Fabulous June 2016

Prairie flowers at First Law Group

This month has been a fabulously busy, happy time for Mark and Hilde.  The month was chock full of flowers, fun, and family time—what more can you ask for? 

Mark hard at work

Mark started in right away on the first, reroofing the wood shed and finding he needed to replace chunks of rotten edges, but it is now tidy and waterproof.  He does a good job, utilizing the tractor bucket as a lift, and he got everything cleaned up and debris to the dump before it rained.  When it rained, Henkels discovered that the new HOUSE roof leaked---through the main storage closet in East bedroom and on down to the basement.  After a couple investigations, the roofers found the installation of the main roof had unsealed the valley on the addition roof.  Once that was resealed, all is good overhead.  To continue the theme, Mark also tied himself to the truck via a long rope and got up on the much higher main shed to replace loose nails with screws, with Hilde watching nervously below. 

The above-average rainfall for the month meant that the garden, the weeds, the lawn and the flowers all exuberantly grew and grew.  Lots of yard and garden work was very rewarding in the beautiful surroundings. Mark and Hilde picked strawberries three mornings to spread out the deliciousness and have just covered the blueberries, blackcaps and summer raspberries to save them from birds.  The wildflowers were especially lush and both layers and young roosters are clucking along happily.

Reading to Three lovebugs

Although the roof project meant Mark and Hilde couldn’t get to Kayme and Alana’s recital in Milwaukee, the reports from Hilde’s mother, sister Terri and her hubby David say that it was really great.   Piano and oboe make a striking combination.   Mark’s brother Phil and niece Alana visited on their way home which was fun.  Alana is going to make Phil a grandfather this summer, and has moved back to Rice Lake after living in Ohio, Montreal, Hinckley and Duluth.    Mark and Hilde enjoyed a lunch with Pat and Paul Onan (cousins) to finally get caught up on each others’ lives.    With Mark working part-time, there is time to do the fun things and see folks.

Another family visit saw Mark and Hilde driving off to Oconto to visit his aunt Veiga and cousins Richard and Terry.  It was a real delight to see Veiga, who will be 98 in September.  She lives with Terry and his wife Diane and has a snug sunroom to sit overlooking the harbor, with Richard and Elice only a couple miles away.  It had been years since the cousins had been able to visit—everyone busy and spread out---but a lovely day.

Tamarack buds

The finale on family visits finished off the month.  Mark and Hilde went to Sussex for a long weekend.  Jim and Mark worked like beavers (or more as they worked late after dark!) doing the drywalling downstairs before and after Saturday church, and then more.  Sunday evening Hilde’s mother came for dinner and included a delightful interlude as Rhiannon and Rowan scampered around the lawn collecting fireflies in the dusk.  There were many fireflies and the girls’ laughter just as enchanting.  In the morning, Jim departed to drive a carload of teens to the WELS Youth rally in Colorado (and then hike and camp by himself), and Hilde and Mark watched and played with the kids while Kayme worked.  It was a very satisfactory visit, lots of cuddling and reading.  Rhiannon is reading to Grandma, Caleb is moving faster and faster, and Rowan is giggling and doing summersaults.  They are delightful children.

As always, there were contentious meetings, long meetings and interviews and more meetings for Hilde.  Things have been pretty busy on the county level.  Mark has been working with the insurance and restoration folks to finish things off from the office flood in April, but only working part-time, leaving lots of time for garden, radio, projects, and golden moments on the deck watching the sunsets.  The frequent rains did lead to one six-hour power outage and a phone outage on another day, but the lushness in Rudolph is beautiful, the frogs sing at night and the  birds in the day.  June has been very, very good.

 

Rhi, Ro and Caleb

May 2016

Roofing underway early in month

Mark setting fence

May was an amazing month in Wisconsin with heat coming early, followed by one last nasty snap of freezing weather and snow while the fruit trees were flowering (likely lessening pears and apples unfortunately), then enough dry days for folks in Rudolph to get their crops and gardens in and finally rain to bring everything along.  Rudolph was abuzz with activities and all the wonderful sounds and scents of spring.  The Henkel hilltop was awash with the scent of lilacs for nearly ten of those days.

Apple Blossom

The month started with the long-awaited replacement of the house roof for Henkels.  The crew from Goodwin were excellent in speed and clean up and the relief of having that done without rain issues was enormous.  Mark tackled resetting the cedar fences on the east and west of the property and Hilde  ripped out yards of iris and weeds to decrease the perennial bed behind the house to half the size, so both were outside trading mattock and shovels   They worked together to weed and re-set raspberry starts in the huge bed which supplies them with the years topping for oatmeal.

as needed.

Fighting thru the prickly ash

Mark and Hilde also spent two days clearing prickly ash and other brush out of the farm lane at Lomira, regaining access to the ancestral woods.  The first day it was 91 degrees and the lane is on the south side of a slope!  Using the brush cutter and a tractor loaned by the helpful Priest family, a narrow path is now  open, but the amount of prickly ash cannot be expressed….much more to cut, dig and remove.   The second visit included cutting some downed wood (until the chainsaw died) and preparing for cutting and stacking more for future syrup making.  These things take time and sweat equity.  There was also time for a visit to St. Paul’s cemetery and what turned out to be a depressing tour of the old family barn….years of hard labor to build and maintain it and it is slowly collapsing. 

Trilliums were abundant this spring

There are hand hewn beams in the original section, cut by Schultz forebears from the adjacent land  in the 1880s and still strong, but the foundation is heaving and buckling without animal heat in the winter.  Sad.

remove.

This was a spectacular spring for flowers---long, lovely, lingering trilliums, hepaticas, violets, lilacs, mayapples, jack-in-the-pulpits,  and more.  Without out of town travel, Mark and Hilde were able to get out almost daily to enjoy and photograph the succession of bloom.  When

Oriole antics for grape jelly

Mark’s assistant Sandy gave Hilde a cute oriole feeder, it immediately drew several pairs of orioles, which brighten any day and will sit and chirp at those too close to the feeder.

The usual spring tasks of garden planting and chick tending were much more leisurely with Mark’s reduced schedule, although he had several office days connected with the flood repair and the official testing of the  sensor to show it was indeed defective and tried again to flood things.  Hilde had the usual spurt of extra meetings for spring, many of which were lengthy, and a few contentious and upsetting.  A county board meeting opening with folks making inaccurate accusations and wild comments segued into some really nasty comments on line.  The national politics reflect an increasing level of incivility and irrational suspicion existing on every level. 

Mark shows grandkids the chicks

A sorry situation nation-wide and locally.

All the spring activities culminated in a short visit from Jim, Kayme and their three kids on their way home from holiday camping.  Caleb is trying hard to talk, wants to get his two cents in, and he is moving at top speed.  Rhiannon is maturing, and a sweet big sister ready for kindergarten in fall.  Rowan is so joyful and  curious.  It is always fun to have them come by and always amazing how they have grown and changed.

Rhiannon, Caleb and Rowan

April 2016

Ominous sunset on cold April 8

April in Wisconsin is always such a jumble:  weather bouncing back and forth between extremes, flowers starting, stopping when it snowed and then finally coming out in glorious welcome color.  April in itself is a month of photo ops!  There was snow in Rudolph on the 8^th  (the last we devoutly hope!) and just a week later, Mark and Hilde enjoyed a warm sunny day at Horicon Marsh viewing wildlife and plants and actually getting HOT.  There was a prescribed burn going on which led to some eerie photos, too.  On the way home they finished with dinner at Silvercryst in Wautoma…a very excellent day.

Spotting ducks at Horicon April 15

Several of the things on the list for “in spring” got taken care of too.  Mark had the farm truck checked out and the carburetor membrane replaced and the part of the exhaust system, so it is ready to be used (is no longer gassing occupants!), and Hilde started the process of getting medicare coverage in place.  Once the truck was available, Mark and Hilde worked on trimming brush in the fence rows and then around some of the buildings, hauling three truckloads to the pile where the wood chuck resides.

Redhead ducks at Horicon

Mark’s major chore was retrofitting the eaves with air channels in advance of the re-roofing with a ridge vent scheduled for early May.  This was a dirty, awkward job, removing the soffits and then cutting  slots in the solid and ancient wood before wriggling the channels up there.  Mark managed with no blood loss, only a little cussing and no incidents of dangerous drops of debris on Hilde, so it was a very successful project.

Adding eave venting

Some socializing was fit in around the work---lunch with Dr. Stevens, Hilde’s ladies breakfast and then crafts was out for a delightful evening, with frog chorus instead of snowfall.  Hilde continued to work on the heritage photos and was able to send off three envelopes to descendants after copying them.  The sad note was saying good-bye to the Douglas family.  Hard to see such great folks move on, but St. Paul’s has called another pastor and the congregation awaits word on that.

After the spring elections and the re-organization meeting of county board, Hilde was reappointed as chair of the conservation, education and economic development committee and to the executive committee.  There is much happening on the county level and in the departments overseen by CEED so it is a challenging time.

Naking cherries abloom

The last week of April was very interesting as Mark received a call on Sunday the 24^th saying ‘come to the law office, we have a flood!’  Due to a malfunctioning sensor, water had been running all weekend and the office had to go virtual, working out of seven locations with everyone off site for a week while the experts brought in enormous fans and dehumidifiers to dry out the upper level.  The lower level is going to take longer to repair ceiling and drywall, but things are returning to normal there.  There have been leak-related projects at all three Henkel households, so with this disaster at the firm, the hope is for a finish to the trend!

The sequence of bloom in April is so beautiful—from bloodroot to spring beauties and fawn lilies to plum brush.  Mark and Hilde had a little time to get out and enjoy those changes around Rudolph, hearing frogs and birds and welcoming the changes.  They spent an afternoon at Lake Emily in Portage County and many shorter walks.  And to end the month, Hilde began mowing lawn….that first time smells as special as early morning coffee!

Yellow fawn lily in Rudolph

March 2016

March madness does not necessarily include anything basketball…the Henkels managed a very busy month and never watched a game.  As all the snow melted and the temps were above normal early in March, they feared this would be a year without effective sap run, but they were wrong.  Even better, the sap ran during the week off of taekwondo so the things worked very smoothly for three days of cooking and a good supply of syrup for family pancakes.  This is the first year it was snowless in the swamp….but deep mud is equally challenging while carrying sap buckets!

But maple syrup was only part of the month, which included visits to both sons and special times.  Mark and Hilde headed to Jim and Kayme’s early in the month and Hilde got to visit with her mom, and then play with grandkids while Jim and Mark did the painstaking cutting and setting of the new kitchen floor.  Two big guys, tools and appliances pulled out for access, all crammed into a small space, but they managed very nicely.  Not only does the floor look great, but the appliances were reinstalled without incidents!  That weekend ended with Rhiannon and Rowan singing with other children at church, which was sweet.

Hilde has continued to work through the old pictures, copying and identifying the best she can with Mark’s help.  His cousin Bill has added some of his collection, so the genealogy picture collection is growing.  Mark and Hilde also filled in covering the UWSP taekwondo class one day, which is always enjoyable.  They also went to La Crosse for a conference and began talking to roofing guys in preparation for that project.  Many roofing folks out there, but some do not seem very businesslike.  The Henkels are eager to get that project taken care of.

For Easter, Mark and Hilde went to Palatine and enjoyed a weekend with John and Evie.  The project for Saturday was removing the old, leaking shower in the master bath, which provided some real challenges.  Again, two big guys in a small space working at awkward angles, then hauling out chunks of cement from the old base.  A chisel did slip, resulting in the demolition of the toilet, but heck, these things happen, don’t they?  They always enjoy spending time with the next generation, and Evie provided a great Easter feast.

March also featured a new addition to the family:  Hilde’s nephew and godson, Curt, became a Daddy:  mom Lori and little Henry David Orchard are doing fine!  The expanding family is such fun.  The real question each day:  will he wear purple or green and gold?

The one heavy snow left quickly, the trees are beginning to bud, the crocuses have cheered us…even though it is chilly and slushing outside at the end of the month, spring is arriving.

 

Evie's sunroom, so cozy!

First crocus while cooking sap

February 2016

Feb 6 little spring on Tower open all winter

February in 2016 was….funny.   The weather was neither snowy or very cold, the time flew by and Mark and Hilde really had some fun but leisurely activities.  As opposed to the usual struggle with bitter temps, dumps of snow and dark days, this was wonderful, but felt…odd.

The Henkel’s wedding anniversary on the 5^th was very nice as it combined a stop at Teri Jenkins’ retirement party at Oso brew pub…that Lucius Maximus is a delicious beer which packs a punch!  Then off for a lovely dinner at the Sky Club, which reminded them that even after 44 years, they always enjoy time together and have plenty to talk about.

Emanuel Scheid, Mark's grandfather

Hilde has been working on copying and saving the old photos from Henkels, Scheids, Riebes, etc.  She has found some great photos, even a few old tintypes of Mark’s great-grandparents, but is saddened by the many, many pictures which can not be identified.  This is a work in progress and will take many more months just to  photograph, clean up and identify, after which comes the daunting task of starting back into genealogy after nearly 25 years and getting things into the computer.  She has already found that sharing photos thru facebook with distant cousins (especially Al Hodnett!) really speeds things up!

Mark has really been enjoying working on his radio while spending less time in the office.  He also has decided to upgrade the cooker for the maple syrup, so Mark and Hilde spent one afternoon on the road up north of Wausau, getting sheet steel for that.  The view of Rib Mountain from the north west must be beautiful at night with the runs lit.

Mark at EAA

The February taekwondo testing was short and sweet, with excellent black belt candidates.  There is a lot of satisfaction when even the white belts overcome their learning difficulties, persevere and improve.  Hilde also got to teach the UWSP classes one day---fun to work with adults who both know left from right and are able to learn quickly.

Feb 28 ditches full along Second Ave and 55 degrees

Mark and Hilde had one other outing for the month, spending a day at the EAA museum in Oshkosh.  What a wonderful place to revisit the past!  American history told from the flight viewpoint brings a whole new perspective.  The feats and heroics of those early flyers are awesome, and to have so many planes on display indoors is amazing.  They spent about 3 ½ hours absorbed in the collection before feet, knees and back protested.

All in all, February was fine this year for the Henkels.  The snow is almost gone, which is great, but the prospects for a good maple sap season are diminished.  As February Leap day ends, who knows how March will go?