Traveling Minnesota with Twins plus 1: Harkin Store, New Ulm, Heritage Acres

One of the wonderful things about the 4th of July is the chance to get little extra time with family. This year we took in 3 great sites in south central Minnesota this year.

Harkin Store: On July 3rd we headed up to the Harkin Store. The store first opened in the 1870's as settlers moved up the Minnesota River Valley to settle. The store and the surrounding Minnesota River town of West Newton were left behind as the railroads and settlement moved up to the prairie above the river. The store closed and much of the contents are still there. The Harkin family turned it into a museum and the Minnesota State Historical Society/Nicollet County Historical Societies have taken over the operation of the store as a museum together.

When we entered the store we met a man dressed as the proprietor of a 19th century country store. The girls thought the store was great right down to the authentic hats they got to wear during the tour and the bonnet and night cap they got in the gift shop next door. They came with shopping lists in hand to see what they could or couldn't by at the store that they might have wanted to take home.

New Ulm: I can't hide my love for sauer kraut, braised ribs, and dumplings when I get to New Ulm. My daughters say that the food I pick at the Kaiserhoff stinks; but hey it's dad's chance to eat comfort food. The girls enjoyed seeing Herman Heights and the show at the Glockenspiel. They also liked the trip to Target to use the gift cards from Grandpa Bruce.

Heritage Acres:
Our longest exploration of the Holiday weekend was at Heritage Acres on the west side of Lake Sisseton. Established in the 1970's as an agricultural interpretive center it was an exciting place for twin 6 year-olds and their parents. The baby slept through most of the trip in her stroller as we wondered from building to building. The rest of us were able to explore while there was blue-grass music to listen to in the "Mall of 1900." We would have enjoyed having more time up on the hill to see even more and plan to go again the next time Heritage Acres is open.

Heritage acres is a neat collection of historic buildings brought together to retell the story of rural America in a hands on way. All the parts of a old farmstead: from the house to the chicken coup, the barn to the corn-crib have been moved on site, only the barn was originally on the site. An old railway depot, a country church, a one room-school (outfitted with books and a real teacher who taught in a one room school herself), a log cabin and a collection of stores (the Mall of 1900) built in a modern machine shed are all on site.

Topping off our fourth of July weekend were church, fireworks, and rhubarb pound cake; all in all a great way to celebrate the over through of colonial rule by the English.

Raising daughters and training dogs

One morning last week one of our 6 year-olds was up early. She was wide awake at a time when a dad is usually the only one awake in our house on the Prairie. I get up everyday with Teddy (our 2 year-old American Water Spaniel). Not wanting her to be left out I invited her to come along on her bike while the dog and I ran. I wasn't sure if she'd say yes; but she was excited to be asked.
The three of us headed out. It was a good run and bike, about a mile out with a couple of good hills. Our turn arround was at a large park. The idea, in my mind, was to let the dog run off leash up the hill while our daughter checked out the prairie dog exhibit at the bottom of the hill.
Tough part was Teddy spotted a doe and gave chase. It was one classic moment. I was at the top of the hill with my daughter, still in sight, while the dog was in full chase of a deer on the other side of the hill. In just a few seconds I spotted him on top of the next hill. I called to both the dog and my daughter and neither one listened.
I went to get the girl first and she came with me calling, "Come here boy." After a few anxious moments for dad and daughter our dog came back into sight. When he reached us he was panting hard while smiling a little amused with himself.
We came home just in time to get cleaned up before Vacation Bible School. Not a bad morning adventure.

New Canoe

A week ago my beloved encouraged me to buy a canoe and not just look at it in the ad in the newspaper. I've been considering getting a canoe for about 2 months now. We moved to a new house and we live just a couple blocks from a chain of 5 lakes. My bride's logic seemed clear: it's the end of Spring and we'd have a chance to use the canoe for a whole season if we bought it now and not at the end of the season. The sale price was great and I jumped at it. Tonight was the maiden voyage in the new boat, a red Pelican Explorer DLX. Its a 15 foot 3 seater.

I took the canoe out for a spin at about 7:30. The lake was relatively of boats but the shore was full of people fishing. There were reports of crappies and sunny from the folks on shore. The only folks out on the water fishing were out in another canoe. I saw a few jet skis and boats full of familiyes headed towars home. and a few boats. It was a good first time out tonight. It was great to be out on the water again other than a trip with kids . It's been a good while since I've been out and it was a great hour on the water.

My goal is to get out with my daughters before to long with rods and see if they can start catching fish.

Join Kiva!

Hello!

I did it again. I loaned money to people in places on the globe I will never probably go; but hey it's good to know that a little of the money I have can make a positive impact in a far way part of the world.

I made the loan tonight to someone in Peru using Kiva (www.kiva.org).

Any one with a few bucks and a computer hooked up to the internet can do it. Just go to Kiva's website. Kiva loans support small businesses and as the owners build their businesses they it turn can support their families.

I have appreciated the stories and pictures connected to each loan, that as well as the ratings of the partner lenders who work with Kiva, has been a great asset as I consider who and where to lend money. There's a unique chance to support entrepreneurs by giving them loans at rates commercial lenders would never offer.

Kiva provides brief descriptions of the business and the family who it supports. As lenders we get to decide who to support.

All Kiva loans are managed in country by local microfinance institutions. Its not big banks making the loans, its people in many countries working through agencies already on the ground.

I just made a loan to an entrepreneur named VIRGEN NATIVIDAD DE LARES Group in Peru. They still need another $3,700.00 to complete their loan request of $4,150.00 (you can loan as little as $25.00!). Help me get this entrepreneur off the ground by clicking on the link below to make a loan to VIRGEN NATIVIDAD DE LARES Group too:

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=109305

It's easy and it invites a different world view into the way we view money.
https://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=register&_isc=1fb9bf50-4ff1-11de-911c-dc6669dc15d3&_te=inu

Traveling Minnesota with Twins: Mill City Museum

Minnesota's a pretty neat place for kids to discover a little bit of history. From the battle-fields of the Dakota Conflict in the southwest to the mining and forestry sites of the Iron Range there's a lot to see. Besides, my folk's gave us a family membership to the Minnesota Historical Society for the next 2 years; so now we've got lots of good reasons to go and explore all kinds of history.

This past Saturday my older 2 daughters and I joined my folks at the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis. The museum's only a few years old and its definitely worth a look or two. The museum was built in the shell of the old Washburn A Mill overlooking Saint Anthony Falls. I explained in advance that the museum was build in a building that had once exploded and been very damaged by a fire. That made our girls very curious.

When they got there they found lots of surprising and wonderful things, fresh bread and chocolate cake samples in the kitchen, water wheels and turbines to play with, and a tour that takes place in a huge freight elevator in the Flour Tower. The girls favorites included a mock up of a table set for threshers, including a classic wood-fire cook stove; a chance to decorate cereal boxes, and a mock-up of the falls and several different kinds of water wheels.

Growing up in Minneapolis, but not living in the city for some time now, it's kind of neat to see that the river's been rediscovered in recent years. My girls will have become big fans of downtown. They like the children's room at the downtown library, the Nicollet Mall, and of course Kramarczuk's Sausages.

As a teenager I remember running along the river with the rest of the South High Cross Country team on both banks until the river roads ended. When I was home on breaks from college and especially in my last years at seminary I rode my bike quite a bit along the river road. It was good then to see some renewal starting in the abandoned mills. It's good to see the progress and great to introduce my family to the city that 2 of their grandparents have called home for their whole lives.

Traveling with twins in Minnesota: Jeffers Petroglyphs

Memorial Day is always a good day, in my mind, to look back in history. Living a good ways from family this Memorial Day (my beloved and our baby went to California to visit her aunt for the week), meant that dad and the 2 older daughters marked the day together. The community picnic (with hot-dogs and pork burgers, chips, beans, and bars, and the subsequent trip to the county historical museum just up the street were my most celebrated ideas of the day.

After the trip to the museum and a quiet break at home, I, Dad had the bright idea of heading North West into the prairie and taking a good look around one of the true historic wonders of Minnesota. (click on the pictures to enlarge them and then start searching for the carvings).

The petroglyphs neat Jeffers are prehistoric (at least pre-European history) carvings on an outcropping of exposed red Sioux Quartzite. I first came to the spot about 11 years ago. The state historical society has made some real progress over the years. Durring my first trip signs were out and trails were marked on the rock and nearby to protect the images from people. A building was underconstruction, but not yet complete back then.

I came back a few years ago with another history buff. But this trip with our oldest girls reminded me of the wonder of this place, that like they said is, just "Out here in the middle of the wind and the prairie?" No body knows which group of people carved the images in the rock or what they mean. The symbols are easy to make out: spears, people, animals like the turtle and the buffalo. But the bigger question of meaning their remains unresolved by modern historians. The mystery of why this rock has been a place for stories over the centuries is fascinating and easily leads to great imagination about who, when, where, why, and how these images in the rock came to be.

The weather was warm and my traveling companions did their best in the late afternoon early evening memorial day sun.. Thank goodness for big enough water bottles and interpretive signs through out the area.

One story that the girls are still discussing is the legend that the rock formartion was a safe place during a great flood. The legend said that the rock turned red from the blood of those who died in the flood.

Whatever the cause of the rock or the origin of the images in the rock our girls had an unsolved mystery to talk about and a beaded bracelet and necklace to show at school during sharing time.

Fatherhood and fishing thoughts

I haven't blogged in a while but I have two updates:

Fatherhood thoughts: My beloved and I took a trip back down memory lane this past weekend with our 3 girls. We went back to the city on Lake Winnebago where our older 2 girls were born just about 6 years ago. We shared meals with old friends, played with some friend's and their kids in a swimming pool with a nifty water slide. We had a chance to drive past the places we'd been so many times before.

It wasn't our first trip back and it won't be our last. Wisconsin isn't that far away after all. We've come back to relax and catch up a few times over the past 6 years. We came back this time so I could give a speech at a banquet for the church where I served a few years ago. Our first girls were pretty small when we left; but we've been back enough to introduce them to the church where they were baptized and the pastor/God-mother who baptized them.

The time in the Fox Valley included a short trip to the Hecrodt Nature Center and Light-House at Kimberly Park where the Fox River flows out of Lake Winnebago. The girls were complaining about the Lake Flies that hatched last week too much to catch the beauty of the area where they were born.

We're back in the prairie today. The air is warm and there's plenty of wind. My beloved said it's a record setting heat. It's a good old prairie heat wave. Its our home now and will be for a while, but still it was good to go back to see old friends and celebrate with them. It was good to know that there are good places to go east of here.

Trout Fishing: A week and a half ago was the annual Mother's Day Weekend on the Whitewater River. It was a great time and I will look forward to the weekend in the pasture next to the wildlife management area again next year. A new member joined the crew at the old fishing hole. Dave's a true fly-fisherman who even brought out a wonderful wet-fly called a Mother's Day Caddis for the weekend. All these years that I've been fishing on Mother's Day and I had no idea that there's a Caddis pattern for the weekend. I learned more from Dave in two days then I had in about 11 years playing with a fly rod.

The challenge for the trouter, taken from God's question to Job in Job 41:1 was, "Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook?" was answered by Chad, an Iowan by way of Fargo. Chad had the biggest catch ever on the Whitewater, while fishing with a mep thrown on a spinning real. He said it had gotten snagged on a tree across the stream a good hours walk up from the rest of us up at camp.

He pulled back hard and it snapped back. At first he thought it had bounced off, but obviously it didn't.

I drove Chad to Winona so that a doctor could pull the hook out rather than risk having either of the 2 chemists or the preacher in camp try to remove it. Chad caught himself with 2 of the 3 treble hooks. The doctor was quick with the lidocaine. She snipped the 3rd hook. Next she pushed one of the hooks through to cut off the barb before pushing the 2nd one through and snipping out the barb. After about 60 seconds of pushing and pulling chad had 4 little 2 mm cuts in his cut where the barbs had pierced him.