Ah Fall...

It's Fall on the prairie! The small grains are in (wheat, barley, flax have been harvested). The corn and soy beans are brown and will be harvested before long. The wheat harvest was much diminished from last year so expect to pay more for pasta.

The weather has turned cold as well. Nighttime temperatures in the mid-thirties and daytime highs in the mid-forties with 20 mph winds.

The big news here is that Erleen has left me. She is taking real estate classes in Fargo and staying with her cousin, Nadine Nelson. She left Thursday and returns Sunday evening. Those of you who know my culinary skills know that if she were gone more than four days, I would begin losing weight. Our friends, Ron & Ruth Berge had pity on me and invited me for a lovely roast beef dinner this evening. Actually Erleen left me with tons of good food microwave ready. I'm just lonely. Keeping busy helps.

Today I did some work for a client on the computer and phone. Then went into Cooperstown (20 minutes away) to get a trailer for hauling our generator to Vernon Fugelstad's repair shop. I changed the filter on the heater in the basement, put a switch on Erleen's bedside lamp and installed a shop light in my little shop (see picture behind the trees).

I am also cutting up a water heater. Our basement has three water heaters. One that works and two that do not. Bit by bit I am cutting one up in order to get it up the narrow, dog-leg stairway and out. The City will pick up old appliances for free on October 7th so hope to have it out by then.

Steak on a Pitchfork? - The Gold Rush - Blue Laws

We decided to leave Thursday for Medora. For those of you not in the know, Medora is North Dakota's best kept secret tourist destination. It is a small cowboy town in western ND - on the ND/Montana border. There is a huge outdoor amphitheater which seats several thousand. There is a nightly musical extravaganza. The music and dance are outstanding. We always have supper at the Pitchfork Steak Fondue. Yes, they really do use ordinary pitchforks from the hardware store to impale several steaks. These are plunged into several huge vats of boiling oil. A live band plays while we sit over-looking the North Dakota badlands. The view is breathtaking. We drafted a passerby to take this picture of us just before supper.

After the picture, our camera died with a sigh and the cryptic message: "recharge battery". Unfortunately we had neglected to bring the unique battery charger for the camera, so no more pictures.

Friday morning we looked at each other and said: "We're having too much fun to go home yet". So, being retired, we extended our two-day trip to a five-day trip.

We decided to explore the northwest quarter of ND. We called our favorite motel chain in Williston, ND. They were completely booked for the next several years! But they gave us the number of a brand-new motel. We called and sure enough, they had one room available. It seems they keep the handicap room available and we were able to rent it (for an exorbitant price).

Intrigued we began to explore the region. The gold rush (actually oil) has brought sixty thousand new residents into a town of 14,000 residents in a few short months. Huge tracts of temporary housing could be seen throughout the region. Motels, office buildings, shop buildings and manufacturing plants were under construction everywhere. A small two-bedroom apartment goes for $2,500 per month. A year ago it would have gone for $300 (if you could find someone to rent it). The price of everything was outrageous. We paid $4.15 a gallon for gas. That may not sound like much to you in Humboldt County, but here in ND it is scandalous.

We also visited several historical sites. Fort Union on the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers made John Jacob Astor rich by trading for furs. A nearby Cavalry fort kept the Native Americans more or less subservient. We stood in the room where Sitting Bull finally surrendered on behalf of the Souix nation in 1881. It made me feel old to realize that Grandma Curtis was a teenager when that surrender took place.

We went to buy a bottle of water on Sunday morning only to discover that North Dakota still has a blue law. It is illegal to operate a retail establishment between midnight and noon on Sunday. Somehow I had not run up against this impediment before.

While in Bismarck, Erleen took some paperwork into the Real Estate Commissioner's office. The office was a couple of rooms above an insurance agency. The Commissioner was at lunch, but Erleen was able to do her business with the secretary/receptionist.

Yellow Polka-dot Bikini

Sunday afternoon, after the potluck at church, Erleen's brother, John called to say that his family was to sing at a gathering in Page, ND. We decided to go so drove for 40 minutes and joined about 5o people at the Page community center. It was a bible study group. Supper was provided. There were hot dogs and hamburgers. The person who was to bring the condiments dropped the ball so no catsup, mustard, relish, etc.



John, Lorraine, Jared and Angele sang beautifully (I was impressed). Toward the end John announced that Warren & Erleen Staley were going to join their quartet for the last song. It was actually fun.


Then Curtis family plus Erleen sang "Yellow Polka-dot Bikini" in turkey talk. If you have never heard turkey talk, you should ask Erleen for a demo.

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Where's the Rocking Chair?

Last weekend we spent two nights in Fargo. We visited Bonanzaville in West Fargo. Bonanzaville consists of several old buildings which have been moved onto a field and arranged like an old town. There is a church, a school, several homes and other buildings. There are antique cars and aircraft on display as well. The was an event called Pioneer Days happening so there were several bands and a parade.

We also visited a heritage center in Moorhead (with a Norwegian name I can neither pronounce or spell). It houses a replica of a Viking ship built by a retired teacher near Moorhead. His vision was to sale it to Norway. He died before he could complete his dream, but his children finished it and sailed it to Norway. There is also a replica of an eighth or ninth century Norwegian church. We enjoyed a guided tour of that church.

Our friends, John and Peggy Murray spent last night with us. We enjoyed their visit thoroughly. The lived a couple of miles east of us in Humbolt County.

Erleen received her North Dakota notary certificate this week. She is going to advertise her services at the Post Office and the Store.

My friend, Nathan Lunde, dropped by this morning. I rode with him to his 80 acres east of Hannaford to check on his cattle. I haven't quite earned the right to wear bib overalls yet, but I am working on it.

Erleen's sister, Rachel made us a great fish dinner (croppy) in Cooperstown. We visited uncle Denny while we were there.

Then it was off to Valley City for a birthday party for Erleen's neice, Angele.

It has been a very busy day. What ever happened to the idea of sitting in a rocking chair on the porch?

The Crick, Shingles and Songs

We're coming, Lord willing and the crick don't rise (crick is North Dakotan for creek). Well the crick did rise. Niagra Falls on the left is cascading down into the crick in a normally dry gully. Notice the hay bales in the other picuture and also the grand stands used for tractor pulls and other events. What looks like the crick on the right is actually a road under normal circumstances.

The good news is that we just found a sump pump in our basement. It sucks a substantial amount of water in a short period of time. It's definitely better the the wet/dry vacuum we were using. Everyone's basements have turned into wells. The water table is very close to the surface. Fortunately, we have gone three days with no rain. Thank you God!

In related news in the picture above I'm frantically nailing shingles to our shed in an attempt to keep it from raining as hard inside as outside.

Sunday evening we drove with our friends, Nathan and Marybeth Lunde to a farm an hour and a half from home. The farmer had set up two large tents. One was used for the food we brought (it was a potluck). The other had a stage and sound equipment. A small band led about 200 of us in a "singsperation". It was a super-sized worship service. We had a great time. Never a dull moment here.

Where's the Post Office?

We are back from a three-day trip to Forest Lake, MN (near the Wisconsin border). We attended the funeral of Erleen's uncle Donald Lende. Donald was a very colorful character and his funeral was equally colorful.

The most recent crisis is the proposed closing of our post office. The Posatal Service wants to close about 3,700 offices, mostly rural. They say they can save $200 million by doing so. This is only one-third of one percent of the Service's budget and 2.5 percent of its projected deficit. The post office in Hannaford has 2 full-time and 1 parttime employees. This represents probably 5 percent of our entire work force. The post office is an iconic part of rural life. Since there is no home delivery here, we see our neighbors several times a week at the PO. The Post-mistress has all the local news about the weather, the crops and who died or is getting married. We attended a meeting last night to decide how to best fight this tragedy. I don't know how much we can do, but we will make an effort.

Kids & Lawns

Bed never looked so good - even at 8:30! Six hours of 65 kids aged 4 to 11 is enough to put us old folk "six-feet under". Erleen and I helped with Vacation Bible School in Cooperstown this week. It was good fun and in some small way advanced God's kingdom.

Yes, that's me in the bathrobe and towel. No, I did not just get out of the shower. I had just called down fire from heaven on Mt. Carmel. All to convince kids that God listens to us.

Thanks to the sale of our little gray Mercury (the car we have kept here for several years) and my old lawn tractor in Humboldt, I am now mowing in splendor on a bright red lawn tractor here in Hannaford. I mowed the lawns today in less than an hour and wasn't even tired afterward.



Erleen's last uncle, Donald Lende, died today. He made peace with his family and with God, then fell "asleep" We will attend the funeral near St. Paul, Minnesota next week.