Sweet, sweet September 2013

Peppers aplenty but sideways

Aunt Heidi with Rowan and Rhiannon

 What a special month this has been full to over-flowing with activities, harvest time and travel, plus some happy changes in the family line also.  Here in Wisconsin, the weather continued warm and dry til the very end of the month, but the garden produce kept coming.  Hilde put up a lot of tomato sauce, ketchup and even more tomato jam, and Mark enjoyed lots of cherry tomatoes in his lunches---when he was around for lunch.

Yes, it was another month of travel for Mark.  He fly down to Asheville for a couple days, spent another couple days in Minnesota (oh yes, Hilde got to visit Preston for the third month in a row, much to her dismay!) and then Madison in preparation for the long trial which will start off October for him.  The trip to NC had a big bonus for Hilde: Mark delivered her to Jim and Kayme’s for the duration, so she got to spend lots of fun times with Rhiannon and Rowan, who started walking just before that and was practicing and improving each day.  That also allowed Hilde to visit her father at the memory unit and to take both girls to visit their  great-grandmother.  Getting to see Rachel Fritz, Heidi and Michelle were added to the fun.  Since Hilde traveled down with boxes of tomatoes, Jim and Kayme had a busy time making ketchup and sauce!  It was a great visit.

That garden bounty almost (not quite) made vegetarians of Mark and Hilde this month:  many delicious eggplant parmesan, stirfries, zucchini cake, peppers and  tomatoes---and the melons, pumpkins and pears were great this year also.  Since the huge fall raspberry bed is suffering from overshadowing by the pines, the plan is to remove at least one during winter to return the bed to its former productivity, but there have been some berries, even so.

Those family changes have been on  both ends of the  age range:  parents and nieces. Hilde’s one niece Heidi got engaged and is planning a June wedding and another niece, Rachel, added a darling little boy, Evan Johannes Nygard, to the family at the end of the month:  .  Hilde’s parents agreed that living apart after 63 years made them miserable, so Arlene moved from home to assisted living and Ray left the memory unit and joined her.  All the children are hoping they will have some golden time together there.

With all that was going on, Mark and Hilde still managed to get to taekwondo most of the time and also to fit in some relaxation, spending an afternoon at Lake Sherwood and another celebrating St. John’s 150th anniversary in Lomira (Mark attended grade school there).  It has been a joyous, busy month, with the colors beginning in Central Wisconsin—such a beautiful time.  The final view is just down the hill on September 27.

Mark brings in the pie pumpkins

August 2013 Action and Bounty-filled

Kicker Cake for Mark's 25th

Kayme and Jim at Mt. Washburn

Square Turn  steam tractor looks uncomfortable at Edgar

Mock Cucumber on Henkel fence

 For children, summer seems long and beautiful and fun, but the end of summer, that month of August, comes so quickly!  So it was for Mark and Hilde this year:  August arrived full of plans and then rushed by with so many things accomplished, but mostly work and little relaxation.

The month started with the replacement of kitchen and entry flooring.  The result was beautiful, but the disruption of having everything out of the kitchen and then having to find things tucked out of the way and even accessing food in the frig was major.  Hilde and Mark tried to replace the refrigerator in a unwise way and had to have the expert come back and fix the hole torn in the new vinyl.  The installation was complicated by oddities of this house, so that the main phone line got sliced in half, the faucet handle gave way on the downstairs sink and Mark had to make hasty plumbing and telephone repairs. At the end of the month the men came to replace the failed ridge on the big shed, so no more snow drifts inside!

This August was the 25th year since Mark and Jim started taekwondo at Stevens Taekwondo Academy.  Mark has continued straight through with Dr. Stevens since then (Jim was out of training for the three years of exile in DC but he is running a taekwondo club at WLC now), so some very special black belts were invited out for a corn roast celebration.  Although a few of them had other plans, having two grand master Stevens, John and Evie, and other friends made it a special evening.  Having all those high-ranking black belts for the testing the next day was very impressive also!

Also in August, Jim and Kayme returned safely from their two week trek in the west.  They had a wonderful time, got lots of exercise and saw many beautiful sights.  Tenting and tramping with the girls on their backs seems to have been very good for all of them.  John and Evie added a sweet-looking dog with a historic name (Genghis) to their family, so both boys had an interesting month.  The best family news was that Hilde’s father and mother left rehab at the end of the month, just over 11 weeks after their accident.  Ray is now at a memory care facility a few miles from home, and Arlene will be moving home Tuesday once the flooring is laid.  Their recovery from their injuries was miraculous.

Of course, August means garden harvest and very busy times when the gardens are the size of Henkels’.  Hilde has been making lots of jam and jelly (8 batches so far) using crabapples, cherries, and lots of raspberries, and put up sweet pickles, beans, stewed tomatoes, corn and tomato sauce.  The corn was wonderful this year:  large ears, no earworm or smut and great quality.  It all came ripe at once, so Hilde took five dozen ears to the school for the kid’s lunches also.  The tomato work will continue for several weeks, as sauce and ketsup take lots of produce and time.  Mark has been hauling milk cans of water down to the lower garden where the vine crops are luxuriant…rain would be very nice instead of that effort!  He also worked hard on resetting the fence, cleaning out the main shed, fixing the water softener and setting up the drip system for the tomatoes.  These are the kind of things both Mark and Hilde enjoy, working on and around house and garden.

All these activities have been squeezed  in between more business trips and meetings, and during some very hot days.  This month Mark had a very long day in Madison on motions, a shorter trip to Randolph and then another long day with appearances in  both Viroqua WI and Caledonia MN.  Hilde goes along to help with driving and to make sure Mark eats.  They did manage a wonderful visit to the Edgar steam show and a day off to Fond du Lac to relax at the Lakeside Park and have fish fry at Salty’s.  Sometimes just a little time on the deck or patio relaxing can really refresh them also.  The countryside looks very festive at this time of the year when Wisconsin breaks out the Packer colors and goldenrod glows everywhere.  There was a bumper crop of mock cucumber this year with mounds of the lovely lacy flowers draped everywhere.  Wisconsin is a beautiful state, especially in August..