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Been up since 4am, had to milk the cows before I fed the sheep and chickens, weeded the carrots and moss rose, put medicine on the dog’s foot, let the orphaned ducks out of the pen, and fed the kids lunch…had I been mom! Or rode with Ike to where we’re logging in the woods out toward Effie…trees falling…it’s what I’d do…if I were dad. But that was then and this is… Read More
Category: THIS WORLD Tags: "Hide and Seek, "Regime Change", "The Kayak Lady: One Woman One Kayak and 1007 Lakes, "Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China", Aldi's, Countryside Creamery Pure Irish Butter, FOREST HILL CEMETERY, INTERNATIONAL FALLS, Jonathan Swan, Jung Chang, Koochiching County Recorders Office, Maggie Haberman, Mary Shideler, Minnesota, Northome, Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, Soren Sveistrup
…south from Northome on Highway 71 about six miles, turn right on a gravel road, every year feeling a tingle of anticipation, another mile and a half and there it is, lane up to the house grown over, house collapsing into the earth, young spruce growing out of and into the old log kitchen. The Old Place. The time when it was everything recedes further and further in the distance. My mind’s… Read More
Category: THIS WORLD Tags: Minnesota, Northome, the "Old Place", Time and Place
Posted October 15, 2023: Mizpah Elementary School. Graduating Class. 1951. And there I am. Between Carol and Larry. We were the tallest kids in the class all the way through school so consistently in the back row. Probably why none of the three of us achieved great fame and fortune. And over to the left, Pat. Whom, just last week, I just met for lunch in International Falls and spent a pleasant… Read More
Category: THIS WORLD Tags: Blackduck, classmates/friends Mizpah and Northome, Minnesota, Northome, US Highway 71
I’m going to be cremated. Partially so I don’t have to be stuck in one place. First of all…a handful or so of my ashes (mixed with Max, my last border collie’s) must go out on the Old Place, some more in the Bosque down by Tingley Beach and at Neset Camping in Byglandsfiord, and…finally the rest should be here at the Forest Hill Cemetery in Northome, Minnesota. Burrowed in right between… Read More
Category: THIS WORLD Tags: CEMETERY, FOREST HILL CEMETERY, GRAVEYARDS, Minnesota, NESET GRAVES, Northome, PHOTOGRAPHY, ROAD TRIPS, Travel
Ah yes, time for another round of sentimental musings about my old home. And many photos. For this round of visits, instead of waxing lyrical over mom’s apple pies and the cries of loons on the lakeshore, and rehashing which of my introverted traits can be attributed to north woods isolation, I’ll talk about our land. My grandfather, Torgus Neset, purchased 160 acres of timber, swamp and small meadows sometime between 1910… Read More
Category: THIS WORLD Tags: BIG FALLS, HOME, INTERNATIONAL FALLS, KOOCHICHING COUNTY, LITTLEFORK, Minnesota, Northome, the "Old Place", Travel
Memorial Day Weekend. Robert, Marsha and I visited the graves of mothers, fathers, grandparents, cousins, family friends and neighbors. A perfect Minnesota day. Pre-mosquito, light-green spring leaves, high 70s, gentle breeze, small towns, families camping, Buddy the dog in the backseat…eating vinegar and sea salt potato chips and driving the country roads. We meet various members of Marsha’s extended family at the small country cemeteries. Bright bouquets of silky make-believe flowers and flocks of… Read More
Category: THIS WORLD Tags: Billy Jackson, Blackduck, Graveside, Lydia Sirotiak, Marsha Jackson Neset, Memorial Day, Minnesota, Northome, Wirt
A link to my book,Window Seat, The Story of a Traveling LifeTIME AND PLACE