November News

The month started out with elections for all of the country, but Hilde was chief election inspector for the morning shift in Rudolph and that meant starting early and coping with a irritating set of machines. First the counter jammed repeatedly and then it beeped for four hours and turned off! It seems the fiddling from the first invisibly disconnected the power and four hours is the battery-backup limit. NOW workers know what the beeping meant! The changes in governmental leaders in Wisconsin made for an abrupt change.

Mark and Hilde were in Madison the next morning for a couple days of depositions, allowing for a photo of “new light on state capitol”---certainly a prettier shot that the political fall-out may turn to! We were able to meet Evie (John’s fiancée) for dinner at the Great Dane and transfer to her a couple of sacks of squash and pie pumpkins. Even Madisonians, used to the outré, likely wondered at the middle-aged couple hauling chicken feed sacks down the sidewalk! Hilde used the time during the day to retreat in the far corner of the historical library’s reading room and get thoughts, quotes and outline together for her required taekwondo paper.

Mark spent another couple of days in Madison the next on his own, but when he returned the third week, Hilde went with him and thus got a cold weather visit to Dodgeville and Spring Green. The pace has been fairly hectic for him with several trials in 2011---lots of depositions, discovery and all out of the area, requiring lots of time on the road.

Even as winter approached, we had some sunny, cool days to get things done outside, including the removal of all the sumac on the west fence line and the replacement of rotted off cedar posts, so that fence looks orderly for winter. Hilde got the ditches tidied up and Mark and Hilde went out to the hunting land to check out stands and then to go thru and mark the ‘trail’ again. Our little portion of Elm Creek is running full and cold right now after several years of nearly drying up in fall. The weather allowed for other chores also: snow fence is up, and over Thanksgiving, John helped Mark get the tractor chains on so we are ready to plow. That turned out to be necessary once already as we got an icy mix of sleet and snow the night before Thanksgiving, leaving our driveway fairly nasty..

This year for deer season Loren Fritz (Kayme’s dad) came up and hunted with mark for opening day. They saw nothing near enough to shoot, although Loren also staked out the lower woods in the afternoon. When John went for a run after thanksgiving, he spooked up three does, but was not able to chase them down.

The month ends with Hilde working diligently on the JI-TAE form to prepare for testing and both prospective grandparents waiting for that special phone call. Kayme is on maternity leave as of December 1 and is definitely ready to carry her daughter in her arms instead of out front. Apparently little Rhiannon wants to really fit into the Henkel clan, where December is preferred for birthdays. We eagerly await her arrival!