Category: memories

Fun Fact Friday – Grandma Myrtle’s Time at S.A.U.M

We found one of Grandma Myrtle’s diaries from her time at S.A.U.M. We had no idea what those letters stood for, but we knew it was close to Luther Seminary in St Paul, MN. Then, we found photo albums from her time there…mystery solved! Grandma Myrtle and Grandpa Nuel attended the School of Agriculture at the University of Minnesota in St Paul! Nuel was a freshman in 1916-1917, and Myrtle was a freshman in 1920.

First page of Myrtle's Diary - notice the date
First page of Myrtle’s Diary – notice the date

Grandma’s diary also mentions going to Luther Seminary to attend Vespers, going to volleyball and basketball practice at the YWCA, and which boys walked her home. The photos in her album include many of the “Cottonwood Bunch”, and the girls she would hang out with. I was pretty excited to find this photo of the campus from her time there:

S.A.U.M circa 1920
S.A.U.M circa 1920

The joy we have found in reading Myrtle’s diaries, looking through her photo albums, and Nuel’s photo albums has made me a little more resolved to take more photos…and to label them! What we think is mundane, some day our descendents will find fascinating!

My absolute favorite line from Myrtle’s diaries was on the bottom of the page at the end of her first year at S.A.U.M:

So far so good...
So far so good…

 

Throwback Thursday – My Baby is Growing Up!

Tomorrow will be our youngest daughter’s 19th birthday. This summer, she is staying in her college town to work at her first “town job”. This will be her first birthday away from home. It may be cliche, but they grow up so fast!

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She had a need for speed!

I think when Jonathan got his go-cart running, it took a few years off my life! Laura was either all on the gas, or all on the brake whipping around corners. She was little enough that she had to slouch down to reach the pedals. She’s had a couple other go-carts since this one, but the memory of the first day behind the wheel of this first cart really sticks out. I came to dread the phrase, “Hey, mom! Watch this!”

Happy Birthday, baby girl!

Fun Fact Friday – Century Farm Edition part 1

Our family is having fun researching the history of our farm as we prepare for our appreciation party planned for the end of June. For the next few Fridays, I’ll share a fun fact related to what we have found.

Today’s Fun Fact:

In 1914, for 50 cents, our farm was registered as Fairview Farm by Daniel Olson.

A copy of the farm name registration from the county courthouse
A copy of the farm name registration from the county courthouse

Wordless Wednesday – Seems Like Yesterday…

Anna in the park
We spent Sunday afternoons in the park – Anna & Jonathan 1991

 

College graduation 2013
And now, college graduation! Augustana College Class of 2013

 

We're pretty darn proud!
We’re pretty darn proud!

 

 

 

Throwback Thursday – Made for Each Other?

Jonathan and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary in August. We met when we were in college, so it was always fun when my mother-in-law would bring out baby photos and show me how cute Jonathan was as a tow-headed tyke. There were a couple of photos that our parents found that were taken when we were about the same age…both with toy guns. We must have been made for each other, don’t you think?

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Carolyn
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Jonathan

 

Wordless Wednesday…Sigh…

With yet another winter storm headed for Minnesota, I thought I’d share two photos. The first is from April 15, 2012. The second photo is from April 14, 2013. These are both taken from my front yard.

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April 15, 2012

 

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April 14, 2013

 

Patiently Waiting

Over the last 72 hours, we have received between 15 to 18 inches of snow. We’ve had snow in 6 of the last 12 months here. Sigh. Typically we are getting the spring farm equipment out of the machine shed, and making sure everything is ready to go once the fields are dry.

Not this year! Instead of spending time in the tractor we use for preparing the seed bed, Jonathan spent time in the tractor used for clearing snow.

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While he was busy clearing snow, I was getting ready to make some of these delicious little treats. Jonathan brought back this box of Beignet Mix from New Orleans when he was there with our youth group last summer.

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I made a few, and decided I needed to practice my food photography a little bit. You know, things that help you stay sane on yet another snow day.

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The good thing about spring snow storms is the fact that the snow will melt into the thawed ground instead of just running over the top. We can really use the moisture here, so we’re trying to be thankful. To be perfectly honest, though, I can’t wait until I see this out my window:

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Every Camera Has a Story

I’ve been learning new camera techniques during our extended winter. I am loving Digital Photography School right now. The bonus – it’s free! Anyway, I was looking for something inside to try out a few new settings on, since the weather is rainy and cold. Not to mention the blah brown landscape we still have.

I have a camera collection that I display above my built in buffet. There are some really special ones in my collection that I love looking at. They are not special because of their monetary value, but for their stories.

This camera came from my father-in-law. He was drafted into the United States Army during peacetime in the 1950’s for two years. One year was spent in Germany. He had many entertaining stories about his time there, and about the ship ride home. It was on the ship that he came into possession of this camera. According to FIL, there were a few guys gambling to pass the time. One of the guys offered to sell his camera for $30 so he could pay his debt. My FIL agreed, and bought the camera. He used it for a while before updating to a newer Argus camera. He was a pretty good hobby photographer, but mostly used his cameras to take photos at family gatherings.

In this photo, I used natural light from our large east facing windows, and had black velvet behind and under the AGFA.  Other settings: Canon 60D, Av mode, ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/125, 34mm focal length. The technique I was playing with was using Av mode to achieve a shallow DOF. I also used the manual focal point setting aimed at the lettering on the top ring of the lens.

 

AGFA Camerawerk Munchen
AGFA Camerawerk Munchen

 

 

Throwback Thursday

Can you guess the era?

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Avocado green kitchen with dark woodwork (and a dishwasher that melted all Tupperware so we still had to hand wash a lot of dishes), an awesome mullet, cropped shirt (that I sewed in home-ec), high waist jeans… I loved those Levi’s!

If you guessed the 1980’s, you would be correct! This would have been around 1985 or 1986.