Southwest Angle  

by Rob Crowe    

     Methinks summer is just around the corner. The official Southwest Angle garden is planted. Frost may still be in the forecast but the transplanted part of the garden is small so we should be in good shape here.

     We spent Memorial Day weekend in the lower north, taking in the Memorial Day service at the cemetery where the family plot resides. While the service is always short, it is moving, especially when taps is played by a duet of trumpets. I recommend that everyone takes time each year to attend one of these. It is becoming an extended family tradition to meet at the cemetery, take in the service and renew old acquaintances. We always meet my uncles there, one of whom is a WW II veteran. These are disappearing at a rapid rate so take advantage of seeing and talking to them while they are still around. I’d also like to thank all who have served and especially to honor those who have died in service of the United States of America.

     They are pretty dry down there and want our rain. I didn’t realize how much rain we received here until I started driving around Tuesday and started taking pictures. Another realization of the amount of water in the soil hit me a couple of days later when Management woke me early one morning by announcing that the house was cold.

    Hmm, I’m thinking, about midnight one night last week the sump pump was running and I’d pulled the plug when I realized it wasn’t pumping. Something was broken, but it was midnight and the sump was mostly empty. As usual, I forgot about it until it was too late. A trip down the steps that AM revealed that there was about a foot of water in the basement and it was well up on the bottom of the now inoperative furnace.  Plastic boxes were floating around the basement in the water, fortunately I’d had the foresight to put any cardboard containers on shelves.

    I sent Management off to work and the Little Girls off to school. I didn’t have boots so I put a double layer of garbage bags on my lower legs and waded over to the sump pump, unwired the electric fence wire and hauled it outside. Everything here at Roseen’s Corner is wired with electric fence wire. I took it apart and replaced one of the set screws on the long plastic shaft. I put the makeshift boots on, waded back to the sump and re-installed it.

    Unfortunately, it didn’t work. The garbage bags were starting to leak profusely so a different approach was needed. Having recently watched a James Bond movie where 007 runs across a lagoon on the backs of alligators, I decided to make a row of alligators of my own. I took several old chairs downstairs and lined them up across the floor from the steps to the sump. The setup worked pretty well. I walked over, removed the sump pump, took it outside and fixed it. Another set screw higher on the shaft had loosened. After re-installation, it worked great and pumped out the basement.

    The faulty sump pump caused me to miss Valeri’s Track and Field Day as well as the Awards Ceremony where Alyssa received an award for being the top reader in the upper elementary school. I did make the fourth through sixth Track and Field day and took some pictures that appear later in this newspaper.

    The other major accomplishment for the crew here was the planting of the garden. We have 26 rows of various vegetables and several hills of the usual pumpkins, cukes, watermelon, cantaloupe and zucchini. 

    For those who want an update on the Chevy pickup, I do have it running, albeit in limp mode. The optic sensor in the injection pump isn’t working, but by unplugging it I can get it to run. More on my travails with this fine unit later.

    Another week in the Great North, see you next week! 

ClearRiver Clippings

by Amanda Thompson

Well, it looks as though spring has finally come to this land by the big forest. The trees are getting leaves on them, the grass is in need of mowing a second time, and the Mister finally got to use his corn planter.  He’d like me to tell you about this project he’s been in the process of building for several years to use for planting his food plots.  The Mister had been using a two row 3 point corn planter pulled behind his dad’s tractor. I‘ve found that, as a general rule, when borrowing from his dad, things do not turn out well. Most of you know the Mister’s Dad as the Forester. For instance, he borrowed the Forester’s Ford loader tractor a few years  back and got a little too close to the side of the house. This little incident resulted in a remolding project and now I have a patio door in place of my window.

He devised a plan to build a corn planter to pull  behind his old Arctic ATV. Earlier this winter he purchased an eight row John Deere 3 point corn planter from a farmer to the west. The Mister does not have a trailer big enough to haul this size of equipment nor a tractor big enough to unload it once at home so he cut it apart in the field earlier this spring and brought the parts home piece by piece. The pieces were then sanded and painted in John Deere green. With a few new pieces of steel and an old electric ram the Forester had laying in his garage they were assembled into a one row corn planter.  Now he just had to wait for the ground to thaw out and dry up so he could try it out.

Meanwhile, he was visiting with a gentleman from Greenbush  at the annual Badger consignment auction and told him about the corn planter. After some phone calls and a visit to look at the one row this gentleman decided to purchase a two row.  So back to the garage the Mister went to assemble a two row.  He finished it up after several long nights and was thinking that if the weather did not cooperate he would have to sell this without giving it a test run.   The sun did finally come out and dried up a little of the rain.  He took it out to the garden which had been recently tilled with the help of our son, Blue Eyes.  Some modifications had to be made after the test run but by Saturday it was ready to go down the road.

At last it was time to plant with the one row.  The old Arctic came rolling out of the garage and the Mister had 6 rows planted in the garden in 10 minutes flat and headed on to the rest of his tilled plots.  He finished in under an hour and was looking for more to plant.  Unfortunately, the land will have to dry out at the cabin before he can plant anymore.

The other day the Mister took a break from his many projects and headed down the road to his great uncle’s place.  It seems the retired logger was cleaning out his barn.  The Mister brought home a six foot, two man tree saw.  It was buried among treasures collected from 3 generations of loggers including an old McCullough chain saw belonging to the Mister’s grandpa that was used on the landings.  He plans on sanding the saw down and sending it over Roseau way for his cousin Todd to air brush a scene on it in his Thompson Graphix shop.

The Memorial Day weekend was spent around home planting the garden and visiting with family.  Friday night we ventured to the Mister’s sister’s place along the river.  Blue Eyes had the opportunity to feed one of the two bottle lambs housed there and observed the ducklings running around the pen.  Monday afternoon on our way back from town we spotted the open sign for Homegrown Greenhouse on #12 so drove in there and purchased some banana peppers, green peppers, cantaloupe, and peas.  I am waiting for the weather to warm up a little more before planting those.  Summer must be around the corner though because last week the petunias arrived in two big yellow trailers to be planted on Petunia row by the Krahn’s in between rain showers.

 
A Visit to Courtright’s Greenhouse

      Three generations of Courtrights work at the Malung greenhouse that sets up an outlet in the parking lot at Doug’s in Roseau every year to sell their plants.

     On a recent Sunday, seventh grader Britta Kihle was running the till, mother Tara was managing and aunt Trish Waage showed up in an older Suburban to replenish the empty spots on the racks at Doug’s.

     “We’re finally making a dent in the supply back at the greenhouse,” says Tara.

     “We’ve been running the greenhouse for 30 years,” she continued, “The kids have grown up in the business. Every year we put a new picture of mother and the grandkids in the Trading Post and mother is dwarfed by the grandkids now. She used to be the biggest person in the photo!”

    Grandmother is Janet Courtright Foster. Her husband died some years ago and she has re-married, but the name of the Greenhouse stays as Courtright.

    The greenhouse has a variety of flowers and vegetables for the customers.  Twelve broccoli, eight cauliflower, two watermelon and eight tomato plants set the reporter back about twelve dollars, a great bargain even before you figure in Britta’s  smile.

    Stop by and check them out!

Greenbush Race Park Results-May 16th, 2009

Greenbush Race Park Schedule

May 23, 2009 Ed's North Country Meats Pure Stock Special (No 4)

May 30, 2009 Races Plus King of the Ring Full Size Car Demo(No S)

June 6, 2009 Midwest Mod Special $500 to win $100 to start(All Classes)

June 13, 2009 Central Boiler NLRA Late Model Special ( No M,4)

June 20, 2009 Roseau County Coop Races Plus Lawn Mower Races( All Classes)

June 27, 2009 Budweiser NOSA Outlaw Sprint Special (No M)

July 3, 2009 Winnipeg Super Truck Special, Lightning Sprints Vs.Greenbush Outlaw Mini Sprints Special,& King of the Ring Truck Demo (No MM, Streets)

July 4, 2009#16 Chad Olson Memorial Mini sprint Vs. Lightning Sprint $1000 to Win Special(No MM)

July 5, 2009 Rain Date 3:00PM

July 11, 2009 Agassiz Insurance Midseason Championships(All Classes)

July 18, 2009 Wikstrom's Baker Cup Modified Special (No 4)

July 25, 2009 Border State Bank NOSA Outlaw Sprint Special (No MM)

August 1, 2009 Life Care Medical Center Regular Race (No PS)

August 8, 2009 Brodin sheet Metal Fan Appreciation Jam The Stands Night ½ Price adult tickets

August 15, 2009 Races Plus King of The Ring Car Demo(No 4, MS)

August 22, 2009 Sheldons Used Auto Parts Street Stock Special $500 to Win $100 to Start(All Classes)

August 29, 2009 Regular Races (All Classes)

September 5, 2009 Midwest Modified Special $500 to win $100 to start(All Classes)

September 6, 2009 Track Championships Plus Powder Puffs & Mechanic Races(All Classes)

September 7, 2009 Rain Date 3:00PM

 

Track and Field Day at Roseau Elementary, a Pictorial

Weather  - still a bit Wet

     The recent rainfall, over two inches in many areas, has caused a few problems. The golf courses are under water in areas and Geese are swimming where farmers had hoped to be planting. Some of the fields are more like reservoirs but, pictured on the lower right is one that, fortunately, is on a little higher ground and actually was planted before the monsoons. Sometimes it pays to live in the past as horseman Clayton Skoien is watching oats grow