WisFarm July 0408

4th of July Week
2008

By Delores Miller

Here it is already the 4th of July week, summer is half over.
Independence Day and a National Holiday.

Robin, Madeline, Connor, Keith, Alyse, Tierney, Marianne,
Scott, Cassidy and Elena are leaving for a ten day trip to see
Richard, Sharon, Colin and Joshua in Massachusetts and
New Hampshire. They are driving in two vehicles and
want to see the sights along the way. It is a long road to
travel. Niagara Falls.

We want to go to Tigerton for their 4th of July summer block party, and will have a good Polka band for a dance.

LuAnn and grandson Bryan were here in Wisconsin for
two weeks, they stayed by us but travelled all around.
Mainly they wanted to go fishing, and although they were
small fishes, LuAnn cleaned them and fried and ate them.

Cousin Lyle Ratzburg's wife Rojene passed away of kidney
failure on June 3. She was 77. Went to the funeral, saw lots
of distant relatives that we had not seen for years. Cousin
Harold and Anneliese drove in from New Jersey. Lyle and
Rojene had done lots of traveling through the years, including
several trips overseas and twice to Alaska.

Right after Robin was born in 1963 I began a long distance
correspondence with Barbara Ferguson and her husband
Terry in Dannevirke, New Zealand. That was 45 years ago.
Although we both got busy with our growing families, and
some years letter writing took a back seat, we did keep in
contact. 25 years ago, in 1983 Barb and Terry came to
visit us on the farm for a few days. Eight years ago, we made
the trip to New Zealand and Australia. We visited her antique
shop, saw the sheep ranch and their beautiful beach house.
Alas, Terry got ill with cancer and passed away on May 27 at
the age of 71. Our sympathy goes out to Barb and her
daughters.

So on June 26, 2008 Delores Miller celebrated her 70th
birthday. Glory be, she is getting old. Robin, Marianne, Keith
LuAnn all were here for a small party. Marianne brought me
a birthday cookie, huge, double chocolate chip. LuAnn made
a spiced beef that went well in soft shells. Mexican food.

It is strawberry season here in Wisconsin, locally grown
ones taste so much better than the ones from California.
Made 3 batches of freezer jam and then make a big white cake
to eat the mashed berries over. Real whipped cream on
top, too. The season lasts about 3 weeks here. Berries are
$3.75 a quart and worth every penny.

Always the hay fields grow and Russ has to swat them down with
the haybine. Only have about 10 acres left to make and even
that is a poor quality alfalfa. But we managed to bale 1218 bales, most of which we sold 'off the wagon' so we only had to hoist one load in the barn. Sold the rest to horse and llama people at $3. a bale. Very few people want to work that hard making small bales.

Matthew's wife Lisa has been going to motorcycle school, she wants to get a license so she can travel along with Matthew. Matt has so many motorcycles, I think he has six in our milkhouse and 4-5 down in his garage. He claims they will be worth alot of money in a few years. Matt is going to grad school, just finished a course last week. He needs his Master's degree. He came one weekend and helped with the haying.

Robin, Keith, and Marianne's families were camping in Door County last weekend, at the Peninsula State Park near Sturgeon Bay. Keith took his pop up camper, Marianne has a two room tent. LuAnn, Bryan, Russ and I went up for the day. No electricity in the camp ground so they cooked over an open camp fire with twigs and branches they found in the woods. Poison Ivy abounds. Toilet facilities a block away, and no showers were working. Roughing it. But they brought in all their own food, and cooked for us, had chicken and steak on the grill for lunch and brats and hamburgers for supper. All very good. Large sand beach on the 'Bay' of Green Bay, Lake Michigan. They children all went swimming for hours. A fun day.Rocky bluffs ascend over abandoned farm fields, where Pioneers tried to make a living, along with the Potawatomis Indians. Toured the Eagle Bluff lighthouse dating from 1860. Cobblestone shoreline. Keith's family brought their bikes to go exploring. And then we got caught in a thunder and rain storm so us 15 people were squeezed in Keith's camper for an hour, but snacked on all their food.

Was grocery shopping, the fresh fruits are in the stores. Expensive, with the price of diesel fuel and gasoline. Blueberries were $1.99 a pint, and bing cherries were $4.99 a pound, but oh, they are so delicious. Grapes were reasonable at 99 cents a pound.

The first week of June, southern Wisconsin was hit with 12 inches
of rain in one day, causing much flooding. The recreational
Wisconsin Dells had a dam burst in Lake Delton flooding homes
and even washing some homes down the rivers. Big beautiful homes just washed away. And many homeowners carried no flood insurance. We only had a few inches of rain. Tornadoes were out and about too but we had none here.

Russell had to go to the dentist, and have one tooth pulled, could not salvage it. It had been 5 years since he had gone to a dentist so needed lots of work.

One Sunday when LuAnn was here, we attended church services at South DuPont, my old home church. Then to Nephew Kelly's home for
a cookout, hamburgers and the whole works. He has a pond, with a
sand and rocky beach and LuAnn and Bryan fished, caught many small
sunfish and perch. Swimming too, that was a fun day. Then to visit Aunt
Joyce Helms and Bryan and I walked over the city of Marion, the pond
and parks.

LuAnn took Bryan and Aunt JoAnn to Green Bay to see the Packer
football Hall of Fame. We had to stay home and bale hay. Then one week
end LuAnn and Bryan went by Robin, the children swam in the
Mississippi River and coolee park. They all went to 'Mall of America'
in Minneapolis, Camp Snoopy fun park. Then they went to the 'House on
a Rock' at Spring Green, a house similar to Frank Lloyd Wright.

Connor came back with LuAnn and she took the boys fishing by Kelly's again.
And then it was time to take LuAnn and Bryan back to Milwaukee and the airport for their return flight, through Atlanta to Phoenix were the
temperature was 110 degrees, compared to the 80 degrees we
have here in Wisconsin. Had lunch with Aunt Dorothy and cousin
Bill and Matt and Lisa. Had some good banana Culver's ice
cream to go with the strawberry shortcake.

Russell's garden is doing well, eating the fresh lettuce with cream
over cooked potatoes.

Had a letter from Cousin Ellie Kunstmann in California,
someone had written it for her. She broke both her arms
and nose in a nasty fall, but one arm is better now and they
are starting therapy.

I guess that is all the news for this month.

Keep in touch.

copyright 2008, Russell and Delores Miller

Back to Wisconsin Farmer Journals