Echoes from the Loafers’ Club Meeting

I'm taking a first aid class. You should, too. 

Not me.

What would you do if you came across a badly injured car accident victim?

I’d probably throw up.

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: The traffic was moving fast. Too fast. I keep telling myself that life moves right along without any need of being pushed. How is furniture always able to find my shins in the dark? There are few things more disappointing than sweet corn that looks good, but tastes bad.

The cafe chronicles

"You can’t come in here while wearing a tie," said one of the gentlemen seated at the Table of Infinite Knowledge. They get testy on Clean Fork Friday.

The waitress poured a cup for those with cups while saying, "Here’s whatever kind of coffee you want it to be."

One loafer said, "I had to eat out. My toaster is broken. That was good food. If I were a tipper, I’d leave a tip."

I believed him.

A slice of pie and marriage

The waiter brought a slice of pie and two forks. My wife used the second fork to fend off any of my attempts to steal a bit of the dessert.

I remember when two good friends were getting married. Not to each other, but they were getting hitched on the same day at the same time. I was invited to both weddings. I talked to both friends. John asked me to go to Chuck's wedding. Chuck encouraged me to attend John's nuptials. My wife went to one. I went to the other.

I’m not proud of this, but I fell asleep in church once. I was footsore and wayworn. I’d been working far from home and had traveled most of the night. That’s not a good excuse, but it was the only one I had. I was dreaming of singing birds along dirt roads when I felt an elbow in my ribs. It was threatening enough that I began my road back from my dream place. A second elbow hit me with a painful thump.

"I’m up!" I said and gave the elbower a dirty look. The woman wasn’t my wife. My bride sat smiling on the other side of me.

Those thrilling days of yesteryear

My mother was driving me to play practice at the grade school in Hartland. My father had told her that the car’s taillights didn’t work. My mother said that she’d use hand signals. These were not the kind of signals that some folks make when they are cut off in traffic.

When we neared the stop sign at the entrance to the nearest paved road, my mother fretted aloud that she wasn’t sure which hand signal indicated stop or the left-hand turn that she needed to make.

To signal a right turn, rest your left elbow on the windowsill and raise your forearm so it forms a 90-degree angle with your arm. Keep your left hand open. To make a left-turn signal, stick your left arm straight out with your hand extended past the side mirror. To signal a stop or a slowing down, stick your left arm out the window, pointing down, with your palm facing behind you.

My mother did all three of these just to be on the safe side. If there had been a car behind us, the driver knew that Mom was going to do something.

I added another signal. I raised my hand. I needed to go to the bathroom.

The nature walk

My wife and I were walking down a trail in Weslaco, Texas. It was a lovely day. I was happy to see a blue-black snake stretching across the entire width of the trail.  

"Look at the beautiful Texas indigo!" I said, thrilled to see the big snake.

My wife was unable to form words. Probably not because she was dumbstruck with delight.

The indigo is a large nonvenomous snake, reaching up to 8 feet long. A male’s territory could be 3,000 acres. An indigo devours nearly anything it can overpower, including birds, frogs, lizards, small mammals, salamanders, snakes, toads and turtles.

Meeting adjourned

Be kind by encouraging others to encourage others.

They came from near, they came from far. (I saw car license plates from Iowa, Wisconsin, Texas, and California.)

They came by car, they came by truck, they came by SUV, they came by shuttle bus (St. John’s Lutheran Home and Good Samaritan Home).

There were young, old, and in-between ages of male and female attendees.

They came by ones, twos, threes, and fours. They all came to eat at the annual social event of the year (Soup and Pie Supper) Monday, Sept. 21 at Central Freeborn Lutheran Church.

They were welcomed by parking lot attendants Bob Hanson, Barry Mosher, Gene Wangen and Roger Wangen who did an excellent job as no paperwork was needed for any car insurance company.

Six hundred and eighteen people came, got out of their vehicles and walked at a fast pace (they left at a much slower pace) to the special entry door (only VIPs were allowed – they all qualified) to be greeted by Wayne Indrelie.

After paying for the meal, decision time began. Four different kinds of soup tempted you plus gluten free if you decided. After the first bowl of soup it was time to check the elasticity of your undergarment with more soup or your choice of pie with or without Blue Bunny Vanilla ice cream.

If you had to wait to be seated to eat, you could wait in the church proper with music provided by Orville and Irene Goskeson or Ken Bertelson and Millard Hamborg. (It was O.K. to enjoy the music after eating with toe tapping at the same time.)

You had your choice of seating (inside or under the tent on the patio).

Who were the 618 people? They were from all walks of life. For example: Real estate agents, pancake flippers, hospital Auxilians, American Legion Auxilians, college officials, nurses, truckers, teachers, preachers, farmers, Sturgis bikers, lawyers, politicians, Beaver Lake plus Geneva Lake residents, President of Southeast Minnesota Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Social Security-ites and wanna-be Social Security-ites.

The Central Church council again proved their prophetic ability in selecting the date. There was very little wind, no rain, sunshine with the temperature in the low 70s. (A tentative date of Monday, Sept. 19, 2016 will be verified later).

A very special thanks to the people of Central Freeborn Lutheran Church for making this event a success. Mary Ann Atchison was the chair with Gary Goette, Genie Hanson, and Ole Olson the four co-chairs.

Summarizing: Great food in a rural setting, that’s what America is all about. Amen!

———

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.

As I type my first draft, the Minnesota Twins are beginning their final series of the 2015 season against the Kansas City Royals, a playoff team again this year. The Twins are a game out of a wild card spot and a chance to compete in the postseason for the first time in five years. And everywhere you’ve gone this summer, wherever there was a baseball fan, there was talk of hope for a franchise that lost over 90 games each of the past four seasons.

There is heavy investment in our Twins again. People really care from game to game. We get mad over one game lost in the vastness of a 162-game season. Three hours of every day during the long baseball season can be spent rising and falling with the team we call our own here in Minnesota. At different times, I’ve declared the team dead in the water or ready to leap up and join the playoff crowd.

And this is what’s fun about being a sports fan: There’s always something to talk about. We’ve spent the last four years complaining about Joe Mauer and Ron Gardenhire and how they’d better spend some money on better pitching and how they need to develop a home run hitter. Now I’ll admit that I questioned hiring Paul Molitor as coach, but will quickly stand up and argue that he deserves consideration for Manager of the Year after quieting us doubters with his winning style. Twins fans will still complain about Mauer but look forward to many years of Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton leading our squad to playoff glory.

Of course, if the team twists into a downward spiral in the next couple of years, we’ll all call for firing Molly and all his coaches and how we need to get rid of whatever overpaid putz is underperforming (still might be Joe Mauer). We sports fans are mercurial in that sense, always flowing whatever way the team is performing. We’d all love to be the New York Yankees or the New England Patriots and make the playoffs every year and stack championship trophies on top of each other, but we’re satisfied to have a team to care about.

When the Twins and Vikings were fighting for new stadiums and threatening to leave our fine state, Sid Hartman used to say we’d become “a cold Omaha” if we lost our sports teams. Many people grumble about paying for stadiums from taxes, but Sid had a point. There are so many people who spend so much money on these teams that our state would face some financial difficulty if not for our sports teams; investment in their homes is worthwhile.

If we didn’t have them, who would sports fans root for? After years of hating the Green Bay Packers and the Milwaukee Brewers, could we really bring ourselves around to cheer for them? Can you imagine a Minnesota Wild fan changing over to the Chicago Blackhawks, the team that has bounced our team from the playoffs the past two years?

And that’s part of it too. So many of us love sports in general. I don’t particularly understand or follow hockey, but I want the Wild to do well because they represent us. I’ll watch a bit if I’m flipping around or if it’s playoff season. Heck, the other night I flipped on ESPN2 and watched the end of a soccer match. They were in a shootout for the win, and that made it pretty exciting. Sports!

We become so invested in our favorite teams too, don’t we? I’ve learned to expect disappointment from the Vikings in the most crucial situations, but it doesn’t temper my anger about it. I still picture Gary Anderson missing that field goal along with Denny Green saying to take a knee in the NFC Championship Game against Atlanta, though that pales to Brad Childress earning a penalty after a timeout and Brett Favre throwing an interception with a shot to win in New Orleans for a chance at the Super Bowl. Those are as painful of memories as I possess; I’m just glad I wasn’t old enough to understand what was happening during the Vikings’ Super Bowl losses.

Many of us do this with our high school teams too, right? There is much grumbling if the local squad isn’t living up to expectations. Trust me, you don’t want to be up in the booth at a football game if things aren’t going our way; there’s a reason my microphone has an on/off switch! And then we remember that it’s kids out there competing and doing the best they can. We can’t win them all, and we won’t get all the calls from the officials. But we continue to cheer.

With that in mind, if you’re reading this on Oct. 8, get over to the football field and cheer on the home team in a big game against Maple River. And then join us on Oct. 14 for a home playoff game; let’s pack the stands and let the boys know we support them!

Oh, and the Twins? As you know, they missed out on a playoff spot. But as Cubs fans always say, “There’s always next year!” Speaking of years, happy anniversary to my lovely wife Michelle, who put up with me for Year 17!

Word of the Week: This week’s word is mot juste, which means the right word, as in, “The columnist searched for the mot juste to describe his feelings about sports.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!

The scurs continue to coax the Weather Eye to keep deliver more of the same and deliver it has. Will it ever freeze or will we get through harvest without it?  Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with a good chance of overnight showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the low 70’s and lows in the upper 50’s. Thursday, mostly cloudy with a modest chance for lingering showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 60’s with lows in the mid 40’s. Mostly sunny Friday with highs in the low 60’s and lows in the mid 40’s. Saturday, sunny with highs in the upper 60’s and lows in the low 50’s. Sunny on Sunday with highs in the mid 70’s and lows in the mid 50’s. Monday, mostly sunny with highs in the mid 70’s and lows in the upper 40’s. Cloudy and cooler for Tuesday with highs in the upper 60’s and lows in the low 40’s. The normal high for October 12th is 62 and the normal low is 48. The scurs are celebrating Columbus Day by leaving Saturday’s junk mail and bills in the mailbox. That way they’ll still have a reason to pick it up and potentially make the PC police think it’s no longer a holiday. There’s a method to the scurs’ madness.

The 10-man dryer is running at the elevator so now it truly is fall. Harvest progress has been steady although not without some bumps in the road. Green stems in the soybeans with no frost to even things out have caused some snarling and gnashing of teeth. Along with that there have been plenty of green beans mixed in the sample even though moistures have generally tested 11–12%. Relatively calm conditions haven’t hastened the drying of those green stems or beans themselves much either. In some instances the tough combining has led to soybeans going out the back of the combine, prompting some to switch over to corn for a few days. Soybean yields have in general been spectacular with most running from the upper 50-bushel-per-acre range to the low 70’s. Corn has also been impressive based on the acreage harvested thus far. Many reports of low to mid 200 bushel readings on yield monitors and in actual weighed truckloads as well. It is too early to apply anhydrous ammonia at this point and as Fabian Fernandez from the U points out, applications should be based on soil temperatures and not on calendar date. Read his latest press release at: 

http://blog-crop-news.extension.umn.edu/2015/10/fall-nitrogen-applications.html

There are scattered pockets of color showing here and there so this weekend should be a good one to go forth and gaze at the leaves. Sumac was prominent this past weekend in our travels to the north and the river valleys in particular had subtle signs that the show should be at its peak in the next week or so. It smells like fall too. The odor of senescing vegetation is familiar when one heads out the door in the morning to do chores.

It’s official: The hummingbirds left the ranch on September 28th. We had them for quite a spell though. We saw the first one on May 16th. They were faithful little visitors all summer long to the pots and the hummingbird feeder. I’ve left it up just in case a straggler should happen by. Some have asked if leaving the feeders out keeps the hummers here too long and endangers their survival. It does not. Once the flowering plants they crave begin to decline, hummingbirds seem to know it’s time to get out while the getting is still good. One species I have been surprised to see yet though is barn swallows. This past week a handful still appeared occasionally when I was out soil sampling. Had to look twice but saw them on a couple occasions on different days, the last of which were spotted on Monday, October 5th. Was glad to see them too. There were mosquitoes and was bitten a few times by what appeared to be stable flies.

The gardening season is winding down. Wet weather prevented the planting of the winter radish crop so that will have to wait until next season. However, the pumpkins, gourds and squash managed to make it. The squash crop was somewhat disappointing but the Indian corn, gourds and pumpkins made up for it. Lots of them for decorating which is exactly what happened to much of the crop. They’ve already travelled to a wedding at Watkins, MN and are back to decorate the church as well as the ranch once we find some daylight to see what we’re doing. Had to move the remaining Indian corn from the trailer where it was drying. The squirrels and chipmunks decided it was good enough to eat so helped themselves.

Ruby and Fudgie like this cooler trend and can follow the lawnmower endlessly as a result. They also seem to have diversions to occupy their time. Ruby set up a barking frenzy Monday morning when I was in the shower. It’s not unusual for her to growl and whine at the squirrel eating corn each morning so I couldn’t figure out what had set her off. It turned out that neighbor David had left his dumpster out at the end of the driveway. To Ruby’s way of thinking, it was out of place and required my attention. Fudgie has a stray cat to torment that recently appeared. Actually we haven’t had cats for quite a while and were reluctant about keeping this one around. Cats are known carriers of toxoplasmosis. That can raise heck with pregnant ewes and the lamb crop. And since a lot of people treat our road like it’s a racetrack, any cat we’ve actually liked has ended up being a statistic. The downside to all that is the house sparrows decided the loafing barn is an excellent area to defecate and make a general mess. Since the cat showed up, the sparrows have typically kept their distance. The cat is an adept climber and hunter so we’ve been feeding it just enough to keep it interested. It certainly keeps Fudgie interested with its whereabouts and that’s a good thing. The cat gets to put those climbing skills to good use.

See you next week…real good then.

Jeppe Bremer, age 88, of Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, died peacefully on Saturday, October 10, 2015, surrounded by his family at Ecumen Countryside, Owatonna. He was born August 21, 1927 in Ypsilanti, North Dakota, the son of Henry and Sadie (Dykstra) Bremer. Jeppe grew up and attended school in North Dakota, moving to Minnesota in 1975. He served his country in the U.S. Army late in WWII. On March 17, 1956, Jeppe and Charlotte Montanye were united in marriage in Hollandale, Minnesota. The couple raised three daughters. Jeppe was a hard-working farmer for most of his life. In his leisure time, he enjoyed reading, playing cards, and participating in sports. He will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved him. 

Regular-season finale Thursday at NR

THREE POINTS — NRHEG kicker Sam Prigge (3) lines up for a field goal Friday, Oct. 2 at Lake Crystal. The Panthers finish the regular season at home Thursday, Oct. 8 against Maple River. (Star Eagle photo by Chris Schlaak)

By JIM LUTGENS

Editor/Publisher

There are certain games that football teams look forward to. Last Friday was one of them for the NRHEG Panthers.

The Panthers, in the midst of one of their best seasons in years, avenged an ugly loss last year, defeating Lake Crystal/Wellcome Memorial 24-6 on the road.

“Our kids have had this game circled on the schedule since last year,” said Panthers coach Dan Stork.

The win lifted the Panthers to 6-1, with the regular season concluding tonight at home against Maple River (6-1). The Panthers are hoping for a win and a WEM loss to claim a share of the South Central Blue District championship.

For some fall sports, the season is already half over. But for the athletes in the Minnesota State High School Clay Target League, things are just getting under way.

Last week, the 2,400 students from 92 schools competed in week one of a five-week season which will go through the month of October. At stake are conference titles and individual accolades.

The NRHEG team, which has had a fall team ever since the league expanded into the fall season, finds itself in Conference Nine along with teams from Anoka, Benilde-St. Margaret’s, Thief River Falls, Cambridge-Isanti, Byron, Mounds View, and Central Minnesota Christian schools.

The NRHEG volleyball team started last week with a tough 3-2 loss to United South Central.

It was downhill from there.

The Panthers, who lost a marathon match to USC Tuesday, were swept by WEM Thursday to finish an 0-2 week. The Panthers are 7-7 overall and 3-3 in the Gopher Conference.

“Waterville is a good team,” said NRHEG coach Onika Peterson. “They are very solid across the board and have some great hitters. I thought overall we did a nice job blocking against them. When we were able to hit, we got some good swings against them. However, we struggled across the board with our passing —serve receiving and digging. When they have powerhouse hitters like Kendall and Masberg, we can't struggle with passing.”

The NRHEG cross country teams competed in the Grizzlies Invitational at Janesville’s Prairie Ridge Golf Course Thursday, Oct. 1. The boys and girls both had a solid day.

The  boys, running without senior Tyler Schlaak, recorded several personal bests while totaling 139 points for last among six teams. Faribault was first with 26.

Panther places: Josh Fleming, 11th, 18:22; Zach Mely, 25th, 19:05; Braden Routh, 51st, 21:19; Aaron Fleming 54th, 21:29; Jorey Fischer, 55th, 21:45; Aaron Seath, 68th, 24:09.