Don’t look now, but the NRHEG softball team is playing pretty well.

The Panthers, under first-year head coach Coy Hupfeld, improved to 2-2 overall and 2-1 in the Gopher Conference by winning two of three games in recent play.

The Panthers defeated Waterville-Elysian-Morristown 5-3 and defeated Blue Earth Area 8-3 while falling 3-0 to Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial.

The NRHEG boys’ track and field team saw some unfamiliar competition in the Glen Amundsen Invitational at Stewartville Tuesday, April 14.

That competition was tough.

The panthers totaled 36 points, good for sixth among seven squads. Stewartville won with 176 followed by Rochester Lourdes with 114, GMLOS 78.5, Blooming Prairie 56.5 and Hayfield 43. Triton totaled 33.

“It was a good meet for our boys,” said Panthers coach Duey Ferber. “It was fun to see some other teams than we usually see. We didn’t score a lot of points tonight, but the boys performed well.”

The season is off and running for the NRHEG High School golf teams, which came up short in a nonconference dual meet with Triton Tuesday, April 14.

The girls almost pulled off a win, falling by one stroke, 227-226.

Jessica Nafe paced the Panthers and was co-medalist with a 54 for nine holes. Bayli Possin shot a 55, Tali Wayne 58, Kyra Possin 60, Jill Jongbloedt 61 and Lauren Herrmann 66.

The boys lost 167-222.

As my daughter prepared for a softball game the next day, her concern was that all the girls planned to dress up for game day, and she didn’t really have any dressy clothes. She and Michelle had to search through closets and try to scrounge up something that wasn’t her typical t-shirt and jeans.

The next day, I overheard Jayna and her friend Grace talking about wardrobes. Grace commented that what to wear each day was the most stressful part of her life.

Oh, to be young again! If only my clothing choice each day was the main thing causing me stress – I’m sure many of you are thinking the same!

According to Susan Knowlton and the Health Guidance website, stress can have many negative aspects including lowering the immune system, negatively affecting decision making, and sometimes leading to anxiety and depression.

We all have stress, and how we deal with it is really crucial to our well-being. Nurse Kate here at school helped set up 10-minute massages for us on our last workshop day. Laura Possin of First Impressions came in and helped work out some of the knots we had. Teaching is a stressful occupation, and it showed by the number of people who signed up for this experience!

That 10 minutes got me thinking about stress. There are so many people who have work-invoked stress. Teaching might be stressful, but I can’t imagine how much that ratchets up if you’re a doctor, police officer, fire fighter, military personnel, etc. Those people-in-service industries have stress to get the product or service done on time; my wife talks about the stress with this all the time as she creates signs for businesses.

Brooke Wobschall keeps my classes up to date on the holiday of the day on my board, and April 16 was Stress Awareness Day, appropriate for the day after taxes were due. Here is an example of a way stress could be avoided: don’t wait until the last minute to complete something! Those who wait until the last day to file their taxes probably have a ton more stress than those who work on them in January and February.

Students face this all the time (when they’re not worried about their clothing). It wouldn’t matter when I give a deadline for a project, there is always a contingent of them who will wait until right before it’s due to even begin. Case in point would be my book projects. They have the entire quarter to finish a novel, answer some questions, and present a project. Two weeks into the new quarter, I had a number of kids decide maybe they should pick out a book. Why not start right away and finish early? A lot less stress then, compared to not being even half done with the book less than a week before everything is due.

Some stress is self-induced. Michelle tells me often that if I didn’t get involved in so many different groups, I would have a lot less stress. That’s true, I know, but I’d still worry about things like how the school calendar is put together and how contract negotiations are progressing if I weren’t directly involved with them.

I’ve found a lot of stress in those two areas this year. The simple fact, as with so many things which committees decide, is that you will never have 100% of the people who are affected be happy. Not everyone likes the calendar that’s been decided on for the 2015-2016 school year (a topic that you’ll probably see here soon), but it’s the best from an educational standpoint. Our union has a tentative contract with the district, and there we also see that not everyone will be happy, even if it’s a great contract overall.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I strive in these roles to find something that’s best for everyone. I listen to all sides, and it’s always difficult to explain to people who don’t get their ideas fulfilled why that didn’t happen. This creates stress. It’s nice to get along with people at work, but differing opinions on topics can sometimes cause strain. I always try to remain professional and mend fences, but the stress is difficult in that area. I’d rather be part of the solution though, than on the outside; I don’t always get everything I desire either, but having a role in reaching the end result is preferential, even if it brings some anxiety.

Knowlton also talked about the positive effects of stress, which include motivation, cognitive improvement, and even physical enhancements. I’ll have to take those as offsets to some of the negative. Jerome K. Jerome is quoted as saying, “It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.” I suppose that means I appreciate my relaxing times more because of some of the stress inducers. And as Al Batt said in his column last week, there are many people who would give anything for our bad days. How true.

Word of the Week: This week’s word is expurgate, which means to remove parts that are objectionable, as in, “She was able to expurgate the stressful situations of her life simply by sitting down and reading a good book.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies.

High temps outpaced the scurs and their finely tuned Weather Eye’s capabilities last week. The recent cool down appears related to a broken cable from the control panel to the heat control valve. Will the scurs get the new one in time for the weekend? Starting Wednesday, sunny skies with highs in the upper 40’s and lows in the upper 20’s. Thursday, sunny again with highs near 50 and lows near 30. Mostly sunny on Friday with a slight chance of a morning snow shower. Highs in the low 50’s and lows in the mid-30’s. Saturday, mostly sunny with highs in the mid-50’s and lows in the mid-30’s. Mostly sunny Sunday with a slight chance of rain. Highs in the upper 50’s with lows in the upper 30’s. Monday, mostly sunny with a slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs near 60 with lows near 40. Partly cloudy on Tuesday and warmer with highs in the mid-60’s and lows in the mid-40’s. On April 27th the normal high is 63 and the normal low is 41. On April 27th we will experience 14 hours of daylight, the same as what we saw back on August 15th. The scurs are certain they will be tiptoeing through the tulips by the time their May Baskets arrive.

Quite the week weather–wise as corn planting got underway in earnest. Some were able to finish, some made a dent in it while other chose not to start. There are also a few soybeans in the ground. Were these good or bad planting decisions? This is the beauty of planting season. One can speculate all you want but the results won’t be known until the combines hit the fields and loads are measured in the fall. At this point, it’s all good. Some of the alfalfa isn’t perhaps as good as hoped with some dead crowns being noticed in fields where it lack sufficient cover or potentially broke dormancy back in March. Some cuttings taken after September 1st may have also had something to do with it. Leaving alfalfa alone from September 1st through October 15th is a good idea even this far south. Getting by with cutting during that timeframe only serves as temptation to continue the practice until getting burned.

In the yard and garden the rhubarb has finally achieved the 12” mark Sunday. More peas and radishes emerging means the bunnies will have plenty to eat. The lilies of the valley are starting to unfurl and the tiger lilies are coming to life once again. The flower buds on the wild plums in the thicket are swollen so given a few warm days, it shouldn’t be too long before they burst into bloom. The warmer temperatures also made the apple and crabapple tree leaves start to pop so they should follow right on their heels. The pear trees are a bit of a puzzle. The Patten appears that it will likely bloom again while the Parker seems to be less decisive. Too bad because it takes a couple different varieties to pollinate. Garden seeds, primarily vine crops, arrived this past week so it will soon be time to start them in my little fat greenhouse buddy’s greenhouse.

More bird sightings and arrivals this past week include a catbird on the 17th and barn swallows on the 18th. Several hermit thrushes were seen briefly in the trees and shrubs. They are another of those that if you blink you miss them because they don’t stay or sit still long while they are here. Others have noted the same thing I have, that goldfinches seem to be scarce thus far. At the ranch we have one that comes to the feeder occasionally. At the ranch I blame it somewhat on the lack of light green leafy cover to camouflage them. They stick out like a sore thumb otherwise. A pair of wood ducks apparently found something to their liking in the garden area. Several mornings this past week when passing through there on my way to read the black cutworm pheromone trap, the pair would take off, their distinctive whining call leaving no doubt as to whom they were. That and the drake’s spectacular spring plumage made them a dead giveaway. Last but not least, rooster pheasants are heard crowing on the landscape. Two hens were zipping across the pasture to the plum and sumac thicket, only to be seen running back several hours later as if they’d missed curfew or something.

After watching Fudgie tramping around the long grass was wondering if the wood ticks were out. Hadn’t seen any until Sunday when working at the farm in Spring Valley. The daffodils were out and so were the ticks. One of the little parasites was crawling on the hooded sweatshirt that I’d removed due to the warm afternoon sun. I quickly dispatched it with my thumbnail and went on about the rest of the afternoon. Luckily there were no more found. It gave pause to think about something my friend the Boy Entomologist once told me, that a good parasite while sometimes annoying, doesn’t kill their host. Given those parameters, some human beings fall into that category. As he pointed out, just knowing they’re around is enough to make them aggravating.

One of the things I enjoy is trying to figure out where one can still find a TV show actually worth watching. Last week I ran across a channel that carries some of the old Lone Ranger shows. The show ran on ABC from 1949–1957. Now, it’s been a long time since I was sitting on the floor watching the reruns on the old black and white set in the small farmhouse by Pleasant Grove. For some reason something didn’t seem right when viewing the show recently. When the credits rolled the guy who played The Lone Ranger was listed as John Hart, not Clayton Moore.

I mentioned this to my brother on the phone and he was able to quickly trace it to 1952-1954 where a contract dispute meant John Hart was hired to replace Clayton Moore. Unfortunately, public acceptance of his replacement was not positive. When the rights to the show were sold in 1954, Clayton Moore was hired back to play The Lone Ranger until the show was cancelled in 1957. Jay Silverheels, who played Tonto, was in every episode. Some notables who guest starred on the show over the years included DeForest Kelley, James Arness, Hugh Beaumont, Lee Van Cleef, John Banner, and former Studebaker owner/driver Frances Bavier. There, aren’t you glad you know all that stuff? It might come in handy someday.

See you next week…real good then.

I have noticed lately that a couple of the neighbor cats have been prowling around my yard. I don’t fill my feeders to attract birds so that these cats can lay in wait for an unsuspecting bird to land within striking distance. This has always been a pet peeve of mine because cats actually kill more birds than any other predator. When the neighbors wonder why they have no birds at their feeder they might want to look at keeping Fluffy inside. Spring is the time of year when birds nest and baby rabbits appear in our yards. With that in mind please think twice before letting your cat out for a prowl at this time of the year.

It is hard to believe that the fishing opener for walleye and northern is less than three weeks away. Crappie and sunfish are open year round along with perch and bullhead. The bass opener is on May 23 with the muskie opener on June 6. Does anyone remember the days when we had one opener, one limit and no size restrictions? Things did seem just a little bit simpler then. I know some lakes get fished harder than others in today’s world, but sometimes I think there can be a thing called micro-management.

Today a person has to be careful and needs to know the rules for each lake before fishing it. As far as I know if a lake has any restrictions they will be posted at the access. I am not saying that I long for the days of cane poles and a can of worms for bait, but in some ways those times were actually pretty darned good. When I fish I still try to keep it as simple as possible; maybe it’s because I don’t want to overthink things and take the relaxation out of the moment.

When I was a kid when I would daydream about fishing I always had this vision in my mind of a picture I once seen of Tom Sawyer sitting on the bank of a river with a fishing pole made from a tree branch with his dog laying by his side. To me this was fishing, just relaxing and enjoying the day without a care in the world. Somewhere along the way we got technology that was supposed to make things better; but did we really make things better? This is why I still enjoy fishing out of my little 12-ft. Lund fishing boat that I keep at the cabin. No fish locator, no frills, just fishing the way I always did in my younger days, troll the shoreline or drift and cast. Keeping it simple works for me; especially when I'm fishing alone.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for everything and nothing gives me more pleasure than fishing out of my big boat with my grandkids. Whenever I fish with them it’s not about me but about them because I get more pleasure out of watching them catch fish than I do catching them myself. In fact I still get a thrill out of watching my grown sons catch fish. To me this is what it is all about, being able to see some of my (limited) fishing knowledge passed on to the next generations.

From what I have been hearing the panfish are active on Fountain Lake right now. I heard earlier that the crappie were biting but now the sunnie fishing has also picked up. What a great time of year; everything is starting fresh, the trees are budding, the lawns are starting to green up and the fish are starting to bite – I will definitely have to get out and wet a line because it just doesn’t get any better than this!

Although it seems like only yesterday there was a time when folks were lining the shores of Pickerel Lake every spring catching bullheads by the bucket full. It was quite a few years ago when my wife and I were first married that we would go to Twin Lakes to her home place and ride with her mom and dad to State Line Lake by Emmons to fish bullheads. There were a few weeks each spring when the area lakes would produce some mighty big bullheads. It wasn’t uncommon for many local small town bars to have bullhead and smelt feeds. Now you don’t really see that anymore, it seems as if the bullheads are not as abundant as they used to be. I also haven’t heard anyone talking about the smelt run for quite some time. It may just be that not so many folks fish bullheads or net smelt like in the past. There isn’t much better eating than a mess of bullheads caught in that cold early spring water. Pan fry those fish along with some fried potatoes and a can of Van Camp’s pork and beans and you had some mighty good eating. Like I said I like to keep it simple - a tasty meal like that makes it even better.

Until next time, it’s a great time to catch some of those tasty panfish and enjoy the outdoors at the same time.

Please remember to keep our troops in your thoughts and prayers because they are the reason we are able to enjoy all the freedoms that we have today.

Echoes from the Loafer’s Club Meeting

I didn't get out of bed yesterday.

Why not?

I have a condition.

What condition?

Chronic laziness.

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: It’s too easy to jump to confusions.

Cafe chronicles

His car, yellow and rusty like a bruised banana, was parked outside. He was one of those guys who knew a guy who knew a guy. He claimed that he’d been so poor while growing up that he used to go hunting with an ear of corn and a hammer.

"One more cup of coffee and the tide will come in. If I live one more year, I’m eating all the red meat that I want," he declared. Live long and abandon diet.

He complained about the small portions until he took a bite. He said that his son was doing well since he got out of prison and had just remarried. They didn't have a band or a DJ at the wedding dance. Each attendee received his or her own iPod with the music loaded into it. "I’ll bet you've never seen anything like that in Iowa."

We reminded him that he was in Minnesota.

"That’s O.K.," he responded. "I’ll bet you've still never seen anything like that in Iowa."

Scattered notes

I wore cargo pants. I was a walking junk drawer, a bipedal briefcase filled with scattered notes. Here are several of those.

A fellow at a library in Great Falls, Montana, told me that he had seven children — all daughters. He wasn't just part of a family, he was in a sorority.

A man in Houma, Louisiana, told me that he had friends and family who ate nutrias — rodents that look like something between a muskrat and a beaver. I asked if there was a secret to eating them. He said it was to ask for a blindfold.

He was an infrequent visitor to my past. He’d buy a bag of potato chips and eat every chip in front of us kids, without sharing a single morsel. Then he’d blow up the empty bag with breath smelling of cigarette smoke before popping it with his hands in an attempt to amuse us. He was like watching others enjoying an amusement park ride.

Not a passing grade

I was headed down a two-lane blacktop near the city of Manchester, population 57. I was listening to a Rodgers and Hammerstein tune from "Oklahoma." I sang along in the key of off. "Oh, what a beautiful morning. Oh, what a beautiful day. I've got a wonderful feeling, everything's going my way." I grew up listening to music while looking at album covers. I don’t do that while driving. A garbage truck was ahead of me. It signaled a left-hand turn at a crossroads. In the other lane was a pickup also signaling to turn left. I stopped and waited. A business van passed the pickup on the right by zooming through the right-hand turn lane. He didn’t make a turn. Yipes! Maybe he’d been texting helpful driving tips to the rest of the fleet. It was good that the garbage truck driver was observant or everything could have been going the van driver’s way and none of it would have been good.

From the family files

My sister-in-law moved to a lovely place that offers a balcony. She has no plans to use the second-floor balcony. She has a fear of heights. That’s because she hasn’t watched enough cartoons. If she’d seen just a couple episodes featuring Wile E. Coyote, she’d know that falling isn't a problem. You can be suspended in midair, actually walking on the air, as long as you don’t look down. It’s only when Wile E. looked down did he fall. So my sister-in-law should be able to enjoy the balcony as long as she looks up.

My young grandson wiped his nose on his blanket. That’s frowned upon even in my family. His grandmother, my wife, asked him if he wanted a tissue. Crosby smiled, nodded his head and finished wiping his nose on the blanket. He’ll probably be a Congressman one day.

Nature notes

The cardinal is the state bird of seven states and the western meadowlark is the state bird of six others.

Meeting adjourned

 "I can live a whole month on a good compliment." — Mark Twain