What an awesome August!
From the first to the 31st there were visitors, trips to meet
with family, and lots and lots of great food.
In Rudolph, like most of Wisconsin, there were many very warm, humid
days, abundant rain and continuing greenness, providing a fantastic finale to
summer.
As always, Mark and Hilde enjoyed most of all the family
moments. John and Evie stopped in
overnight en route to the UP for Evie to be recognized for her work with the
dwarf ferns, then both sons and daughters-in-laws came for another overnighter,
as John and Evie headed to her parents’ 40th anniversary gathering,
and Jim and Kayme went to Rice Lake for the baptism of Thomas Laufman. The delightful overlap allowed for a casual
family photo used above and a good dose of cuddling of grandchildren.
Hilde enjoyed a ladies luncheon with gold
friends and at the end of the month, Mark had his trial team of Eric Johnson
and Sandy Hutkowski out for corn roast on a perfect evening.
Mark again spent considerable time on roof work as he
continues to tighten and waterproof the big shed. After about 30 years, these metal roofs do
need adjusting, especially since the large doors allow for considerable updraft
pressure to loosen things. It was
challenging to find times which were good for the work, with intense heat (he
didn’t want to be cooked), frequent storms (also wanted to avoid lightning and
being blown off) and heavy dews (slippery!).
The devout hope is that things are now shipshape up there.
Hilde’s list of meetings included the first ethics committee
meeting in 6 years (no scandals, just new members and update), one meeting held
in an event barn (hot, noisy with fans so they had to use microphones, and
shortened by a sudden storm during the field tour), and a joint meeting which
brought two dozen folks together and seemed to have no purpose. Her time was mostly devoted to canning and
freezing with a great pile of golden corn put away, crabapple jelly, stewed tomatoes,
tomato juice and tomato sauce all made and stored up and dozens of zucchini
goodies baked and frozen. What a bounty!
Mark and Hilde continued the tradition of a day at Lakeside
Park in Fond du Lac with Jim and family.
This year Caleb could participate on the rides and enjoy the animals,
and despite 92 humid degrees, it was a wonderful day with the loved ones. The grandkids grow up so fast: at the end of the month, Rhiannon started kindergarten
and Rowan 3 day a week preschool!
For the trip to visit John and Evie, lots of tomatoes and
other foods were in brought along and AGAIN Mark was up on a roof---this time
working with John to replace the rotted cedar siding on the south side. Despite two rains and oppressive conditions,
Mark and John completed the job in good order, with Evie and Hilde working as
the ground crew.
A few oddities occurred during August. Hilde managed a long slide on hot bacon
grease without burning self but she did have a lot of bacon grease to wash up
from cupboards, counters, floor and even on muffins. A couple days after that, the Henkels were
awakened at 4 am by the sound of clothes pole and long shelf coming down in
their walk-in closet. That was a day of
fix up and pick up which had not been on any agenda!
The entire month was lush and busy, but there were two other special
moments. Mark ended up baling straw on
the neighbor’s farm one day with perfect
conditions, shining golden straw and a cloudless sky. It was the first time he had been out baling
in about 25 years, and he enjoyed it very much.
And one Sunday evening, Hilde and Mark went in to stroll on the Green
Circle in Stevens Point with time to sit and ‘be still’ while the sunset gilded
the trees along the Wisconsin. Times
like that are to be treasured.
