Photographed in downtown Henderson, Minnesota.
TODAY, WHILE YOU’RE picnicking, gathering with family, drinking beer or sipping lemonade, boating, taking in fireworks… pause to consider the significance of this day.
Freedom.
Liberty.
The pursuit of happiness.
Even though the state of our nation may not always be as we would like, it’s still a pretty sweet country to call home.
Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
The sun sets as I approach Barb and Bob’s farm east of Faribault.
ON A RECENT RURAL OUTING to forage rhubarb from my friend Barb’s abundant patch, I noticed a work of art I hadn’t previously seen displayed on her farm east of Faribault.
A display of Americana art.
Attached to weathered tin on the end of a pole shed hangs a red, white and blue “Star Shadow” quilt block painted on an eight-foot square of plywood.
The barn quilt is tied to Barb’s passion for quilting, something she’d do all day if only she didn’t have to cook or clean or…
“Star Shadow.”
She’d seen similar painted quilts on barns, always wanted one and a few years ago, along with husband Bob, chose the Star Shadow design for their quilt art. No particular reason for the design—just one they both liked, although they knew the paint hues would be in the trio of patriotic colors.
Barb’s a long-time seamstress who once sewed her own clothes, embroidered and then began making simple block quilts before attempting a tulip quilt. She struggled with the tulip quilt, finishing it in the early 1990s, some 40 years after beginning the project.
Since that quilting success, Barb’s emerged as an avid quilter, stitching countless bed-sized quilts, wall hangings, placemats, table runners and more. She keeps her work or gives it away, including to charities. As a member of the Blue Chicks, a local quilting group that meets monthly, Barb has sewn quilts for the Ronald McDonald House. She also quilts with her sisters once a month and recently joined the quilting circle at her church, Trinity Lutheran in Faribault. That church group donates most of its quilts to charity.
“I’m infected with the pox,” Barb says of her quilting passion. She collects fabric, goes on fabric-shopping road trips with fellow quilters…
Although my friend doesn’t design her own quilt patterns, she enjoys the creative aspect that comes in selecting designs and colors, pulling it all together in a work of art—whether stitched or painted.
BONUS FARM PHOTOS:
The beautiful barn on Barb and Bob’s 100-year-old plus family farm.
Rhubarb nudges the old smokehouse, which now houses garden tools.
This farm is typical old style farm place with lots of outbuildings, including the updated granery on the left, one of the oldest structures on the farm.
The message on the granery door reflects Barb’s attitude: “The sheds are full of stuff and it’s all good.”
© Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
A 1969 Mini Moke
EVEN MY HUSBAND, an automotive machinist of more than 30 years, had never seen a Mini Moke. And he knows dates and years and makes and models and what’s under the hood and what problems are common with certain vehicles like I understand adjectives and adverbs and all the components of the English language.
The low-riding Mini Moke isn’t exactly an open road vehicle.
Thus, given his absence of Moke knowledge, Randy was just as intrigued as me by the mini British utility vehicle that pulled up to the gas pumps at a Faribault convenience store on a recent weekday evening.
I happened to have my camera with me, as I happen to have most of the time. And, after seeking permission from Faribault resident Greg Youngdahl, I photographed his 1969 Mini Moke, which he’s owned some 10 -15 years.
The race car photo on the front is of Robert Youngdahl. The rope? It’s always been there.
The jeep-like vehicle originally belonged to his father, Robert Youngdahl, who died several years ago and who used the Moke as a pit vehicle when racing his vintage race cars in Brainerd. The younger Youngdahl also races at Brainerd International Raceway and competes with his Miata. He often hauls the Moke north and laps around the track.
Rear view.
But, mostly, he drives the jeep around town—to pick up gas for the lawnmower, as he was on this Thursday evening, or to visit a neighbor.
Youngdahl plans to keep his father’s Moke “as is.”
As a tribute to his dad, Youngdahl’s keeping the Moke original, with no plans to restore it like the other two Mokes he owns.
This photo really emphasizes the smallness of the Mini Moke.
And as an aside, if his Mini Moke seems vaguely familiar, perhaps you remember seeing a Moke on the 1978-1984 television series Fantasy Island. Actor Herve Villechaize, who was just under four feet tall and played the role of Tattoo (of “De plane! De plane! “fame), drove a Mini Moke.
BONUS PHOTOS:
Because I like showing you details…
These words, the title of a book by Burt S. Levy, are imprinted below the windshield. The book focuses on one year in the life of racers on the open road race car circuit.
A 1999 Faribault Heritage Days Car Show third place trophy awarded to the Youngdahls’ Moke in the Foreign & Special Interest class. The trophy was stashed in the back of the Moke and dug out for this photo.
© Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
I HONESTLY DID NOT THINK that small town folks were still so trusting. But, apparently I am wrong. Let me show you.
Example 1:
These bikes were left unattended and unlocked in a Morristown city park while the cyclists, a young couple and their son, walked across the street to the historic Morristown Feed Mill during a community celebration earlier this summer. They listened to music and hung out for awhile before returning to their unattended, unlocked and untouched bikes.
Example 2:
Now you’re probably thinking, Audrey, you just showed us those unattended, unlocked and untouched bikes. Yes, I did. But look closer at the contents of the bike basket. Do you see what I see? Yes, the young mom left her purse while she walked across the street to the mill.
Now, if I were the criminal type, instead of the photographing type, I could have stolen that purse right then and there.
Maybe the purse held nothing of value. But, if the contents are like the contents of my bag, plenty of valuable information and stuff I would not want stolen could be found therein.
Would you be so trusting?
Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
WE STOOD ALONG THE EDGE of the gravel road Saturday evening, my 13-year-old nephew and I, mesmerized by the glorious golden sun pinking the sky above and below a layer of blue grey.
I raised my camera. He lifted his phone. We snapped several photos, compared, wished for better zooms to photograph the prairie sky north of Lamberton in southwestern Minnesota.
“It’s what I miss most about this place, the sunrise and the sunset,” I said.
“And the stars,” Stephen added.
Sun and stars.
He was right. The stars, too.
Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Checking out the crops near Moland Lutheran Church in Steele County, Minnesota.
ONCE UPON A TIME, I thought Sunday afternoon drives were reserved for farmers checking out the crops or for old people with nothing more important to do.
In Merton Township, Steele County, Minnesota.
No longer do I think that. I now welcome these day trips into the country for the solace, the beauty, the discovery, the photo ops, the joy of whiling away an afternoon with no specific destination.
Along Rice County Road 21 south of Faribault.
I love wide skies and open fields. I love old barns and gravel roads and cows grazing and tidy rows of corn. I love country.
Making hay, along old U.S. Highway 14 west of Owatonna.
In this crazy fast-paced world of scheduled activities and rare free time, such impromptu rural jaunts are to be embraced.
Near Clinton Falls in Steele County, Minnesota.
If you have not discovered the Sunday afternoon drive, you are missing out on one of life’s simplest and most soul satisfying pleasures.
Northwest of Owatonna along Steele County Road 17.
On a farm site west of Owatonna.
A vineyard along Steele County Road 17.
Southwest of Faribault.
FYI: The edited photos featured here are from a recent Sunday afternoon drive south and east of Faribault and then west and north of Owatonna looping back to Faribault. All images were shot from the passenger seat of our van at highway speeds, or slightly under.
Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
File photo from June 2012 shows the main entrance to North Dakota State University in Fargo.
FOR THE MOST PART, I ignore the mass emails sent by whomever, including North Dakota State University, where my son attended his first year of college. He’s transferring to Tufts University in Medford, MA., outside of Boston, this fall.
But this head in a recent NDSU Alumni (I’m not an NDSU alumni) mailing caught my attention:
Researchers Coax Clays to Make Human Bone: Weak bones, broken bones, damaged bones, arthritic bones. Researchers at North Dakota State University, Fargo, are making strides in tissue engineering, designing scaffolds that may lead to ways to regenerate bone.
Arthritic bone.
Up until some seven years ago, I’d never considered arthritic bone, not even thought about arthritis or its debilitating impact on the body and spirit and on mobility.
But then, at age 48 ½, I developed back and hip pain which, initially diagnosed as a pinched sciatic nerve, was eventually correctly diagnosed as arthritis in my right hip. For 2 ½ years I lived with the constant pain until near immobility and an inability to tolerate the pain led me to undergo total right hip replacement five years ago. Given my age, 51, I wanted to put off the surgery as long as possible.
I likely will outlive my hip, which has a life expectancy of 15 – 20 years. That means hip surgery. Again. And that scares the heck out of me because I will be much older, the recovery more challenging.
When I read news about research like that being conducted at NDSU, I am encouraged—hopeful for a better alternative to the current implant system. There have been too many recalls on hip implants. Thus far, mine has not been among them. But pity those people who need to have their defective implants removed and replaced.
To the NDSU researchers who created the system of “3-D mesh scaffold composed of degradable materials compatible to human tissue” in which “cells generate bone and the scaffold deteriorates,” thank you for working on this project.
Do you think you could perfect the process and have it on the market in 10 years?
FYI: Learn more about this NDSU research project by clicking here.
© Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
YOU HAVE NOT PLUMMETED down a rabbit hole, dear readers.
I turned my camera until the tree was “growing straight.”
But you are viewing an ash tree that, if growing straight and tall, would make your world appear off kilter.
This tree, a block from my house on Tower Place in Faribault, worries me. The laws of gravity and the forces of nature tell me this ash is destined to topple right onto the street.
The ash looms over Tower Place.
I can only hope this does not occur when:
A) A motorist is passing under the ash.
B) A child is walking home from school.
C) Someone is walking/his her dog
D) A walker is out for a walk.
E) All of the above.
Arborist types out there, is there genuine reason for concern, especially given the recent heavy rainfall which has left the soil saturated?
© Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Fine craftsmanship defines the sanctuary.
STEP INSIDE AN AGED COUNTRY CHURCH anywhere and you will be drawn in by the history, the craftsmanship, the holiness of a house dedicated to God and the fellowship of the faithful.
A poster board with photos and well wishes stands in the Moland Lutheran Church entry.
You need only pause and look, really look, to see the care, the love, the devotion, which fill such a sacred place.
Moland features architecture common in country churches.
Join me on a photographic tour of Moland Lutheran Church, 7618 Northeast 84th Avenue, rural Kenyon, Minnesota. The church, built by Norwegians in 1884, still holds Sunday morning worship services, currently led by the Rev. Nancy Edwardson.
Worship service is at 9 a.m. on Sunday. These photos were taken during the congregation’s June 23 strawberry festival.
From 25-30 worshipers fill the pews each week. And if that number seems too few to keep these doors open, do not underestimate the strength of a congregation rooted deep in this place, connected to this church building, this spot of land in rural Minnesota.
A verse from Matthew graces the altar.
A full view of the altar painting done by A. Pederson and based on Matthew 28 – 30.
One can only imagine how many faithful have knelt at this altar railing.
Or how many pastors have occupied this chair.
Stunning stained glass windows grace the sanctuary.
Suspended from the ceiling is this incredible historic light fixture.
Stats, posted in a corner behind the organ at the front of the church.
And more stats posted on paper just outside the sanctuary.
And, on the edge of the church property, this sense of community.
TO VIEW A PREVIOUS post about Moland Lutheran, click here. And then click here for another post.
To view my post about the Moland Lutheran Strawberry Festival, click here.
Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Diners flocked to Moland Lutheran Church on Sunday for the congregation’s annual strawberry festival in the church basement.
OH, THE PEOPLE you meet in church basements…
Moland Lutheran Church southwest of Kenyon.
Like 90-year-old Georgia Vincent, nee Aase, who was born a mile south of Moland Lutheran Church, was baptized in this rural Kenyon parish and today drives 25 miles from Steele Center every Sunday morning for worship services.
She’ll tell you that her great grandparents came from Norway and that her father wanted a boy, whom he would name George. He didn’t get his boy.
Georgia eventually moved away to the Twin Cities and married. Her husband died on her 48th birthday, so, after 35 years she returned to the area, settling in Steele Center to raise her young daughter.
Georgia Vincent wipes down trays.
On this Sunday afternoon, Georgia was stationed in a corner of the church basement, washing trays during Moland’s annual strawberry festival. She did so with a smile, happy to contribute to an event where she once served food to diners. At age 90, she leaves that task to the younger folks.
Georgia, at work.
Next year Georgia claims she will retire from helping at the festival.
I don’t believe her.
AND NOW, ON TO MORE PHOTOS from that strawberry festival:
Volunteers guide motorists into parking spaces outside the country church.
First stop: the bake sale inside the church entry. My husband purchased caramel rolls.
Shopping at the bake sale.
Routing past retired farmer and head counter George Derscheid, stationed near Georgia in the church basement.
George’s tally sheet. He wondered why I wanted to photograph his hands. Because, I said, I like hands and the stories they tell. And then George pointed out a spot of skin cancer on his hand, said he’s dealt with bone cancer and now skin cancer. He’s the most optimistic and friendly person, just like Georgia.
Volunteers dish up pulled pork sandwiches from Nerstrand Meats, homemade potato salad, ice cream, angel food cake, strawberries and chocolate cake, whatever you choose.
Lots of coffee to go around.
Diners file through the food serving line.
The backs of the folding chairs are labeled with the church name and the same strawberry decorations are pulled out every year.
First I ate my pork sandwich, potato salad and pickles.
Then I returned for a generous bowl of ice cream heaped with fresh strawberries. I couldn’t eat all of it, so my husband finished off the delicious dessert.
Diners exit Moland Lutheran Church.
I love church festivals. For the food, the fellowship, the friendly folks, the history, the often beautiful setting…
PLEASE CHECK back for additional photos from Moland Lutheran.
© Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
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