Midwest USA in April

The highlight for the rest of April was seeing many friends in the Twin Cities, and getting together with all my sisters for a Sisters Retreat in Sparta, Wisconsin.

Here is a photo from my sister Pat's back yard in April, showing the grass greening up ( the same yard I made a snow angel in a couple of weeks prior). No leaves on the trees yet, but the grass is green. Spring happens fast once it starts, usually.




My friend Michele in St. Paul has a Vietnamese student staying with them. We had pizza night during my stay, and An made a heart-shaped pizza.

I also stayed with my friends Ellen and Tom in White Bear Lake. The ice was still on the lake during my visit.


















We all looked forward to our Sister's Retreat! These retreats started quite a few years ago when sister number 1, Sue, realized that if we didn't set aside time to get together, just us girls, that we would only end up seeing each other for weddings and funerals! So for many years, we had yearly weekend retreats in different places in the Midwest, without husbands or kids; just the sisters. This year was primarily a quilting retreat for those who quilted. The rest of us had other projects to work on, in between delicious meals and games of Scrabble and Boggle.








I highly recommend setting up your camera to take timed photos for great smiles. I set mine up on a TV, and hit the button, and ran to take my place in the Sister's line up, for this photo. Sue is sister number 1, and is on the top right. Pat is sister number 2, and is in the bottom right. Sister number 3 is Carol, in the middle top. Then me, number 4. Sister number 5 is Sandy, top left, and our baby sister is Sharon, bottom middle. We all get along very well, despite our differences in lifestyle and beliefs, and we pitch in to help each other out when needed.






It was cold and windy the weekend of our Sister's Retreat, so we didn't ride our bikes as much as we had planned. But sister Pat and I went for a ride on the bike trail Sparta is locally famous for. During the ride I spotted these lovely prairie pasque flowers in bloom:















Some of us attended a Saturday evening church service at the Sparta Methodist Church. I took a couple of photos of the beautiful stained glass windows in the entry:

Here is a quote I jotted down from the service: "Being a warrior is not what Jesus came to do. Overturning the Roman warriors is not what Jesus came to do." from Pastor David P. Carlson
These words helped meet a strong need I have for peace in my life and the world. I felt delighted to hear them from a Methodist minister.


I also recently was sent a link to a video on animal cruelty. http://www.meat.org/ Take a look if you dare to know how the meat you eat ends up on your plate. I would be very interested in your feelings about it, if you would care to share them with me.

Interestingly, when I was getting my vaccines updated, the travel doctor advised me to get a vaccine against E. coli if going to the US (but not needed in other countries). I chose not to have that vaccine, since I don't eat hamburger. And after learning that most hamburger in the US comes from spent dairy cows, and seeing how that whole system works, now I understand why E. coli is such a danger in the US.

I recently was told that there is a food byproduct of the ethanol industry that enables huge factory farms of diary cows. The cows never leave their indoor stalls, and are fed the corn byproducts from the ethanol factories - big in Iowa. The more I hear about these practices, the less dairy products I eat. I have switched to rice or hemp milk for my cereal now, if I can get it.

During this time I also decided definitely not to go to Haiti this year, because of the violent food riots, kidnapping of Americans, and overthrow of the government. As a newcomer to Haiti, I would be better off helping the Haitian people from the US. My friend Ellen told me about Feed My Starving Children, www.fmsc.org , based here in Minnesota, which has volunteers pack nutritious food packets and sends them around the world. They manage this nonprofit with the remarkably low administration cost of 5%. So fully 95% of a person's donation goes to getting the food to the people who need it. Since 25% of all their food packets go to Haiti, I decided I could better help the Haitians by volunteering for Feed My Starving Children this summer.

I also see that my example of bike riding and living simply is needed here in the US, so decided to buy a bike and trailer to ride while in the US. I will leave them here, and use them when I visit in the future. I laminated information on the bike and trailer, so when it is sitting parked somewhere, people can read about how much the bikes and trailers cost and where to get them. With gas prices continuing to rise, people are starting to look at other options. I want to help them see how practical a bike and trailer is. I bought another Giant bike, since my first one has proven so comfortable and reliable. And I bought my BOB trailer from the Bike Trailer Shop: http://biketrailershop.com/catalog/index.php

The other reason I know I need to be in the US rather than Haiti this summer is to help people learn to grow their own vegetables. I spotted some inexpensive vegetable seeds in the Family Dollar shop, and stocked up to give them away to people.

And, of course, there are so many people who can benefit from Emotional Freedom Technique and Nonviolent Communication, that there is no lack of ways I can be of service wherever I am.

Back to the USA

I had a good sleep on the plane back to the US from New Zealand. Right before boarding, they called my name, and changed my seat assignment. They gave me one of those seats just behind first class, with the good leg room. Delightful!! I slept pretty well, as I usually do if I can get a window seat, so had no jet lag once I got off the plane in Los Angeles. I really appreciate the way Air New Zealand times those flights. Whether you are leaving Auckland or leaving LA, they put you on in the evening, feed and 'water' you, and then its lights out. You sleep as best you can throughout the majority of the flight, and when you wake up, it is morning in the plane and at your destination. They serve you breakfast, and then it is time to land. Your body clock doesn't need to re-set itself hardly at all. It takes the boredom out of what would otherwise be a very long flight. But now I am investigating getting myself across the pond on a sailboat, me and my bike and trailer, paying my way through crewing. I am no sailor, as my New Zealand sailing friends can attest, but I can make tea and cook a bit for the ones who are doing the skilled work on board. I understand that people look for crew in March and April leaving New Zealand, and October and November leaving Florida. So if I have the time, my next New Zealand departure may be by boat.

It was still winter when I arrived in Minnesota. This first photo is of two white tail deer crossing the lake where my sister Carol and her husband Mike own a house. I feel so sorry for those deer! In a deep snow winter like this one, many will have starved to death.

I am reminded of the song by Johnny Horton: When It's Springtime in Alaska, it's 40 Below. Here is the song, if you'd like to listen to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSMN-tbMRz4&feature=related

I couldn't resist making a snow angel in the remaining snow at sister Pat's house in Lake City, Minnesota.

My sisters Carol, Pat and I went down to Algona, Iowa to see Dad. I stayed in Algona another week to sell the apartment building my parents owned for many years. This is a photo I took of it in summer 2006.

We visited Call State Park in Algona, with its log cabin, and beautiful but bare trees,

And then we were fortunate to visit the Smith Wildlife Refuge, where they were just finishing up making maple syrup for the season. I had never seen the process before. It takes 40 gallons of sap from the sugar maple trees (they called them black maples), to make one gallon of maple syrup. I don't know how much wood has to be burned to evaporate off all that extra water!

Here is a photo of the tap they use. It is driven two inches into the tree, and they can have up to 6 or 8 taps in one large tree, without causing any problems for the tree, apparently. The sap flows best when the weather is above freezing during the day, and below freezing at night. Once the color of the sap starts to turn yellow, they stop taking it for syrup, and the later sap results syrup which is a dark brown colour.

They filter the syrup with wool filters at the final step, and they watch the temperature carefully, because if it gets over 180 degrees C, it climbs the walls of the pan and spills over, we were told.

The guys running the operation were very helpful and informative, and we gave a donation of $5 and they kindly gave us a jar of syrup.

I have been telling some of my friends in New Zealand about the great place our dad lives in - Van Buren Apartments. They are a congregate living facility in Algona. Dad has a lovely one bedroom apartment, and the center provides a good meal every day, and free taxi service in town, and an emergency alarm to wear around his neck in case he falls, etc. They clean his apartment and wash his linens. He has cable TV, and a heated garage for his car (he still drives at 83). All this, for only $1050 US a month. All he pays for is his telephone!! Here are some photos:

The main stairway in the lobby:

The dining room and adjacent fireplace/sitting room:

And the library.

It is run by the Good Samaritan Society of the Lutheran Church, but you do not need to be a Lutheran, and possibly not even a Christian, to live there. The manager said that for the first time since it opened 5 or so years ago, they have no waiting list. You need to be 55 or better, I believe, to live there. Here is the link: http://www.good-sam.com/communities/showLocation.asp?id=84





I stayed in Algona a week, and had the opportunity to visit many of my friends. One of my favorite places, The Gallery, now also sells coffee, so of course I met several people there. Here I am with Lori, the owner of The Gallery. She is kindly storing a box of my very best 35mm slides in the lower level of this building, in case I should write a book some day. I just can't part with them yet. Many were taken on the 18 month trip around the world in 1996-1997.

I am holding a prosthetic leg from the MEND Trust. It has been very useful to have it to tell people in the US what I have been working on, and to show them an example of how inexpensively a life can be radically improved.

While I was in Algona, Rev. Hans Myors stopped into town. I first met Hans in 2006 when he first came through Algona. Hans travels nearly continuously on his bicycle, sharing his testimony as a 'completed Jew' disowned by his family in Germany because he became a Christian. He also volunteers for disaster relief, as needed around the country. He has spent lots of time in Louisiana. A friend and I met him for coffee before he left town again, and he cycled off in heavy cold rain and sleet, and high winds, heading West to Portland, Oregon. When you have to be somewhere, and you only travel by bike, you continue on no matter what the weather. Not me. I wouldn't cycle in it!! Before he left, I asked Hans what he could use. He said he could use new pannier bags. His were stitched and stitched and stitched over again. Waterproof ones would be great, but any would be better than what he has now. Here is his website if you are interested in learning more or helping: http://www.pedalprayers.org/