January 2018

Frosty start to the year

January 2018 was not a bad month, considering it started with Mark and Hilde still recovering from something nasty and the fact that the Packers season was ignominiously over.   

The month included an assortment of very cold snaps, short thaws and ice ponding in yards and ditches, and some really brilliant sunshine days.  It was pleasant enough at times for some outings to the woods, some not-too-perilous walks and even  some clean up in the yard. It was notably short on snow in Rudolph, however.

Add caption

January also marked the beginning of Mark and Hilde running Stevens Taekwondo Academy, and arranging additional insurance, bank account and a credit card plus many phone calls and other decisions.  Hilde designed a letterhead and cards, but mostly they are enjoying the teaching, as always.

Hilde is winding down county board activities, and as there are others retiring from elected and director positions, she is saying lots of good-byes, with recognitions for someone every few weeks.  She got a lot of crafting done in January, and figures the winter Olympics will provide time for more knitting, crocheting and cross stitch.

After 29 years here in Rudolph house, Mark suddenly decided to build the shoe and boot storage for the bottom of the stairs and in one weekend got  all the pieces cut and assembled, so Hilde can stain them.  Not having a total tangle of footwear will tidy things up there and may be the start of a general home improvement year, since the exteriors and roofs were the focus last year.

Jim, Kayme, and kids met cousin Alana up in Rudolph for a brief visit and musical practice for the ladies.  After all the preparation and brush-cutting on the hill, there was not enough snow for the grandkids to sled, but every visit from them is a happy time.  

At the end of the month, the weather blocked viewing of the blue moon-super moon, but the effect of the full super moon filtered through overcast was magical---like a stage set effect making the sky an opalescent bowl. The end of January is always encouraging…the winter is at least half over!

Delayed December 2017

December 2017 turned out to be quite a momentous month with many activities stuffed into it and emotional moments aplenty.  The weather was dramatic, too, with warm, sunny start, allowing for another trip to cut ash stubs at the Lomira land, and then bitter, bitter cold for the holidays, challenging travels, animal care and celebrations.

Perhaps the major event of the month was the retirement celebration for Dwight Stevens, as he finished up 36 years of teaching taekwondo at the YMCA.  Hilde contacted dozens of black belts, wrote a press release, organized a thanks booklet and got it printed, arranged for cake and then took lots and lots of pictures, both at the celebration and five days later as he taught the last class.  It was sad for all of the long-time students, but Mark and Hilde are very able to teach and continue the school and the long traditions.

Other changes during the month were quieter:  Hilde formally signed the non-candidacy papers for county board just as Mark arranged to go to emeritus attorney status, which means, he can practice without the membership costs and without the continuing education requirements.  Not many people retire to run a taekwondo school, but both expect to be quite busy with those details.  They have met many times with Dr. Stevens, purchased the belts, boards, printed materials and miscellaneous items for the school, and have stuffed all those items into the house, with all the boxes of legal files.

All the above, meant that Christmas preparations were a little lighter this year, with slightly fewer cookies and candies made,   In addition, Hilde had extra meetings with  contentious tone, as she was very unhappy when a short-sighted faction tried to over-regulate horse drawn buggies, causing public outcry and lots of on-going tensions.  The matter was referred back, but has not really gone away.  Mark had extra trainings to manage for the YMCA position, taking first aid and CPR and getting those details settled.   Mark helped Hilde with the fruit basket deliveries for church shut-ins---more and more folks are on the list and yet it gets done in a fairly efficient way.

   

Then when all these items were completed, the Henkels packed the car with lots of Christmas items and headed to Sussex.  They got to see both Rhiannon and Rowan in the childrens service, to hear Rhiannon play for the pre-service music and then enjoy Christmas with the whole family, as John, Evie, Hazel and the dogs came up to spend Christmas together.   What a happy, chaotic morning it was as even Hilde’s mother was brought over for a while to meet Hazel and watch the gift opening.  The many hours of knitting were a success and the three kids all liked the sweaters Grandma Hilde made.  Next year she will knit four!

Mark and Hilde headed down to Palatine for an additional day with John, Evie and Hazel, enjoying the sweet cuddly little girl and just relaxing as John set up Hilde’s new laptop.  Then they headed home to huddle down in the worst of the bitter cold.  Three days below zero was quite enough!  However, since they both finished the month and 2017 with colds, staying inside and drinking lots of tea worked well.  What a full month!           

 

A Notable November 2017

Grandpa with Hazel

Happy Hilde with Hazel

November was a notable month, beginning with some joyous time in Palatine.  Mark and Hilde enjoyed so much cuddling the newest grandchild, Hazel Williams Henkel, and observing the happy family together.  On the second of November, Evie’s parents and brother arrived so both sets of happy grandparents could be present for Hazel’s baptism.  It was hard to leave Hazel and family---babies are only so tiny and sweet a little time.  Mark and Hilde are looking forward to more time with the Palatine family this winter.

On the weather side, November relented after an early cold blast and some dis-spiriting snow showers.  The rest of the month was “warm” and dry, fine fall weather.  This allowed Mark to clean up the garden and disk things up, plus put up the snow fence.  Mark and Hilde spent a couple of afternoons in the Seneca woods after the loggers were done, clearing a path to the deer stands and then reinforcing the stands.  Lots of fresh air and exercise on that project!  Then they built a stand down in the Rudolph woods.  Unfortunately all the preparation was for naught.  Not only did Jim end up missing deer season due to work, Mark, who went out several times in both locations, did not see a deer.  While Hilde will miss venison in the freezer, she didn’t miss the cutting of all the meat, to look on the bright side.

Although both the Fritzes (Kayme’s parents) and John and Evie generously invited Mark and Hilde to Thanksgiving, they elected to spend their first ever (in 45 years) Thanksgiving just the two of them.  It was quiet, meditative and full of thanksgiving—so many things this year to be thankful for!  They worked off turkey and pie calories by spending a couple afternoons clearing more brush from the Rudolph field.  There are many more days of work waiting on that hillside there.

As Mark finishes his first year practicing law from home as Henkel Legal Services, Mark and Hilde are both happy about it.  Mark has selected some ag-related cases and referred others to other attorneys.  Without office hours, he is able to work around the house and on all the outdoor properties, and still keep cases moving.  The house is rather cluttered with files and paper piles, but that is a minor issue—Hilde’s crafts create  clutter also.  Working remotely is a success!

Hilde’s final term on county board continues to be loaded with extra meetings and challenges.  Some things are finally falling into place and she has hopes of filling all three extension vacancies before her term ends in April.  Meantime, she is spoiling folks by bringing something tasty to every meeting.   

The final focus for Mark and Hilde is preparing to take over the Stevens Taekwondo Academy.  Dr. Stevens is retiring in December and in preparation, Mark has worked his way thru the on-line references, the diversity training and will do the first aid and procedures stuff soon.  Meantime, Hilde has been organizing a reception for Dr. Stevens next month to celebrate the 36 years he has taught and encouraged many, many students.  The more than 550 STA black belts have spread out across the country, but nobody forgets their taekwondo master—it is just hard to find the students after so long a time.   

To finish off the month, Hilde took a resounding pratfall at taekwondo while teaching chasing kicks and got up sore but laughing, despite the concerned faces of the younger students.  Hope you all enjoyed some of the sunlit milkweed and spectacular sunsets this November!

2017 October: A Month of Pressed Down and Overflowing Blessings

What a full and wonderful month October was for Mark and Hilde!  The weather was mild and made the many outdoor activities, family events and travel even better.  Of course the  birth of Hazel Williams Henkel was the big news, as John and Evie produced a darling little girl with dark hair, a mild disposition and an amazing range of expressions.   Mark and Hilde were able to visit for a couple of days, cuddling and enjoying seeing John and Evie as parents and present for Hazel's baptism. What a blessing!

Another addition to the family as  Hilde’s niece Leslie was married and added Mike Houtz to the family.  This meant a gathering of Bormanns from all over which was very fun.  Everyone got home except for John and Evie as this was just before Hazel’s arrival.  Caleb and his second cousin Marsden had a lot of fun playing (they are 3 months apart in age) and the larger gathering of cousins was fun to watch. 

  

 The next day Mark and Hilde enjoyed a mini-celebration for Rowan’s 5^th birthday.  She is an amazing little girl.

At the end of the harvest season, mark and Hilde enjoyed fresh raspberries until almost the end of the month, and then lots of lovely Wolf River apples, which makes wonderful applesauce and baked apples.  The carrot crop was large and beautiful and a second harvest of parsley greened up the kitchen for a while.  Finally, at the end of the month, Mark took down all the fencing and cleaned up the garden for the winter.

Being centrally located in Wisconsin is finally proving convenient for gatherings, as niece Alana (from Rice Lake) can meet here with Kayme to practice for recitals at UWSP while Hilde watches the four children.  That also leads to fun cousins interaction and a lot of joyous noise.  Rhiannon and Rowan liked the Rudolph scarecrow, but Caleb was not impressed.  As usual, the house seemed very quiet when they left, but Mark had time out in the woods with Jim and Hilde got to feed and cuddle the grandkids.

In order to enjoy the mild fall, Mark and Hilde got out and visited Big Eau Pleine Park, Horicon  National Wildlife Refuge and Theresa Marsh, plus enjoyed the changing colors and light of October just in Rudolph.  Fall is always a great show in Wisconsin.  During the month, the long-delayed logging of portions of the Seneca land was finally completed, fulfilling the requirements of the managed forest program.  The landscape out there has changed quite a bit, but in spring the poplars will spring up and Mark and Hilde will enjoy working to clear up the tops and stumps.  

There were the usual autumn activities dealing with the chickens:  first the Henkels transferred 6 surplus pullets to the new neighbors, kind of a house-warming gift. Then Mark managed to find folks who wanted the old hens and mean rooster, so another evening of catching chickens with resultant squawking.  A third evening was similarly noisy as the pullets were very vocal  in their objections to being moved to the henhouse, although they settled in nicely.  Finally, on a mild morning, Mark and Hilde butchered the 18 roosters—tiring and nasty work, but a very full freezer to gloat over.

In between all these various activities, business went on with lots of meetings for Hilde and much time on the phone for Mark  He also had depositions in Decorah, which Hilde attended as note-taker…..long, hot and interesting.  But it was good things concluded a day early, since the morning after getting home, Mark found the kitchen floor awash.  It turned out that an impertinent mouse chewed a leak into the water line to the dishwasher.  Fortunately, Mark was able to replace the line with braided metal AND catch the mouse. 

All in all, a golden month, full of blessings and family and fresh air.  A great October!