Steaming through July

The song may say "lazy, hazy, crazy days" but someone left the lazy out of this month. Hotter than usual, wetter than usual, and pretty UN-lazy would describe July 2010. Although none of the 'next generation' were home for the Fourth, it was special because we drove over to West Bloomfield (near Fremont) to attend the ordination and installation of Kayme's brother Paul as pastor. It is a beautiful rural location near Lake Poygan.

Hilde had a very busy meeting month with three of one committee and hassles left and right as very small ($20 every three years) user fees had to be implemented for folks with septic systems. This is not popular, of course. Another flurry of phone calls, memos and meetings involved all the steps necessary to apply for a grant for Wood County to rehab low income houses...we will hear in September if the half million is awarded to us. Fortunately most of the work could be done on line and phone from Missouri.

Missouri again and Madison 6 days in 8 was the story for Mark. He has been on the road so much this summer! For that to work, the car needs to be functioning at its' peak. The Rav 4 was working, but....the week before the 12 hour drive to Springfield, it started smelling bad, really bad. After investigating the air filter and air conditioner, we finally turned it over to experts who found a putrifying mouse in the heater core! It took them two hours to pull it out, flush things and sanitize it to a bearable level. Those things are the dickens!

This time in Missouri, it was very hot...Hilde laid low in Springfield (3 days) but did get a little mall time in. Driving to St. Louis in 95 degrees and arriving in rush hour was trying, but that evening we met Rod and Cindy Rasmussen for dinner---first time we had seen them since Rod and Mark were in ASA training at Ft. Devon in 1972! Unfortunately, we didn't think to take pictures. The next morning Mark went buzzing around doing depositions in Illinois and St. Louis while Hilde had a great time getting together with Lynn Chaput Arana. she had been a bridesmaid in our wedding back in 1972...hadn't seen her since. We talked and talked and managed not to melt in the 96 degrees and humidity while visiting the Missouri Botanical Gardens. What a beautiful place! She was a wonderful guide, taking Hilde to see great archtecture, a Jesuit museum, a Spanish lunch place (delicious!), the museum at the Arch and then the Forest Park. During the whole day, we didn't stop talking and catching up on those 38 years.

Earlier July was described as wet...that seems inadequate, with more than 8 inches of rain forcing weeds and lawn to grow unbelievably. whenever we were home and it wasn't raining, we were mowing, weeding and picking raspberries, beans, cucumbers, with canning, pickling and freezing of all the goodies. There were small handfuls of blueberries from the upland bushes: the lower ones seem to be flooding out, event he little tamarack are yellowing! While we were in Missouri a gust of wind snapped off the top 15 feet of a large black spruce...just that one tree had damage. The weather has been--quirky.
The Henkels have taken another techno step and added a webcam and skype so as to visit better with Jim and John. Originally we could not hear others...Terri called Heidi in London, who told Jim in DC, who called and talked us through settings to get things right. What a magic casement that is! So good to be able to see our far off family members!
July ended well, as Hilde's brother Brian had back surgery and despite some complications, came home tonight. ON Friday, while mark was doing yet more depositions in Madison, Hilde got to meet niece Alana for lunch and enjoy hearing how she is doing. Even in a very busy, steamy month, there were moments that were really special.

The rose garden in Missouri Botanical was at LEAST 10 degrees hotter...those roses were sizzling, but so beautiful and fragrant!

June-Rushed, Wet and Fun

This June started tense and rushed as Mark was cramming three years of another attorney's trial prep and depositions to start a month-long trial in Idaho! Since Hilde was going with him, lots of planning went into care of animals, gardens, meetings and things for such a long stretch. But, after enduring flight and car arrangements with three separate delays, they arrived in Twin Falls and settled in...for two days! The Shoshone Falls were beautiful but a month would have been a very long time. The case settled even as the jury selection proceeded and we packed up and gratefully came home again to enjoy June in Wisconsin.

The return was in time to have both Mark and Hilde attend the world premiere of Grandmaster Robert Stevens' seminar for high-ranking black belts on taekwondo mastery and leadership. We also got to practice weapons defense, leading to this Henkel tangle, since John joined us for the seminar and stayed over to Sunday.
The entire month of June set records for rain and challenged everyone to keep up with rapidly sprouting weeds and lawns in the brief drier moments. Hilde spent a lot of time mowing, but the flowers and gardens are extremely green and lush from the rain.

Mid-month was a little tense when Jim called to tell us Kayme had a car accident totaling their car. Thank God she and the baby were protected (the two cars hit the passenger side), and the 'eastern Henkels' have acquired another car, bruises faded and all okay. That same week a long-time friend, Dale Termunde, died in Illinois. Mark and Hilde struggled to get to the Saturday morning funeral but drove partway Friday night, watched all the storm warnings for Chicago, then arrived after things subsided and most of the power back on.

With the time freed up from the Idaho case, Mark decided to take vacation, domestic vacation, and took off the final week of the month. The weather settled down after one final blow and 2 more inches of rain on the 25th, so it has been fine and delightful for working in the garden, picking luscious raspberries, and, for Mark, enjoying fine propagation and time on his radio. Attending Mark's 40th Ripon college reunion was really special this year as Hilde and Mark visited the park where they first met, the Little Corporal for breakfast and happily walked all over Ripon. After the main dinner, they drove to Green Lake and watched fireworks out over the water just before a golden full moon slid over the horizon...blissful!
And, to finish off the month, we finally had our yucca blossom. We have loved those things since our stay at Ft. Hood in 1972, now we have one here in Rudolph!