Submitted by Kaare Askildt, former Preeceville area farmer in training. This one of a series on getting settled in Hazel Dell.
I'm still batching it! I had to stay home while Marion looked after our granddaughter, because I had to attend at my booth in the Preeceville Trade Show. Roland Larsen a writer and cowboy clown joined me in the booth promoting his children's book, CD and DVD. We also had Harold Fenske's book Riverlore available if anybody would want to buy it. The books had varies themes, from humour as in The Heedless Norseman, local Saskatchewan history as described in Riverlore and a wholesome children's story in Roland's book about Peanut the miniature horse. Shelley Minato who illustrated Roland's book also joined us on Saturday.
Across from our booth was a booth displaying women's clothing, and in front of the booth was a mannequin wearing women's casual dressy clothing. The staff in the booth would change the clothing from time to time, causing some young male strolling by to make a double take almost twisting his head off, as the top garment of the mannequin would slide off while they were trying to change the clothing, exposing the mannequin's now uncovered milk containers!
Roland and I had great success at the trade show, and we will probably be back again next year. I'll have my second book available for sure then. Being that I was already in Preeceville close to supper time, I decided to drop in to Vesela's International Kitchen for a hearty meal, and make sure that I get the Apple Strudel dessert. Of course they serve you this home baked sliced and very tasty bun as an appetizer, and then a wonderful entrée of Chicken Cacciatore, followed by their signature Apple Strudel. Yum - yum!
Looking outside at the snow still falling, I thought that perhaps we should change that old saying April Showers Bring May Flowers to read April Snow Brings May Overflow, as in flooded basements.
Marion is coming home tomorrow, and having been a bachelor for about a week, I should better get the house in shape! The dust and vacuum was a cinch, but sweeping the floor while leaning on a cane is very difficult, so I asked Lady our dog to help me. She's a very smart dog, but she also had a problem holding on to the broom with one paw and the dust pan in the other. She just looked at me and her eyes were saying: "Sorry! No can do!" We came to the conclusion that she could use her tail to sweep the floor, and I would either lift the rug or try to get it into the dust pan. We divided the kitchen floor into wag zones. I had measured her tail which is all of 12 inches long, accounted for 180 degree movement, and that then equalled the top half of an eight inch square. She would sit on the floor and I would hold a treat in front of her nose.
The tail would be wagging and sweeping at the same time. When I tried to go around to her to the tail to gather up the dust, she kept moving with me while still sitting and wagging thereby sweeping the floor in an eight inch circle!
OK, let's try this again. I asked her to sit and she cocked her head looking at me with eyes that said: "Again? It didn't work the first time!" She reluctantly sat down, but didn't wag her tail! I held the treat in front of her, and she just sat there looking at me with an expression like you gotta be kidding me! Well, so much for that. Marion is coming home in the evening when it is dark, so I guess I'll just trip the breaker and pretend we have a power outage, that way she won't see all the dust on the floor!
I just got off the phone with our friend Lynn, who lives by Rockford. She said that since early this morning the snow has been nearly waist high and is still falling. The temperature is dropping way below minus 25 and the north wind is increasing to near gale force. Her husband Roland has done nothing; he is just standing there staring through the kitchen window. She says that if it gets much worse, she just may have to let him in.
The Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway is filled with nude sculptures. Sculptures of a nude man and a nude woman are mounted at the end of a bridge, and have been facing each other for over a hundred years. One day a magician approached them and with a single gesture, brought them to life.
The magician told them: "As a reward for being so patient through a hundred blazing summers and dismal winters, I will give you both life for thirty minutes, for you to do what you've wished to do the most all these years." The man sculpture which had come to life, looked at the female sculpture, which had also come to life and she looked at him. Then they grabbed each other's hands and went running behind some shrubbery. The magician waited patiently as the bushes rustled and giggling ensued. After fifteen minutes, the two returned, out of breath and laughing.
The magician told them, "Um, you have fifteen minutes left, would you care to do it again?" He asked her "Shall we?" She eagerly replied, "Oh, yes, let's! But let's change positions. This time, I'll hold the pigeon down and you poop on its head."
