Partied out

After being an active part of a graduation party for my brother-in-law, Ryan, this past weekend I remember why I’m putting off a wedding celebration. The party was held this past Sunday. Why so long after graduation? My mother-in-law wanted to wait until after she was done teaching for the summer to have the party, and we were scheduling around other graduation parties. Why a Sunday? This particular weekend was also the same as the Tomah tractor pulls, which Nate always goes to with his college buddies.

For the past two months the party planning has steadily escalated. I helped with groundskeeping this spring to keep the grass trimmed and healthy and the flowers from drying up. The guys built a new retaining wall around a tree on a slope, which was backfilled with rocks this past week. We also spent time tidying the area by the calf hutches, in front of the barn and around the vegetable garden. Inside my main duties were hiding Nate’s collection of mail, papers and miscellaneous junk. I also organized Jacob’s toys and moved my shoe collection from inside the door to the basement.

Starting Saturday morning things got downright crazy. Nate left for Tomah, so we occupied Jacob with his favorite cartoons so the women could start cooking. I sliced three types of melons and strawberries, along with shucking grapes from the vine for the fruit salad. Nate’s mom and aunt began a crazy salad-making spree in the meantime. In the afternoon I took Jacob to pick up the roast beef while the guys hauled in tables and chairs. We had a mad rush of visitors later on as my parents, relatives lending us a tent and relatives in an RV arrived almost simultaneously. That was actually a good thing since we then had plenty of help setting up the tent. I took a quick trip to Unity for pictures of the pulls, then back home to visit with my parents. Dad filled in for Nate in the barn so I gave Mom a tour of the new house.

The next day was as crazy as the first with decorating and getting the last minute cooking and cleaning done. Nate got home around noon, and at 1 p.m. we set out the food just in time for the early birds. About 2 p.m. everyone finally settled down from the final rush and got to enjoy themselves. The crowd cleared out for the most part by 7 p.m., but began to pick up again later in the evening as neighbors stopped in and some guests returned. At 11:30 p.m. I called it quits and carried Jacob, who conked out on the couch, up to bed. Nate came up at 12:30 a.m. after the last guest had left.

Nate and I always intended to have a party to celebrate our marriage. But after this past weekend, I think the family is partied out for now. I know I am.

(Yes, we still plan to have a wedding celebration someday. The way it's going it will be more like an anniversary party though. Progress on the house: loan approved, surveyer coming July 7, plan to close Aug. 1.)

Caught up...

I finally caught up with posting columns. The one below is from Wednesday. We've been crazy busy lately. This weekend is Ryan's high school graduation party and my parents are coming to visit. We've got some cleanin' and cookin' to do yet before Sunday, but overall everything is in good shape.

In other exciting news not yet mentioned, my cow Marnie had a heifer calf almost three weeks ago. She weighed less than 50 pounds at birth (normal calf is closer to 100) but is spunkly little girl. Nate likes to pick on me by telling me she died because the cats got her. Jacob helped name her the obvious choice: Mini. I haven't taken any pictures of her yet, but I'll try to this weekend.

6/20 Column...

Depending on who you are and what your purpose is, public records can be your best friend or your worst enemy. As a journalist public records are a tool I use often. From accident reports to court records I use public records on a daily basis. Although I’ve never had to use the official open records request, we learned about it in my college media law class. As an FYI, the law is called the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA. Over 70 countries have some form of open records. Among journalists, these are known as sunshine laws--set rules on access to information or records held by government bodies. Sweden's Freedom of the Press Act of 1766 is the oldest law of this kind. Most of the U.S. open records laws were put in place in the 1970s.

So why do I go into open records? A couple Nate and I are friends with recently had a brush with open records. Mike is a friend of Nate’s from high school and was Nate’s roommate before we were married. His girlfriend, Kristen, moved to the area a few years ago from Green Bay. Despite her being a native Minnesotan, she’s adapted to the group quite well. For the past few years, Mike and Kristen have watched couple after couple say their vows. I’m sure it got annoying how many times people asked them, “So when are you going to get married?”

On the surface both seemed content with the way things were, so Nate and I figured it would happen just out of the blue someday. I ran into Kristen at a benefit last winter. We got on the topic of weddings and I couldn’t resist asking myself.

“Oh, we’ll probably just do something like you guys did,” she said, meaning a very small ceremony with a justice of the peace. I didn’t think much about it again until last week. As Nate and I were sitting around the supper table Friday night, Nate’s dad piped up, “So I see in the Star News Mike and Kristen are getting married June 22.”

We both about choked on our tater tot hotdish.

Our first thought was concern for Kristen, as she’s been working through a major illness since last fall. Then we came to our senses and decided quiet was just how they wanted it. I stopped in to visit Mike Monday night and asked about wedding plans. He said they hoped to elope now and have a big wedding next summer. However, since the newspaper came out he said his phone hasn’t stopped ringing. A marriage license, just like an accident report or court sentence, is a public record. While FOIA is vital for open government in this country, it can sure screw up a surprise.

Last week's column, I'm catching up!

When I tell people what I do I get mixed reactions. Some suddenly become very conscious of what they are saying, like I’m a psychiatrist analyzing their words so I can put them in the paper. Some ask a lot of questions and seem eager to pick my brain on politics and quiz me like they expect to gain some inside knowledge on the situation. Sorry, I rarely know more than what goes in the paper. And even when I do I don’t often tell. It’s like showing a poker hand before the final wager. Some are enthusiastic and ask all about my camera and what kinds of things I cover.

I do run across all sorts of interesting assignments in my job. I’ve been on farms, in taverns, in schools and many local businesses all in the name of work. I’ve ducked line drives at softball games and dodged running backs at football games. I’m an annual attendee of about a dozen Christmas programs and all the local festivals. My favorite assignments, however, is ones where I really get to sit down and pick people’s brains and find out how they live.

Our Rural Living section is a perfect example of stories I like to do. For this Rural Living I had planned to do a story about a pheasant farm, which seemed to be a perfect Rural Living story. I called and spoke to the farmer’s wife and found out he’s a little camera-shy, so he declined. As I was about the hang up, the woman, whose name is Helen said, “But I have a perennial garden.” Facing a deadline and with no story, I replied, “That will work just fine,” and made an appointment with her. After I hung up I got a little nervous and realized I didn’t ask much about it. Lots of people have perennial gardens. Was this one anything special? What if I got out there and there was no story?

Luckily, I visited Helen’s garden which was chuck full of beautiful flowers of every kind. I especially like the irises because they reminded me of the purple ones surrounding our house when I was growing up. Despite her impressive garden the best time I had was sitting at her kitchen table with a cup of tea and a kolache (a type of Czech pastry). Some times people get nervous when I interview them and don’t say a whole lot, but Helen was exceptionally talkative. When we’d wrapped up my portion of the interview she began to ask questions about me. It turns out she reads my column every week. As we talked we realized our husbands are actually a lot alike. Both are a little on the quiet side but very motivated, intelligent workers and business men. It was fun to trade stories about being a farm wife.

Before I left Helen showed me her paintings, which could have been a whole other story in itself. She loves to capture rural scenes, and her image of a Hereford at a water tank staring at a little boy, tongues both hanging out, reminded me of Jacob. I’ve always had an artistic drive, which for the past few years I’ve channeled to my photography. Lately snapping pictures doesn’t seem to ease it. After seeing Helen’s country scenes I wondered if painting could be my outlet? If I can find the time between work and family I’d like to try.

Update: Still no time to paint, but I'm working on it :)