagle flasher on the outside. My friend Bob had stopped by the house to talk about an upcoming fishing adventure we were planning when the delivery man walked up and handed me the box. 

As I tore the wrapping off the box and we saw the outside of the box Bob said excitedly, “They must have given you a new one.” But, alas, as I peered into the box, there in all its disappointing glory was the same old green box with a note of finality attached. I can’t even tell you a story of the good old days spent with the “green box” because there really weren’t any.

Just a reminder, the ice on the channel may be the reported 6 inches in spots, but always use extreme caution when venturing out on ice that has a current flowing underneath it, especially with the unseasonable weather we have been experiencing. I know there a lot of disappointed ice fishermen this year, but on the bright side that heating bill is a lot easier to look at.

Until next time, play safe, watch out for thin ice, good fish’n and enjoy the Minnesota outdoors experience.

Please remember to keep our troops in your thoughts and prayers during the holidays and the coming year. They are the reason we are able to enjoy all the freedoms that we have today.

Echoes from the Loafers’ Club Meeting

"Today is the first day of the rest of my life."

"How true."

"But it seems like last Thursday."

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: that which does not kill us causes us to consider buying more insurance.

I’ve learned

1. Because I’m a man, I dress by smell. I sniff clothes and if they smell O.K., I wear them. How can a man tell if the shirt he is thinking of wearing is dirty? If he wonders if it’s dirty, it is.

2. To never trust a “welcome” mat.

3. A birthday is the major cause of aging.

Farming

I feel as if I live in London, England. London has the famed Big Ben. I live near a 440,000-bushel grain bin. A bushel is about 56 pounds of shelled corn. I reside near Big Bin. Big Bin is an evident sign of farming, unlike wrenches. I’ve dropped a number of wrenches from tractors through the years. I seldom recovered any of those lost wrenches. There are enough missing wrenches that fields should be blooming in chrome. Jim Knutson of Hartland said that isn’t likely to happen. He claims that wrenches have a poor germination rate.

The box

Harold Williams is a professor at Auburn. A friend of his built a fine, small, wooden box. Highly-crafted lettering on the cover of the box reads, "In case of fire, open."

The box sits on a desk, where visitors see it. People notice it and are compelled by curiosity to open it.

Inside the box, is more lettering. It reads, "Not now, stupid!"

Pasty

I ate a pasty in Meadowlands, Minnesota. It was delicious. A pasty is a pastry case filled with beef, sliced or diced potato, rutabaga (swede), and onion. It's seasoned with salt and pepper. It is made by placing the uncooked filling on a flat pastry circle, and folding it to wrap the filling, crimping the edge at the side or top to form a seal. The result is a raised semicircular package that is then baked. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the pasty became popular with Cornish workers. Tin miners found it to be a complete meal that could be carried easily, eaten without cutlery, remained warm for several hours, and if it did get cold, it could be warmed on a shovel over a candle. A pasty is a filling comfort food even if pasty rhymes with nasty and not tasty.

Did you know?

People who use big forks eat less, but only when eating from a plate loaded with food, according to a study from the University of Utah.

“Mother wit” means native practical intelligence or common sense.

“Winklehawk” is defined as the L-shaped tear in a piece of cloth or clothing.

A myoclonic jerk is that twitch that happens as you're falling asleep and wakes you up. It’s also called a hypnic jerk, hypnagogic jerk, sleep start, or night start.

A sharp gift

I looked at a Browning knife.

The clerk, a woman, told me, "I know that I don't look it, but I have three children."

I’m not sure why she shared that information with me, but I spent the rest of the day trying to find a woman who looked as if she had three children.

I gave the Browning knife to my nephew as a Christmas present. In some cultures, giving a knife symbolizes severing a relationship. A knife indicates the end of a friendship. This untoward result can be avoided if the recipient smiles pleasantly when receiving the gift or if money is included for the recipient to "buy" the knife. The traditional amount to include with the knife is a penny. I gave my nephew a penny. He smiled.

Nature notes

Squirrels nest in tree hollows or in a treetop dens, which are 12- to 19-inch ball-shaped nests made of leaves, twigs, and bark. Squirrel nests are called dreys. Gray squirrels mate twice a year, typically from December to February and again from June through August. Fox squirrels mate twice a year, from December to February and from June through July. Red squirrels mate in late winter.

Talking to the Holstein

I was talking to the Holstein the other day. The Holstein is a retired milk cow, so she has time to talk. I asked her how things would change if cows ruled the world.

The Holstein chewed her cud thoughtfully and said, “There would be no wars or lawn mowers.”

Meeting adjourned

A kind word echoes.