December 2014

This is the way December should be, full of family, friends and food!  For the first time in many years, Hilde and Mark were home for the entire month, and enjoyed many special days and nights with relatives and friends, right at home.

Hilde enjoyed baking up lots of good stuff—several stollens, fruitcakes and lots of cookies and candies to share and take to meetings.  There is always another recipe to try, or even chocolate Rudolphs to put together.

Wisconsin’s weather was a bit crazy during the month—it started at zero degrees, then the middle and later parts of the month were gloomy and wet with lots of fog as the snow melted and hung in the air.  Even the Rudolph Country Christmas was wet and foggy, but Terri and David came to visit that day, which meant it was fine inside despite the dreary weather.  All the decorations, music and activities helped to brighten things. 

Rudolph caught the edge of one snow system before Christmas,

so that there was wet packy snow for a short time for Rhiannon and Rowan to enjoy.  Rowan threw snow at Grandma and the “Jims” were all outside for fun building a snowman one damp but lovely morning.  Mark and Hilde had a great time since Jim, Kayme and the girls were here for three days including Christmas Eve.  John and Evie came for a visit after Christmas – and then Phil and Connie came for a visit also…what a joy to have Henkels and more Henkels around!

Hilde and Mark managed time with friends also:  one dinner out with Mark’s ‘trial team’ Sandy and Eric, one night with Dr. Stevens and Karen  and then Hilde’s crafts friends were able to come for an evening.  Getting folks out here is very often is tough in winter, since the steep driveway is challenging in snowy conditions!

Everyone in Wisconsin was rejoicing as the Packers won their way to the division championship and anticipation is building for the playoffs.  Green and Gold is the color scheme of the month! 

Hilde’s mom arrived safely in New Mexico to spend time with Steve and his family, all the relatives traveled safely around the US, and Mark recovered from a bout of flu fairly quickly, right in the middle of everything.  Hilde got to all the extra meetings and hearings and then just ignored county stuff for a couple of weeks, while Mark minimized work hours and truly relaxed.  It can’t get much better than that.

After some cold weather tree trimming, Mark and Hilde decided to stay home on NYE, feast quietly and enjoy old movies.  It was a very nice way to end one year and start off into another.

Nutty November 2014

Mark working on the flooring

November was nutty, rushed and cold, with a surprise ending for all that.  Like much of the country, Wisconsin saw cold and snow start much earlier than has been usual, with several days of nasty roads, gloomy skies and howling winds.  Some of it was quite beautiful for January, but came in November.  For once, Mark and Hilde had gotten things more or less in order outside, including getting the tractor chains on before the first time to plow the driveway.

Mark worked long hours during the month in preparation for a two-week trial starting December 1 in North Carolina.  Getting evidence and files ready for out-of-state trails gets kind of complicated.  Hilde pushed hard to finish canning applesauce , jelly, jam and mustard, preparing fruitcake early and then a pared down menu of Christmas goodies, all while dealing with extra meetings and a tour about spray irrigation of waste and a particularly trying set of performance evaluations.  Plans were for Mark’s partner and assistant to drive down with boxes of documents and technical gear, while Mark and Hilde were to fly out of O’Hare right after Thanksgiving.  Exactly one week from departure, everything canceled as the plaintiff withdrew from the case.  The notifications, cancelations and changes in plans were complicated.  The lawsuit is likely to be refiled, and the trial only delayed, but Hilde is hoping for it NOT to be scheduled for December again.  She is very happy to be home for the Advent season and not in a hotel in Hendersonville!

Deer season was cold and varied from raw and foggy to very cold.  Paul and Loren came up to share opening day with Mark, which was very good.  With snow and a shell of ice over the swamp, the walking there is very challenging, but they all got good work-outs, if no deer.  Mark skipped Sunday hunting (cold rain!) , but did go out on the following  Saturday, when the weather included freezing mist and fog…no luck in either woods.  Some years are like that, but the main hunting land is now said to have three wolves hunting there---and the forester still has not done the cutting which would open portions of the land up for better browse.  Despite in lack of success hunting, the Packers’ four-game winning streak has our mood  upbeat.

Thanksgiving this year was very special for the Henkels.  We all gathered at John and Evie’s for their first holiday in the new house, with delicious  food and heart-warming fun with the girls.  Mark and John carefully repaired the  tiles in the sunroom, Rhiannon was enchanted with the toy doctor kit which she had just gotten, Rowan played with Grandma and Aunt Evie and we all were able to worship together Wednesday evening.  The Henkel clan is growing, and Jim and Kayme came down that day directly from their visit for sonogram of  the new, healthy-looking boy who will arrive in spring.  We have much to give thanks for.

Plenty of November Snow

Ready to Feast

Cooperative clean up

October 2014--Full Speed Ahead!

Putting up the Brooder House

Fall is a wonderful time and this October, Mark and Hilde managed to enjoy every bit of it, from family visits to tramping around in the woods and the first fleeting snowfall.

Right in the beginning of the month they packed up and attended the World Dairy Expo in Madison, learning interesting facts, and marveling at all the dairy-related equipment and doo-dads.  Then off to visit Hilde’s mother, who is doing pretty well and managing at home okay.  Then over to Jim and Kayme’s where those amazing little girls are growing, learning and getting to be even more fun.  Family and friends gathered to watch the Packers win on Thursday night, with the little girls bouncing around .

Mark helped straighten and shore up the yard shed and then tackled a bad socket and tuck-pointing a crack in the foundation..  Hilde enjoyed spending time playing with the girls, watching them at their music class and getting some time to visit with Kayme. 

Going out to Culvers one evening was really fun as Rhiannon ate a lot, and Rowan charmed everyone in hearing, giggling and playing peek-a-boo through the vegetation.  The family is planning an expansion in April and the grandparents are very happy about it.  Every visit means something new going on, or an interesting new stage with the girls.  This time, Mark even got to assist in bottling operations with Jim…he never thought to be doing that.

Straight from Jim and Kayme’s, Mark and Hilde went to John and Evie’s, though the construction everywhere made for a slow and irritating journey…detours, slow downs and harried drivers.  In Palatine, they met the new dog (Kubla) and Mark immediately began working with John on the drywalling of the garage ceiling.  Those two work very well together and managed over Saturday and Sunday to complete the insulation and drywall, plus some of the mudding.  John surely enjoys having a house to work on and he is doing a great job on the various tasks.  Evie made a delicious squash soup and brownies,  and everyone enjoyed relaxing together in the evening.

For the next couple of weeks, as the days shortened and cooled, Mark spent all his non-business time finishing the rebuild of the brooder house, with Hilde painting it and assisting in putting it all back together.   Hilde mowed lawn for the last time, Mark dug carrots and they picked even more apples.  The fruit cellar is full of bounty and goodness, because it was a good year for the garden, lots of apples and tomatoes, and all has been ‘put up.’

 Both Mark and Hilde assisted at a taekwondo testing and Hilde taught a self-defense introduction at  UW-Stevens Point with Karen Johnson.  She also had almost double the average number of meetings for the month---including election worker training, instructions on performance review changes and a seminar on the new phosphorus rules.  Mark had one tough morning, when fasting for his physical, when the car had a flat, the jack was too short and finally a crowbar needed to pry the wheel off.  Thank goodness the flat didn’t occur on the road without the additional tools needed to change the tire!

October finished with a couple of delightful days.  Claudette and Loren invited the Henkels down for lunch and playtime while they were caring for Rhiannon and Rowan.  Good food, good friends and fun with girls who enjoy shuffling around in Grammy’s shoes, popping out of boxes and cuddling up for a nap….can’t ask for a nicer afternoon.  At the very end of the month, Mark took off a day, knowing that with a trial coming soon, things would get very busy.  Mark and Hilde returned to Green Lake to enjoy a long walk on the shoreline, scuffing through leaves and  admiring the fall landscape, then went over to Grand River Marsh for fresh air and sweeping horizons.  That is a very good way to relax before things get into high gear.

Finally this morning, for a Halloween trick, Mother Nature sent an inch of snow to coat the ground and end the growing season.  So ends the month.

Mark and John working on ceiling

Plum Road was plum golden

Cuddling two sweet grandgirls

Practicing like Mommy

2014 A Superior September

Asters near River Falls WI

Copper Falls

This September was simply stuffed full of activities, fun time and lots and lots of canning and preserving.  What a blessing when the harvest is plentiful and the cellar fills with good food for the coming year.  Mark and Hilde spent lots of time working outside, as Mark had antenna adjustments after the windstorms and then he contrived an insulation for the west foundation which involved a lot of very awkward work crawling in and working on the gravel to install it under the deck.  This result is very tidy and will prevent the freeze-up of water lines to the kitchen.

Hilde alternated between mowing and mowing (lots of rain and sun meant grass really grew fast) and using the abundant tomato and apple yield.  Folks at the office and church got some of the excess, but she made lots of tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, some of Grandma Schultz’s Ketsup, and many batches of tomato soup frozen for winter.   This is the first year that the Wolf River apples have really produced and they were covered with huge apples---great for applesauce, baked apples and just about anything.  For eating apples, two trees of ‘can’t remember what we planted’ produced very nicely and even a few snow apples.  Hilde spent lots of time making apple treats, trying out new recipes and canning lots of applesauce.

Although Labor Day weekend was spent at home laboring, Mark and Hilde decided that they needed a break and headed up to Bayfield and Ashland early in September.  The weather was perfect for a visit to Madeline Island, Sand Beach and Copper Falls.  Spending time on the shore of Lake Superior just watching waves and seagulls is very, very soothing---and the various blues were amazing. 

Then it was back to work, meetings and extra projects.  After several application of spray, the enormous hornet nest was removed and Mark got to work on the brooder house, completely dismantling it, cutting off the rotten wood and adding in new to raise the height and improve the design.  It was major work which he enjoyed doing, since the weather cooperated except for bringing out a new batch of ferocious mosquitoes.  Both Mark and Hilde found bug repellant to be a daily need.  Hilde’s project for the month was to repaint the master bathroom---full of awkward corners and no room for easier methods…just a brush and determination.  One of those ‘glad that’s done’ projects, it did improve things dramatically.

There were meetings, many, many meetings, for Hilde, since September means budget hearings, zoning hearings and two of the 'spray irrigation of waste' meetings.  It does help having everything on the iPad instead of balancing piles of paper, but each meeting takes prep time and often leads to more calls or follow-up.  Mark was busy trying to rearrange his schedule to get discovery finished for the string of trials, but he did find time to go to the range with Dr. Stevens, for a little break.

The Henkels returned to Buffalo MN late in the month (part of the trial from 2012 will be retried in 2015), so Hilde got to visit with Laurel, who has retired there.  They never ran out of things to talk about, but Mark did come back to the motel and wonder where Hilde was!  It was the perfect time to travel through Wisconsin and Minnesota as the trees were reaching full color, the sky that gorgeous fall blue and the weather very warm for the season.  Mark had depositions in Northfield MN also, so Hilde got to browse, enjoy the lovely town and river walk and get some serious walking in.   Evie went to Carlton College, so Hilde could picture her there in Northfield.

Taking a more leisurely route homeward from the business, Mark and Hilde visited Eau Galle Recreation Area and discovered it is truly beautiful---kind of hidden away and lots of trails and color there.  As September ended, Rudolph had two very hot days (82 each day!) during which they picked the last tomatoes and pulled the vines, and endured amazing swirls attacks of mosquitoes to pick fall raspberries.  But, all good things do end, and on the 29th, the temps began dropping and dropping and seasonal (fall) weather moved in.  A wonderful month!

Eau Galle Rec area

Mark picking Wolf River apples

 

Fall colors and beautiful horses

From Madeline Island