Holidays

Merry Christmas to all.  It's always a great time to celebrate with family.  We experienced a 60 degree swing yesterday to 30 above from 31 below the day before.  Exhilarating!  See you next week.

Wreaths and Stones

I visited the veterans' cemetery today, Tuesday, and took my camera with.  This past weekend wreaths were placed at each veteran's headstone, about 5000 of them.  It makes for a pretty sight.

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Mary hustles about getting ready for this weekend's Christmas at our house.  The families will all be here, and we'll eat pretty good, I'm sure of that.  One of the daughter's-in-law received our lefse griddle, so we'll see how that turned out.  I'm hoping well!  She's from Barnesville, and there are a lot of potatoes around there to use in the recipe.

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It was announced that Lake Sakakawea is now frozen over, quite an early date.  Since we cross the river daily, we keep track of that ourselves.  There's still some open water but a lot of ice, too.  I don't know how the old pioneers risked crossing, but they did.

I found an interesting story.  Some German-Russian emigrants made their way into the Dakotas, coming first to Aberdeen as many of them did.  Traveling on to Wishek the man bought a team of horses and a hayrack for his family to ride.  Accompanying them was the widow of a cousin, a cousin who had died crossing the ocean.  They had heard many stories about the dangers of crossing the Missouri in the wintertime, and, also, about the Indians.  It so happened they crossed the river safely, and wouldn't you know it, came upon a family of Indians who gave them a place to stay overnight in their cabin.  On their way next morning the widow gave them the news she was pregnant and felt the first labor pains.  In the middle of this vast wilderness, they had to take care of matters themselves.  The man dug a  hole in the snow, tipped the hayrack on top of it, and spread the straw around for a bed.  When the horses laid down to sleep the rest of the family crawled between them for heat.  The widow gave birth in the middle of the night, and the next morning they were on their way again.

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It's been so darn cold already this winter.  The last couple of days it warmed some, but the weatherman says it's going to get cold again.  Some don't believe in global warming and point to the cold as proof.  But I go along with the scientists who say it is.  They study the vagaries of what we've been experiencing, and it all points to warming.  On a daily basis, I read the NPR website and an article caught my eye, titled "How Global Warming Works."  In 35 words this is what was said, "Earth transforms sunlight's visible light energy into infrared light energy, which leaves Earth slowly because it is absorbed by greenhouse gases.  When people produce greenhouse gases, energy leaves Earth even more slowly -- raising Earth's temperature."

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Ole gives Lena a new cell phone for Christmas. The next day she's at Wal-Mart and the phone rings. Ole is on the phone and asks her how she likes her new cell phone.
Lena replies, "Great Ole, but howda know I was at da Wal-Mart?!

Dec. 11

It's minus 16 here this morning, but we're starting to get used to it.  A little snow often falls, but yesterday my wife came home with a snow pusher that I've had my eye on, but hadn't said anything.  I was gonna ask Santa for one but then forgot about it.  She was going to surprise me with it, but since she wanted help getting it out of the car, that plan changed.

I don't know much else this morning.  Some days I just run out of ideas, so why belabor the fact.  See you next week.

Times Got Tough

Ice came Monday here along the Missouri, now snow falls. The prediction: snow and very cold. North Dakota in wintertime. Time to curl up with a good book (I've got about two dozen to get to) and read the days away.

An editor at the Bismarck Tribune sent me a book to review which was published in the paper last Sunday: Murdering Indians. When I “googled” my name, I saw the review showed up online. The happenings surrounding the murders and the subsequent lynching weren't all that long ago. People took things into their own hands if they didn't like the way it was developing.

The picture shows how tough things got in the winter of 1886-87.  Charlie Russell, the painter, was asked to describe how things were in the severe winter.  He responded by painting this picture.  The year before things were pretty tough, too, at least for one guy.

The March 31, 1885 issue of Sheldon's newspaper carried a long story about a lynching at Pierre, SD. It started with: “The Bell murder trial has been carried to a higher court where venue is never changed and continuances are unknown. The last set of this drama in real life was enacted at 2 o'clock yesterday morning. A masked mob of twenty-five men entered the town from the east early yesterday morning, proceeded to the jail, took from thence the murderer, J.W. Bell, and hung him to a flag pole in front of the court house, the whole transaction occupying less than fifteen minutes. Some time ago Bell was arrested for the murder of Forrest G. Small near Harold on December 4, 1884. The evidence against the accused was chiefly circumstantial.” (The underline is mine.)

Further on in the story, “Bell begged and prayed for his life, but to no purpose, after which he began screaming 'murder' at the top of his voice, fighting every step of the way to the hasitly improvised gallows. Residents in the neighborhood were awakened by the noise and viewed the proceedings through the darkness. Arriving at the flag pole, which is about fifty feet in front of the courthouse a cross bar was nailed at about fifteen feet from the ground and one end of the inch hemp rope was swung over the bar, and in a twinkling the alleged murderer was paying penalty of his crime.”

The writer even told us about the rope “about twelve feet long, one inch in diameter, and brand new. The knot tied is the regulation hangman's knot prepared by a skilled hand.”

A few hours before the lynching the accused said, “If they hang me, they would hang an innocent man... I can establish my innocence.” The mob never gave him the chance for a trial.

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Sven and Ole were sipping their beers when a truck went past loaded up with rolls of sod... "I'm gonna do dat ven I vin the lottery."..."Do vat?" asked Ole... "Send my lawn out to be mowed."
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Quite a stir occurred on local tv this past weekend.  Ron Burgundy, otherwise known as Will Ferrell, came to Bismarck and sat beside a weekend anchor gal for the whole half hour and brought a few laughs.