Southwest Angle  

by Rob Crowe

     I figured I’d make another shot at becoming a sno-cat racer. I thought that maybe I’d be able to run the old Everest in the Vintage class at theSeven Clans Warroad 100 Presented by the Blue Star so I looked into it. I went to the USCC website, downloaded the entry application and figured  out what the entry fees would total. Result? It would cost almost as much as I paid a decade ago for the old Everest. to run one race. In reality, a good deal, but in the interests of my readership, I decided to buy ink and toner instead of pay $145 to pursue my sno-cat racer dream.

     I did take apart the carb on the Pol-cat to find out why it was bogging on me. I found a little bit of debris in the bottom of the bowl , removed it and now it runs great. In preparation for covering the afore mentioned race at the Point, I unloaded the 16’ trailer, hooked it up to the Aerostar and loaded up the Pol-cat.

The race was great. I’d had a little taste of how Pat Mach runs his events in covering the I-500, but I was able to cover this one for most of the event. Pat was happily running all over with an Arctic Cat BearCat, directing things and pulling in  broken sleds like the vintage John Deere in the picture.

Lots of families participate in this series. A friend of mine from Hill City was over with his extended family. Doug Kemppainen’s four grandkids ran several races in the kid’s and teen classes. One also ran in the Sport 85 class that Seth Thorson, the racer from the Cities I met at the I-500, runs in.

Seth was there and finished his race in eighth place. My friend’s grandson Tyler was third in the class on his Ski-Doo. 

The Pol-Cat ran flawlessly for the day. While the racers were running closer to 100 mph on the track, I could hit 53 mph on the lake. Surprisingly, the speed of the old sled didn’t change much as the day progressed and the snow got “heavier”. Needless to say, I had a ball although I ended the day with a headache. Management said I also had a sunburn when I arrived home late in the day.

There were no food booths at the race so I kinda starved for the day. Penny Kimble said that they asked the Eagles Auxiliary to set up a booth the night before, but with most of the town relocating to the cities for the Warriors appearance at the Hockey Tournament, it was a non-starter. Maybe next year…

This here little newspaper has been keeping me pretty busy, so busy, in fact, that I hadn’t had time to visit the barber. I was beginning to look somewhat like Grizzly Adams. Fortunately, Management is pretty easy-going in that regards. I was able to get into Barber Mike’s chair in Warroad for a haircut and beard trim a week or so back to make myself somewhat more presentable to the viewing public. He did a nice job. Management, who usually notices my haircuts after little Valeri tells her, caught this one right away so it must have made a big difference.

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On to other things. This is an old one, but still a pretty good one. In the annals of the Southwest Angle, it is said that the crusty old Norwegian, Orlin Ostby, had a forty acre field for sale that caught the eye of another Scandahovian, Ole. Ole was a townsman but he wanted to start farming. He saw Orlin’s ad in the newspaper and drove out to inspect the property. Orlin happened to be out in the field discing with the John Deere when Ole drove up. When he saw the stranger stop, Orlin got off the tractor and met Ole at the edge of the field. After a bit of small talk, Ole started asking Orlin about the land.

“Is da soil good?” says Ole.

“Da best.” grunts Orlin.

“What’re all dese tings?” Ole says as he kicked one of the numerous rocks that were strewn over the field.

“Dose ‘re fertility increasers. Dey help hold the soil in place and help me grow huge crops.” said the crafty Norsk.

“Hmmm…” said Ole, “I see da rest of da  farms have big piles of dose fertility increasers in dere fields.”  

“Ya,” says Orlin, “Dang guys are way too lazy to get out dere and spread ‘em out!”

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I really have to hand it to Warroad School Superintendent Craig Oftedahl. Several times I’ve seen him on Saturdays at the school. I figure he must be doing double duty, stress testing the floors of the gymnasiums as he’s refereeing the elementary and junior high basketball games. This last weekend, he was joined by Sheriff Jule Hanson and Sgt. Miller of the Warroad PD, some really heavy hitters in more ways than one. They did manage pretty well to keep up with the girls flying up and down the courts.

Another week in the great north, see you next week!

Life on the Farm

By Ms Toyota

     It was a cold morning and a newborn calf needed to be warmed up.  One slight  problem, though, this cow wouldn’t let us close to the calf.  On top of that she had delivered it on the far end of the cow lot.  Standing beside an empty bale feeder I had an inspiration.  I tipped it up, rolled it over by the calf and settled it around the newborn.  The cow, familiar with the feeder, allowed this to happen. 

“Get the Little Deere, Dad,” I said.  I threw the sled into the feeder, crawled in and strapped the calf into the sled while Dad backed over to us in his favorite tractor, a  2555 John Deere.  The cow was not very happy with this situation but she had respect for the tractor.  I put the rope of the sled under the feeder and hooked it to the clevis on the hitch of the tractor; lifted the feeder up high enough for the sled to slide under as Dad slowly pulled the sled with calf towards the barn. The cow followed the calf in the sled and as the entourage neared the barn we confined her by closing the gates behind her.

Situations like this really get the adrenalin going, and are quite dangerous but the mother cow is only protecting her baby and doesn’t want us there.  The cow only acts like this for a couple days, then it is over, but due to the danger, we will likely ship her after we wean the calf.

My Dad, Lyle (Trapper) Roseen and I have a beef herd consisting of 120 animals. We have mostly Black Angus with a few other breeds that we have experimented with over the years.  Black Angus is our number one choice, their performance is excellent and it seems to be the buyer’s choice also.

March 1st is the day our beef cows are due to calf, however on February 28th, to our surprise, one cow presented us with a set of twins. A couple of days passed, no more calves so the twins got a lot of attention.  We named them Thelma and Louise.  Two more cows calved, then another set of twins, Midnight and Twilight.  The babies are coming quite rapidly now, 3-5 per day.  On the sixth morning, to our amazement, our third set of twins were waiting to greet us.  It was such a pretty sight. These two didn’t get names because all of a sudden we have calves all over and things were getting kind of hectic. Don’t necessarily want twins, but we accept them.  I consider twins to be double trouble! 

It’s nice now but remember that night it was 20 below? Things don’t just stop because it’s cold; we had a couple of arrivals during the night which required warming up and or thawing them out.  Our method consists of loading the calf in a sled and pulling it to the heated garage behind the Toyota.  Trapper rides in the sled with the calf so it doesn’t fall out.  This would be a Kodak moment but no pictures have been taken as we are busy trying to save their lives and it is usually in the middle of the night.

 After the warm up has taken place Dad and calf take the same ride except this time it is back to the barn to the awaiting mother cow.  This has to happen in a short time period because if mother and baby are separated too long, the mother sometimes will not take the calf back and then we might be stuck with a bottle calf. 

The following day was bitterly cold and windy!  What happens?  8 calves were born; needless to say, it was a very busy day.  When the calves are born we put the mother and baby in a small pen until we know the calf is nursing; then we castrate the bull calves and vaccinate all of them before putting the cow/calf pair out into the big world.

When a cow is about to deliver a calf, I look to see that there are two front feet and a nose, if not, the cow cannot perform her task and requires our help.  The cow usually has to be put in a squeeze chute because they are very large, strong animals that don’t cooperate very well.  The chute works well if you can get the cow in it, but with all the TB testing going on year after year, the cows have developed a fear of the apparatus.  When you hear farmers complaining about TB testing there are reasons for it.  Our whole herd testing is coming up now and we have to round up the animals with their little ones running at side.  Calves could get trampled quite easily during this process and the ones that haven’t calved yet, in their uncomfortable stage of pregnancy get quite riled up which in turn could lead to complications.  We have to hope for the best in these situations.

We are about half way through calving,  and have 57 calves running at this time.  My dad and I split up the hours into shifts, trying to get some sleep when we can.  As seen in our incident with the extremely protective cow, this job is very physical and dangerous.  Why do we do all this work?  We must like it.

 

Area Up and Comers in Warroad

     The Warroad Elementary Basketball program held a tournament on Saturday, March 14th. Below are some of the pictures taken at the tournament.

Warroad and  Roseau lose in Section Semis

     Both Warroad and Roseau lost their bids to make it to the State Boy’s Class AA Basketball tournament. After beating Pine River-Backhus handily 69-42 in the Thursday game at home, Warroad lost to Pequot Lakes 57-45 in Bemidji on Saturday, March 14th. Roseau edged Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 73-70 on Thursday but Crosby-Ironton handled Roseau a 77-62 loss in the Bemidji quarter-final game.

     Crosby-Ironton defeated Pequot Lakes 62-44 in Brainerd to advance to the championship game against  Pelican Rapids at Concordia College on March 20th. The State AA Tournament starts at the University of Minnesota Williams Arena on March 26th. The Championship game scheduled for high noon at the Target Center on March 28th.

Area High School Box Scores

Boy’s Basketball

3/12/2009 Warroad            69          Pine River-Backhus                    42

3/14/2009 Warroad            45             Pequot Lakes                          57

3/12/2009  Roseau              73             Walker-Hack-Akeley             70

3/14/2009  Roseau              62             Crosby-Ironton                      77   

 
Boy’s Hockey

3/14/2009 Warroad            5               St. Cloud Cathedral                       3

3/14/2009 Warroad            3                 Breck                                           7

Farmers Union Oil Company shares in record CHS distribution to owners

Submitted by Gena Polzin

     WARROAD, Minn. (March 12, 2009) – Farmers Union Oil Company and its members have received $62,000 from CHS Inc., part of a record cash return based on the leading energy and grain-based foods company’s fiscal 2008 earnings.

     In February, CHS returned $231 million in cash patronage, equity redemptions and preferred stock to eligible member cooperatives and producers in 48 states.  It marked the largest distribution to owners ever made by a U.S. cooperative and the fourth consecutive record by CHS.  By the end of fiscal 2009, the company expects to pay additional equity redemptions and preferred stock dividends, bringing that total to an estimated $343 million.

“Our ability to share in this record cash return underscores the value of being part of a strong cooperative system, especially during this time of market volatility,” said Mark Harder, general manager of Farmers Union Oil Company.  “This cash return will provide Farmers Union Oil Company with the ability to make decisions that will add value for our own local member-owners.”

CHS net income for its fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2008 was $803 million.

In total, CHS made distributions to 1,200 member cooperatives and 35,000 individuals.  Patronage is based on business done with CHS during fiscal 2008, while equity redemptions and preferred stock represent retirement of ownership in CHS earned in past years.

CHS Inc. (www.chsinc.com) is a diversified energy, grains and foods company committed to providing the essential resources that enrich lives around the world. A Fortune 200 company, CHS is owned by farmers, ranchers and cooperatives, along with thousands of preferred stockholders across the United States. CHS supplies energy, crop nutrients, grain, livestock feed, food and food ingredients, along with business solutions including insurance, financial and risk management services. The company operates petroleum refineries/pipelines and manufactures, markets and distributes Cenex® brand refined fuels, lubricants, propane and renewable energy products. CHS is listed on the NASDAQ at CHSCP.

Polaris Rush!

The new Polaris Rush, at rest, for a bit. Notes the red tubing under the seat that composes part of its unique suspension. This one was present at the race scene on Sunday. Several skilled riders drove it over the moguls on the Warroad 100 race course. A current Polaris race machine sits in the background.

This picture is of a familiar scene to many, at least to those who participate in gravity driven fun...

Last week’s picture was taken on the way to the Minnesota Hill Challenge at the foot of Minnesota Hill

More Southwest Angle Columns

Warroad Winter Sports Schedules and Rosters

Warroad Fall Sports Schedules and Rosters