Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Digging out during a Minnesota blizzard December 11, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 9:11 PM
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“IT DOESN’T EVEN look like I blew the snow,” he assesses.

And it doesn’t. After a full day of falling snow and wind-whipped snow, our driveway appears untouched by a snowblower. But my husband was out once already, around mid-morning, clearing ours and the neighbor’s driveways.

Now he’s struggling to even get out the back door. Snow has drifted into the backyard and onto the back stoop and blocked the door. He leans against the storm door and pushes his way outside, into a world of swirling flakes and strong, bitter wind.

Minutes later Randy returns to the house asking for the hair dryer. Ice has formed in the recoil mechanism of the snowblower, he says, and he needs to melt the ice.

I follow him into the garage with my camera, realizing that this use of a blow dryer might appear rather amusing to someone who doesn’t live in Minnesota. I’ll note here that a hair dryer also comes in handy for thawing frozen car doors.

I snap a few pictures until my husband tells me he needs to start the snowblower before the recoil mechanism freezes again. I get the hint.

Randy uses a hair dryer to thaw the frozen recoil mechanism on the snowblower. Melted snow from earlier today dripped into the mechanism causing the problem.

A close-up of Randy thawing the recoil mechanism with a hair dryer.

I step back into the house, grab a yard stick and measure the snow depth off the back stoop. It measures 16 inches.

So far this is turning out to be one heckuva blizzard.

Snow drifts piled around our van as snow piled onto our driveway.

Randy makes his first pass, for the second time today, down the driveway around 7 p.m.

Randy begins his second pass down the driveway. He blew snow for an hour and then stopped because he's running low on gas. He needs enough gas to blow out the driveway in the morning so he can buy more gas to blow more snow and more snow and more snow.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Hunkering down during a Minnesota blizzard

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 2:58 PM
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My neighbor across the street shovels snow Saturday morning.

WELL, WELL, for the second weekend in a row, southern Minnesota has been socked with snow. A foot last weekend. Another foot, maybe more, for parts this weekend.

But round two brings with it a stronger punch—strong winds and dropping temps that make conditions out there downright dangerous. Windchills tonight are expected to plummet to a bone-chilling 35 degrees below zero.

In Rice County, where I live, county snowplows have been pulled from the roadways due to low visibility. Winds are whipping at about 30 mph.

I live in a valley in Faribault. So when conditions look bad at my place, I know it’s bad out there.

Today I’m hunkered down at home with my husband, Randy, and our 16-year-old son. Randy wasn’t too happy this morning when I suggested he stay home from work. (I was thinking of hiding the car keys.) But he heeded my advice and I’m thankful given he works 15 snowy miles away in Northfield. Of course, he tells me, “I could have made it there and back.”

Yeah, right. The job is not worth the risk of driving in blizzard conditions. And, yes, my area of Minnesota is under a blizzard warning.

I haven’t been outdoors yet. Randy has been out, blowing snow from our driveway and that of a neighbor. He thought it would be easier this way, clearing the snow twice rather than a foot or more all at once.

Our van, which is parked on the driveway, is encased in ice from the freezing rain and sleet that fell for several hours last evening.

All of our plans for the day have been abandoned. Our son should have been taking his ACT test, but that was canceled. The college entrance exams were canceled at more than 50 schools in Minnesota. The last time he was slated to take the test, he had to cancel because of bronchitis.

The Christmas Walk at Shattuck-St. Mary’s School in Faribault is off, but the ice skating show set for 4 p.m. was still on the last I checked. I had hoped to attend both, but right now I really don’t feel like going anywhere.

The big batch of chili I cooked yesterday for tonight’s Family Game Night potluck at my church has gone into the freezer after that event was postponed. I’ll serve the chili at a family gathering next weekend…if we don’t have another blizzard and my guests can make it.

That’s life in Minnesota in winter, folks.

Traffic has picked up along my street in Faribault this afternoon despite blizzard conditions.

I've seen plenty of pickups with attached snowplows, like this, drive past my house today.

STAY SAFE this weekend. And if you don’t need to travel, don’t.

IF YOU HAVE any winter weather stories or weather condition reports to share from your area, please submit a comment. I’d like to hear from you.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

The continuing property value downward spiral December 8, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 8:47 AM
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THE ARRIVAL OF OUR 2011 PROPERTY tax statement in the mail last week has thrown me for a loop. I don’t know why, though, since my head hasn’t been stuck in the sand and I am acutely aware of plummeting property values.

Let’s consider the positive first. Our proposed 2011 tax, without special assessments, is dropping 22 percent. Yahoo. I like seeing that minus sign before a double digit number in the tax column.

If everything remains as projected, my husband and I will pay $506 in property taxes and $22 in special assessments next year. I can handle that.

About now some of you are probably wondering whether we live in a cardboard box with those “low” taxes. I assure you that we live in a modest, small-by-today’s-standards, old home along a busy street in Faribault.

Our modest Faribault home

Now back to those numbers on that statement. When I look at the taxable market value of our home, I’m not quite as enthusiastic. Let me restate that. I am not at all enthusiastic.

The value of our 1 ½-story, one bathroom, three-bedroom home has dropped 13 percent from $92,300 to $80,200. That’s a $12,100 decrease.

I am a bit surprised by this dip below $90,000, although I really shouldn’t be given how slowly houses are selling, if at all, in Faribault or anywhere. Yet, you like to think that your house is immune from devaluation. Clearly ours, once valued as high as $111,700 (in 2007), is not.

My curiosity piqued, I opened a file cabinet and pulled out past property tax statements and bills. I compared figures back to 1998.

Our proposed property tax and taxable market value on our home today nearly match those for 2003.

This current devaluation is all a bit depressing and would be even more so if we were trying to sell. But we’re not. The house is paid for and we have no specific reason to move.

That brings up another issue. When my husband and I purchased our house in October 1984, the fixed interest rate for our 30-year mortgage was 10 ¾ percent. Eight years later we refinanced to a 8 ¾ percent, 15-year loan, which we paid off early.

So, when I hear about mortgage rates hovering around four percent today, I feel a twinge of jealousy. Even factoring in today’s housing costs compared to 26 years ago, we could have bought so much more house with an interest rate that incredibly low.

But it is what it is and I’m glad we’ve stuck it out in the same house for nearly three decades. We’ve invested hours and hours of sweat equity and money to improve our house and it’s paid for. In today’s economy, I like that feeling of security.

HOW HAVE YOUR PROPERTY values and taxes changed, if at all? How does this affect you?

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Snow for Amy in Kansas December 4, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 4:47 PM
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The snowy scene by my house this morning after an eight-inch snowfall.

Dear Amy,

You aren’t in Minnesota any more. As you’re well aware, you are in Kansas.

I’m sorry to hear that you are unhappy about the lack of snow there. I wish I could lead you down the yellow brick road to snowy Minnesota, where Christmas music sounds much more holiday-ish than in barren Kansas.

But I possess no special powers to transport you here.

So I will bring the snow to you via the magic of the internet.

Imagine the 25-degree temp, which will dip lower tonight. Imagine snow piles and icy sidewalks and sloppy, slippery roadways.

Now, are you still feeling so melancholy about the 50-degree temperatures and the lack of snow in Kansas?

Happy December, dear Amy, from southern Minnesota!

Love,

Your Other Mom

 

Faribault police on patrol Saturday morning along my street.

A neighbor down the street opens his driveway after the snowstorm.

Plow trucks were out and about and busy Saturday morning.

My husband sheered a bolt off in the snowblower just as he finished clearing the sidewalk Saturday morning.

Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Red in the morning December 3, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 6:06 PM
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Sunrise, December 3, 2010, Faribault, Minnesota

MY HUSBAND ALERTED ME to the beautiful sunrise this morning when he came to kiss me goodbye. I snapped up the shade in my office, gave him a hurried peck, and grabbed my camera, all the while explaining that I was sorry but I had to get a photo before the red sky disappeared.

I was right in not waiting, because, just like that, the red faded into the grayness of the day.

“Red at night, sailors’ delight. Red in the morning, sailors take warning.”

That’s holding true here today in Faribault. Around noon, light snow began falling. As the afternoon advanced, the snowfall got heavier and heavier, piling into inches. Flakes are still falling strong and steady on this day of the red sky morning.

Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Greasy first snow in Faribault November 13, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:29 PM
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A city of Faribault snowplow plows the street past my house Saturday morning.

I KNEW IT WAS COMING, “it” being snow. The weather forecasters forecast it. And I really should expect it given this is November already.

Yet, I wasn’t ready to wake up this morning to snow blanketing the ground.

Greasy, heavy, wet snow, slick as Crisco on the driveway and sidewalks and roadways.

Not that I’ve been outside. I haven’t. But my husband told me so. He’s shoveled the driveway. Twice.

I’m content inside the house, catching up on tasks, baking bars, phoning my mom in southwestern Minnesota. She reported little snow at her home in Vesta at mid-morning.

In the Cities, conditions are nasty, according to a text message from my eldest. We had planned to go up there today but quickly canceled that trip. No sense being in the metro during the first snowfall of the season if you don’t need to be there.

Down in La Crosse, my second daughter reported no snow earlier today.

Over in Montgomery and Mankato, 10 inches had already fallen by noon, according to an announcer for the local radio station.

My sister said conditions were horrible over in Waseca. Cars in ditches. Snow still falling.

I wonder every year why I’m never ready for the first snowfall. Years ago, as a child, I welcomed it. Today I just wish it would go away.

The plow clears the side street past my corner house. I had wanted to post some "pretty" snow photos here. But alas, I had no desire to slip and slide and try to keep snowflakes off my camera lens. These two images were shot from inside my snug, warm house.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Reflecting at a veterans’ memorial November 12, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 12:10 PM
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Rice County Courthouse, Faribault

I DIDN’T ATTEND any Veterans Day ceremonies yesterday, and perhaps I should have. But several days earlier, I paid my own quiet tribute by walking the grounds of the Rice County courthouse where a veterans’ memorial expansion project is underway. For years a lone Civil War statue has stood there honoring those who served.

Today new sidewalks edged by honorary pavers lead to the memorial plaza which will eventually feature that Civil War statue, a torch, bronze eagle, dove, granite columns, flags, benches and gardens. I expect a place for quiet reflection, a place of honor, a place to cry.

Honorary pavers line sidewalks leading to the center of the Rice County veterans' memorial on the courthouse lawn in Faribault.

Veterans’ memorials often move me to tears because they always, always, bring thoughts of my dad, a Korean War veteran. I remember how, months after his 2003 death, my emotions overcame me while viewing the veterans’ memorial in Winona. With grief still gripping my soul, I simply wept.

Such strong emotions did not pervade my thoughts at the site of the new Rice County Veterans Memorial in Faribault. Yet, words and images triggered memories in a quiet, deeply personal way of honoring those who have served our country.

Three letters, KIA, imprinted upon a paver signify the ultimate sacrifice. Killed in action. I thought of my dad's soldier-buddy, Ray Scheibe, who was blown apart by an incoming shell on the day before he was to leave Korea. My dad never got over this loss and was forever haunted by the horrible image of Ray's death.

Even though I knew the trail of white in the sky came from an airliner, I imagined this to be the smoke of gunfire or of bombs or of shells as I took this image of the Civil War statue in Faribault.

I was coming of age during the Vietnam War. I remember the protests, the anger, the peace signs, all of it...

When I look at the MIA/POW flag, I recall the metal bracelet I wore in high school, the bracelet engraved with the name of a soldier held as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. Sadly, I don't remember his name or even know if I still have that bracelet tucked away somewhere in a cardboard box.

When I composed this image, the back of the Civil War statue, I thought about how a soldier must sometimes feel so alone, so vulnerable.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Post-election observations from Minnesota November 3, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 9:47 AM
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I’VE ALWAYS HELD to the idea that if you don’t vote, you can’t complain. So…, I hope you voted yesterday.

I know. I know. You can tear/rip/shred that first statement apart into a mix of fragmented phrases or individual words because, in this country, you can complain. No matter how you voted, or whether you even voted, you have the right to express your opinion. How blessed are we to live in a country like ours, with such freedom?

Given that, why would I hold that don’t vote/can’t complain opinion? I should really add these two words to that sentence to more clearly define my position: If you don’t vote, you can’t complain too loudly.

In my voting precinct, at least one election official expected 60 to 70 percent of registered voters to turn out at the polls yesterday. Based on numbers I just gleaned from Faribault, Precinct 6, unofficial voting results on the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Web site, his prediction was spot-on correct. I figure around 915 people voted in my precinct. The same official told me that polls opened with 1,357 registered voters and that about 50 more registered on Tuesday.

That’s a good percentage of voters expressing their opinions via the ballot box in a non-Presidential election year.

If you ever think your vote doesn’t count, you need only look to the 2008 Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken and the resulting recount to realize the importance of every single vote.

From media reports I’ve heard this morning—including an apparent computer software problem in Hennepin County—Minnesota is likely headed for another recount, this time in the too-close-to-call governor’s race. According to information posted on the Secretary of State’s Web site at 8:30 this morning, with 96.74 percent of the precincts reporting, Mark Dayton had 43.67 percent of the votes; Tom Emmer, 43.20 percent; and Tom Horner, 11.92 percent.

In my precinct, unofficial gubernatorial race results show Dayton getting 45 percent of the vote; Emmer, 39 percent; and Horner nearly 15 percent.

Who will become our next governor? It appears we may need to wait awhile for that answer.

ALL OF THAT ASIDE, here are several other observations I made yesterday while voting around 7 p.m. The stream of voters was so steady that I had to sit at an open table to vote—no cardboard tri-fold or curtain shielding my choices, not that I cared.

I noticed that on the ballot, the word “incumbent” is no longer listed with incumbents’ names, except for judges. When did this change occur? Why? And why do judges get the advantage of “incumbent” tacked onto their names?

When I went to insert my ballot into the ballot counting machine, no one was standing there to guide me, a major change from past years. I asked the election official who was sitting in a nearby chair why she wasn’t “right there” next to the machine. Officials need to be far enough away so that they can’t see how a voter voted, she explained. That’s understandable, but I can’t imagine anyone having eyesight good enough to see which ovals I darkened with my pen. But, I suppose…, just to be sure everything is done on the up-and-up…

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Inside a pet portrait studio November 2, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 7:30 AM
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GROWING UP IN HOUSTON—that would be Minnesota, not Texas—Julie M Fakler always envied the farm kids with their farm animals.

Today, though, Julie has no reason to feel jealous. She’s surrounded by a menagerie of animals, some real (her cats), most not.

She’s an artist, specializing in pet portraits. A quick peek inside her Faribault studio and gallery during the recent South Central Minnesota October Studio arTour and Sale reveals that Julie especially loves cats and dogs. They comprise the bulk of her acrylics.

 

 

Examples of Julie M Fakler's animal portraits.

 

Occasionally, though, you’ll see a farm animal like a goat, chicken or calf. Some of those she’s painted at the nearby Rice County Fairgrounds, setting up her easel during the fair to recreate those critters.

 

 

Rice County Fair animal portraits painted during the fair.

 

As I sorted through the photos I took of Julie’s artwork, I finally figured out what was niggling at my brain about her paintings of animals against simple backgrounds of primarily primary colors. Her paintings, in my opinion, would fit perfectly into children’s picture books.

I haven’t asked Julie whether she’s ever considered illustrating a children’s book. But she will paint a portrait of your pet, on commission, or hand-stitch a quilt for you (another one of her artistic endeavors).

 

 

Julie painted this neighborhood dog.

 

 

Items tacked onto a bulletin board, left, provide Julie with inspiration for her paintings.

 

 

A jumble of paint tubes in the studio, which is housed in a former upholstery shop behind her Faribault home.

 

 

Paintings propped on the studio floor.

 

 

More animal art.

 

 

Julie and her sister make books, using them to record their world-wide travels via words and art.

 

 

One final nod to Julie's artistic side is represented in this old sink, acquired from a neighbor, and decorated for fall. It's outside her studio/gallery door. She intends to use the sink as a potting station in the spring.

 

For additional information and to view more of Julie’s art, click here to visit her Web site.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Meet 29 artists during the South Central MN. Studio ArTour October 21, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 1:43 PM
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GIVE ME A COMPUTER and I can write.

Give me a paintbrush and I’d just sit there and dabble.

I’m a language artist, not a painter or potter or weaver or anyone who could designate herself as an authentic visual artist, although I do fine in photography.

But this weekend, if you travel to Rice County, where I live, you can meet 29 artists at 14 studios during the South Central Minnesota October Studio ArTour 2010.

 

 

Artist Julie Fakler will display domestic animal paintings like this at JMF Studio in Faribault.

 

From bling, beads and books to pottery, portraits and pastels, and lots more, you’ll discover a variety of art. For a sneak peek, visit southcentralartour.com. If you’re tight for time or interested in particular art forms, this Web site will help you choose which studios to visit.

If you’ve never ventured off Interstate 35 into the Faribault, Dundas or Northfield areas, the ArTour offers the ideal opportunity to drive back country roads and city streets and meet some of the artistic talent in our section of out-state Minnesota. Artwork will also be available for purchase.

If you’re from Rice County, find time to see what exists right here in your backyard. You don’t need to drive to the Cities to view, or buy, some great art.

The South Central Minnesota October Studio ArTour 2010 runs from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Saturday, October 23, and Sunday, October 24.

 

 

One of 10 hand-quilted quilts that will be shown at JMF Studio.

 

© Copyright Audrey Kletscher Helbling 2010

Images courtesy of Julie Fakler, JMF Studio