Children of Men

U of M Board of Regents meeting 1889

This week I sat in a room with 20 other people helping to create the 25 year vision and pathway for sustaining Minnesota's waters. The meeting included a presentation from the State's Demographers office on the trends for Minnesota's population. I was the youngest person in the room-- a women in the late July of life and mom of three. I ached, ached for a young voice in the room.

48 hours earlier (to the minute) I had been in a sea of 4, 5, and 6 year olds- confined to a gym and allowed to run wild. Screaming, chasing, hugging, playing. It was called "recess"- which I understand is the 4th important educational "R." Standing in that gym amidst loud, rowdy, and giddy children- my eyes filled with tears of wonder and joy.

I've seen the movie Children of Men a few times. It's set one generation in the future when women can't have children and the youngest person on earth is 18 year, 8 month, and 16 days old. For what every reason I hadn't really resonated with the movie's ache- the human longing and hunger for the rollicking presence of children.

By the end of that 5 hour meeting I had, in all honesty, lost the yearning for young voices and engaged my ego with those around me. The truth is, there are few places on earth with the social and resource capital to really plan for a sustainable future 25 years down the road with the hope those dreams can be realized. And frankly- as the youngest person in the room- I know that the earnest investment of goodwill at that meeting is not for our own future but for those who come behind us.

The Value of a Rooster

Our rooster- Shing Hun- in the midst of his hens

Every once in a while I look at the roosters and wonder if they are worth their feed. Frankly, Shing Hun is getting old and probably not so tasty and, obviously, he doesn't lay eggs. He is absolutely lovely and grand and the kids love him- but he's too fierce to be played with like the hens.

Shing Hun struts around, crows a lot, and is something of a dandy.

Then one day we found a dead hen at the barn door. The next day Mike went into the barn and found Shing Hun in a battle to the death with a 15 pound tomcat. The hens were in one corner and Shing Hun was between them and the cat- battling to protect them. Thanks to Mike's intervention- Shing Hun came out on top.

On days when I come out with chicken scraps- Shing Hun walks around the scrambling hens- too dignified and watchful to fight over bread scraps and the kids' left over oatmeal. At night, he seems to check to make sure all the hens are in their coop.

Most days the roosters have pretty light duty. Pleasant even. But we can rest a little easier knowing that Shing Hun has his eyes on things when we're not there and he's proven fierce in protecting his flock. And that's the value of a rooster.

A Working View From Here

The view from my home office desk

This is the view from my farmhouse office on a day with life threatening wind chills and 6 foot high drifts in front of the garage. Note the froth on that espresso! I have fiber optic digital wireless internet- which means my home office is as fast or faster than my University of Minnesota office in St. Paul. I spent part of the day working on a nation-wide survey of natural food companies (research), talked to Minnesota's State Economist Tom Stinson, and shared some laughter with a staff person.

I'm telling you folks we live in the best of times. Here I am a woman, mom, scientist, "farmer" (more like the overlord who critiques the farm work from that same window! Hey! you missed some weeds over there! Get the lid back on the compost bin!). I have a challenging intellectual job, I do from the middle of the state's capitol city or from an isolate farm on the prairie. I feel like the work I do makes the world a better place for my kids and I have a boss who supports me telecommuting.

Seems like a person should just stop and appreciate all that the early 21st century is and can be. Virtual yet connected. Rooted but mobile. Global yet local. Fast and yet that espresso went down nice and slow to some XM satellite radio background music.

January Local Foods at the mid-continent 45th Parallel

Farm "fresh" foods in January 2010 at -30 degree F

My husband's ancestors come from a village in Norway north of the Arctic Circle. In my mind I imagined it would be a relief to move to Minnesota- way down by the 45th parallel. That was until someone pointed out that the ocean moderates Tromso Norway's weather- as a result the all time record setting cold temperature is -4 degree F. Here we sit midcontinent- 120 years later and 25 degrees colder.

What's more- I recall sitting in the Cabin Cafe in Clinton listening to an elder tell how her grandfather moved here from Norway at the turn of the 20th century. In Norway he had electricity. He lived in Big Stone County for another 30 years before his farm was electrified. "Imagine" she said "having to go back to living without electricity after having it in Norway!"

Here we are in January 2010, -30 F, still eating as much local foods as possible. And doing fine. However, the "fresh" squash, apples, beets, and cabbages in the pantry have to be processed or lost. I'm dehydrating tray upon tray of apple rings, making yet more apple sauce, and cooking all things apple. The patrilineal side of Mike's family is at odds with any vegetables in the cruciferous family (cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, only a little brocolli thank you). If I serve saurkraut for a meal it has to be covered at all time. So using the cabbage is tricky.

Last night we had a nice 90% local meal in January. The appetizer was crackers with sweet jalepeno relish, pickled green and yellow beans, and chokeberry wine. For dinner we had sauted beets, sweet corn, potatoes, sweet pickle and jalepeno relish over kielbasa sasuage. Dessert was apple crisp with cinnamon ice cream.

A couple nights ago we ate two of our ducks. They tasted fine roasted- but we wondered whether they were really worth the effort of raising. I used the leftover duck to make a duck confit (olive oil and thyme stewed duck meat) and tossed it with pasta and shredded parmesean cheese and served with roasted beets. That maybe tipped us to trying the ducks again next year.

Well my early riser is up and it's time to work on a puzzle or pull out the Candy Land.

Best hopes for a Happy New Year to you and yours.

Unabashedly Christmas

Casey Jones, early 1970's, Minnesotans of a "certain age" will remember him from local tv

One thing I didn't anticipate when we moved to Big Stone County was what an all out community celebration Christmas is. The grownups in the community join together to give the kids a truly delightful Christmas. This year our family has enjoyed:

• Another original holiday score composed by the school's music teacher Mrs. Ragan and performed by the elementary students. My review-- Excellent, witty, and moving.
• A modern and funny church Christmas program (thank you Janine, Maria, Lori, Kristi, Sandy, Melisa!!!) followed by a Luther League dinner, coffee, and a live Nativity that included goats and donkeys. We stood outside the church, just off Hwy 75, the King of Trails that runs from the Mexico border into Canada, in -7 degree weather. Teenage "angel" Kendra begging her petit grandmother to intervene and get her out of the cold.
• Santa Claus came to Clinton and the business community put on a bingo party for the kids with nice toys and prizes.
• Eidskog Lutheran had their annual hymn sing just down the road (the closest rural church to our farm).
• Last night with all the lights out except the Christmas tree the kids put on a Christmas program they had been practicing for days... Complete with drummer boys, babe in a manager, dancing princess at a ball (?)
• Top it off with a blizzard, wood smoke, snowshoes, and every abundances of the early 21st century

I make the kids sing this song (you simply must click here--) Just a Little Lefse in order to get a piece of lefse. I learned this song on my mother's knee--perhaps an homage to my biological culture. Please keep in mind that I'm a Scandinavian raised by Germans in the days when Lutheran Social Services still did cross cultural adoptions.

On Christmas Eve I was steaming king crab legs (bought at Bonnie's Grocery on Mainstreet Clinton) when Alma walked into the kitchen and said "are you cooking lutefisk?" I'm raising children who are more familiar with the smell of lutefisk than King Crab.

I have become an apologist for Christmas- an apologist in the meaning of a defender. Back around 1998 I mothballed all the Christmas cards that said "Merry Christmas." Christmas was out of style- replaced by the generic Happy Holidays. It was decidedly uncool to hale Christmas. Those cards are coming out this year- I may even get them addressed today!

This year I've had the Christmas that nostalgia is made of.

Errand Ways

Minnesota Historical Society, 1949

I dashed off to town yesterday for errands and it turned into a delightful Main Street Clinton afternoon. Amanda, on short notice, got me in for a haircut. After that I hung out with my friends at the grocery store - shopping and talking. Then off to the Clinton State Bank where author Brent Olson was doing his first public signing of his new book "Papa: Figuring out What Matters." It was the bank's Christmas cookie open house - so the place was packed. I've lived her two years now and was amazed at how many people I knew gathered around the cookies and hot apple cider. We had all kinds of things to talk about- choir, alter guild (I'm on it now but have no idea what it is??), work, local foods, etc...

Then a few of us left the bank's cookies trays and headed over to The Cabin Cafe for a Big Stone Area Local Foods meeting- including my husband Mike. We have a community group working to establish a robust local foods system for our area. Lots of great people- local Farmers Union rep, artists, Apple Ranch owner, Economic Development staff, producers/farmers, etc... Our leader is a very cool Park Ranger (thank you Joanne!). At 3:45 Dale, the school bus driver, kindly dropped our kids off at the Cafe. I take advantage of opportunities to have the kids around me since I travel a great deal for work. Predictably, all hell broke loose as the little boys tore around the place -- jumping down stairs, rolling around the floor. They have no fear of us or self discipline. When the pop and french fries were served the restaurant became quiet again.

We are lucky to have the Cabin Cafe in Clinton. Doreen is a great and very health conscious cook. She cooks from scratch with fresh food, uses oat flour in her baked goods and healthy oils in her pastries and the fryer. For example, she cuts her own potatoes for french fries and cooks them in canola oil. We stayed for the dinner buffet (served from 5-7 pm) and enjoyed a really good salad bar with great greens, veggies, and fruits, salad bar, soup, homemade bread.

**If you are in the area- please stop by and enjoy a meal at The Cabin- right on Highway 75 (the King of Trails) in Clinton.** We need to support this local gem.

We came home to a completely messy house- 3 hopping, happy dogs. I call that a perfectly fine Friday.

My Lucky Star

The Geminid Meteor Shower- December 13th, 2009 from National Geographic

I woke up this morning and as usual stared up at the stars from my dining room picture window. From this window I can see half of the entire night sky and what seems like a pretty good portion of the world. I thought I had imagined the first couple of falling stars that streaked through the sky. Then they kept coming- dropping into the horizon, some big flashy stars falling right towards me. I quit counting at a dozen. I stood there awed and said to myself "well... thank you Milly."

When our middle daughter Milly was born it was by C-section. She was stubbornly sideways and wouldn't be turned around. I was really frightened being in the surgical ward, my arms strapped down, and then the spinal made me feel like I was going to quit breathing. The woman anesthesiologist looked down in my face and said comforting words. I looked up at her face and the powdered sugar around her mouth-- she said "had to grab a donut- low blood sugar."

Then I started to sing. Just the day before I'd heard "You are my Lucky Star" on MPR's Morning Show. So I started singing:

You are my lucky star
I'm lucky in your arms
You opened heaven's portal
Here on earth
For this poor mortal
You are my lucky star

I sang it over and over and over again. And then at last I had my beautiful baby girl. Amelia Rose-- our Milly Rose-- our Millsy. And she is my lucky star- though lost to my arms. As you may know we lost Our Mils unexpectedly before her first birthday. But her legacy in our family is a blessing. Mike set the tone the legacy that our much loved, much adored and adorable child will not be a tragedy, but a blessing. It's taken time for that to really sink into a grieving mother's heart.

And then this morning-- the anniversary of Milly's death-- the portals of heaven opened for me and the stars poured out. I smiled at those star with a quietly contented heart.