Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Well, 3 nouns and 1 adjective. 2 nouns are just wrong. I'm back I don't know for how long. Life continues. This is where I am. First, I have fallen once again madly in love with my wife. We are going away for a bit and will begin a new segment of our lives when we get back. She wants to travel more, I'm looking at schooling. We are going to be Grandparents! My daughter has grown up. Not completely, but a fine young lady. Alex is persuing his dreams and going to be attending a 4-year college soon. Just love my kids. The family will be going to Washington DC for T.A.P.S. this year. It's spring and the worst of winter is over, here comes the floods. North Easter Lake is forming. That is where my north hay field floods until the drain channel thaws enough to drain it. I keep hearing the first line of Cream's song, Tales of Brave Ulyses. "You thought the leaden winter would bring you down forever, so you rode upon a steamer to the violence of the sun." Bring on the violence, can't wait. Last January, LM laid off 165 employees. I am out-of-work but looking. It's hard to find $16.00 an hour, even though the ND economy is the best in the nation. My favorite Governer is in Washington now in the Senate. We replaced two of the three Dems from our state and the third won't be running again. What else? Who knows. It's a new year and I might have more hope. God is still in control.

Nice weather!!!

Spring is finally winning the fight here. It's been warmer lately and even 45 seems like warmth. Of course, we have to deal with the threat of floods, but due to the work of many volunteers, things are getting better. The Red is expected to crest again but it looks like we'll be okay. Out here on my land everything is soggy especially my driveway. As soon as the rain channel thaws, I'm sure a lot of the water will drain off. It's ben easier to give the horses hay since the bales are thawing but the corral is a muddy mess. We have Eliza's puppy here. She (the puppy) is untrained and likes to jump on everybody. This is really nasty with all the mud. If you spend any time with her though, she calms down and follows you around. She disappeared for a couple of days until a neighbor told my closest neighbor about her being at his place. She was about 3 miles away from home. There is only one house between my house and the place where she was but now I've met another neighbor. She often catches mice and birds andstands in the yard at night and barks. We don't really hear her much and I guess she's barking at deer and such. We tried to chain her up. The first collar we put on her had a plastic catch and she broke it almost immediately. Then, with a better collar, she broke the chain she was on. The chain have a swivel like on it so the dog can't get it twisted up. She's a Lab and it only lasted a couple of days. I guess I'll invest in an ID tag so if she wanders off again, we can be contacted. I went out and started Laurie's bike today but she doesn't know it yet. I need the charge the battery on the mower and the on the little bike is just shot. I saw today that I'll be able to get to the trailer now, too. I had it in the tree break to load with wood and it got buried in the snow. After this next week of temps in the high 40s and low 50s I bet things will start turning green quickly.