Dedication

My November 2017 month of blogging every day for a month is dedicated to an early master of the selfie, my brother Jim.

1976:

Writing on the back says 1975:

And two from his glory days, 1961.  State champions.

State champions with their young coach.

Photo dump

Once I got into a scanning mode I scanned.

And I scanned.

And I ended up with more than I needed.

Some of these are really deserving of a look see so I am just going to throw several of them up.

Here is a really old cabin, it is the Anderson farmhouse at Yellow Lake before a later remodeling radically altered the appearance.

The writing on the back of the photo identifies this as Dick's Ranch on November 3, 1912.

The later remodel changed the direction of the roof.

This one is the bridge over the Yellow River looking back towards Dick's Ranch.

Here is the first born cousin of our generation with her parents, Albert, Anita and Leona Hoffman.

And the second born with his mother, Lillie and Tommy Miller.

This one is fairly well known in our branch of the family.

Here is Dad doing what he did a lot of in his life, working with a truck full of lumber.

And this one could fool a lot of people as front and center of the picture are my Dad and Mom and four children.

The writing on the back identifies the date as August 1946 and the occasion as the Sunday Buddy was baptized.  I was born in October 1946.  It is a great family photo though.

Back:  Marian, John Gomulak, Hansine and John McCune
Middle:  Lillie, Louise, Anita Hoffman and probably Richard behind Dad
Front: Jim, Sylvia looking at Mom instead of the camera, Tommy and Tom
The baby is not me, it is Buddy Hoffman.

Four generations

I have three of these in my photo archive, four generations of the same family all in the same photo.

One grouping is male, four generations of George Miller.

Taken somewhere around 1908.  That is George, George Lafayette, George Eugene and George Robert, aka Grossvater, GL, Fritz and Bob.  Bob was born in 1904 which is the background fact for my guess of 1908.

This one was taken in 1946 at the Anderson farm house.

Back row, left to right:  Gloria Hansen, Richard Anderson, Jake Hansen, Nels Hansen.
Front:  Jacobine Hansen (Hansine's mother), Hansine Anderson, Lillie Miller.
Child:  Sylvia Miller.

Four generations in a direct female line, Jacobine, Hansine, Lillie and Sylvia.

And a modern iteration, from 2016.

Opal, Barbara, Norah and Emily, four generations in a direct female line.

Progression

Progression.

On the steps at Grandma Anderson's house.

Dad liked to stop when we crossed the Continental Divide.  The Chippewa National Forest is in north central Minnesota.

1954, the last picture taken of Mom. 

Tommy's birthday.

Grandma Anderson probably made that cake.  Note on the back of the photo identifies the slightly unfamiliar face as Jarl Hansen.

I remember this one.

Saw Place.  I remember Jim's shirt too.  Sort of a turquoise with sort of gold print.  I think I remember having that skinny belt but I might be kidding myself there.

Thanksgiving weekend photos

I am positive that these were taken on Thanksgiving weekend.  Both taken by Jim, in one of the folders he gave me with old family photos these were included at the back.

TOPWLH took a look at this picture and declared that there is no way we ever bought that jacket for our little girl.

But Kelsey's jacket is at least similar.  It looks to me like that was the style for at least that one season.  Probably everyone who is their age has at least one of those jackets in their history.

Enhanced

I have had possession of Jim's loose leaf binders containing his genealogy research since shortly after his death.  In the past couple of weeks I have been looking for old photos and recently I looked into his binders thinking perhaps of posting some of his genealogy related photos.

I came across a section in one of the binders of original photos, not modern reprints, the original stuff.  I think we have seen these before but I don't know if the note from Richard to Conrad has ever been digitized before.  I had to scan it and then use an enhancement program that I have to improve the contrast to make the writing legible on screen.

This is the front side of a post card.  Left to right, Hansine, oldest child Lillie, Richard.

This is the backside, barely legible even in the original but it is a note headed Yellow Lake Wis, 5/8/15 beginning Dear Brother Conrad.

 I was able to enhance the contrast.

I received your card some time ago.  Was glad to hear from you.  We are all well hope you are the same. I see you have bought the man out that you worked for.  I'm sending a picture of our oldest girl and our self.  We have we have a baby girl 2 mounts old its going some isen't it with regards from us both.     Brother Richard

This one was taken perhaps the same day.  Hansine has the same dress on and I think Lillie does too.  Richard has removed his jacket but is wearing shirt and tie, the same rolled up trousers and what is probably the same hat.

Left to right, Minda, what must have been their prize cow, Hansine, Richard and Lillie.

We know Conrad wasn't there as Richard sent him a copy of the other photograph taken that day so the shadow of the photographer strikes me as most likely Jake.

As I said, these are both original prints, very ancient.  It is a pleasure to put them both into digital form.

Black Friday

Zoots, it appears that the temperature will reach the mid-50s here today.  Rain showers are forecast as well.  Most years precipitation on the day after Thanksgiving would be snow and would herald the arrival of winter.

Here's the last one from the previously unposted Michigan photos.

It just seems appropriate for black Friday.

Refreshing a skill set

Preparation of this meal is complicated in that there are lots of steps.  It is uncomplicated in that none of the steps are exceedingly difficult.  The trick is in timing everything to be done at the same time.

I haven't peeled potatoes much in the past few years but I have peeled a lot of potatoes in my life.  The technique is quickly relearned.

I have some pretty nice knives but my favorite for potatoes is a really cheap paring knife.  I suspect that it reminds me of the knives of my youth.  I choke up on the handle making the blade even shorter.  It works for me.

We went with a never frozen turkey again this year.

Here's a view of a lot of the stuff on the table and of our special guest.

Here's a look at the grown-ups, Norah is hiding behind her Mom.

It is probably apparent from the view through our patio door that winter has not arrived.  It was sunny and reasonable today, a great Thanksgiving Day.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

An old photo from each side of the tree and a bonus

My scanner got to run again today after I looked through the old photo albums.

The first is George E. aka Fritz and his brother Charles Miller.  The note on the back estimates the year as about 1884.

 These are the six surviving (of eight) children of August B. Anderson.

Back row:  Richard (born 1877) and Conrad (1879).
Front row:  Frank (1865 in Sweden), Augusta (Lidbom, 1863 Sweden), Mathilde (1871, the second to be named Mathilde, her sister born in 1861 in Sweden, died here, possibly of diptheria in 1871), and Hanna (Erickson, 1874, the second to be named Hanna, her sister born in 1868 in Sweden died here in 1871 shortly after her older sister).

Richard looks about 18 or so to me, I estimate the photo to be 1895.

Lillie, born 1913.

I am going to guess 1917 for the photo.

I got a couple of other scanned gems but I also have at least one more Wednesday.

Would 1980 be a good guess for that DeKalb photo?

Because I have this one labelled in my photo file with what looks like a reference to 1980.

Your children look about the same age and it appears that in this photo I have the same green polo shirt that I am wearing in DeKalb.

This one is Deer Lake, of course.

This one is also labeled Deer Lake but 1982.

Photographer in all cases including yesterday's photo is Jim.  I have these in a folder on my hard drive labeled JQ scans.

Backyard

Well, I don't have any from Illinois but I expect that not a lot of people have this one:

Backyard at 964.

Or this one:

Downtown Holland, Tulip Time 84.

Red

I looked in the folder again and am going to go ahead and milk it.

And, yes, I can successfully name these two locations.

Well, actually this one is a bit difficult but I WAS there (that's the handlebars of my Michigan bike peaking out from behind the tree).

That's a turn around point down near the River Street bridge.

Gophers win 4-3. stretching record to 74-3-2 including, according the morning newspaper, the last 36 in a row.

PSG thumped FC Nantes 4-1.  Brazilian superstar Neymar Jr. returned to the PSG line up but it was Uruguayan Edinson Cavani who did the most damage with two goals.  FC Nantes remains solidly 5th in the table.

Inside page of the news section today

I know at least one potential reader will be amused by the headline from the page 2 "Local News" section of one of our daily newspapers.

Under the heading of "Local Briefing" and then another heading of "West Metro" (a local news code used in Saint Paul to mean Minneapolis) and at last one more heading "Hennepin County" comes this headline:

3 Florida Men admit card skimming.

Five counts each of felony identity theft.

Here's another photo from our September visit to Michigan.

And here again a rather small subset will have zero difficulty identifying the location of that photo.

Gophers win 3-0 to extend their all time record again Saint Cloud to 73-3-2.

Later today FC Nantes travels to Parc des Princes stadium in northwestern Paris to face rising European power and French league leader Paris-Saint Germain.  TOPWLH and I will be traveling to Ridder Arena for game 2 of the weekend hockey.

Not a llama

I took a picture with my bicycle camera yesterday and while I had the memory card in the desktop I noticed that there were some pictures taken while we were in Michigan earlier which I do not believe have ever been posted here.

Definitely not a llama.  That was the day I was offered the opportunity to sign the guest book and when I agreed to do so I was handed a crayon.

Novel concept

This afternoon I went out for a walk and as an afterthought I dropped my bicycle camera into the pocket of my parka.

Yes, parka.  It isn't really winter yet but I do not like being cold.  I own a really high quality winter coat and I have already started wearing it, like, oh, say, every time I go out the door, OK?

Anyway I think I have carried my camera on a walk before but it is certainly not the norm.

So I got a picture that is somewhat representative of the current state of our state.

First the lighting.  The sun hasn't made an appearance here for about a week.  It is always gray.  It gets light pretty late in the morning and it is dark well before 6pm.  In between it is gray.

We have had a couple visits from winter but it has not yet come to stay.  Right now it is fall again but this sign is an unmistakable reminder of what is the come, the season of snow removal.

For myself, I am going for at least one more season with personal snow blowing.  I have a high quality machine.  Commercial snow blowing awaits some time in the future.

Summary for today?

Too dark, not enough sun, getting cold.

Probably there will be good news tomorrow.

Cue the mouseketeers

Today is Wednesday, you know what that means, it is old picture day.

First day of school.  First day of school ever.

Wow, we used to have an asphalt driveway.  And there in the background the trunk of a very tiny ash tree.

The house numbers used to be brown.

I still have those shoes.

And as that little girl told her mommy, "You know, I always wanted to go to school."

Meat loaf coming

It seems cold enough now to go ahead and yield and start making some cold weather recipes.

Meat loaf coming.

It was a very, very grey day.  No precipitation but not a single ray of sun either.

Park Tools

This seems like a good time to veer back to a little bicycle content.

Here are two of my favorite non-bicycle tools from the famous bicycle tool producer, and also local employer, Park Tools.

The first is the very, very fine pizza cutter.

By far the best pizza cutter I have ever encountered.  You can press down on the handlebars while cutting the pizza.

In an aside that is one of the largest pieces of rose quartz I have ever come across.  I found it abandoned in the front yard gravel of a house in Michigan.  The owner of the house said, well, okay, if you like it you can have it.

The second Park Tool installation in my house is the toilet tissue holder in the downstairs bathroom.

TOPWLH said well okay if you really like it it would be okay with me if you have it but only in that downstairs bathroom.

You say breakfast

I say morning meal.

I made the visitor some scrambled eggs this morning.

Instead she ate some berries, a bit of sunflower whole wheat bread with peanut butter, some Quaker Oatmeal Squares with a hint of cinnamon (known in some circles as Jim's cereal), most of a banana and a glass of milk.

By the time the eggs arrived she was through with the morning meal.  Grandma ate the eggs instead.

But just as soon as Grandma started the young visitor decided that she would have a few bites after all.

And then she walked right over and seemed to ask what it was that Grandpa was up to.

A couple of hours later Mom arrived and the countdown began.

She had a bath and a nap and a lot of dancing and then her cousin Sabinna arrived.  I bet that part of the day is being posted elsewhere on the internet.

We had fun.