Once again, the Rutland area has escaped the pounding rains that have drenched the regions around us. The rain total for last week was about ½”, which included the .3 of an inch of rain that fell on Saturday night. Right now, everything that needs water, warmth and sunlight to grow is green and growing.
With fish in nearly every pothole, the only reason that anglers have to travel these days is to see some new scenery. Of course, if they catch some fish, that’s a bonus. Greg Donaldson and Joe Holmgren drove out to the Missouri River on Monday, June 21, to check out the waters there. They fished areas near the North Dakota-South Dakota State Line on Monday afternoon, and on Tuesday until 3:00 p.m., when they headed back toward Rutland. They brought home their 2 day possession limit of nice sized walleyes. The scenery was nice, too, reports Greg.
Rural mail carrier Jim Lunneborg was back on the mail route for 3 days last week after being on the sick list for the past several weeks. Jim says that he plans to ease back into harness by putting in 2 or 3 days a week to build up his endurance. Dan Pearson has been filling in on the route during Jim’s recuperation.
This community was saddened by the news of Mel Breker’s death on Thursday, June 24. Mel’s health had been deteriorating since he suffered a heart attack while visiting in Bismarck last Summer. He was 83 years old at the time of his death. He had been residing at St. Gerard’s Nursing Home in Hankinson since May 18. Mel was born in Ransom Township in 1926, the eldest son of the late Theodore & Regina (Kulzer) Breker. He married Lois Kiefer in 1950 and they farmed in the Cayuga area until the early 60’s, when they purchased the farm southeast of Rutland from Ole & Clara Breum. Mel was a Korean War era veteran of the U. S. Army and a charter member of the Cayuga American Legion Post. He enjoyed visiting with friends, loved a good joke and was a master of the wisecrack. His many friends in this community extend their condolences to the Breker family. Mel is survived by his wife, Lois, by 3 sons: Douglas of Townsend MT; Patrick of Wahpeton; and Mark of Rutland; by 3 daughters: Paula Orth of Lidgerwood; Michelle Pierson of Lewiston ID; and, Karen Breker of Bismarck; by 1 brother, James R. Breker of Cayuga; and, by numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents and by one son, Steven, who died in 1973. The funeral service was at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, June 28, at St. Peter & Paul Catholic Church in Cayuga with burial in the Catholic Cemetery south of the City. The Cayuga American Legion Post performed graveside military rites in honor of their departed comrade. May he rest in peace.
Maguire Iron of Sioux Falls SD had a crew in Rutland performing maintenance work on the City’s water tower from Friday, June 25 to Wednesday, June 30. Maguire Iron’s men sandblasted the interior of the tank to remove all rust and corrosion; repaired any damaged or weak spots in the interior of the tank; and, applied an epoxy coating to the interior of the tank to protect and preserve the metal. According to officials from the Maguire firm, Rutland’s tower and tank, built in 1954, have already exceeded their life expectancy due to the City’s regular maintenance program for the past half century and, if regular maintenance is kept up, the tower and tank should last another half century, or longer. Coming up next, an exterior facelift and paint job for the tower and tank.
The descendants of the late G. E. & Martha (Anderson) Pearson held a family reunion at the Rutland Town Hall on Saturday, June 26. According to Dan Pearson, one of G. E. & Martha’s grandsons, 77 descendants, including 3 of the Pearsons children: Marvin; Orvis; and Roger; were in attendance. The other 2 Pearson children: Gordon; and, Annette (Pearson) McDonald; are deceased. According to Dan, a good time was had by all.
Wedding bells rang for Pastor Justin Fenger of Rutland and Miss Katie Christianson of Appleton WI when they were wed at Nordland Lutheran Church here on Saturday, June 26. Pastor Chris Gaule of Trinity Lutheran in Forman officiated. A reception for friends and family was held at the Rutland Fire Hall on Saturday evening. The Rutland community extends congratulations and best wishes for a long and happy life together to Pastor and Mrs. Fenger.
Norbert Kulzer checked in at Meritcare Hospital in Fargo for knee joint replacement surgery on Monday morning, June 28. Norbert had his right knee replaced, and is expected to be good for another 100,000 miles. No warranty on the knee, though. Norbert is one of the tenured faculty at the Rutland General Store’s Round Table, and his presence, as well as his wise counsel, is missed by all. Norbert’s plan called for him to be back in Rutland by week’s end.
A report has been received that another Rutland resident, Loretta (McNeil) Arneson was admitted to Meritcare Hospital in Fargo earlier this week for treatment of a respiratory ailment. Loretta, better known as Lolly, is a longtime and absolutely reliable employee of Four Seasons Healthcare Center in Forman where both staff and residents feel her absence. Lolly’s many friends here wish her a speedy recovery and return home.
Mary Raines and Bill Hawk departed Rutland, bound for their home in Farmington, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, June 29. Mary and Bill had been visiting friends and family in the Rutland area for the past 3 weeks. They were accompanied by one of Mary’s grandsons, Josh, during their visit here. They stated that they enjoyed their visit and expect to be back at about the same time next year.
Vincent Young returns to Rutland on Tuesday, June 29, after spending the Winter in the Mesa-Phoenix AZ area. Vincent is the last of the snowbirds to return to his Summer range. Knee replacement surgery several weeks ago kept him from heading north any earlier. Vince and his daughter drove up from Mesa to Rutland via Ft. Collins, Colorado.
Kathy Runyan and Rebecca Kadoun are among the new faces on the staff of the Rutland General Store this Summer.
Jen Christianson states that she still has more room for Waterobics participants at the Forman Park District’s pool this Summer. Contact Jen at Alley Cuts in Rutland, or call her at 724-3406 for more information.
News was received here on Wednesday morning, June 30, that long-time Shuman Township resident Lowell Kriz had passed away. Lowell was 79 years old at the time of his death. Information about funeral arrangements was not available at this writing.
The Gulf oil spill extends far beyond the Gulf. It is impacting local folks, too. Tewaukon NWF employees Jeff Olson and Angie Burwell have been in the Gulf region assisting with efforts to mitigate wildlife losses from the spill. Jeff has been in the Florida panhandle area and Angie has been in Louisiana. Rutland native Mat Cramton, who is employed at the Minnesota Valley Fish & Wildlife Service office near the Twin Cities, has also been dispatched to the Gulf coast for wildlife loss mitigation work. The Gulf of Mexico is a large body of water, but the oil slick formed by the millions of gallons of crude oil pouring into the sea now covers an area larger than the State of North Dakota, and is expected to get larger. If a human being can be sentenced to death for killing another human being, what is the appropriate penalty for a corporation that destroys an entire eco-system? British Petroleum, BP for short, may be the first corporation to face the death penalty for crimes, not against humanity, but against every living thing on the planet Earth.
First the Brekers and the Wyums visited in Australia last Winter. Then, Chris & Kim Jones of Australia visited in Rutland a month ago. Now another local, Shawn Breker, son of Shane and Karla Breker of this community is enjoying the hospitality of “The Land Down Under.” Shawn has sent several e-mail reports on his adventure to his parents, and the 2 most recent, from June 27 and June 29, are included here. “G’day Friends & Family: Starting transmission: Sun, June 27th, 8:55pm It’s been a while since I have been able to get internet, so here I go… I have left Darwin for Alice Springs. There we took an amazing gorge walk through some rugged, elevated, beautiful terrain. We also stopped at many Aboriginal sites, cultural centres, and small towns. We have visited solar farms along the way as well. One in specific was called the Centre of Appropriate Technologies (CAT) http://www.icat.org.au/. Our energy class got an amazing tour of the photovoltaic research being done there. The centre is basically doing a controlled experiment between different manufacturers of solar panels. They compare voltage output, efficiency, design life, cost, available land, weather conditions, and maintenance. It’s amazing to see that CAT is helping the aboriginal culture by bringing them electricity in remote places in Australia. Aborigines tribes live on the land that was given to them, they don’t typically have refrigerators, microwaves, and definitely no cell phones. I visited the big paper weight of Australia today: Uluru (Ayers Rock). I am convinced that this sucker is holding the continent from drifting off into Africa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uluru We watched the sunset at Uluru and watched as it changed colors when the sun hit it. It was amazing! So beautiful. A picture could not do it justice. I still run in the AM hours. It’s much cooler in central Australia which is semi-arid climate. Warm during the day (70-80s) then cool at night (30-50). I’ve sited wild dingos and one kangaroo on my morning explorations. Roo’s are nocturnal animals so people rarely see them during daylight hours. I wanted to box with one but not get close enough to pick a fight… We head out tomorrow for Sydney after a sunrise breakfast at Kata Tjuta. Again, it will be an amazing view. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kata_Tjuta I’m excited. Hope the weather is being “summer” in the Dakotas/Minnesota! Talk again in a few days from University of New South Wales (UNSW). Cheers! Ending transmission, Sun, June 17th, 9:43pm (14.5 hours ahead of ya’ll)-Shawn B
PS – Six buddies and I woke up at 3:30am this morning (Sunday) to watch the FIFA World Cup game. USA vs. Ghana. It was sad to see the Americans lose a game that was in their grasp. Although we lost, I’ve heard only good things about Ghana from a girl I know…Starting transmission: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 @ 6:15pm
Good morning (although it’s evening here) and g’day! I have touched down in Sydney, Australia and this fierce gentleman is nothing to reckon with… but before I get too far, let’s recap my journey the past two weeks along with looking at future travels. June 12 – MN to TX to LA; June 14 – Arrived in Brisbane and departed to Darwin (1.5 week stay); June 25 – Arrived in Alice Springs; June 28 – Arrived in Sydney (3 weeks stay); July 16 – Arrive in Cairns (>1 week stay); July 25 – Depart Down Under to LA to CHI to MN. Future events include: 1) a play at the Sydney Oprah House; 2) Rugby match; 3) Australia football game (much different than the NFL in the US) 4) Wine tasting at a vineyard; 5) Diving and snorkeling at the Great barrier reef. Moving forward… Today (Tuesday) we went to Australia’s largest manufacturer of steel – OneSteel www.onesteel.com. They use mined and recycled steel/ore and create steel billets (a 30 foot loaf of bread, roughly) using an electric arc furnace. It was incredible because I am a man who enjoys massive, noisy machines, science, working with steel, and building infrastructure. The University of New South Wales is big. There are over 40,000 students enrolled at UNSW. The biggest degrees are engineering and business, not to mention they rank in the world’s top 10 best universities for these degrees. Expressions of “whoa”, “yikes”, and “yah” all at the same time. One interesting fact: when someone “applies” to a university in Australia, one lists their options 1-6 of which degree and university they want to attend. Then, it is up to the univ to decide whether or not they make the grade with other applying students. If they cannot accept you, you get your second/third/etc choice. How different is that!? I must admit I’m lost in translation. I find myself baffled by my Nooorth Dakoooootaaah accent and American translation of everyday objects, phrases, etc. You will know what I mean; below is a list. Bubbler – water fountain; Toilet, the Lu, the Dunny – bathroom; Rubbish – garbage; “How ya goin?” – How are you?; Uni – university; College – a dorm where you live; Vacation – the semester break duration; Prime Minister – president (whom 2 weeks ago was impeached and now Australia has its first female prime minister- cool, eh? I must be going. Feel free to forward this message on to your friends or ask any questions. Talk to you in a couple days.” Shawn graduated from NDSU with a degree in Civil Engineering this past May. He is a 2005 graduate of Sargent Central High School.
Well, that’s it for this week. This weekend is the 234th birthday of the United States of America, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the 2nd of July, 1776. Yes, that’s right, on the 2nd. On that day, the Second Continental Congress adopted a resolution dissolving all allegiance to Great Britain and proclaiming that the 13 former British colonies in North America “are, and, of a right, ought to be, free and independent states.” Such patriot leaders as John Adams thought that the 2nd day of July would be celebrated and observed as Independence Day, but 2 days later, on July 4, 1776, the Congress trumped itself by adopting the Declaration of Independence, a beautifully crafted document that set forth the philosophical and factual reasons that compelled the separation from Great Britain. The document, as one of its authors, Thomas Jefferson, said, was “a clear and concise statement of the American mind,” and it captured all of the glory of the event, eclipsing its 2 day old predecessor. After that, though, there followed 7 years of hardship, war, destruction and death before the independence of the nation and the freedom of the people were secured. Think about that, when you’re grilling steaks or shooting off fireworks this weekend. Freedom is not free. It was bought and paid for with someone’s sacrifice of treasure, blood and even life. Bear that in mind as you celebrate this weekend.
For more information about what’s going on in Rutland, check out the community’s internet web site at www.rutlandnd.com. Don’t forget to stop by the Rutland blog and Facebook pages, too. As they say in Australia, “G’day, mates!”
