Week of July 18th to July 25th, 2009

Well, did you all give up on us! It has been a busy week and we have not always had internet connections.

Congratulations to the Earlham Softball girls, who won the state 1A championship this past week. If we had known they were going to do so well, we would have stayed and watched them. They were a big underdog as they were unranked going into the tournament and it was exciting as they won 2 of 3 tournament games by 1 point.

We made it to my sister’s farm near Cooperstown on Saturday eve July 18th. We spent Sunday with her and her family. In the morning we set up our first entry for this blog and that took forever as the signal for our aircard was not very strong. In the afternoon Kristen, my sister, and Dale went gopher hunting. Later her son Nathan and his family flew in their little airplane down from Hallock, MN to go with us to tour a Minute Man Missile command center that has recently been opened as a national historical center. That was really interesting. The site was one of fifteen in Eastern ND and each one controlled 10 missiles. While there were no missiles at this site, they could set the missiles off at the 10 missiles silos after confirmation from two other sources. The launch command console is about 60 feet down and sits on a platform held big hydraulic cylinders. This was so if there was an attack and near hit it would not disrupt the console and they could still launch. As the wire connection to the actual missiles ran under ground from here, I’m not sure how they would have stayed in tack by an attack, but the government must have thought they would. Then back to the farm to visit and relax. Most of the gang went down to the Sheyenne River to play around while I made phone calls and set up our itinerary for the next few days. Kristin and her granddaughter, Kennsie, 2 ½ years old, waded in the river and threw rocks while the rest watched. All had a good time.

Monday, July 20^th we headed for Grand Forks, ND to visit with my sister Terri. She and I visited a quilt shop and Dale relaxed. Later in the afternoon we went on to my sister, Sandy’s home near Adams, ND. It is sometimes better to visit one on one than having the whole family together. I have 10 siblings and when a group of us are all together it is hard to hear all the news. We took a “tour” of my nephew, Chad’s, house that he is redoing inside and out with the help of friends and family. His Mom and Dad have been a big help with that project. While there Grant and Chad discovered a leak in the brake fluid reservoir and the guys came up with a plan to leave our camper with them to get it fixed and we take Sandy’s car on. She would bring the camper on to the farm when it got fixed. (It ended up being a relatively inexpensive repair, not many of those anymore!!)

Tuesday, July 21, we left for Jamestown where I wanted to see my Aunt Opal who is in a nursing home. We found her right away considering we had not packed our address book and I’m slow in getting all that on my computer! We drove right to the home easily. She is always delighted to see anyone and get out of her room for awhile. We went out for lunch and than for a drive around the dam and recreation area on the north side of Jamestown. After dropping her off we headed for Bismarck to see my Dad who is in a nursing home there. He recognized me and we only stayed a short while, as they were getting ready for supper. Stopped at Menards and bought Mom some mulch for her gardens than headed for the farm.

It was much nicer riding in Sandy’s smooth riding quiet car than the camper. It was very gracious of Sandy and Grant to let us use their car and arrange for the repair on the camper. The canola crop was in full bloom with the bright yellow flowers, but the flax was not quit in bloom and the wheat was still green. In another week or two with the flax in full bloom and the wheat ripening it will be really pretty. In fact a lot of the flax was in blue bloom by Sat.

We spent the better part of the next day helping my sister in law strip wallpaper and paint in the rental home on the farm. The following day we helped with the drying out of Mom’s basement as a toilet down there had not shut off and it cause a major flood. The newer part of the basement is about 18 inches deeper then the old part and had completely filled up. MESS!!! Dale and I, along with sister in law, Lona, also did some minor chores for Mom. Thurs. PM Lona’s son Joe came over and we tore out the linoleum out of the new area, carried some items upstairs and moved the freezer to the garage. There is still paneling and carpet to be torn out and a lot of other stuff in the basement to be hauled to the dump. I guess Joe and his brother Matt will do most of it. Thanks, guys.

In the evening Eric, Dawne’s brother, stopped by and he helped patch the windshield wipers on the camper back together. Some plastic bushings had broken up and fallen apart and Eric replaced them with pieces he cut from an old calf pill dispenser. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t grantee it, but it should help us have windshield wipers for a little while if it rains. This time of year we hope not to run into much rain, but we will need to camp if it does come. It is really helpful to have mechanics in the family when you’re driving old vehicles. We tried to work out a way to take him with us, but could quit come up with the perfect plan.

Well we needed Eric on Fri. Before we got to Minot the camper started coughing and spiting when we went up hills and we were wondering if we were going to make it to town or not. I thought about replacing the gas filter and seeing if that fixed it, but after taking with a mechanic, who thought it was more likely a fuel pump, we waited on a mechanic to check it out. All the garages were full. We went to Superior Auto and they called all over trying to find someone to help us as they were booked also. After they could not find anyone, they agreed to look at it later in the PM. When they did look at it they just changed the gas filer and it worked. I was really mad, as I missed my opportunity to fix a mechanical problem (I could have changed the gas filer) without paying the garage to do it and wasting much of the day. We made it on Williston ND that night.

Sat. we found a nice park in Weyburn, Saskatchenwan with electrical power and internet connection, so we took the opportunity to update the blog and have lunch.

Everyone have a good week and we’ll try to update more frequently with shorter postings but the electrical power to the computers and internet connections are not working the way we thought they were.