HaydenLoon

Thanks Giving Weekend

2009-11-29T18:34:00.000-08:00

So it was the day after Thanksgiving and the grandkids were up. I in the Maroon on the left, then youngest, then red is Gianna, then oldest in the light blue, then middle in the dark blue. As usual picture had to be done B's way. This was the 27th of November in Canal Park on a Beautiful Day, as Winnie the Pooh might say, if he so thought. This is the Truck that Andrew found and I promised to help him keep running. On the 29th of November.

Two totally awesome days, rewarding for entirely different reasons.

No Gales in Early November this year

2009-11-10T16:58:00.000-08:00

On this date in year 1975, The Edmund Fitzgerald, legendary in Gordon Lightfoot's song of the "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," plowed under the surface of the greatest of the Great Lakes, Superior, also named by First peoples Anishinabe as Gitche Gumee, the "shining, big sea water" of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, The Song of Hiawatha. The Anishinabe knew that of which they spoke.

November 7/8, 2009

2009-11-09T16:48:00.000-08:00

Had fun with a friend and made a few new friends this weekend. We roughed up a garage.

Of course the pictures are chronologically backwards, but we started with a bare slab. Don is in the RED, Curt in green, Eric in gray, colorful bunch we were.

New Month - New Rule - New Post

2009-11-01T15:49:00.000-08:00

Since snow is coming and it rained today it seemed appropriate to check out my life a little. We have enough wood for a normal winter, I have a job, my wife is getting healthier, my kids are adults, and my grandkids are too far away to play with every day, and I started to wonder what is the reason for living. Is it to just get ready to make it through the next day. That is a struggle for most, but for reasons that are sometimes diametrically opposite. Like some people are driven to distraction because they never get to leave the house, because of illness, money, kids, mobility and various other reasons, while at the same time others are exhausted and wish they could spend just one day in their house so it could be a home. What is that? Are we just by nature dissatisfied with living however it is we are living? Space, my son said. Yes that is it. We need space to move in and basics to stay alive. But what is the meaning? Why do we search for meaning? Is there a God shaped hole in our consciousness? Is there a God? If there is a God how would he contact us? Has God already contacted us? Is there a relationship that will satisfy the deep inner desire to belong and be loved? I have found this, that since I have accepted the historical fact that Jesus Christ died, and the record says the He would have done it just for me, and I have faith that he died for me, and don't lose sight of the fact that he is God Veritas, I have peace and Joy, that deep satisfaction that I belong to God and nothing can snatch me out of His Hand.

I hate pain, I love Healing

2009-10-04T07:13:00.000-07:00

I hate Pain.

When family and friends and especially progeny are hurting I always want to fix. It disturbs me that it is the nature of life that we grow stronger with struggles, along with growing in appreciation of what is pleasant and a blessing to the peace of our life.

I am here right beside you if I know of your pain. My supplications go to the highest heaven and the greatest God to be revealed and to intervene. Yet the intervention sometimes comes after the strenghthening work is accomplished, and the dead branches are stripped away from my life. And yours sometimes. That is when I feel impotent. I realize . . . I am. My power is in submitting to God.
Not in myself.

Wedding Anniversary for Flavel and Evelyn

2009-08-19T04:45:00.001-07:00

60 years ago today Flavel and Evelyn got married, with plans to leave civilization of Minnesota and be Missionaries in North Dakota.
Today, all of the children and grand children and great grand children know who the Lord is, and most know Him personally. And we serve wherever we are.
Also today, on this anniversay, Brother Chuck and neice Jo are headed for Yellowknife, NW Territiories, Canada for four months of service to a church needing an Interim Pastor, Peggy is filling an Obligation in Kenya, Vangi and family are serving in Japan, and some family members are separated by fewer miles than that in the continental North America.

The legacy is travel. The world is small to the family of Flavel and Evelyn.

Blessings on all who are separated, by 25 miles, 2500 miles or 12000 miles.

Grand Grand Kids

2009-08-16T09:35:00.000-07:00

First of all there was a box of playclothes and costume stuff, and the kids got to the bottom before I got the camera!

The pictures speak for themselves.

Back home from the Park and ready for Naps.

At the LAKE Two Harbors.

2009-08-16T09:14:00.000-07:00

So I caught Arly looking when we were at Two Harbors. That is Burlington Bay in the background. It was about 80 degrees there, but 95 in Danbury, so we spent the second to last day of vacation at the North Shore.

ND Pics

2009-08-12T08:24:00.000-07:00

Chuck with my fish at the Arch
Chuck At Cass Lake Golf course

Chuck Fishing the Leech Lake / Kabekona Bridge

Chuck Fishing the Lake Andrusia Mission Bridge

Me at Metigoshe

Chuck at St. Michaels Bridge

Chuck back at the ARch

Walkabout North Dakota style In Minnesota first

2009-08-12T06:34:00.000-07:00

This is me, Mona, and Chuck and the Picture was taken by Dean.

Well I know a vacation is supposed to be fun, and guess what it was. At 11:00 a.m. on August 3, 2009 Chuck and I stopped in Albany, Mn on the way to North Dakota for our first 9 holes of chase the ball. It was great weather.
After this we stopped at Charlies Cafe in Freeport for Caramel rolls, in remembrance of Dad, who stopped there every day when he was the track inspector for that section of the Great Northern Railroad.

On to the Evansville Cemetery to stand and pray at the temporary resting place of our sister and parents. We had decided to have three goals for each day. We will pray for those who need encouragement, pray with those who want to have the knowledge of Jesus Christ in their life, and pray for healing for those who request it.

We went to the Hardware store to buy our fishing licenses and ended up praying with the owners.

Then we visited and stayed overnight with sis Mona and Dean in suburban Erdahl. Mona is a great cook and we sang for our breakfast!

The next morning we went on to the Arch on Pelican Lake at Ashby and I caught a bass. Chuck was bummed because he is the great outdoorsman. That called for celebration so we went to Ruby's cafe in Ashby and had a caramel roll. (Do we have a theme?) And of course coffee. And met a missionary from somewhere sitting in a coffee clutch of 6 women.

On to the north. We went north out of Ashby to go to Cass Lake. On the way we missed Moll's becasue the trees are tall now. But we had decided we were not turning around if we missed something. Up through Perham, and backroads over to Menahga where we used to deer hunt. Stopped at Chuck's for Groceries for lunch.

Thought of Marty Giese as we passed by his church in Park Rapids. We stopped and Chuck ran into connections from Africa. Then Marty showed up and invited us for a fish fry for supper (dinner for you city folk), and put us up overnight. Great time of prayer and fellowship. I loved hearing about their old stories of Mo-kah-um.

The next day we encouraged a lady at the gas station, and then went on to Walker and fished on the bridge between Leech Lake and Kabekona bay. Chuck caught the biggest fish and we met Tommy and Jennifer, and Annabelle, and were blessed by being able to pray with them.

On towards Cass Lake. Chuck saw a golf course so we stopped for nine holes. Chuck found a memorial bench with the name Bill Ross, the son of one of dad's great mentors, and my spirirtual example as a child, Selam Ross. Selam was the only non family member who showed up for my college graduation. When we were done golfing Chuck said we should get on to Cass Lake. I told him we were already there! So we stopped and ate supper.

Then we went fishing at the Mission Bridge. No luck. Beautiful sunset. On to Fosston for the night. Tomorrow we get to North Dakota.

But first, Cabela's in East Grand Forks. Then a trek to Devils Lake where Chuck doesn't really comprehend what he was seeing in contrast to what it was like as a kid. But when we get to Churches Ferry and see the water there it started to sink in. On the way we stopped at a Garage sale and bought some stuff and prayed with the seller too, for her family.

On to Rugby the geographical Centre of North America, from the south tip of Mexico to the northe tip of the tundra. Pictures and food and then up to Dunseith. Not pleasant in Dunseith so on to Bottineau for a stay at the Super 8. Chuck met Frankie from Belcourt at the Walmart, and also an exwife of the sister of a classmate from St. John.. Chuck remembers everything.

Next morning on to Metigoshe to fish, but first of all a garage sale up by the lake. Good stuff and the lady of the couple had spent time as a missionary in Ghana. She has been a church music leader in Fargo for 35 years. or more. We prayed with her before we left.

On to the fishing store to buy licenses. Oh by the way it has been raining and cloudy all the time in North Dakota. So we went down to the bridge. Chuck started getting his gear together, and I put on a red and white daredevil and made a cast. I caught a 7-8 lb northern on the first cast. Then another three pounder, 20 inches.

We watched a man teach a flyfishing casting class. He was most excellent.

Then we went to look for the Dunseith Alliance Mission. Couldn't find it, so headed to Upsilon.

Went by Leo and Lorraine Haas' place and stopped to find Larry there. He invited us for supper. Then his wife came home and seconded the motion. Brother Carl from Andover, Minnesota was also there for a wedding. Great Spahgetti meal, with two adult daughters, one boyfriend and two grandkids from another of their children. We prayed and ate and prayed and were blessed and went on our way to Upsilon. On the way we stopped at Gravel lake and fished in the rain. No luck. Then we went to Upsilon and fished in the rain until almost dark. No luck.

Then on to St. John. Betty Davis had no lights on, and we drove around town having memories. We ended up at Ducky Laroque's where Jim Davis family used to live. That was a fantastic time of fun and catching up on when we were kids. Then we prayed with them and left blessed out of our socks.

Off to Rolla to find a motel. We both voted no. This was about 11:30. We kept going and finally ended up in Devils Lake at about 1:30. Super 8. Both Haas' and Ducky had invited us to stay overnight. But this way we could sleep in.

The next morning we went fishing on the St. Michaels Bridge on Devils Lake. The boaters were catching, but we weren't. We finally gave up and went to Fort Totten. They have built new roads so things looked different. We finally headed for Jamestown, and I saw the road to Wood Lake Camp and Belchers. So we turned there and then Chuck remembered where Jab's farm was so we went there! We found Carol who was the wife of the person he worked for. This was old home week for them too. We fixed her garage door on the quonset and then had coffee! Then prayed and on the way south. But we went north first, then down 20 to 200 and over to Cooperstown where I knew the pastor of the Free Church. He was not around so we went golfing until dark. Most excellent Course. Then off to Fargo for the night to pick up Arly's coat she left there earlier in the week.

Next Morning off to Minnesota.

Stopped at Fergus Falls so Chuck could Skype with Peggy. While at the motel, I talked with a man who compared himself to Job. He was not exaggerating. His wife died two years ago because of conflicting prescriptions. His house burned down on Monday, and his two cats and three dogs perished in the fire. We prayed with him for his encouragement.

Then back to Ashby and the ARCH. Chuck caught three bass keepers. At 4:00 we left the lake, stopped for ice, and at 8:00 we were back in Maplewood. Chuck ate the bass for lunch the next day, the 10th.

More Pictures to follow.

Duluth and Two Harbors

2009-08-02T20:55:00.000-07:00

First DAY of Summer 2009

2009-06-20T21:20:00.000-07:00

It is also fathers day today, and some nearly record high temperatures were experience in Duluth Superior Saturday.

I love my children, who are now adults and carving their own way through this world.

They are my daughter, Gianna, and my son, Andrew, whom I love, and with whom I am well pleased.

I love my grand children, and enjoy that they are so honest about their feelings.

I love my Son-in-law, who is a great father to his children, and a great husband to my daughter.

And I love my son's significant other, for being such a beneficient rock for my son.

And I love my wife who made this all possible.

Happy Anniversary

2009-05-12T00:28:00.000-07:00

I love being able to say "Happy Anniversary." Happy is good. Anniversary is for celebrating.

To be married thirty six years means I must be kinda old, but my mind is playing tricks on my body, or is it my body playing tricks on my mind.

We are still learning about each other. Nothing stays the same and we grow in understanding and caring and affection.

This is all I will say about this subject in a public forum.

Obligations greater than time.

2009-05-03T20:19:00.000-07:00

It seems like we always are having to make choices. That is not so hard when you greatly desire something, and the other choices which are left are not desired as much. And money, or lack of it, forces us into sometimes less than adequate decisions. But what really bugs me is that I only have so much time. The only thing that is mine to really give is my time. Having a job is great, and having a great job is really great, but it uses time. Time with kids, and grandkids, and friends, and old relatives who are dying, and young relatives who are living, and who knows, they might be dying too.
This weekend we went to a funeral of an aunt on my wife's side. I had not seen her cousins since one was an usher in our wedding. Here I am older and grayer, and 5'8" and he is a little younger than me and 6'7" and we got along famously. Another one did not recognize me even sitting with my wife his cousin in the family funeral room.
Their mom was great. She had her funeral all planned out. So it was like she was there.
But that took all weekend. The funeral was in Orange City, Iowa on Saturday, and we started in Danbury, and had to go to Duluth and Back and then down. It just takes so much time.
And next weekend I have a nephew graduating from college, and we are having a day with the grandkids, and both of them are super important to us. Grandkids will win every time, but it still is a choice. So I look forward to eternity where we will be able to fellowship. But in the meantime I only have 30 or forty years left if I am given a long life. Ten years if the averages hold true.
Really short when you think about it that way.
Got to get busy if I am going to finish what I have in my mind.

2009-04-19T17:10:00.000-07:00

A Day for Play

St. Louis River Bay with an Ore Boat headed for Missabe Taconite Dock -

The Foreground are Superior Grain Elevators

The Big Falls at Gooseberry Falls State Park.

Looking Eastward from Silver Cliff -

The Encampment Tunnel entrance in the center of the picture.

Arly searching for Agates on Superior's Shore at Knife River.

Wave Spray on the East side of Stoney Point between Knife River and Duluth.

Religion

2009-04-18T04:49:00.000-07:00

I have been challenged to think on the meaning of being alive, and whether or not we are but "goo by the way of the zoo", and what religion has to do with making life better.

So a couple of hundred years ago, an infitesimally insignificant amount of time in the existence of the universe as scientists now date it, there was a guy who said "Let's see, there is a three foot tall anthropod here, and a three and a half foot tall anthropod there, and a four foot tall anthropod over there, and they become progressively more erect, so therefore they must be evolved from each other." He was a poor little kid who actually had the wherewithal to sail around the world, and got this evolution idea while in the Galapagos islands. I know that is oversimplifying, but that is the pigeonhole in my head. And I don't even care. It doesn't matter to me if animals evolved. It doesn't matter to me what religions want me to think. What matters is that I have or don't have a relationship with The Creator of the Universe, not the way it was created.

Religon is 1. Human's rules to get along, 2. Human's attempts to reach god, 3. Human's attempts to control other people.

Christianity has been pillaged and raped and converted into a consumerism in Western Culture of Right Wing Reactionary Political Action or Left Wing Social Liberal liaissez faire. People go to church meetings to get their needs met once or twice or three times a week. I wonder if most North Americans know Jesus Christ know Jesus was a dark skinned Jew?

What about Islam? A lot of rules to follow for a chance to maybe go to heaven. Killing an infidel gives you a better chance. Being a martyr gives you an even better chance.

Where is Nirvana.

What does that have to do with Love.

Why are Turkish Christians considered traitors just because they are Christians.

The Churches of the first century in Revelation are all from Turkey.

USA is doomed, just like the Roman Empire, unless we quit being such arrogant, elitist, empire building, self aggrandizing, others diminutizing snobs.

Oh, and by the way, the "scientific method" evolved out of Christian Universities, I might even assert "Protestant" Universities established for the free pursuit of knowledge. Remember Galileo, excommunicated because of the flap of the world being flat?

How many of the most respected Universities in the world were founded by Christian Churches, such as Harvard, Brown, Yale, Georgetown.

Easter - What ?

2009-04-12T08:23:00.001-07:00

Sunday - 10:26 a.m. I have been ill with strep the last 4 days. My natural immunity usually takes care of this but I guess there has been too much stress in my life the last year or two, so this time I used the fruit of the mold to ward off the icky little bugs. Right now is the first time I have felt even since last Wednesday.
So being under the weather, and not wanting to spread it to others, and being too weak to do a six hour morning list of Easter activities with the Danforth Community, where we now usually are to be found on a Sunday morning, and after listening to various news commentators on TV about the meaning of Easter and Passover, on the same day this year, and Religion, I feel like I must comment on my thought.
Passover is the celebration of a horrible event in Egypt during which the Jewish firstborn males were saved from death, while the non Jewish died. Being firstborn in our family, it gets very personal. Had I lived then I would have died. This is an historic event, as well preserved in tradition and writings of antiquity as is Babylon and the Wonders of the Ancient World. About 3,500 years ago.
Easter is what Christians celebrate. About 2,000 years ago Jesus, the Christ, an innocent of any sin, suffered a horrible death of crucifiction. But here is the difference. On the first day of the week after Passover Saturday, he rose again. Now no-one is mandated to die any more. Of course if you don't want to accept that gift, that is up to each person, but it is there for you. Jesus said the greatest commandment was to Love God, and the second commandment, To Love Our Neighbor as Ourself.
There is a problem with Jesus, according to Joe Stowell, MBI, and RBC ministries. The problem is that he said he was God. And that he was the only way to God. Jesus did not say, every other religion is full of all bad things, just that if it is God you are looking to have a personal relationship with, Jesus is the one way. The fact is, the Prophet Mohammed did not say he was God, Budda nor Confucious did not say they were God, Joshua, Elisha, Elijah, nor Moses nor John the Baptist said they were God.
If I did not believe that Jesus actually rose from the death in a human body and then ascended to heaven, I would follow Buddhism. The tenets of oneness, and peace, and love all make sense if there is not a supreme being over the universe.
But because I believe there is a supreme being, because nature cries out that it is so, and then believing there are realms of existance that are not apparant to our five senses, and with not understanding why the most intelligent persons as we measure it only use eight percent of their brain power, I look for this supreme being to send me a message. And on the first Easter he proved he was God.

I love my Wife, my Kids, my Grandkids, and my Kid's partners.
They are all wonderful people. And we don't all believe the same thing about God.

Catch up

2009-04-05T05:42:00.000-07:00

I am such a bad blogger. But I have found out now that I prefer Blog to facebook, for what I want to say. So today, through the day i will catch you up.

Help

2008-09-07T10:47:00.000-07:00

Gianna,
How do I do the new thing you showed me on blogging?
Dad

Summer Vacation 2008

2008-09-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

Summer Vacation
By
George French

I had a fun summer vacation. We planned a vacation trip to the National Grasslands west of the Badlands west of Medora, North Dakota, at Buffalo Gap.

Monday was Labor Day, the first day of September. We packed up our tent, ground cloth, gear, sleeping bags, folding chairs, mattress pads, blankets, pillows, cookstove, dishes, food, clothing and reading materials. We started out on Tuesday and left our apartment at Sandstone at 10:00 a.m. We got to Fargo, NoDak about 2 p.m.
And after a short stop at Hobby Lobby and Barnes and Nobles were on the road again towards Bismark. We got to Bismark about 6 p.m. and it was sprinkling and the weather forecast was for showers. So we were rained out the first night. We walked over to a nearby restaurant for supper, then strolled for a couple miles around the Capitol grounds.
Wednesday we woke up and headed west. I was not feeling the best, and thought it might have been something I ate the night before or being dehydrated, since I have had that issue before. We got to Dickinson and stopped at the local grocery store for our perishable food items and ice for the cooler. This was about nine a.m. When we got done shopping Arly took a look at me and said, you look funny, we are going to the hospital. I was feeling so poorly that I did not even put up a fuss. So by ten we were in the emergency room. By the way they treated me and the questions they asked I could tell they were suspicious I was having a heart problem. So there I was, in hospital gown and BVD’s (Hanes for you younger folks) being prodded and poked and looked at in my eyes, ears, nose and throat. My BP was normal, temp 99, no out ward signs of infection, no pain at all (which was strange, because I usually have a pang here or there). So I wait because I could hear they had more urgent cases in the ER with me, but finally a Dr. comes in. He does a bunch of neuro exams, and finds I have a twitchy right eye, which told him my left inner ear gyroscope was on the fritz. So he goes away and in comes a nurse to do an ekg strip, and a hemo guy to get my blood. Then about ½ hour later the Doc comes in again to tell me I passed, not dehydrated, no heart problem, no hidden infection, and all I need to do is take Dramamine Meclyzine formula for the next six days. Well I had psychological relief from the news but I was still dizzier and spacier than a hoot owl. So The Doc said I would be ok so we headed towards Medora, 37 miles away. As we pull into town about three in the afternoon it starts to rain, continuously, with occasionally heavier showers. So we find another motel room for the night. That worked out ok. On TV it said that we got down to 35 that night with occasional patches of frost.
The next morning we went to Beach. We saw a cowboy riding the range checking out his doagies for fall roundup. The fog was below the tops of the Buttes, We had Breakfast at Rose’s Café. The best meal of the trip. I don’t know how she stays in business. Arly’s Omlette was big enough to serve four. My Haminex was likewise of enormous portions and proportions, meat as thick as Dad’s thumb, with a load of spuds, and a grain car of bread and some of Kenya’s finest to wash it down. Over easy. Dark toast, Strawberry preserves.
So we decided to go to eastern Montana, which was a mile away, and then go south to Baker. Cow country par excellence`!
We had to stop and take a nap cuz we was so plump and the sun was warm. I was still feeling dizzy so Arly was Driving.
We Turned left at Baker and headed back into North Dakota. This was about 79 miles after we had brunch. We came across a ghost of a town that had seen its better days. Manmouth had 10,000 souls in its prime and was the railroad cattle shipping center for three states, Montana, SoDak, and NoDak. It had Sandstone Buildings, and brick buildings, and not much else. We stopped at a store that sold rattlesnake skins and dinosaur bones, paper and clothes, and antiques. That is where we found out about the new NoDak Hillbillies, even without hills. It seems that some of these folk have got so much so fast from the boom that the young folk have to tell grandma, that she needs to deposit them $50,000.00 checks in the banks, cuz they is only good for so long!

Arly bought something. I had to hike around town to find the only public loo open. Nice little Bar, clean and friendly.
We were thinking that since the sun was out maybe we could camp. We headed southeast to Bowman.

Another nice prairie town, but again it started raining. We went north to get out of the rain. It started raining more. Went by the highest point of NoDak, White Butte, and it was raining. Got up to Belfield, and it quit raining but the wind was forty mile an hour from the W/NW and it was aboot 50 degrees. We decided God was telling us to “git oot o’ here” so we hoisted our sail and blew back to Bismarck, 80 miles east. So we did. And ate at a little Italian place I liked that starts with “W”, but Arly didn’t have as good food as me.
So Friday Morning after our commune with God we felt we should go back to Sandstone and finish starting our business.
I am still not feeling well, though I am not feeling sick, either. Sort of a weird limbo.
And that is my summer vacation.

St. John Memorial Day ramblings

2008-05-26T12:34:00.000-07:00

I got overextended physically on Saturday, again. The 20 mile bike ride for the first ride of the year probably did it. Running at 9 – 12 mph. So I dehydrated a little and got déjà vu, all over again.
So Sunday was a do nothing day until four o’clock when we went over to see Pat and Arlin and their family that was up at the lake.
We were over there when the tornado hit Hugo.
Today we watched Christmas shoes, a movie with Rob Lowe and other big names, which was great and made me cry and think about the dash of my life, which brought me to St. John. As a result of that movie Arly just asked me if I was doing what I want with my life, or was I just doing what I had to do to pay the bills. She is encouraging me to think in a way I haven’t since college.

So I started thinking of St. John, North Dakota, where I did really grow up. I adapted to change. I never thought of myself as a white man until age 14. That realization was rough on me. My culture in me is Metis/Ojibway. The culture around Danbury, for the oldtimers, is Ojibway/logger. Flavel Merton Ray French had a lot of Ojibway in him, though not by blood. Arda Roy was my scoutmaster when I started Boy Scouts. But Dad was there a lot. We met in the Izaak Walton League building. They called it a Cabin, but it was really a conventional built building that was a club house for grown up men. It was right across the street from the elementary school. There was a Mounted Moose Head over the door as you walked in.
St. John had a history of development. We had a tennis court with a basketball hoop across the street. Then there was the MBA Hall where the community activities were held, with Dances every Friday night. Dad was the cop who had to keep all in order. That was tough when the “toughs” from Belcourt and Rolla would meet to duke it out on Main Street in St. John.
We had a Veteran’s memorial park where every year on Memorial day until I was 16, I would play taps. When Chuck got old enough he would play, and I would echo. Then Gussie got in on the act too.
The WWII and Korean Vets would be there in uniform, proud of their country, and missing the fallen comrades.
All the Boy Scouts would be there too, and would parade with the Vets to the memorial.

Last night on TV WCCO replayed “The Last Flagraiser”, the story of Chuck Lindberg from Grand Forks, North Dakota, who along with his company of Marines were tasked with raising a flag on the mountain on Iwo Jima. 70,000 marines started to take that island. Over 7,000 died, over 20,000 injured, was the human cost directly, but none of them ever forgot. Chuck was one of the people who raised the first flag. The famous picture, and the Marine memorial, are the second flag raising. Chuck is the last surviving flag raiser. That happened on February 18, 1945, slightly more than five years before I was born.

Joe Jeannotte is a real marine from St. John, North Dakota, now a police investigator in Chicago. Maybe retired in the last couple of years. He was my hero as a kid. He was a Sea Scout in St. John. Think of it. Mike Wanschaffe, Commander, started a Sea Scout group in St. John, North Dakota, 1500 miles from the Pacific, 1500 miles from the Atlantic, 1500 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, and about 1400 miles from Hudson Bay. But they were shipshape.

We salute all Veterans and service men and women. Including Jacob Flavel French.

Wacky Week

2008-04-13T06:12:00.000-07:00

The state legislature published a picture in the weekly session review of March 31, 2008. The caption was regarding the capitol grounds covered with snow from a March snow. It stated that it was the last snow of the season. Soooo wrong. Another snowstorm came on April 1, that covered the north land. Virginia received 32 inches. Danbury received 7 inches. Then this week, on April 10th and 11th Danbury got 17 inches and this tapered off down towards the cities.

Bad news this week. Arly's cousin Keith Carlson died in a farm accident near Sunburg, Mn. He was caught up in an auger on a feed mill powered by a tractor with a power take off. The Funeral is Tuesday. Life is now. We need to plan for the future, but We need to live now, for now is our destiny.
Grief is greater when we are closer.

Arly and I are moving to Sandstone this week. Enough of this being apart.

Pat and Arlin helped yesterday with their trailer. Arlin Got stuck in the driveway in the remainder of the 17 inches of snow, about 12 inches of icy heavy snow. He got out by disconnecting the trailer, using four wheel drive to go through the woods, going out on Hayden Lake Road on the bare tar, and hooking two chains together, and pulling the trailer backwards up onto the road.

I feel, therefore I am.
I am, therefore I feel.

I am blessed, therefore there is a Blesser.
There is a Blesser, thereby I am blessed.

I am, therefore I exist.
I exist, therefore I am.

PS

2008-04-03T03:44:00.000-07:00

I see so many deer each day, it is commonplace and I didn't remember to post it!

Birthday Turkeys

2008-04-03T03:27:00.000-07:00

Well if it isn't one thing it is another.
This week it has been Turkeys. The week started with me seeing turkeys on the way to Danbury on Sunday. Plus one eagle out by St. Croix State Park. Then on the way to work Monday there were big flocks, including a flock crossing the road precisely where I hit a deer with my car 18 months ago. They were actually following the deer trail. There were about a dozen.
So that afternoon I went to the cities to Maya's birthday party. Met mi esposa and stuck around in the Heavy Snow Warning zone so long that we could not get to Danbury that night, so we stayed and slept in the BIG CITY.
Roads were slippery and wet on Tuesday. It takes about an hour and a half to drive, when you stop for gas and coffee, from New Brighton to Sandstone, from the driveway to the desk.
Without hope in our life, what is the point? Of Anything?
Without hope, does beauty exist?
Eagles are beautiful to me. But why?
Sunsets are beautiful to me. But why?
With the Ropes of the Past We Ring the Bells of the Future. (Evansville Senior Class 1968)

Black Dirt

2008-03-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

I live in an area with deep sand, according to the well drillers about 100 feet are sand before rock and clay. This weekend in west central Minnesota the snow is melted, unlike the foot and a half we have near Danbury. What you see is black dirt, or really mud, because it is still wet. Whereas in Oakland Township we welcome the rain because it firms up the sand, the contrary is true here, because when moisture is added to the black loam, Richardson, I believe it is, it turns to a bottomless quagmire. It also warms up faster and retains heat longer, which is why it is supreme cropland.
On an outing yesterday the terns were kiting across the fields in the 15-20 mile per hour breeze. A couple pairs of ducks whizzed by in the 20 minutes we were on the road.
This early morning there were Robins singing and alerting with their two distinct sounds, and the mourning doves were coo, coo, cooing. We could hear the train coming and it took 20 minutes to get to our location.
The low temperature for the night was 36 Farenheit so the puddles from the melted snow were mirror like.
I is a beautiful sunrise, purple to pink to gray.
Promises in the dirt, and in the sky.

A Horse of Any Color

2008-03-28T19:59:00.000-07:00

Well today I was heading west down the highway to the river and the sun was coming up in my rear view mirror. It was so bright I had to put the night setting on the rear view mirror to keep from being blinded. As I exited the pine plantation on my right I noticed three deer out in the clover field that is half a mile deep towards the north and stretches for a mile along the road. Then I realized there were more deer, three here, four there, three more, three more, five more and three more until by the end of the field I estimate about 25 to 30 were out there. So then I went through another woods area and came out and there was a horse standing in the ditch. I stopped and shooed it back through the hole in the fence and then went up to the house and told the owner. He was grateful.
Then nothing happened the rest of the way to work, other than a few pairs of geese, and a trio of mallards.
But it was a bright brisk morning.
No snow like they predicted.

I will be in another part of the state for the weekend.

Have a great one, weekend that is.

Two by Two

2008-03-27T20:44:00.000-07:00

I stepped out the back door today and heard some spring crows cawing in the distance. You can hear better in the early spring because there are no leaves on the trees except for the dead oak leaves that will fall off as soon as the new growth start. The snow that is left on the ground that is melting during the forty degree days, freezes during the twenty degree nights. So the snow is a perfect sounding board.
Hearing the crows caused me to pause, and then I could hear a brace of geese softly squawking to each other as they glided by, seeing and avoiding me.
As I went down the road I saw a pair of long necked turkey vultures gliding and occasionally flapping their wings in perfect unison.
A cup of coffee made the morning complete.
And then a drake and hen mallard flew by.
The waterfowl are back, and the buzzards are finding the remains of the winter damage.
Life begins again today.
I saw a deer as big as a cow this afternoon. It was sneaking across the highway 300 yards in front of my car, acting as though it thought I did not see it. The sun is setting later, so of course I did.

Could not see the antlers, but, it was a gray old thing.

Later

Eagles and Deer, Spring is Here

2008-03-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

On the way home yesterday I was tired. The sun was low in the sky. I saw three deer cross the road ahead of me. Then I turned the corner and saw four more. Two miles down the road I saw six more out in the field. I had to slow down for one that was standing on the road. Then traveling east on 48 I saw a field full of them. So the total was about 40 by the time I got home. I also saw one eagle flying and one sitting in a tree and one on the side of the road.

Today there were more deer, I saw at least fifty. And one Eagle.

There is nothing nicer than the sun shining and snow melting in the spring. Driving with the window down and smelling the freshness of the land.

Unless it is walking in the spring and listening and hearing, as well as seeing.

MEANWHILE - BACK AT THE CABIN - A Year Later

2008-03-24T18:37:00.000-07:00

This has been a good year and a very bad year.

The bad started in Feb 2007 when we found out, primarily by having two snowstorms in a two week period, that Arly is allergic to something in the oaks. We had her tested and the result was, . . . . Arly is allergic to oak mold. So what we have here is oak and no wind, damp moist sand that is permeated with mold from the collections of leaves. We live in oak forest, not oak savannah, so now we are trying to find how to solve the problem.
Normal prescription drugs had no effect so she went homeopathic. The homeopath said he could give temporary relief which he did, but the thing that helped the best was going and visiting a friend in North Dakota for a week. She got better and came back home. Then her dad got sick, and his machine shed burned down, then he really got bad, and in the middle of summer he died. So there was that added insult to her system. Then in early September we went on a wonderful camping trip to the North Dakota Badlands. We love the view, and she kept saying it was so wonderful to breathe.
That comes back later.
Then my boss retired and I tried for her job and didn't get it. Then in the week before Christmas 2007 Arly damaged her eye. I accidently josteled her elbow when I was getting out of bed and she was rubbing her eyes. It turned out that she had been massaging her eyes everymorning for the whole year, except when we were on vacation, and coinciding has had trouble breathing, because her eyelids were sticking to her cornea. Her cornea was ripped and two optometrists and two opthalmogists said the the ripping was caused by dry eye which was caused by her mold allergy.
So since January 2008 she has been living in Kerkhoven , while I have been in Danbury and Kerkhoven.

So we need to move.

It is sad that such a beautiful place can be toxic for her.

We are looking for our next place to live.

Hayden Lake is beautiful.
I saw three eagles today, and I saw three deer this evening.
This is a God thing, and we don't know what God's will is for the next step, but we are taking it by looking for a place to live in or near Sandstone, where I work.

All things change, except God.

Winter, WalMart, Wagging tongues

2007-01-13T07:34:00.000-08:00

W 1.
So this is Winter. We are actually below zero Farenheit. So the ice will be thicker than the 6 inches it was last weekend when Arlin and boys were up. And a puffing of snow cleaned up everything, and the cooking sounds and smells Arly is issuing forth, I need to go make some coffee. A bright hot fire in the woodstove toasting my little piggies, all of which stayed home today. Usually they stay together, since they are attached to the rest of my feet.
After a busy week of finding services for people with mental health crisis, this is the way to relax.
A bite of toast, a cup of coffee, a couple blogs, a few good verses, a book of pictures from the olden days (1964) and a dvd about the early 1900's in P.E.I., a magazine about Hunting in Alberta, Canada, and a phone call from a person with pre-cancer reminding me that I am well, a loving wife, children blessed with life and companions, and beautiful grand children, I am blessed. No matter what the other struggles may be.

W 2.
Walmart - Den of evil? If so, not the only one. How about oil companies, Television, restaurants. Try living like, in Bolivia. Where one million people, out of 8 million population, marched in rebellionto the oppressive minority government, which is killing people and taking away religious freedom. Where is the press? http://us.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/12/15/bolivia.constitution.ap/index.html

W 3.
Wagging Tongues - Gossips in all locations, (gossip = murder). Quote of the week.
"If the Devil can not make you into a out and out sinner, he will make you into a self righteous churchgoer." You see, it causes the same result in people that don't know Jesus, they ditch Christian churches and all that goes with them. Self-righteous Christian is an oxymoron. Self righteousness is a dirty rag to God. No matter how good we are. That is why we need Mercy and Grace. We can't be perfect. But God provided the perfection He needs in us as a gift to us. So we can know Him. And the most valid reason for following the law of love, or the "golden rule" is because Jesus said to do that, and we should Love out of appreciation for what he did for us.

Tracy, TreyC, Tracey

2007-01-06T06:20:00.000-08:00

Apology to Tracey for posting her name with the incorrect spelling.

A thoroughly despicable occurence without a trace of redeeming value whatsoever, which, though unintentional, nevertheless can have far reaching consequences which is the reason this writer beseeches Tracey most humbly for her gracious forgiveness.
Puleeze?

New Year

2007-01-02T20:15:00.000-08:00

What is in store for the gNu yEar. The sound of Music, or the Trumpet?

We won't have any "Idols" when THE trumpet sounds.

So many things are in flux at this time. Everyone in our family has challenges. So, how we face the challenges is what makes the difference.

Truth and Beauty be showered upon you through this new year.

Hi Tracy

On God

2006-08-20T07:59:00.000-07:00

The largest god will find you as you seek the largest god.

If the largest god couldn't find you, would the largest god be the largest god?

I think not.

Seek GOD.

More about Flavel

2006-08-20T07:18:00.000-07:00

There are some curi-oddities about dad. He always laid his bread on the back of his hand when eating a slice of bread and butter, or a sandwich. I was disciplined once for slapping a piece of bread off Lis or Mona's hand and telling (or yelling) that is dad's way of eating bread. He also said the rhyme regularly, "I eat my peas with honey, I've done it all my life. It may seem rather funny, but it keeps them on my knife." This came up because Pat saw me eating a piece of bread that way a little while ago. It either has to do with Dad being so muscular that he couldn't turn his hand around, or that he ate lunches out in the woods, with dirty hands, and the back of his hands were cleaner. The back's of his hands were pretty hairy things. Maybe not so pretty.

Dad held his Bible that way when he was preaching, also. He would twist his hand around to hold his Bible while he was looking up a passage, but then when he was preaching he would lay it open on the back of his left hand and emphasize with his right hand. He wasn't too charismatic, or the Bible wouldn't have stayed on his hand. I remember him in the chapel, where the Berean Christian Fellowship met. He kept the regular meeting going until I was about 12, although C&MA closed their support of the work when I was four.

After that closure, dad went to work doing anything he could find to earn money. Actually he was doing that before as well. Because the support was meager. I remember as a kid of 6 years old, in the house we lived in on main street, walking into the kitchen and smelling this strange smell. I asked mom what it was, she said beef. She was boiling it for stew in the pot. It was not until I was much older that I realized we didn't have much for meat. I recognized the smell of venison and rabbit and squirrel and grouse or partridge, but not beef or pork. I don't remember fish at that age but a couple of years later Chuck and I were the mighty fisherman, casting using a small coffee can, with a dowel nailed in crosswise as a handle, and a fifty or seventyfive foot piece of 30 lb test braided fishing line tied around the handle and wrapped around the can, with a leader and a daredevil, whipping it around like David's sling throwing at Goliath, and we were able to hit a garbage can at fifty feet. The point is, I think dad made those for us to start with, then we improved them. Chuck always experimented more than I did.
Dad helped me make my first slingshot. He had his eye out for good slingshot saplings and every once in a while would bring one home.
One of the jobs he had was town constable, and that started before I remember. I think it was after 1955. I do remember getting a siren put in our car, and a flashing red light to plug into our accessory plug, although, that is not what the outlet in the car was called then, like detectives have in real life. I was dispatched to blow that siren once when we had an ice storm and the electricity was out, and a fire was called in. Dad was also the fire chief, and he had to go start the fire truck, at the fire hall/jail, which was 25 feet from our yard across LaRocques yard. (That was a narrow house.) I think that was when Langan's burned, that would be Chuck's classmate, Donald.

Mom told of Dad coming back up here occassionally to Danbury on a weekend to cut a couple of loads of cordwood so he would have money back at St. Paul Bible Institute. (Crown College) which used to be in St. Paul. That was before the age of chain saws. So he was a real lumberjack.

I had a terrible habit of hitting my siblings, which they have either forgotten, or forgiven, or are still waiting to get me back, for which they would be justified, but one day when I was seventeen dad had his opportunity, and this is how it went. Mom and Mona and Dad and I were in the kitchen. I whocked Mona hard in the shoulder over some imagined slight, I don't even remember what, but dad whocked me on both shoulders six or seven times, telling me not to do that again. It got my attention. But then was the thing that really got my attention. He started sobbing, telling me how sorry he was, but he had to get my attention.

He was right.

All for now.

Dad Flavel Memories

2006-08-16T20:36:00.000-07:00

It is mostly easy to remember good things about dad here in Danbury where he grew up. It was a tough region when he was growing up, and he had the mouth and temper of a lumberjack. Those were two of the things he struggled with as an adult, although regenerated by the Holy Spirit.

A lot of my memories with dad are about the out of doors. Sometimes with Becky and Mona and Lis and Leda, but usually with Chuck and me and sometimes just with me.

I was ten or so when dad taught me how to drive. We were at the dump, about a mile from our house. We had a 47 dodge truck that we hauled wood, and ice, and furniture and garbage in. It had a four on the floor manual transmission, along with clutch. Dad started home, then stopped in the middle of the road. He asked me if I wanted to drive. I was hardly big enough to push the clutch down, but he must have been thinking about it before. So we switched places. I killed the engine a couple of times, but finally got going about five miles an hour, and then I needed to shift. He told me to push in the clutch and shift into second. I pushed in the clutch, but it didn't shift very easy. I looked at what I was shifting a proceeded to drive into the ditch. He grabbed the wheel and steered us back on the road. All he said was, you have to watch the road and shift by feel.

That was a good memory without judgement even though I messed up.

When I was twelve I was able to deer hunt. The first day the season started at noon. Dad told me where to sit and where the deer would come out. So I went there about 11:30. He was walking in a circle and would come out where I was.
About 12:15 I heard some crashing out in the slough. It got real loud and I whistled and the noise stopped. Then it started again and a deer jumped out. I raised my gun and it wouldn't shoot. The safety was on. I took off the safety and it still would shoot. The bolt lever was raised. I re-cocked it and shot. The deer jumped and ran away. I shot twice more.
Later we found that my first shot hit a tree fifteen feet in the air above the deer. About five minutes later dad got there. He was disappointed I had not been able to get my first deer, but he was happy that I was hooked on hunting!
Another memory was that dad was working away all week when I was about 10.
Ronnie, my friend, and I built a raft on a pond. Dad came home on Friday night. This was probably in the fall. There was a school meeting of some sort, and I had made plans to stay overnight with Ronnie and then go down to the Ike's Dam Lake bright and early. So I saw dad across the gym and waved, and then left to Ronnies on that Friday night. We went down to the lake the next morning and about 10:30 in the morning dad walked down from the road and said it's time to go home. No problem there, I wasn't in trouble, and I went home. Then when we got in the car dad was choked up with emotion, sadness. That was the first time I knew he could be heart broken by something to do with me. Unintentionally on my part.

There are three memories.

Toronto-Tanzania-Timbuktu

2006-08-15T20:13:00.000-07:00

Toronto is the site of a significant conference right now. It is a world conference on AIDS.
Jo is there. She has been serving on the front line in Tanzania. She lives with kids who are infected. Adults who are infected. Kids who are dying. Adults who are dying. Kids whose parents have died and parents whose children have died. People who are malnourished, homeless, and without adequate medical care, medicines or food.

Jo, you are a rock.

Sailing

2006-08-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

This weekend I decided to sell my C-Scow. What a decision. Last year at the end of the year I thought that our little lake was too small for a sailboat that can go 25 knots. And the wind swirls and plays havoc with maintaining a regular course of direction.
I searched for a place to sell it and put it on the web, and our friend T. scanned several pictures and sent them to us on email. So they are posted.
As I was leading up to, the boat is too big. It should have a crew of three, it takes an hour to set up, and we don't live on a big lake where we can leave it up.
So now I have a Bomardier Invitation in restorable shape, and that is a project for next year.
Some what a meta physical decision too, what with realizing life does have some limitations.

I realize one lifetime is not enough to do everything that I want to do. I wonder how God works that out.

We had a nice little stroll down the road tonight. I had a little headache which is now gone.

Nothing special tonight.

Take care you all.

HaydenLoon

2006-08-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, August 09, 2006 Andrew French writes

The end of an era

Yesterday I quit my job.

I feel great.

You should too.

First a little background: I have been working there at the cafe since January of 2005. Almost every day my boss, Nathalie the Phsycologically Disturbed Progressive Democratic Nazi, would find something to complain about, somebody to ream. I felt that I would try to redirect her energies into more positive avenues, such as food. I don't even know why she has a restaurant, because to me it doesn't seem like she likes food. I love food. I love the farmer's market and the farmers, I love cooking for friends and family, I love the colors, textures, and flavors. I just dig edible stuff. So you'd think working at a small cafe right across from where I live would be a good thing, right? Wrong, man. Wrongo.

NPDPDN and her husband would constantly fight, even screaming at each other about ten feet away from paying eating customers. I honestly thought they were going to get a divorce, I don't even understand why they haven't gotten a divorce with all the pressure. Her husband doesn't even want to be there. He hates the customers.

And there was the heat and the filth and the grease and the mess and the mouse shit and the mice. Those were the physical things that bothered me, but that I thought could be fixed at some point. I also wanted to steer the food toward organic and vegetarian fare, and I didn't want to use bagged mashed potatoes and soup. What the hell is the point of convenience when the whole purpose of the business is to create good food? I wanted to cook, not dish up one more goddamn pot roast with fried potatoes for one more white-haired bitchy welfare sucking blue-brained sycophant debutante geezer. So I had my own problems.The main mental strain came about because there were a few good things about the place, sort of. Pretty good wage. I had ample time off (not paid). Free food. That's about it, and I didn''t like the free food.

But NPDPDN would compliment me sometimes, make me feel she cared, then yell at me for some dumb thing that I messed up or wasn't even involved with. There were a number of times I came home ready to just quit. But I hung in there, because maybe things would get better.NPDPDN: I was talking about how all my pets were tragically killed and she said, "You should not have pets. Wouldn't you get a clue after the first few were killed?" And she wasn't joking. That is probably the worst thing anybody has ever said to me. And she didn't apologize. And that same day I came home to find out that one of my best friends had killed herself. There is something about that connection that really stands out in my head.

For compleat unabridged version go to

http://www.thecosmicmonkey.blogspot.com

So this is what I learned in the last 3 years:You need to have a plan of where you want to be in three years.I am a hard worker that can tolerate most anything, psychological or physical.Your co-workers are the most important part of a job.I am an artist, and I should behave like one.Let that be a lesson to you. Don't allow anyone to treat you badly. They can treat themselves as badly as they want, but you are worthy of respect, just by being alive.

Laments

2006-08-13T06:37:00.000-07:00

Laments By Johanna Rose Muthoni French Tanzania the Terra inFirma
Thursday, April 13, 2006

My dearest Princess Elizabeth
Id rather not analyze this poem too much
And find out its literary theory
If I cared what that meant
Had been emancipated by
An emotionally stable yet
Uncontrollably feeling
artist
Named Jo.
posted by Jo 3:30 AM

8-10 or 9-11

2006-08-10T20:29:00.000-07:00

What a sad day, but we could have been experiencing a repeat of a disastrous day of infamy.
If we weren't such a decadent society, the "fanatic islamic facists" would not have evidence to support their position. Again, sadly, their conclusions and actions are wrong to us, but their perception of our society as the great Satan, is pretty much right on.

Up here in the lesser north life could go on without even noticing, directly.

I wonder which way is the better way of living.

Maranatha, my mom used to say, which grew into a nickname for Grandma Evelyn, which is Maranatha Mama. Mom is experiencing her reward right now, in a better place. For her, "the Lord comes" is reality.

Clear Head

2006-08-10T20:04:00.000-07:00

HaydenLoon
Hi all
It has been a quick week!
I am involved in a group called Kettle Kinship, which makes matches between adults who want to Mentor kids, and Kids who want to participate, with parents approval. That took up Tuesday night. They are a great bunch of people who really care about being and creating a positive influence and alternative in kids' lives.
Last week on Wednesday I went swimming with my brother and his family and had my first instant allergy reaction (bloodshot eyes and clogged sinus and throat) to the water I was swimming in. On Thursday I took all kinds of anti inflammatory medication, and on Friday tested out an air purifier for the weekend. I took my last meds on Friday and when I got home I plugged in my air purifier. Saturday I woke up with clear eyes and clear sinus. I left the house on Saturday and the symptoms returned. Saturday night in front of the purifier and they were gone. Sunday and Monday pretty much at the lake and symptoms came back and were gone when I used the purifier. I could see better too.
Well on Wednesday I bought the gizmo. Tonight I noticed that I could hear crickets and frogs, which were music to my ears. I didn't realize I wasn't hearing them. So if you have been talking to me and I seemed to be ignoring you, I might not have heard you. I really am not too stuck up.
Tonight me spouse and me, we watched two episodes of Monarch of the Glen, a BBC Telly quality DVD, and went for a walk on Hayden Lake Road,with a whisper of breeze keeping us cool. We walked out to Wisconsin Highway 35 and there was a very nice breeze. The sun was setting in a mostly cloudy sky, over a beaver pond, which has trails where the beaver had pulled and eaten the weeds. The water is low because of the drought, and I hope for refreshing rain. We walked along the new road construction up to Glendening Road and back feeling safe since there is so little traffic, nary but one autocar passed us as we walked in the dusk.
I can forget my toil of the day as I walk along like this.
There is not always energy to fish and play, but rejuvenation comes when we soak in the beauty of the earth.

Family Thoughts

2006-08-07T20:12:00.000-07:00

It has been a weekend that lends itself to memories. 80 to 90 degrees F, during the day, warm lakes to swim in, Family and cousins visiting from New Brighton, St. Francis, Alberta, Winnipeg, Halifax, Tucson, Omaha, Lincoln, Rapid City, and Tanzania just doesn't sound real when I list it, but sure as ever, it happened. Found out some real important things, like who is Napoleon Dynamite, and what a firol is, (a skunk from South Africa), but whatever, I don't keep up with the real world anymore. I thought I was doing good to see Pirates of the Caribbean!
Singing around the campfire, catching fish in the early morning mists rising off Hayden Lake and being evaporated by the warming sun, having a family breakfast after coming in from fishing, with a full basket, and the warm fried potatoes, and egg bake, orange juice and coffee, toast and chokecherry jam, ummmmm. Good memories. Listening to the laughing and crying of the grandkids, though there was precious little crying, and hearing new stories about how some dads acted before they met their spouses.
It was a good weekend, and that was just Sunday night and Monday morning. There was also the sailboat ride, and the canoeing, and the sitting and visiting.
Perfect weather. Connecting weather. Sitting on the deck weather. No bugs.
So tomorrow is workaday and I am looking forward to that. What will tomorrow bring.
GeoLeoF

Hayden Lake July 4, 2006

2006-08-06T10:21:00.000-07:00

Good Morning Vietnam!

2006-08-05T05:57:00.000-07:00

This old geezer has started a blogging, as encouraged by Andrew. My blog name was inspired by sounds I heard through the screen door as I sat here, and by the place in which I make my abode, the sugar sand hills of NorthWestern Wisconsin. The loons love Hayden Lake, which is at times the Walden Pond of the upper midwest. Free association with all things that come to my brain will follow, but today, today is the time for my first posting. Right now.