Thinking of Mound Church on Memorial Day

I'm thinking of Mound Church in Slope County because it is Memorial Day.  I spent many a Memorial Day at Mound Church with my father, playing the piano for the service held there to honor the fallen.   It is very near to my Aunt Junette' and Uncle Alan's ranch.  Do click on the link above to learn more about this beautiful prairie place.

Red Oak Garden Notes no. 16

Mercy it has been a windy spring in North Dakota.  Windy and dry.  We need rain.  Our watering bill is already ridiculous.   We really need rain to wash away the abundance of pine pollen in the air.  While I was planting the last of the bedding plants Saturday morning, there was a gust of wind and a cloud of lime green pollen blew off our Ponderosa pine tree.  The pollen is very bothersome to the eyes of my husband and daughter.  I'll bet by now I've swept up a billion elm seeds.

But the walleye are biting on the Missouri River and we feasted on some Saturday night, along with fresh asparagus my sister Beckie generously shared from her garden.  Our asparagus bed is not producing because we just re-planted it last year.

This morning I added leftover asparagus to my bacon, mushroom, and parmesan omelette - YUMMY!.

We got the gutter cleaning chore out of the way today and, in the process, discovered something really funny.  On January 31st we didn't receive a Bismarck Tribune.  I suppose we called and they redelivered. When I scrambled up the ladder, I peered into one of the gutters and said, "What the heck!?"  There was a rolled up Tribune.  Our delivery guy must have thrown it on the roof.  Now that takes some talent.

This was around the time when we had another adventure with the delivery guy.  Jim was recovering from back surgery.  This was a big snow winter for us.  About 5:30 a.m. the doorbell rang.  I did not hear it but Jim went to the door.  The guy was stuck in our driveway.  Jim got dressed, took out his big ass chain, hooked it up to his Jeep, and pulled the guy out.  I woke up and went out just as he was coming in and I was astonished, as were my Facebook friends when I told the story there.  You cannot make this stuff up!  How nice a guy is my husband, eh?

But enough whining about the weather.

The windows are washed and it is time for some flower and hosta photos.

Hot Spice Iris

Bloomerang Lilac.  How I wish I could capture its fragrance in this picture.  I planted it right next to the back patio so we could smell it when we sit at the table. 

Yarrow

June Spirit Hosta and white impatiens

Zinnias have sprouted!

Red Oak House

White Bleeding Heart

American Goldfinch comes to the feeder

Jim already has some green tomatoes.  He cheated and bought a large plant at Cottonwood Greenhouse south of Mandan

First Frost Hosta.  Although I used to be more partial to the blue hostas, I'm now loving the ones with gold.  

Limey Lisa hosta.  Notice the shiny penny on the right.  I put pennies down next to the hosta. The copper repeals slugs. I also put down eggshells.  I know my neighbors think I'm nuts!

Lady's Mantle

Allium

Rubra Pasqueflower.  I love a flower that looks as beautiful after the blooms are spent as when it is in full bloom

Time for some supper.  Jim & I are "Foodies" - omnivores who like to grow what we can and like to cook.  Tonight, Caprese as an appetizer, using Prairie Maid tomatoes from Carrington, ND, and basil from out patio pot,

followed by a pork roast rubbed with Penzey's Bicentennial Rub and slow roasted in our oven, what might be one of our last oven meals until cool autumn weather returns.

We're huge fans of the company Penzey's Spices.

Yes, the spices are alphabetized.  Well Duh!

With the last of the planting completed and of the giving-away of our seedlings finished, the back patio is now all ours for enjoyment until the snow flies next fall.

Going to visit my Aunt Junette

My daughter and I made a date this week to visit my elderly Aunt Junette Henke at Edgewood Vista Assisted Living in Bismarck.

I am blessed with many very strong and independent women in my life and my Aunt Junette stands in front of that line.  She is my godmother, my mother's older sister, and, like me, the middle child.  She is 93 years old and is one of the greatest "encouragers" of my life, always pushing me to learn more and be the best possible version of myself that I can manage.  At a really low point in my life, she firmly told me "you're a survivor" and, by God, she was right!

Born in the hardscrabble hills of Slope County, she attended Dickinson State Teacher's College and was an elementary teacher in various schools until she retired.  She and her husband Alan Henke had a ranch north of Marmarth, ND and she was one of the authors of The Slope Saga.  When I praise her for all of the efforts that were required in writing that epic work (1,178 pages!), she just chuckles and says "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."  Bear in mind that in the time that the book was being written she drove on Bad Lands gravel roads, back and forth from their ranch north of Marmarth, to Bowman 56  miles roundtrip!

Little Missouri National Grasslands map, Marmarth shown.

The area newspaper, the Bowman County Pioneer, allowed the committee members to use the facility for the production of this tome on the condition that they would only arrive after they'd closed for the day.  There they would furiously work through the night.  They sent solicitations to the people of Slope County, who dutifully sent in their submissions, and then they had to go to work editing these, writing many sections on their own, and doing the layout.  It was a tremendous leap of faith on their part as they were required in the contract to print 2500 numbers of copies with no idea that the book would actually sell and pay for itself.

Pay for itself, it did, in spades.  It is now considered to be a rare volume and is very valuable, and, I know, treasured by its owners.  My copy is signed by her and well worn.

How blessed am I that to this day that when I have a question about Slope County, I can call my aunt and her quick mind will have a ready answer.  Sometimes that answer is located in The Slope Saga and many times it is in her head!  When I express my gratitude she laughs and says "It is good for my brain to recall these things."  I know she is happy that someone is still interested in these stories.

Today, she requested that my daughter, Chelsea, play the Edgewood Vista grand piano for her, and Chelsea did.  Here is the video of one of the numbers she played.  When I watch I am naturally "mother-proud" and I tell myself that all of those hours in the driveway of her piano teacher Margaret Marcusen were worth it.

Since we were in history mode, we went home, picked up Jim, and went to beautiful downtown Bismarck for an evening history walking tour offered by The Bismarck Tour Company.  The weather was fine and it was fun to stroll the downtown streets, listening to the stories of Bismarck's past, admiring the beautiful historic buildings.  Various Bismarck stories were told, including the tale of Elizabeth McClellan, a brothel madame who amassed quite of bit of money in her time.  Sadly, we were not able to go into the tunnels underneath the downtown area.  But we did hear interesting tales of soldiers coming to Bismarck from Fort Lincoln, visiting the prostitutes, getting drunk, and sometimes drowning in the Missouri River on their swim back, or falling in the treacherous river ice if winter.  We walked by the famous Patterson Hotel, first called the Hotel McKenzie, the site of so much of Bismarck's early historical and political drama.

Perhaps my favorite of Bismarck's historic buildings, the old Bismarck Tribune building, built in 1920

This is a great addition to one of the alley

One day in the life of me, a history nerd, a Slope County gal.

A Quirky Blue Highways Trip

My husband and I took off this week from our duties at Red Oak House for a quirky blue highways trip.  We zigzagged across the area between Bismarck and Grand Forks and had a thoroughly wonderful time, on a cerulean-sky-puffy-cloud kind of day.

We departed from Red Oak House on Wednesday morning and headed north to Wilton, and then east.  It wasn't long before we took a gravel road detour to drive along the McCluskey Canal in the West and East Park Lakes area.  Speaking for myself, I did not like driving along that canal and was relieved when we got back to the real prairie. Then to Mercer, Pickardville, and McCluskey, the geographical center of North Dakota, and the center point for all of the street and avenue names in ND.

Time for lunch in one of our favorite stops in Hurdsfield.

Here I had the best fleischkuechle I've had in my life.  The nice lady at the Hurdsfield Dairy King confirmed that she gets it from Golden Fleischkuecle in Stanton, and I do declare she cooks it to perfection.  If you are interested in this ND delicacy, you can read more about it here in this article by our friend Lauren Donovan.

When I poked into it with my fork, a delightful fragrance wafted up to me and I dug in!  After the meal, of course, we treated ourselves to ice cream.

Next was picturesque Sykeston where we stopped to admire St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church.

Jim made the Station's of the Cross at the lovely hand-carved wooden sculptures.

On we proceeded, with a gas stop in Carrington, the home of one of the most beautiful old courthouses in the state.  After quite a bit of driving through a landscape dominated by cultivation, we arrived in the Grace City area, and the pleasure of a more varied landscape of rolling hills and pastures.

A stop at Juanita Lake, in the James River drainage, located in the wonderfully named Rolling Prairie Township of Foster County was in order where we stretched our legs and took more photographs.

A Pod of Pelicans on Juanita Lake

Although the winds were on both days very brisk, we managed to see all of these birds:

Northern shoveler
Blue-winged teal
Mallard
Yellow-headed blackbird
Red-winged blackbird
Robin
Grackle
Killdeer
Ring-billed gull
Rough-winged swallow
Cormorant
Canada goose
Western grebe
Mourning dove
Lesser scaup
Swainson's hawk
Red-headed duck
Pelican
Northern harrier
Eastern kingbird
Great blue heron
American wigeon
Canvasback duck
Rock dove
American coot
Cliff swallow
Brewer's blackbird
Gray partridge
American crow
Song sparrow
Meadowlark
Tree swallow
Cliff swallow
Western kingbird
American avocet
Yellowthroat
Yellow warbler
Least flycatcher
American redstart
House wren
Brown thrasher
Clay-colored sparrow
Bobolink
Ruddy duck
Pheasant
Red-tailed hawk with a snake in his talons
Black tern

Why the human propensity to shoot up signs, I wonder?

A side trip to the ghost town of Juanita was agreed to.  You can read more about Juanita, ND on the excellent website Ghosts of North Dakota.

Although it is difficult to see because of the vegetation, this building pictured below is named the Dewey School.  Interestingly, Ghosts of North Dakota does not describe this building and I was unable to see the entire date the building was completed due to the dense overgrowth; however, there is more information here about the Dewey Township

The name Juanita has a very interesting story, according to the book North Dakota Place Names by Douglas Wick. (Yes, we keep this particular book in our car.) "This GNRR [Railroad] station was founded in 1911 in SW 1/4 Sec. 34-147-63, Florence Twp., on the Surrey cutoff line. The name came from the nearby lake which had been known as Townsend, Smith, and Belland before being named Wanitah by newspaperman A.L. Lowden in 1900. Wanitah is thought to be an Indian name, but for some reason the townsite planners changed the spelling into the Spanish for Juanita, which is the feminine version of Juan, or John, a Hebrew name meaning God's gracious gift....The Post Office...closed May 7, 1985."

After Juanita, we crossed over into the lovely Sheyenne River Valley watershed. At this point, it was time to hightail it to Grand Forks for our dinner engagement. Lo but we were lured into yet another stop by this charming sign.

Here we found an example of a beautiful ND country church, the Beaver Creek Lutheran Church.  Although it was not open, we wandered the grounds.

In Grand Forks, we dined at Guiseppe's with a party of good friends, and made new friends.  The occasion was the visit of old friend, Myron Just, former ND Agriculture Commissioner (and, while Comissioner, Jim's boss), and his fiance Ellen.

New friendships were made with Bob and Nikki Seabloom of Grand Forks.

From left: Chuck Haga, Suezette Bieri, Lillian Crook, Nikki and Bob Seabloom, Jim Fuglie, Myron Just, Mike Jacobs.  Photo by Ellen

Now it was time for four members of the party to head back west, past Gilby, where we spent the night with Suezette Bieri and Mike Jacobs at their home, Magpie Ridge.  We dreamed fine dreams in their house filled with books.

The next morning, we fulfilled the other purpose of our trip, which was to deliver to Mike and Suezette fourteen of our heirloom tomato seedlings, for their garden.

We headed north, toward Pisek (est. 1882) for a visit to the spectacular church in this community with Bohemian roots, St. John Nepomucene Catholic Church, established in 1886.

We were dumbstruck by the beauty of this holy place in this quiet prairie town.

Within this church is the most valuable painting in North Dakota, pictured below.

Saints Cyril and Methodius

Painted by the famous Czech artist, Alfons Mucha (1860-1939), in recent years the painting was sent to Canada for restoration at substantial cost.  It now looks like a brand new painting.  

The woman at the local grocery store reported that some of the elders did not care for the colors recommended by the church's restoration firm, however, we found the interior to be beautiful.

Much more information on the church and painting can be found here.

Pisek has other interesting old buildings and the Pisek State Bank (1903) is a fine example. Pisek, located in Walsh County, is further described in Wick's North Dakota Place Names is located in Walsh County.  "It was named by Bohemian settlers for their hometown, which bears a Bohemian name meaning sand."

Heading west again, we see one of the finest examples of what is locally known as a "sand beach", more accurately described by my way of seeing things as a huge sand dune. The picture below just doesn't adequately capture how dramatic the dune rises from the prairie, but it gives one a hint of the effect as the dune rises about 50 feet from the flat valley, running as a ridge along the horizon.  A good description of the sand dunes of North Dakota can be found in the eminent geologist John P. Bluemele's excellent book North Dakota's Geologic Legacy: Our Land and How It Formed and in his book The Face of North Dakota.

This sand dune marked the end of our time in the Red River Valley, as we traveled back into the rolling prairie landscape of the Sheyenne River Valley where all of the plum trees were in full blossom and the farmers were busy with spring planting.  The air was filled with their sweet perfume.

Here we spotted a perfect illustration of the effects of the ever-present North Dakota winds in these tree skeletons pictured below that have permanently bowed toward the eastern horizon.

On we traveled to Aneta, the turkey capitol of North Dakota, where the community holds a huge annual turkey feast in the middle of the main street.

Now it was time to visit some of North Dakota's state historical sites in Griggs County.

After Lake Jessie, we had some difficulty locating our next destination, Camp Atchison (Wick describes it as four miles south of Binford, but in reality, it is 2 1/2 miles south). We missed the site on our first pass by, however, we were undaunted. I delegated Jim to inquire with some friendly ND farmers who had stopped their field work for lunch.

The farmers misunderstood our destination as Lake Jessie and we realized this when we followed their directions and understood we'd now driven a big circle and were back where we'd started. 

A call to the State Historical Society in Bismarck got us the directions we needed for our stop at Camp Atchison Historic Site. "This was the campsite used July 18, 1863 by the Sibley Expedition. It was located on the NE shore of Lake Sibley....named for Capt. Charles B. Atchison, an aide of Maj. Gen. John Pope, who was on temporary assignment to Gen. Sibley." (North Dakota Place Names)

We learned our lesson to also carry our copy of A Traveler's Companion to North Dakota State Historic Sites in our car along with the Wick book.

From page 68, "...the 1863 Sibley Expedition. Prior to July 17, the principal thrust of the expedition had been toward Devils Lake where alleged Indian participants of the Dakota Conflict of 1862 were rumored to be living (see Sibley and Sully Expeditions of 1863)....On July 18 a nearly ideal base camp site was found on the northeastern shore of Lake Sibley. The site could be easily defended, had ample water, grass, and wood nearby, and was near known trails and landmarks, such as Lake Jessie and Devils Lake."


Now it was time for a hot pork dinner in Cooperstown at the Coach House Inn & Cafe (be sure to sample their fresh baked goods),

followed by an explore of the grounds of the Griggs County Courthouse, which until very recently was the oldest courthouse in use in North Dakota (a new one has just been opened).

Our last historic stop was the Ronald Reagan Minuteman State Historic Site where we enjoyed a fascinating tour of a slice of our nation's history we've both driven by hundreds of times and not seen behind the scene, a remnant of the world's Cold War history.

Yup, we're going fifty feet underground.  But, we took the elevator.

Our route homeward took us through the Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge where we completed the auto tour and added to our aforementioned bird list.

Here we could readily see the benefits of a recent controlled burn.  Note the contrast between the new green grass on the right and the dense, old weedy growth on the left.

That darned wind was still blowing, but I found some beauty in the waving of the green grasses on that otherwise serene prairie and managed to capture it in this video.   Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge Wind Art

Time to head for home with one last terrific stop in Robinson for water bottles and snacks.  One of the best parts of this trip for me was that I'm a western North Dakota gal through and through, and have thus do not know every corner of the state like I probably should.  When my husband first got to know me, he laughed when I showed him that my copy of the North Dakota state map was only the western half.  As state maps are wont to do, it was tattered and falling apart, and I saw that I had no need for the eastern half so I'd thrown it away because it was just a nuisance to me.  I readily admit that I have many untraveled paths to explore in our state and my husband is a wonderful traveling companion.

Robinson's claim to fame is that it is the Geographic Center of North America.  This emblem is found on the floor of the local watering hole. How cool is that?!

Home for supper.  Can you tell my husband was the Director of North Dakota Tourism at one time in his career?

"Life always gives us
exactly the teacher we need
at every moment.
This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light,
     every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor (or employee),
     every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression,
     every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath.
Every moment is the guru."   Charlotte Joko Beck