Leprechaun in cornfield
Photo by Donna Johnson
Jayce hunts trolls where tall corn grows.

Updates -

FAMILY UPDATE
by Patty Anderson Henderson
Minnetrista, MN

I have been meaning to send updates for The Bulletin for some time, but haven't put my fingers to the keyboard. I will try to give a brief update as to what has been taking most of our time and attention.

As many of you know, we moved from the "farm" to the "city" in January. Actually it is a "less rural" area, certainly not the city! We have a lot in a subdivision near St. Bonifacius. The address is Minnetrista but I have yet to find the town of Minnetrista.

We just finished sodding the lot and planting bushes and flowers. All we have left is a couple of trees, but they weren't delivered before the sod was done, so now it's to figure out how to get them planted without destroying the sod.

We delivered our "baby" to college on Sunday. Rachel is a freshman at North Dakota State University (NDSU) in Fargo and plans to major in Industrial Engineering. Dan and his wife, Gina, are juniors at NDSU. We were so glad for Gina this past spring. She found out that she was accepted into the nursing program and she will already be starting her clinicals this semester. Dan has an internship at Case New Holland in Fargo and seems to enjoy that.

Ben and his wife, Heather, moved to St. Paul in June and we are so happy for that. He is working for a civil engineering firm -- Kimley Horn -- and is liking it. Heather is still on the job search. They have some news, but I think it's only fair that they write their own update about that!

Curt and I are now a "single" couple, meaning empty nesters ... not sure I can say I'm used to it since it's only been a few days, but I'll admit it's certainly ... different!

Keep up the great work with The Bulletin. We sure enjoy keeping in touch with everyone and the goings on in the family!


Curt & Patty Hendersons' new home in Minnetrista.


UPDATE -- Jordan's birthday party
by Kristi Indermark
Portage, WI

Jordan's second birthday party was a success. A good time was had by all. Her birthday was on Friday, but we had her party on Sunday. The last count, we had 13 kids at the party.

Jordan was very lucky to get a TON of toys. Her aunt Joanne (Jim's sister) got her a toy horse. She loved it. They also got her the hat and some other toys, but the horse was the big hit.

Jordan had a Dora birthday cake of which she ate two pieces. One for each year.

We had a lot of Jim's friends from college over. It was really nice for Jim to see his friends that he hasn't seen in a long time and their growing families. After everyone left the party we cleaned up, put the kids to bed and sat outside by our fire pit and relaxed. It was a beautiful day.


Jordan on her horse with her cousin Tanner, left; Jordan's Dora cake, right.


The Matriarch Speaks W
by Dorothy (Dake) Anderson
Alexandria, MN


Photo by Donna Johnson
Rebecca "Becky" Chap

Introducing Becky Chap

Becky is the daughter of Donna Anderson Chap Johnson of Ashby, Minnesota, and is a stepdaughter of Beaver Johnson.

Her dad, George Chap, lives near Howard Lake, Minnesota. She has a sister, Lori Chap, a brother, Chris Chap, and three stepbrothers: Wyatt, Weston, and Ben Johnson. And of course, she is a granddaughter to Don and me.

Becky finished high school and later attended classes at Alexandria Tech in the "Human Service Practitioner" course. She has held jobs in that field but at present is not able to do so.

About a year ago she and her friend David O'Brien were broadsided by a stop sign runner. They both suffered rather extensive injuries. Many of you will remember reading of that accident and also will have read the account of their later marriage ... which did not endure. Both had suffered too many stressful occurrences to manage the responsibilities and adjustments of a married life, and so divorced and are striving to heal.

Becky has two children, our dear great grandchildren Caity and Jayce Chap, who have appeared many times in The Bulletin pages. She and her children are living in a townhome in Ashby. The children spend several nights each week at Donna's and Beaver's house and Becky stays there sometimes, too. We are all happy for her continuing physical and emotional recovery and are glad to see her growing stronger.

Becky celebrated her 31st birthday on August 24th; click the link for the story and photos of her surprise 30th birthday party hosted by her sister, Lori.
(http://www.thebulletin.ws/pages/archive/2004/Bulletin117.html)


Lori, 5, & Becky Chap, at age 3.


A call for new raw material
by Dorothy and Doug Anderson

We need some new photos to work with. I have searched my photo albums and scrapbooks, and have used all the photos you have sent (well, the ones that "rang a bell") -- but the available file is getting very thin.

Please look through your sources for possible material for the Guess and Chuckle sections. I have a scanner, so if you send me the photos by snail mail I will copy the photos and return them. For that purpose, my address is:

Dorothy Anderson
720 22nd Ave. E., Box 222
Alexandria, MN 56308

If you have the resources to make JPG files just copy and send your photos to dma49261@juno.co .

The Matriarch


Who Is This?

Let's Play a Guessing Game: Whenever it is handy to do so we will run a picture of someone of the subscribers or staff members of our e-magazine. Tell us who you think it is -- we will let you know who was the first to guess it right -- and the correct guess -- in the following week's Bulletin.
 
(Send us some to run; we will line them up in our staging area to take their turn.)


How many can you identify?

Answers to last week's mystery pictures (click here to review them):

The picture on the left is me! (Brenda Anderson Hill) The middle one is Ryan Hellevang, I think. The one on the right is Steve Rodriguez.

Brenda (Anderson) Hill
Wahpeton, ND


It is lots of fun to guess the photos. My guess is Brenda Anderson Hill, Ryan Kent Hellevang, and Steven Rodriguez.

Mavis Morgan
Hope, ND

The little girl is Brenda (Anderson ) Hill, a kindergarten teacher in Wahpeton. The larger boy is my grandson, Steve Rodriguez. Two out of three aren't too bad, since I have no idea who the happy little guy is.

Elaine Wold
Wahpeton, ND


LTD Storybrooke

Photo Editor's Note: In lieu of a story this week, we have photos from Storybrooke Farm.


Photos © Larry T. Dake
Ewe Sketch, left; Eyes, right.


Travelogue t

Greetings from the Netherlands
by Ary Ommert, Jr.
Maassluis, The Netherlands


Tall ships visit The Netherlands for Sail In Amsterdam.

Had some busy weeks at work; we are rebuilding the garden center and building new parts to it. When all is finished it will look great. In about 6-8 weeks most work will be done. Many articles are stored so for the customers it's not inviting to come shopping now.
 
A great event last weekend was Sail in Amsterdam. Every five years the ports in Amsterdam are full of tall sailing ships from all over the world. It's a spectacle to see the ships coming from the North Sea to sail the way to Amsterdam through a canal. Thousands of small private boats are sailing with them. Never saw the port of Amsterdam so full of ships. The event is three days and over 2.5 million people came to watch the tall ships. Have enclosed some pictures of ships that visited Sail in Amsterdam.
 
Summer in the Netherlands this year is cold and wet, has been many years ago we had such a bad summer. Only a few very warm days and thunderstorms in the night. Many days were clouded and people who were camping had trouble keeping their tent or caravan dry inside. Perhaps September will bring more sunshine.
 
All is fine here; sometimes a bit tired from all the extra work in the gardencenter; will tell more about that next time.
 
Greetings from The Netherlands,
 
Ary


Click on links for English language info on Sail In Amsterdam.

http://www.sail.nl/english/

http://www2.rnw.nl/rnw/en/features/dutchhorizons/050823dh?view=Standard


The Miss Kitty Letters*
By Miss Kitty

Pioneer Drive median strip
Photo © Jerrianne Lowther
August's glory took root on a cool evening in May.

Anchorage Flowers Flourish In A Land Of Ice And Snow

Shhhhh ... don't tell Miss Jerrianne that our glorious Alaska summer is winding down and there's a touch of fall in the air. She doesn't want to hear it. She was happy about summer coming a month early, but autumn coming a little early doesn't suit her at all. Just the same, that big wind storm we had on Tuesday was the kind that comes in the fall -- not the third week of August. Not usually.

Anyway, the satellite picture of the storm on Tuesday looked exactly like a big Florida hurricane, but it was about 10 times as big ... a thousand miles wide ... big enough to cover almost the whole state of Alaska. The winds rotated just like a hurricane, but just a little bit slower ... though one gust in Anchorage was measured at 89 miles per hour, which isn't our every day summer breeze.

The storm took down some trees and quite a few branches and some of them fell on power lines so there were outages ... but we were lucky. Our hanging baskets and container plants took a beating, but they rode it out on the front porch and survived. Nothing here blew away because everything loose enough to fly off had already been put in the shed. After the wind stopped, Miss Jerrianne put the cover back on the compost pile, nailed a board back onto the fence so the pit bull next door couldn't pay us a visit, and picked up most of the dead branches that littered the yard.

I suppose we'll spend some time this weekend cleaning up our park and the Pioneer Drive median strip and we'll see how the flowers we planted are faring there. We were going to work on that yesterday, but every time we tried to go outdoors, it started raining again. We tried it again today and got two hours of weeding and deadheading done before the drizzle turned into a downpour.

We've had lots of success with growing flowers on the Pioneer Drive median strip this season, as we've had plenty of warm sunshine and a lot more rain than last summer. The gardening crew was extremely happy with the results of their efforts this year. You might want to check out our web gallery. You won't see me in any of the photos, but I helped a lot. I guarded the van while the strip was being planted and I rode along on Miss Jerrianne's shoulder when she went there to weed and deadhead flowers. I'm sorry to say there aren't any pictures of me doing any of that. But I did help.

We also went on several trips this summer -- to Homer and Halibut Cove and to Independence Mine State Historical Park at Hatcher Pass. We camped out in the van, went on picnics, took in a flower show. We'll probably go to the Alaska State Fair next week, so we'll be able to show you a bunch of neat places, if Miss Jerrianne ever gets done fiddling with the pictures. In the meantime, we hope you like seeing the pictures of our park's flowers. (Click here to see the web gallery.)


Photo © Jerrianne Lowther
Gazanias erupt in a riot of color on sunny summer days.

For more Miss Kitty adventures visit my web log:

http://www.jlowther.com/Pages/kitty/index.html

Miss Kitty



Advertise It!
By Ginny McCorkell
Blaine, MN

There was a time in my life when I would get inspired to have a garage sale about every other summer. I never was motivated by the thought of the money I could make. It was purely a matter of clutter control that motivated me to open my garage door and put out the garage sale signs.

I loved to go to garage sales and was forever toting things home. I even got my garage sale signs from a garage sale. I wouldn't know if I got a good deal on them or not ... that was beside the point ... they were just what I needed. I was tired of making umpteen signs on cardboard with stinky markers every time I wanted to have a sale.

Larry, my very handy husband, went to work and painted my signs white and added a fluorescent orange edge. He made a stencil and painted our address and an arrow in black.

Then we tied streamers of bright orange flagging ... the kind that survey crews use ... on each sign. They fluttered in the wind and would really catch your eye. I was set. Nobody was going to miss these signs. You could see them a mile away.

I like to go to a sale where they have done something out of the ordinary to get you to stop at their sale. Like the time I saw a sign that said "Mr. Mom's Sale." The one that really tickled me was where they had a pair of jeans on display ... the size of which I had never seen the likes before!

We live just off of a main residential street and there is a Y in the road between the main street and our house. We live on the west branch of the Y and often people will see the sign on the main street and take the east branch of the Y looking for the sale. So I was always looking for ways to draw attention to my sale.

Now you need to understand that I have a husband who is greatly embarrassed by anything that draws attention to us. But the time had come. The clutter had accumulated and it was time for another sale. I wanted everybody to know where this sale was.

The solution to being noticed hit me just as I was trying to fall asleep the night before the sale. It made me chuckle to think of it ... I knew what I was going to do this time. Nobody was going to wonder where this sale was!

Come morning I was ready for some fun. I found some rope and brought it in the house. I tied one end of the rope tightly to the leg of the bed. Wind had often foiled my "advertising" in the past so I was going to make sure this attempt would hold.

I threaded the rope in one sleeve and out the other of one of my dresses. Now that my "laundry" was secure I added the final touch ... a couple of clothespins. Then I took the rope and threw it out the window ... dress and all.

I do not like climbing on ladders but this situation called for a ladder. I was about to string my clothesline. We live in a split entry home so the window is up high enough that my clothesline would be clearly visible from the corner. I climbed the ladder and tied the other end of the rope to the tree. I was in business.

The wind was to my advantage this time. My dress fluttered and billowed in the wind. This wasn't just any old dress ... the size of it would easily rival the size of the jeans I had seen at the other sale. You couldn't miss it.

I laughed many times that day in anticipation of the moment Larry would turn the corner to come home and see my clothesline. The time came and I saw him come around the corner and I could hardly contain myself.

He parked the car, walked up the driveway and asked me how much money I had made, commented that there sure was a lot of stuff left yet, picked up the paper and walked inside letting the door slam behind him.

He never saw it!

I learned an important lesson that day. If there is something I really don't want him to see, I just set it out in front of him and he won't notice.

He is well aware of my tactics ... but it still works.

On occasion I will run a test by leaving my most recent splurge sitting on the piano bench right across from his chair to see how long before he will notice it.

After a couple of weeks he will say, "You went shopping again today?"

And I will say, "No, I've had that for a long time!"

That lesson has served me well over the years!


This and That
6
by Elaine Wold
Wahpeton, ND

First Day Of School

As I was sitting at my front window having my morning breakfast, I once again saw the line of school buses bringing the little ones to school after a summer of just being lazy. My thoughts went into reverse, as they brought me back to other years when the first days of school was touching to me.

I loved school, I could hardly wait to start, as my two older brothers brought home things they had made in school -- smeared with paste, colored, or drawn, and I wished I could go!

Then I remember the day came when I was old enough to start ... off to school with the pack of eight Crayolas, so beautiful and unbroken in that new box; also the penny pencil (remember the eraser wore off before the pencil was hardly used), and every kid had a Big Chief tablet -- a picture of an Indian chief on red paper for the outside cover, and the rough gray paper inside. That was the amount of school purchases in those days.

Time passed and I soon started my first day in high school in the big city. (It just seemed big to this country gal.) Full of fears, so alone in a big school, afraid of getting lost or missing the bus to get home, all left me far from enthusiastic that first year. Add another few years and I had my first day at Valley City Teachers' college, going with another classmate and sharing a room during that summer session.

That involved my first train ride, hailing a taxi to take our suitcase (our only possession) to our dorm room, and my how really green we country girls were!

My first day at teaching was in a country school with eight grades and 15 students. Now was the day I had been looking forward to since a little girl, but now I was in charge, and it looked so overwhelming ... all in all, it was a year of great learning for me.

After marriage, I stayed at home (customary in those days) and I had an empty feeling in my heart when the bus went past and I was not entering into the world of school days. It was lonely.

Then add a few more years, and I felt the loneliness again, as my first one left to start her first day at school. What feelings any mom has when her firstborn has now grown to be away from mom all day! (No day care in those days.)

First days of school, when my girls were in school, involved which dress to put on that day. Each had gotten several new plaid dresses with white Peter Pan collars, the usual uniform for little girls in those days.

When the last child graduated, there again became the emptiness as being involved in all the school events seemed to come to an end. However, I did get a taste of school, too, as I did a bit of substituting. Another program I began, and still help out as much as possible with, is "back-to-school days." It is held in the little country schoolhouse at the local museum lawn. I give lectures to hundreds of visiting school children as well as local retirement home residents who come back each fall to reminisce on those "good old days."

How different things are today from those little country schools! Yet, we all want to continue to learn new things as long as we live.


Celebrations & Observances
From the Files of
5
Hetty Hooper

This Week's Birthdays:
Happy Birthday!

August 30---Jessica Ann Myron
August 30---Ethan Wallace Horne (3 years)
August 31---Devan Alexander Seaman (3 years)
September 2---Patty Anderson
September 2---Brianna Jordet
September 2---Vicki Anderson
September 2--Stanley Wm. Dake
September 3---Jacob Mendoza Dake
September 3--Eric Printz
September 3---Charlie Quick

This Week's Anniversaries
August 28---Ken and Merna Morgan Hellevang (23 years)
August 30---LeRoy and Vonnie Dake (57 years)
August 30---Chris and Jennie Dake Horne (8 years)
September 1---Doug and Brianna Anderson-Jordet (1 year)
Congratulations!

More September Birthdays:
'
September 4--Wiley Nelson
September 5---Lori Chap
September 5---Genelle Mogck
September 7---Brendan Aydelotte (6 years)
September 12---Lindsay Hellevang
September 15---Shari Schweiger
September 15---Carolyn Miller Dake
September 19--Nathanial "Nathan" Seaman
September 21---Jessica Aydelotte (13 years)
September 24---Wyatt Johnson
September 28---Donald L. "Donnie" Anderson
September 30---Sheldon Swenson

More September Anniversaries
September 4---Ernie and Carolyn Miller Dake (34 years)
September 7 ---Tim and Colette Anderson Huseby (9 years)
Z
September Special Days
O
September 5---Labor Day
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Miss Hetty's Mailbox:

Dear Miss Hetty,

A quick addition to your dates list. Chris and Jennie (Dake) Horne were married on August 30, 1997. Yes, that is also LeRoy and Vonnie's anniversary and also Ethan's birthday. Quite a special day for our family.

Happy belated anniversary to you and Don. I enjoyed the pictures and story of your celebration. Congratulations on 55 years.

Carolyn Miller Dake
Duluth, GA



LeRoy & Vonnie Dake, 57 years, August 30, 2005.
(Greeting card from daughter "Ginny" McCorkell, Blaine, MN)


Miss Hetty Says

This is the last Bulletin of the month (where did August go!) so Miss Jerrianne has sent the indexing "spider" to crawl through the archives and bring the searchable index up to date again -- which reminds me that September will be the third anniversary of The Bulletin!

Keep Us Posted!

Please drop Miss Hetty a line and tell us who, and what, we've missed. And how about a report (photos welcome) of YOUR special celebration?

'Many Thankse
Everyone!

Miss Hetty


+ LETTERS TO THE EDITORS?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just savored the newest Bulletin! Marvelous. Loved all the Grandpa Dakes pictured. Thoroughly enjoyed every picture and word, as usual. Thanks to all who contributed!

Donna Johnson
Ashby, MN


No, Dorothy, you weren't the only one to notice those eyes! I thought they looked like Grandpa Dake, too!

Ding, Dong ... Yes, the bells are ringing now, Donna. I will have to get to work and see if I can make a story out of that little incident ... though I may need to embellish a bit, because the details escape me...

My, but there have been a lot of beautiful weddings and celebrations of all sorts this summer!

Doug, you did it again!

Lots to enjoy again in this week's Bulletin. Thanks everybody!

Ginny McCorkell
Blaine, MN

P.S. If anybody out there likes great piano music, I highly recommend checking this out: http://www.deniseb.net/page.home

I think I have two CDs that this lady has recorded -- a friend of mine talked to her and bought some from her and I bought a couple from her. I have one here in the drawer that is called Lakeside Dreaming. The label says Denise B. --Dorothy


The pictures are great. Thank you for all the work. All of this makes me think we ought to get the necessary equipment to do some of the same.

Some of our kids have their digital cameras and scanners, etc. to do the pictures. Of course, the tax business keeps me very busy during season.

Church, family, golf and some travel occupies much of our discretionary time. Again, thanks much.

Gene Berndt
St. Louis Park, MN

Editor's Note: Gene is a member of the Irby Berndt family (a first cousin to my husband, Don Anderson).


Everyone seems to be doing a good job of sending information from their corner and that is what really makes a good Bulletin. It brings all of us closer! Would like to hear from Stan Dake to learn a little about his family. too. Really enjoy all that Carol has sent on her family -- the pictures of her grandchildren would make Grandpa Gandy real proud! You remember how much he liked to be on the Ranch!

Tom Miller
Madera, CA

*It would have made my brother, his Grandpa Bill Dake, proud too. I think Bill, though he was from Minnesota, was more cowboy than many of the real Texas cowpunchers! --Dorothy


I saw Roy looking so interested at the first picture of his good friend LeRoy Dake on the John Deere Lawn tractor. I found myself looking so interested at the picture of grandfathers and the babies on page 2. Remembering when THEY were the children. I always appreciate any updates on that family.

THANKS TO THE PHOTO EDITOR for the nice sized pictures which are so easy to look at to see the details in each person. We spend a lot of time looking at each picture, trying to see the changes in the ones we know, and getting acquainted with the ones we don't know. What a NICE picture of Don and Dorothy at the table for the 55th Anniversary.

I am really stumped on the GUESS WHO pictures, although I would think the first one was one of Don and Dorothy's children.

I was keenly interested in seeing the good picture of Stanley and Doris. They had lived close to us for years, so we knew them well. So typical of them to have the little family come and stay awhile. Wonder how many will comment on Sherry's bowl of rice while the others sit with empty plates, ha.

It was interesting to me to see Elaine Wold's picture. Somehow, I had pictured her about Merna's age.

I also loved the adoption story. We will need an update on further events, and what it means for a family of two to suddenly become a family of five. A lot of adjustments, but nothing knowing they are loved cannot bridge.

I sorta feel sorry for Miss Kitty. She needs some extra treats. I think we should send her a care package, and yet again I have a feeling she is WELL TREATED. Popeye keeps showing up on her turf. This sharing is tough.

Thanks again for another great Bulletin,

Roy and Betty Droel
MoundsView, MN


CHUCKLES


Click here to find out Who's Where in The Bulletin l

To search a name in Who's Who or Who's Where: click on the link to open the page, then use CONTROL F on a PC or COMMAND F on a Mac. To search for a second occurrence of the name, use CONTROL G on a PC or COMMAND G on a Mac. (This works on ANY web page with text, unless the text is converted to an image. Chances are, it works in your e-mail, too.) HINT: Search by first name only, as most entries list the family name once but do not repeat the last name for each family member. In Who's Where you can search on state or city names, too.

Click here for past editions of The Bulletin in the web archive

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QUOTATION FOR THE DAY: It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about. --Dale Carnegie, 1888-1955, American Author and Trainer

EDITOR'S POLICY: If you wish to subscribe to The Bulletin, simply send me a statement of that fact. If you wish to keep receiving it I hope you will contribute to one of the columns that are running in this family epistle (at least occasionally!). My e-mail address is dma49261@juno.com


This Bulletin is copyright Dorothy M. Anderson; the contents are also copyrighted by the authors and photographers and used with their permission, and the contents are not to be used for any commercial purposes without the explicit consent of the creators.