Family News |
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| March, 1999 |
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Klein Family News |
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| My sister Dottie and two of her daughters, Cindy and
Brenda, spent a week in San Carlos visiting us. Dottie and Cindy have
been here to visit us in previous years, but this was Brenda's first
visit to San Carlos. She went to Mazatlan last year on Spring Break. This spring, Brenda will graduate from North Dakota State University in Fargo with her degree in industrial engineering. She wanted to take one last Spring Break trip and we were honored that she chose to spend it with us. |
 Brenda, shell-seeking on Playa del Sol. |
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My brother George is building his house alongside a lake in Kimball, Minnesota. He wrote a long letter on February 11th. |
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| Well it is windy and cold outside. Early this morning
there were thunderstorms. The west windows of the house have a sheet of
ice on them. Light snow is trying to fall but is being blown to the
nearest windbreak. Forecast is for two inches of snow with falling
temperatures down to zero tonight but returning to the mid thirties on
Saturday. February, until now, has had daytime temps in the 30s and 40s with plenty of sun and some rain so the farmers' fields that were plowed in the fall are black with only patches of snow on them. I sense that spring is near.  |
| When water from snowmelt starts to fill the culverts,
the skunks need to come out, but they still try to limit their movements
to night time. Mom and Dad chose to get an apartment in Eden Valley,
rather than migrating to Arizona and while driving home after an evening
visit, on Tuesday night, I saw two skunks out and about. They were about
seven miles apart, so I beleive they were looking for higher ground and
not planning a valentines day encounter. Besides, neither was using the
usual perfume which has the lingering smell of burning rubber. They both
looked fluffy and healthy and when you don't have to deal with them,
they actually look pretty. |
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The plant where I've worked for five years shut down in September and I haven't found suitable full time employment yet, just short-term work. I try to visit with Mom and Dad twice each week, and I've done slightly more ice-fishing than usual. I only took Dad along once although I'd have liked to do so more; maybe even get Mom to go. I have a neighbor that had heart surgery and he is weakened considerably. I helped him put his fish-house-on-wheels onto Clearwater Lake and was able to drive my car on the ice right to the door of the fish house. That is when Dad came along -- but we didn't catch very many fish. Now there is water on the ice beneath the snow so a car or truck would get stuck too easily. It's difficult to walk thru especially with my bad hip due to the jolt of the snow packing then breaking away into the layer of water then the solid slippery ice with each step. Well, winter is about over and so is house-fishing. Mom and Dad like to eat fish as their main meal on Fridays and I've given them a bunch lately and also I have a good-sized package of Crappie and Bluegill fillets in the freeze compartment so we'll have enough until we can catch some more.  When
the ice starts to melt along the shore of the lake the water runs off
the ice and makes for some good late-season ice fishing. You use a board
as a makeshift bridge over the open water between the shore and the ice.
Sometimes the whole surface of the lake "floats" to one side
of the lake so it's good to pull your bridge off the open water after
you cross it or you might lose your bridge.Some time ago I saw a picture of an Indian crossing a frozen lake dragging his canoe in case he'd encounter thin ice or open water. Sounds like a good idea to me. |
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I spend a lot of time feeding and watching birds and this winter there are the usual visits of blue-jays, cardinals, chickadees, crows, nuthatches, both downy and hairy woodpeckers, also squirrels and rabbits and the random appearance of a Pileated Woodpecker (looks like Woody Woodpecker) along with various hawks and owls nesting nearby which like to eat mice, rabbits, small cats, and other birds. The feeders are patronized by more than usual sparrows this year. Also, this is the first time I remember seeing a pair of flickers all winter. I thought they went south for the winter as they like to eat grub worms which are buried deep when it's cold. A flicker is a woodpecker, slighty larger than a blackbird. Its topside is carmel brown and underside is yellow with a triangle-shaped "bib" on its upper chest and a red triangle-shaped bandana on the back of its neck, a long straight bill and long tongue. Also, last week I saw six mourning doves loitering and eating along a gravel road not far from here. |
Last fall I built a deck outside against two sides of my house and Dad said once I get the railing all done, we'll need to have a summer party "out here". I'll try to arrange such a "picnic" as it sounds like a real good idea. I'm working on the interior window and door trim in my house. The living room is the only room that has no carpet and it's too cold outside to fillet fish so I've become quite skilled using a large table in the middle of the room. When I get either carpeting or a wife, I'll be moving operations into a room in the basement. A bright light directly overhead really helps. The flat cardboard of a cereal box makes a better cutting board than newspaper and it is still disposable. I put a bunch of fish skins and skeletons on the compost pile outside for the wild animals to feed on as there are foxes as well as cats and dogs stopping in the yard when they smell something. The crows picked them over, carrying some to a tree to peck at while standing on a high branch. Sometimes they are scared off or called by another crow and they'll leave the fish skeleton in the tree, probably to never find it again. Someday maybe someone will see the bones high in the tree and wonder if water once covered these trees or maybe these were flying fish who got tangled in the tree!!! |
When George originally bought the lot, he moved his trailer house on it to live in while he built his house. He has been taking his time building the house himself while working full-time.  Although I was in sunny San Carlos at the time, I understand that the family Christmas celebration took place at George's house this year. |
I've been here five years and have planted trees and shrubs in the open part of the lot. Last weekend I pruned the walnut, apple, elm, white cedar, white ash, mountain ash, soft maple, hackberry, red oak, and cottonwoods. The blue spruce, black spruce, arborvitae, pines, cir, lilacs, black raspberries, blueberries, hazelnuts, and chokecherries however didn't need trimming. Normally I can't get a letter started -- and then I can't think of anything to say. I'll try to write more often in the future. This is a long letter so I'll look it over before I sign off and besides there is still room on this page so if I think of more I can still add to it. |
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These are pictures of a late-winter snowfall in Wichita, Kansas. They were taken by Les's son-in-law Bret and sent to Les. | |
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