July 2011: Jubilant, Jam-packed and Just Sizzling

This July will be long-remembered at a jubilee of joyous activities for the Henkels. The month was hot and stormy but it really brought along the flowers. It all started with a wonderful four-day weekend at home which was restful, productive and the quiet time needed before plunging into all the activities. Mark cleaned out the basement addition, fixed the leaky sink, and shoveled a truck-load of shredded bark for home projects. Hilde finished two sundresses for little Rhia, and then dug up and fixed the edging around the deck using lots of bark and sweat-equity. Working together, Mark and Hilde picked lots of beautiful cherries from their little trees, made a double batch of cherry jam, pitted and froze a year’s supply of cherries and enjoyed the traditional cherry soup for the Fourth. Since Mark also finished the repair of the electric dog perimeter, Freddie is now allowed out to play and roam part of each day.

The high point of the year and the month was the wedding of Evelyn Williams and John Henkel in Minneapolis. The service was beautiful, moving and music-filled. The bride and groom were elegant, relaxed and radiant. Sharing the day with so many friends and family who came to MN was truly wonderful—especially since the date was also Hilde’s 60th birthday. Getting a special new daughter-in-law for a birthday gift is certainly unbeatable. This was the first time the Henkels had all gotten together since Hazel’s funeral last May, so it was a wonderful reunion of the expanded family. The wedding reception was right down on the river with a unique setting and the fun of board-breaking for any who wished to try, from the Lane and Buehler children to some fairly senior folks. Evie and John did a special forms dance and broke boards themselves. Meantime, the Henkel clan’s secondary interest was the game of “Pass the Baby! with Rhi (here with Great-Grandma and cuz Heidi) sweet in an heirloom crocheted dress. No one got permanently lost in the cities, everyone rejoiced together and eventually Hilde’s parents, Ray and Arlene Bormann, were released from the defective elevator. A very memorable day!

As quickly as everyone gathered, folks returned to their many states of origin, but Mark and Hilde were only home for a week to try to catch up on the delayed meetings, garden and lawn. They attended Farm Technology Days in Marshfield (huge tent city of farm-related activities, innovations and equipment) and then drove the load of wedding gifts down to Madison, enjoying lunch with the newlyweds, after their honeymoon in Door County.

Kayme returned with Rhiannon to give a very happy Grandma Hilde her first ‘grandma gig' as the three generations drove to St. Peter MN for the WELS National Conference on Worship, Music and the Arts. The weather was again hot and humid, but the Henkels, with Rachel and Naomi Fritz shared an air-conditioned dorm suite, so cooling off baby was easy (and necessary!). The conference (nearly 1000 people participated) was chock full of wonderful music, with an opening concert, five special church services and a closing hymn festival. Kayme played for the fifth service—her playing sounded wonderful in the chapel. The many practices and two presentations which Kayme played for meant that Hilde played, strolled and fed that precious girl, which was pure joy.. Rhiannon is crawling, pulling herself up, bouncing and balancing with great vigor…she will insist on walking and running early, it appears.

While Hilde and Kayme were away, Mark received the shipment of 30 little chicks, so when the gals rendezvoused with Kayme’s dad Loren in Rudolph, Grandpa Mark got to introduce Rhi to the chickens. It was hard to see them leave again, but Rhi was definitely missing her Daddy, looking hopefully at men with beards and glasses and rejecting and sometimes shrieking at those who WEREN’T Daddy.

The final week of July included more downpours and heat, plus the complications of car repair that took twice as long as estimated, so that Hilde was driving Mark to Stevens Point, then going to Wisconsin Rapids for meetings, then to Rudolph to work on raspberries, beans and lawn. Finally the clutch is good, springs replaced and things are in order. In between the storms and much rain, Mark had some interesting times on the radio with long-range propagation and contacts from Canada to Connecticut and the Caribbean. He now has new QSL cards featuring this picture of his stacked beams. From now on, the garden will dominate and the main crop of the lovely fall raspberries look to start early.

Jumbled June

Early June was quite a rush with as many things as possible done by the 10th: last garden plants out, an extra zoning conference fit in, new window balances installed, hair cuts, transfer of the boat to Paul and lots of planning for the trip to southern Missouri. Hilde had Irene and Melodie out for crafts, and rushed through a lot of sewing, which was fun. The flowers were really nice this year: clematis are both doing well and birds have been frequent visitors. In fact, our red-bellied woodpecker brought her young one to the feeder, stuff some seeds into his mouth and then left him to the buffet.

Things never seem to go in a straight line, and this June was a perfect example of that. Mark and Hilde had done all the planning for a lengthy (three-week) trial in Springfield: Mark had shipped 14 boxes of documents and hauled another 5 along in the car, Hilde had made arrangements for the animals and had others take over her meetings, everyone concerned had gathered, set up the courtroom and even the jury selected, Mark primed to give his opening statement, but after only one day, the trial delayed until next May and everything had to be canceled, changed and replanned due to ill health of one of the plaintiffs. Hilde had one day of being at leisure by the pool; Mark ended up doing a 6-hour video deposition, then they turned around and came home.

While coming home early was irksome (and took a full 14 hours due to road delays!), it did allow Mark to rototill the entire garden in the one dry day before a week of rain and gloom. Other places enjoyed the longest day of the year, but in Wisconsin, the evidence of sunlight was not there! Being home for Father’s Day let Mark to do what he wanted: which was to crawl under the deck, jack it up and replace supports to remove a slight sag. Since this had been nagging at him, Mark was very satisfied to get this remedied.

Hilde was glad to be back for county board and for marathon mowing and weeding days: the rain really brought things along. Food production has begun, and the last day of the month was spent on freezing the peas for the year. Toward the end of the month, Hilde was tickled pink to watch Rhi crawling via skype. She knows where she wants to go and now she can get there! It should be fun to play with her when the family gathers.

Anticipation and excitement is mounting for John and Evie’s wedding, the whole focus of July is that happy day. Those two are very organized and efficient and have really gotten lots done while both are so busy, and seem happier as the day approaches.