Winter Woes

Rain yesterday followed by sleet and then snow. Very windy today. When Margaret was with us, we didn't talk much about the weather as most Minnesotans still do. She probably figured that there wasn't anything we could do about it anyway and we had made the decision to live in northern Minnesota. At any rate it is windy and cold and winter is really upon us now.

After the Thanksgiving Feast

Thanksgiving feasts are over and we had better continue with our work-outs so that we can keep on eating during the rest of our holiday celebrations. Curves for Women opened in our town 3 years ago and many in our group have joined. Some work out before coffee in the morning, some right afterwards and others later in the day. The photo on the top is what we see inside each day and hope that we can look like that after all of our hard work! The photo of a group of us by the Curves sign was taken just before the club opened and right after we had attended a tea party (We don't normally dress like that!).

Thanksgiving--Awhile Ago by Helen S.

As Thanksgiving approaches, my thoughts turn to our Thanksgiving dinner we enjoyed during the Depression. Our turkeys were raised on our farm along with chickens and ducks--we watched them strut around all summer, with tail feathers spread. They would reach weights of 25-30 pounds and one of these birds would enhance our dinner table along with the vegetables we grew, stored and canned. Even sage was grown and dried for the dressing.
Ours was truly like the feast enjoyed by the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving. I can still smell the aroma of the roasted bird. Oh, yes--dinner was topped off with home made pumpkin pie!
We always enjoy Helen's stories.
We all wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!

The Applique Queen

Our resident author, Mary (see link for Mary's Productions), spoke to the local ELCA women's group at the church last night. She gave a demonstration on folding napkins from one of her books and included the group in the folding project. Mary also talked about her sweatshirt appliques, her new poncho patterns, her fabric designs and her apron patterns, especially the "Church Lady Apron." The photo is of Mary with our Lt. Governor, Carol Molnau, in an apron that Mary made for her. We invited the Lt. Gov. to join us for walking and talking; you can see from the photo that she took us up on it (a future story for our 'Blog).
Mary is the youngest member of our walking group and works out of her home office, which makes it easy for her to walk with the group. She gives seminars and attends trade shows all over the country and regales us with stories about her trips when she returns.
Mary coordinates our Margarita Night outings, attended a tugboat christening in California, and is half of "The Midwest Ya-Ya Sisters" with her friend Rita at seminars. We will share some of those stories in future 'Blogs.

Knowledge Bowl by Joan

I have just returned home from the Junior High Knowledge Bowl Tournament and am happy to announce that the Mesabi East Team took second place. They are now the proud possessors of a trophy. For those of you unfamiliar with Knowledge Bowl (we call it KB for short), it is a competition similar to Jeopardy. I have volunteered as a reader ever since I retired 9 years ago. I get to play Alex Trebeck in my role as reader and actually have more power than he does as we don't have a group of judges sitting off stage to make decisions for us. But then, we don't offer big bucks as prizes either. As I mentioned today was the Junior High Tournament and the teams that competed today had won that opportunity by performing well throughout the season which began in early October. There were 22 teams competing today. Next week we will have the Elementary and Junior Varsity Tournaments. Then we have a vacation until January when the Sr. High season starts.

Today's tournament went on in spite of very bad roads. There were no school closing though so teams showed up for the competition. That is part of life in Northern Minnesota!

Winter Wonderland

We awoke to some snow this morning. Some brave members walked the 1.5 miles to our coffee spot while others drove. Some think it is a "Winter Wonderland" and some of us wonder why we live in this land in the winter! The snow is probably here to stay now. Actually, we have had a mild autumn and this is almost late to have snow.

Rules for the group.

We have a few rules for our group: no gossip, minimal grandchildren photos (but we can use our 'blog to post them), no recipes (we'd rather eat out). We pledge to enjoy life, support the community and support each other.

We are the Walkie Talkies, aka, "Wonderful Walking Women"

The Walkie Talkies are a group of women who have been walking together for over 20 years. The group ranges in age from 58 to 85. We walk and share stories and opinions that stretch for generations. We consider it "inner jogging" because of the belly laughs we enjoy--we feel it leads to good health for all of us. We are/have been teachers, nurses, a stockbroker, a school principal, a real estate agent, an author, a flight attendant, a pastor, secretaries, a farmer, a rural mail carrier, a pastor's wife, home executives and business owners, mostly retired. We have cried with and supported each other through widowhood, divorce, death of a member and Alzheimer's.
Theses photos were taken at our Winter Solstice parties in December, 2004 (upper) and 2003 (lower). We will celebrate the Solstice on December 21 this year.