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| child's chair Vesterheim |
What a rush this month has been! The weather was pretty nasty, even
considering the month, and Mark was very busy indeed preparing for mediation on
his case (trial planned for late January 2019).
In order to get over to Decorah for that mediation in time, Mark
and Hilde hustled out of a Tuesday workout, changed clothes and drove in the
dark over to Sparta and then got up early and zoomed the remaining
distance. Mark and five lawyers, a high
level mediator and both disputing sides spent a very long day hammering out a
settlement. Hilde wandered around
Decorah, shopping in the morning and spending most of the afternoon at
Vesterheim---Norwegian immigrant museum.
Then she read and knitted in the library until finally the exhausted
guys finished and needed food. Hilde was
VERY happy the trial in January was off as it means no substitutions for
running class and testing will be necessary and a break in the south will be
possible.
The cold and wet weather kept farmers out of corn fields
here, as saturated clay loam is a quagmire which will not support heavy
equipment. The churned up ruts at field
entrances testify that they were trying to harvest, but bogging down. It finally froze up and firmed up right
before deer season. Jim and his kids
came up for the opening weekend, and Hilde had a fine fun time feeding hunters
(early and hearty) and kids (different menu and time) and baking cookies, doing
crafts, etc with them. No venison, but
lots of good times together, only missing Kayme, tied down with weekend stuff
in Milwaukee.
November involved a lot of sorting and organizing, as Hilde worked
on 30 years of Dr. Stevens black belt files and other files to condense them. She also received four boxes of her mother’s
stuff, mostly fabric stash items. The
stash provides a challenge as the pieces are
mostly not clothing candidates, but by the end of the month, Hilde had
made a tapestry vest, and eight table runners in Christmas colors to share with
her siblings. One sister-in-law (like
the bible parable) actually said thank you!
More projects are planned---winter is a good time for craft work.
Mark and Jim have been planning winter projects also. Twenty years ago, after a wind storm, cousin
Palmer cut and cleared the tangled mess in the small family woods in Lomira and
Mark had the hardwood rough sawn and stored in the large shed since then. Finally they are going to use the best of
what Hilde calls heritage wood.
Jim and Mark are beginning the work on large rustic tables
using the wood. Jim is using the ash and
Mark and Hilde’s heritage table will be of the ‘red elm” wood. For Thanksgiving, Mark got the wood planed,
roughly cut and managed to stack all of Jim’s in the passenger side of the
car. Hilde rode in the back enjoying the
fresh wood smell, but not the cramped quarters and clattering on many bumps. This is going to be a slow project, as
everyone wants a great finished product…and the final finishing is best done on
a warm spring day for ventilation! It should
be very interesting.
Thanksgiving itself was a wonderful gathering as John, Evie
and Hazel came up to Jim’s from Illinois and all were gathered together. Hilde’s brother Ray ‘shared’ their mom, so
that she could be over at Jim’s for a while to see everyone—grandsons and wives,
dogs, four small children and lots of happy noise. Kayme did a great job with meal and
organization and everyone enjoyed
themselves.
However, the month ended with Hilde getting a horrid cold
and nearly losing her voice….Mark got a mild version. She used the inside time for crafts and
paperwork. Dr. Stevens gave them more
trophies to reuse or dispose of, so the lower level currently is glittering
with many kicker trophies to work on.
Festive but crowded.
