October 2011

What a delicious, varied and beautiful month October can be! The early days were golden and warm, allowing Mark and Hilde to finish the chicken run fence, paint and hang a new front door and clean up the lawn. Since one of Mark’s cases in Minnesota settled, the month was available for lots of other things. They took one day early in the month to go visit the woods in Lomira, stopping in Neshkoro --> and Green Lake to revel in the colors and light on the water. The Lomira woods is tangled and needs lots of work, but the dense maple cover makes for a serene and beautiful setting. Stopping by for some Widmers cheese topped the day!

It was still warm for the World Dairy Expo down in Madison, which three other from First Law Group attended also. It is always fascinating to see the newest machinery and the best of the line bovines . This year we saw a day-old calf and another was being produced.

All month Mark and Hilde cleaned up the last of the harvest: lots of fresh tomato soup was enjoyed and frozen for winter, and the pear crop was so very good! Neighbors and friends received visits from the ‘pear fairy’ and got little bags of sweet juicy fruit, and the last of the pears went into a wined compote using fresh cranberries for the tangy component. Cooking with fresh fruits and vegetables is so satisfying! The carrot crop was small enough that Hilde dug it herself, and the squash were fine quality this year.

NOT being in trial meant that Mark and Hilde actually got to attend social events also: the lovely outdoor wedding of Ben Nummelin and Kimberly Richardson at Powers’ Bluff and the happy gathering for Paul Onan’s 60th. There was also time for cutting and splitting wood (after getting the splitter starter to work finally!), both senior master Henkels were able to assist at taekwondo testing and Hilde didn’t miss a month of meetings.

The month ended with a flurry of activity as Mark had a farm visit in Campbellsport (Hilde looked at cemeteries and tried to find Scheid properties), went back to Minnesota for a couple of days, shared a dinner with Evie’s parents, Kathy and Tony, and then returned to Rudolph as Coach Fritz and some delightful track stars from Luther Prep visited.

John and Evie had a fairly quiet month since John had a long, nasty cold, but Jim and Kayme were out and about with Rhiannon, who is walking very well for 10 months old. They took her to a wedding in Mo (with a visit to cousin Heidi), camping in New York and then to a pumpkin patch where she tried hard to pick a large pumpkin, settled for gnawing on a smaller one, played with a calf and had a great day.

The month went out with a bang as Mark and Hilde turned their attention to their hunting land and spent three days out there, clearing trees fallen on the trail and building and erecting another tree stand. On the way home, a large buck decided to try to jump over the car and trailer, but didn’t make it. He hit the trailer hard and the ground harder, so the month ended with Mark and Hilde butchering a nice 7 point buck. Finally, the last day of October, the balance kits were installed in the front room windows: no more sticks holding them up! The month was filled with blessing for which to give thanks.

September 2011

Seldom has September been so full and so varied a month in Rudolph. It was wonderful starting off the month with a Labor Day weekend with John and Evie. The weather was warm and rainy, but Mark and John managed to do all the rust repair and painting on the pathfinder…probably the last of these fix up efforts as she is getting pretty old. It was great to be able to grill out and enjoy the newlyweds in lush summer aspect of Rudolph. The following Friday, Mark and Hilde drove down to Palatine for their first visit since the transformation of the condo. John’s work on the flooring and the paint job of John and Evie combine for a great improvement in their home. The weather was perfect the next day as all four headed to the Hamfest in Bellvadere. Mark and John found some good buys in gear, followed by a fine breakfast at the Steam House Restaurant.

This has been one of the craziest month’s for Mark’s schedule ever. As he struggled to complete work on the hen house, the two cases in MN kept morphing and changing, with lots of phone calls and conferences. By the very end of the month, it looked like all of October would be spent in Minnesota. The drive over to Mark’s depositions in Buffalo MN was beautiful with colors of trees, shrubs and purple asters, but Mark spent much of the time on the phone struggling to set up last minute farm visits. Then during the depos, the decision was made to delay the one trial, much to the relief of Hilde, who really didn’t want to spend October in Marshall.

Fall harvest and meetings kept Hilde super-busy in September. The magnificent tomatoes meant lots of juicing, cooking and canning, so the tomato sauce, ketsup and tomato jam are all stocked up for the year. Tomato soup simmering on the stove frequently made a wonderful aroma in the house and many containers have been frozen. Hilde had several extra meetings, including a 4 hour meeting with DNR specialists in floodplain regulation (which wasn’t dull, but intense!) the land conservation fall tour, budget meetings and the finalization of the county redistricting plan. She attended the Wisconsin Counties Association convention, which was fairly intense this year also, coming right before the run to MN.

September was also a month of firsts for our Rhiannon. She has begun to take two or three steps on her own, but then goes to her knees for speed. And just at the end of the month, the first of six imminent teeth popped out. John had a work trip out to VA, so he and Evie were able to visit Jim and Kayme, gaining new appreciation for the challenges of DC traffic and child-rearing in an apartment, too! It was good for the brothers to get together.

In addition to John and Evie’s visit, Terri stopped in one day and Donna another---getting to feed family and friends is always a joy. All month, as the weather cooled and the summer ended, the landscape was beautiful. Early in the month there were several misty mornings and some bedewed spiderwebs just beautiful in the roadsides. The fall bounty from the garden made for daily tasty and attractive meals—God has been very good!