Month: July 2021

Heat & Drought

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What a swelter we are experiencing.  While some in Europe, Ohio, Valley and the southern U.S. are being flooded, up here in Minnesota, hot and dry, dry, dry. And we can’t forget the fires and smoke. But I don’t have to tell any of you that.  From Ely to Albert Lee, we are in one form or another of drought.  I found the diagram below from the online EPA helpful:

EPA diagram

While some of us have experienced severe drought before, like from the Dirty Thirties, many of us heard about it from those who lived through it during the Great Depression. National Geographic states the following as well:

There is still a lot of debate about the connection between drought and global warming, the current period of climate change. A 2013 NASA study predicts warmer worldwide temperatures will mean increased rainfall in some parts of the world and decreased rainfall in others, leading to both more flooding and more droughts worldwide. Other scientists question the prediction that there will be more droughts and believe global warming will create a wetter climate around the world.

Yet we wait and pray for rain, enough to grow on.  Some of the fields are past their opportunity for growth, but necessary rain will fill our lakes, rivers, and groundwaters, which are in great need as well.

I have to admit I am waiting inside in the a/c as much as possible.  For me, I’ve had another type of drought.  Plagued by a lack of imagination and clear thought, I suffered for a couple of months.  I could not move on in my book, nor could I cough up a poem.  Writer’s block happens in one form or another to many authors.  I covered up my remorse by trying out another form of creativity–attempting to take my already written poetry and designing them into cards.  My struggles during this dry spell seem nothing now compared to my lack of skill in cutting and stamping straight.  I’ve truly enjoyed my work when it turns out okay but this is not a natural skill for sure.  I keep working at it, and spending lots on stamps, dies, embossing pads, inks, pens, you name it.  With so much invested, I keep trying.  And so the story ends, that I have been experiencing more rain and my dry spell seems to be handling my drought.  Now the problem is I don’t have enough time for both endeavors and the moral is  When it rains, it pours.  Not in a bad way though. 

The next few weeks are busy for me.  I am hoping for cooler weather…rain to come at appropriate times for all of these events are OUTSIDE:

August 2nd St Joseph, MN 5-9 pm for Monday Night at the Millstream Market.

August 14th, Sartell, Berneck’s Auditorium on Pine Cone, 10-3:30.

August  21st, Buffalo Arts and Crafts, Buffalo, Wright County.  10-4

September 11-12, Rice Arts and Crafts–by the Old Creamery, Rice, Minnesota.  10-4 both days

More to come. I hope to see you all soon.

 

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It’s good to be back

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Zoom in on Front Standard. Yankee Doodle Dandy [Blu-ray] [1942].

We had our first celebration party Saturday night.  No masks, no social distancing.  Lots of good b-b-q’d food–burgers, brats, ribs.  Add all the other picnic food, and we stuffed ourselves.  Later, our house was surrounded by individual fireworks.  One time, I wondered if flames licked our roof.  All turned out fine.

Yesterday, we had a later start to our 2nd celebration and had to travel for it.   I started watching Yankee Doodle Dandy in the morning, and again for the nearly twentieth time wasn’t disappointed. The black and white screen didn’t disappoint either because the music and acting related brought color of its own type and emphasized family, patriotism, a united country.  All of which we can be proud. Like other generations who bounced back after our county’s crises, we are bouncing back from Covid–I hope for a long time now. On our way home, the sky was lit up with all sorts of colored lights–north, east, west anyway–we saw colorful expressions of “Let freedom ring,” celebrating our county’s freedom.

It seems like most of the nation is hot and dry or enduring storms of one type or another.  We have lots to be sad and worry about, lots to be thankful for–and we are free, to a certain extent, to say what we want, do what we want, and explore, which is what I’ve been doing again for my upcoming book–Where Two Rivers Meet.

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It all started with the comment my sister made about giants rumored to have been found back in the 1800s. “Giants,” I asked.  She plagued about my memory again because I had never heard the tales….”Out near Clearwater Lake,” she said, trying to ‘shiver me timber’ memories. So I did an Internet search.  Little else is known, and not much media was given any coverage, BUT:

“In the “Pioneer Press” of June 29, 1888, is an account of the discovery, twelve miles from Clearwater, N. E. 1/4, sec. 21, T. 121-27, by Charles W. Pinkerton, of the town of Corinna, of the remains of seven persons said to have been from seven to eight feet high.” Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge, History of Wright County, Minnesota, 1888.

We both started researching and took a few trips out to dig up graves where we knew they were supposed to be found–south of Clearwater. Our freedoms didn’t allow us to go on private properties.  Following what we thought were the right coordinates, we drove on paved and dry roads with dust spraying the back of my SUV.  Because so much has been developed, the area, Clearwater Lake,  gave up no hints as to where we should look.  When we got home the last time, we re-checked the coordinates and realized we were off a couple of sections.

I have to be honest, I’ve been known to travel on trails that aren’t posted private property (to my sister’s embarrassment and fear).  But without a little brave/stupid hankering for answers, I would not have been able to write my first book, Steppes to Neu-Odessa, which is a biographical dictionary of Odessa Township, Yankton County, SD, and where the first German-Russians settled in the US–including mine). I don’t worry too much about not having an invitation, but I definitely won’t go where there is a warning, and I am not wanted.  But if anyone gets a hankering or an invitation, let us know.  We might follow along.  I might also want to see the many, MANY, native mounds that surround a number of the lakes in this vicinity and the Clearwater River.  Otherwise, I have the freedom to imagine what I want for the next book.

Hope you are still enjoying your Independence Day weekend on this Federal holiday.  HOT! yes, but so much to do and find and explore.

IMG_9994.JPG  ANYONE FOLLOWING ME?

On the road again,

Cindy