Wed. School and Visits

Wednesday was full of pastoral writings and fatherly attention. We held our second to last Wed. School. Next week we have a picnic. But the kids still have to show understanding of their memorization assignments.

I have to say that it has been a lovely week: especially considering the blizzard during the last weekend of April. Mary and I have extended our distance and speed on our daily (or nearly so) walks. We keep reciting to each other "Keep your tummy tucked." "Keep your shoulders back." "Keep it quick." But we stop at badger holes, geese, and funny little tracks in our path.

Thursday I did shut-in visits in Thief River Falls. 2 of my shut-ins weren't home. Evelyn was so deeply asleep I couldn't rouse her. The others were fine. Cora, who has severe memory problems, was doing very well today.

I got home in the afternoon and spent time with the family. This evening I've been working on a paper for Winkel.

Monday and Tuesday

Monday I took as a day of rest, well, most of it, anyway. Bernice O. will have shoulder replacement surgery this coming Friday in Bemidji. Please keep her in your prayers. I spent a great deal of time cleaning yard, garage, and office on Monday. The results of which might not be so apparant to outside observers. But what matters is how the results apply to me and mine, right?

I've also got one of these new dumb ideas about building an adobe or brick wood oven outside. All Mary can do is roll her eyes. Well, really, she's not that sarcastic. She really is quite supportive in all my wing-ding experiments. So I also had the kids help me gathering rocks from the field. Matthew, Louisa and I shot clay pigeons on Monday. That was fun. Louisa is starting to get the feel of the shotgun. She'd been begging to do this for a couple of weeks and was very disappointed when the snowstorm hit last weekend. I had said that we could shoot clays when Jeremy was here. But even Louisa didn't think it was a good idea to try such a thing when a snow storm was raging.

But we got to do it Monday. And the farmers were out tilling the earth. Fresh cut ground. I know that those who've grown up in towns and cities can't relate to this. But the smell of fresh cut earth is so remarkable and wonderful in the spring. All of you who are displaced farm kids can probably relate. I can imagine that some of you drive out to the country side this time of year just to sniff the air.

And with that comes allergies!

The Poplar trees have been blooming the past couple of days. That's nothing much to look at, just some fuzz in the bare upper branches. But it is a harbinger of warmer days to come. So, allergies to anything sending out pollen this soon after snow will cause some problems to many people.

Tuesday I did shut-in calls to Erskine and Crookston. Lyle was very sleepy. Gerhard was doing very well. Alvera had a difficult time today. Total mileage for the trips was around 140 miles. Maybe you readers down in Southern Texas have further to go for a few shut-ins, I wish you the best at them. Each of these shut-ins I visited today have some serious memory problems. I think that Lyle and Alvera have Alzheimer's disease. I don't know what Gerhard has, but sometimes his memory is very poor. Please keep them in your prayers.

I got home in the afternoon and spent a lot of time with the kids. Mary was feeling ill today and needed to rest. I had some of the kids help me move some clay over to the fire-pit and work on making a small wood oven. Yeah, I'm pathetic when I have an interest. And that reminds me, Juul and Anabelle, I'm coming over this week to pick up the forge you have. I cleaned, tilled, and re-stoned the fire-pit today. What amazes me is that I am so lethargic. Yes, I am over 40 years old, but I think that I should still be able to do much more work than my body wants to do.

Mary made a very good chorizo/venison supper with hash-browns and green beans. She had to go back to bed because she's still feeling sick. I played with the kids through the evening. Now that they're all in bed I'm posting this and working on two papers for our Winkel on May 19 and for our Circuit conference on June 1.

Incidentally, I got a bit of tooth in my supper tonight. I thought at first that maybe one of my teeth had broken. But no, it was a bit of tooth that came in the chorizo. I love chorizo. My family likes it quite a bit as well. The tooth fragment hurt quite a bit when I bit into it. It all goes to show that when you don't make your own sausage, you eat what someone you don't know put together. I'll still get the same brand of gluten-free chorizo. But I'll bite down a little less hard in the future.

A few piano recital pieces

Here are the first three of the several pieces I recorded at the kids' piano recital. I realize this isn't for everyone. Tough. It's my blog.

I'm sorry my camera isn't very good at low light video. And the audio is pretty bad too. But, come on folks, this is mostly for sentimental family and friends. So just skip this post if it's too much.


First is Mary and Clara playing "We Three Kings" as a duet.



Second is Matthew and I playing "Rockytop" as a duet. Sorry I messed up a bit there, Matt.



Third is Elsie and Holly V. playing "She'll Be Coming 'Round The Mountain."


Editing these videos and uploading them takes some time. And that's only when I have some time to put toward this rather than Family or Parish work. I have more edited now. I'll upload them as time permits.

Again, I'm sorry for the low quality of the recordings. But I hope the sentimentally interested don't mind.

What I also do not preach

So I've got another video from the same place as "Mr. Really, Really Bad Preacher."



Perhaps the citizens of Oklee, MN are hoping for a mega-church with Starbucks. Too bad. But at leas in our Parish they will have God's Law applied directly to them every Sunday and have the Forgiveness of sins given.

Catostomus commersoni; Sexing the White Sucker

Sexing the species Catostomus commersoni-the White Sucker can be a helpful tool for the many Northwestern Minnesotans who go out after this fish on opening day (currently May 1).

There are quite a few families in our area that head out every year when Sucker season opens. All of them hope to net their limit. The limit currently is 50 per person. Each fish is between 3 to 8 pounds.

The advantage in sexing the fish before they are netted is that the female has more meat for the same body length. In the first photo the female is on top, the male on the bottom.

Color is the first important signal. The females are darker on the top of the head and on the back.

These next two photos are of the head and shoulders of the White Sucker. This first is of the Female. Notice the dark brown/green coloring from the top of the head down to the mouth. The dark brown/green color emphatically outlines the gill area and continues down the back.



The male is quite a bit more pale than the female. The head is nearly ivory. And while the area behind the gills is somewhat darker, this area is much lighter than that of the female.



The whole back of the female is darker than that of the male. But you can tell immediately which is female or male based upon the signs manifested in the lower part of the tail and the anal fin. There's a useful diagram for the terminology of fish parts on this link so that you can identify the parts of a fish according to the current system.

The Female White Sucker has no markings (or very few markings) on the lower part of the tail fin and the anal fin.

The Male White Sucker has several bumps on each ray of the lower tail fin and the anal fin. In my photo you can see a wound that this male had some time in the past in his right rear above the anal fin. The wound is not useful in sexing the fish.

Genitalia: the female's genitalia tend to protrude more than the males at this time of year. Notice in both the photos above that the Female protrudes and the male does not.

So, now, you will be able to sex the species Catostomus commersoni. Perhaps the same features apply to suckers in Beijing, Iraq, Ireland, or the Canary Islands. I have no idea about that.

Here's what I want to find out. Does the meat of the Male or the Female taste better? There is more meat on the Female, but if there is a significant difference in the quality of the meat I would be willing to let my back hurt a bit more to clean several more males.

Gene and Vincent brought over about 5 gallons of White Suckers yesterday. I cleaned them last night. I got over a gallon of meat from them. I brined them in salt water from that evening until after worship services today (around 1:30pm).

I cut the meat and mixed in peppercorns, whole mustard seed, bay leaves, red pepper flakes, a strong white onion, 1 cup of sugar. 1 cup or so of red wine, a cup of whey with some curd, and a cup of cider vinegar.

I hope the batch turns out well. It's in an ice-cream bucket in our basement refrigerator. I think I'll give it 2 weeks to ferment before trying it out.

What's the worst that could happen? I could get a parasite that eats up all my innards before the doctors could diagnose the problem. This situation doesn't appeal to me at all. That's why I'll be extremely cautious when tasting the result in a couple of weeks. If the meat isn't sour I'll spit it out.

Jaime and Laura, thank you for your nice comments about my sauerkraut and kimchi. I did try to lacto-ferment some beans a few months ago. But I didn't know what I was doing well enough to eat what I made. The beans stank so much. Not in a bad way, necessarily. But I don't know what to expect.

Sunday, yes, I suppose some of you were wondering what happened today. We had worship at St. Petri, Oak Park, and Nazareth. Oak Park asked that when I'm on vacation and the deacons have to read the sermon that I select hymns that are much more easy for them to sing than what I selected last vacation. Sure. I can do that. I'm sorry that I didn't think about that before hand.

Sunday afternoon we got ready for our children's piano recital. Both Mary and I were playing duets with a couple of our children. Mary played the bass with Clara on "We Three Kings," and they did a great job. I played bass for Matthew on "Rocky Top." What a blast. All of the students did a great job. I took several videos of the event with my pathetic camera. I'll try to get them up on my google video or youtube video accounts for any family/friends that might want to look at them.

(Really, how pathetic does someone's life have to be to be willing to watch a piano recital piece of someone they are not related to) But you know what, some of these kids are great in their performances. I just hope that my camera caught this.

Have a good night.

Laura's Birthday at our place

Saturday started with worship at Mt. Olive and sat. school following. Only one student today. But she did very well. We had a visitor from Miles City, Montana today. Shirley V's. sister, Gloria. I've only seen her once before at Alan B's funeral in Gully, MN a few years ago. All of us had so much to talk about after service that it took a while to get to Sat. School. Katie was patient. And she did very well. I introduced her to Luther's Small Catechism on the Creed, focusing on the First Article. Her mom stayed through the class, and I hope that she, Judy, enjoyed the time and found it helpful.

Judy's cousin was found to have stage 4 non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma this week. Her cousin is only 39 years old. She and her husband have two teen-aged children. Her prognosis is not good at this point. She has 6 chemo sessions scheduled with three weeks between each one. Please keep her in your prayers. I know that I haven't told you her name. The thing is that I haven't asked her if I can post her information. That's why this is a kind-of anonymous request. But God knows who you'd be praying for.

After talking to Judy about her cousin, I went home. We had company coming today. Laura and Jaime, with their kids, were going to visit.

The kids did a really good job cleaning up. Of course, we had to remind them to keep on task from time to time. But kids, you did very well.

Laura, Jaime, and their children came in time for noon Dinner. Now, you other readers should understand that Laura and Jaime are regular readers of this blog. And they look really closely at the times when I post about our visits together. So in my own twisted way I kind-of enjoy bringing them to attention to readers all over the world--though it remains fairly anonymous for their sakes. Some of you locals might know them. Good.

So it is Laura's Birthday today.

Mary made an excellent Orange Chicken with a variety of side dishes. Laura brought a wonderful crab-dip. Jaime brought some truly delightful wines he made.

Their kids and ours played together very happily throughout the afternoon.

Jaime brought a gun. (actually he brought 3, but I liked the similarity to the Van Halen lyrics) So we went out to our little target range and shot paper plates this aftenoon.

Jaime brought a Beretta Tomcat .32, a Walther P22, and his favorite-a Beretta 96 .40 caliber. Mary took out her Bersa Thunder .380. I got my Sprinfield XD-9. Matt got his Remminton 20 gague.

We all had a blast!

Gene A. called this morning wondering if we wanted any Suckers for pickling. "Yes!" I said.

Later on....
Gene and Vincent brought us 5 gallons of Suckers. The kids had fun playing with them for a while. But they were kind of freaked out by the fact that the fish were still alive.

Jaime and Laura had to leave late in the afternoon to see Laura's folks. Her father is seriously ill. We had a wonderful time with you today Jaime and Laura. Please know that we are keeping you and your family in our prayers

Gene and Vincent, I cleaned the fish. They're brining overnight. I hope to finish them tomorrow after church and before the kids' piano recital in Plummer.

Matt and I are playing "Rocky Top". You gotta be there!

Well, I didn't tell Mary when I'd be home tonight, but its almost 11:30. I'm going to go to bed so I can preach in the morning.

Good night everyone and God bless.

From Sunday to Friday, with all the cold.

You know, Global Warming advocates are pooping their pants right now. The problem is that this winter has been soooo cold throughout the world. If you're interested in the political mumbo jumbo for the southern hemisphere during their last winter look here. For a bigger picture including the northern hemisphere look here.

This is what I know. This photo was taken yesterday, May 1.

I know from talking to my old-timers that there has been snow in July. And just two years ago we had a killing frost in August.

All I want you to know that I care about is that whenever a government official proposes some new regulation or tax based somehow on "Climate Change" is that this particular official thinks that elected politicians who depend on popularity can somehow get more money for their campaigns and more government control. If you want to know how Hitler got into power, look closely at the idea that Government can somehow solve your problems.

Anyway (how I hate using that word in a post), this week was very busy: both with obligations to home and parish. I tried to take Monday off, but ended up working for quite a while. Arlan gave me a new computer to use for the parish. It didn't have hard drives, but I had those. Tues. I went to Thief River for some pastoral and family obligations. Wed. Dawn and I held Wed. School. Thurs I did shut-in visits in TR. I caught LouElla A at supper with her son, daughter-in-law, and sister-in-law. Her sister-in-law is grieving the passing of her husband. Please keep Alvera O. in your prayers.

Another shut-in wasn't home. I know that's ironic. But it happens quite a bit.

I took Matt and Sophie with me on the visits. We went to pick some things up at WalMart and met the grand daughter of one of the shut-ins I'd tried to visit.

Friday I worked on sermon and the new computer. Then I went on visits. Mildred N. is home now. She got home Thursday. She and Oscar are doing well. I couldn't catch Norris H. at home. But Ernest L. was doing fine-but for a sore hip. Please keep my shut-ins in your prayers.

The forecast is for snow tomorrow. We've company coming after worship at Mt. Olive.

God bless you all, and Good night.