Spring into Summer - Green Options in Minnesota 2013 :-)

Last year I began to work in Denny Stockdale's garden in Edina.  My sister Jane Newell and I began weeding and rescuing some the hosta's here, and planted ferns by the back fence.  With all the rain, fun to see the bench below the spruce tree calls people to sit and meditate and slow down and enjoy the green.

Lilacs with sweet smells of spring with the vegie garden in the background at Denny's

Here is the late start of the herb and vegie garden. 

Small detailed garden behind Denny's house. 

Love seat under the ash tree, recently re mulched. 

Here is the organizer of the bike ride from Myers Hall, Carleton from I think the class of '83, that was advertised to be the first to the Thorstein Veblen Farm in Goodhue County by Nerstrand.  I will add his name later.  He is here from Peru Indiana.....

Participants ( I think around 30 started the 15 mile ride into the SE Wind...and not sure how many finished) The blue shirted folks are recent Carleton Grads who are helping out with the logistics of the reunion weekend. 

A couple of the class participants who are enthusiastic along the road to Nerstrand.

Finally at the top of the long hill.  To the left is Nerstand Big Woods State Park. To the right is the town of Nerstand and beyond, the Veblen farmstead.

The corner on the dirt road, with the small Veblen welcoming sign below the blue fire number.

We were welcomed by the woman in the pink shirt who lives at the home with the spread of food.  Cheeses from local farms. Sustainability is one of the themes of the reunion. She works with her hands, and repairs clocks and is also a Weaver. Will add names later, hopefully

Here we are having a tour of the flower and vegetable area by Mark Fjelstad who promotes the special aspects of the Veblen History.  Thorstein Veblen wrote about Conspicuous Consumption around 1900. 

For details of his life, check out. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorstein_Veblen

Old barn on the Veblen Homestead. 

T B V, vertical initials carved in as a youth in a stud in an upstairs bedroom. 

View of the Veblen home as it was extensively restored recently.  Mark in green shirt and ______ in the pink shirt live in the home. 

Pelican Lake Property 1967 - 1968 Planting Trees for Their Legacy

The Three Weaver Brothers,  Jim, Jack and Tom, together purchased 2 cabins, lakeshore and backland from Alden C and Edyth Palmer in 1967 on Pelican Lake, Crow Wing County.  Tom, this author, was attending Carleton College in Norhfield and maintained his connections with Faribault High School classmates who were attending the University of Minnesota.  Here are Greg Larsen, Fred Zahn, and Steve Wafler interacting with a snapping turtle on the sandy back road behind Sunset Beach, lot 11 where the Weaver parents, Paul H and Margaret Weaver purchased the lot in 1946. 

This is the front of the Palmer Big Cabin as it appeared in 1967 when we completed the purchase. Later on, we learned that the original cabin with the taller roofline, was built by Shattuck School instructor Fred Haeberle in 1912, making it the first cabin build here on the shore.  The neighbors, Winnie and Dave Leonard, next door, mentioned that Winnie's Grandfather, FE Jenkins, the First Headmaster of St James School, in Faribault, built his cabin in 1913.  The Leonard "Old Cabin" still maintains the original architecture and character to this day! 

The Palmer Cabin garage with railings of birch as it appeared in 1967 soon after the purchase by the Weaver brothers. 

Interior of the kitchen with original furnishings as purchased from the Palmers. 

In the spring of 1968, I was joined by some Carleton undergrads who supported my vision to plant some evergreen seedlings, then available through the state of Minnesota for a few cents each.  Here is the old Buick 1949 Woody Station Wagon that I drove at the Badora Nursery where I drove to pick up the seedlings that Winnie Leonard decided to plant. 

=

 Likely one of the first times people stayed at the Palmer cabins after we purchased the property.  Here are Carleton underclassmen I knew from Burton Hall, John Trucano, Jeff Ball and Will Bouricous planting the seedlings in front of the cabin.

The interior of the Palmer small cabin, looking southeast, as it appeared in 1967-68 when we first visited the properties. 

In the winter of 1967-68 Jim Weaver visited our parents cottage on Sunset Beach and together he and I explored the property we had purchased as three brothers, to get a sense of how we could manage the property. Here is how the mailbox area looked with signs for AC Palmer and W Hokans seen.

In the winter 1968-69, the sign with Jim looking on, that AC Palmer had erected by the mailboxes to encourage people to drive down a second road to East Pelican Cottages, 800 ft to the east.  Later this road was renamed Leonard Drive, in honor of the Leonard family who inherited the Jenkins Property. 

Tom Weaver, the author, walking down the "private road" indicated by Palmer's sign toward the newly purchased cabins in the winter of 1967-68. 

In 1968 Jack Weaver, invited his financee' Nellie Jane Williams and her father, Harold Williams, to test out the fishing.  At that time, we still had the old red pontoon boat left by the Palmers to fish on the big lake.  I think I took this at night after a successful venture out on the big lake. Also, a possibility is from Lougee Lake, where we created a landing for fishing that was used with an access road for many years. And I just read in the log book from the cabin, that these fish were caught on Markee in July of 1970.  So there you go, consider the possibilities.....lots of fish over the years. An abundant experience regardless of when.

One of the benefits of having sugar sand beaches, is being able to make large bays and islands out of the sand.  Jack Weaver in 1968 is modeling how this has been done over the years on Pelican Lake and  lakeshore stewarded by the Weaver family. 

 "Pete" AKA Paul H Weaver, MD, at the sink on Sunset Beach cottage with Nellie Williams in 1968 during the summer visit.

Jack Weaver and his dog "Tau".  Nellie attended Western Illinois University which is reflected in the sweatshirt worn here. . 

Property Along the Straight River South of Faribault 1940's through 1983 Gift to River Bend Nature Center

From Margaret G Weaver's Memoir Rememberings 1994 p45, describing the early 1940's in Faribault "The Agerters and the Weavers, enjoying the out-of-doors, decided to buy a small parcel of wooded land near Faribault. The County Surveyor, Walt Dokken, understanding our wants, helped us find what came to be known as "The Prop," sixteen acres of slightly hilly woods along the Straight River, with a small stream and a few birch trees, which were rare in this area of Minnesota. 

 1942 Spring photo by Paul H Weaver, p 50 photo album --Dam with State Hospital Property on the left and the bluff area of some 16 acres, Walcott Twp, that the Agerters and Weavers bought together.....

   

Ken Agerter with sandstone bluff on the west side of the Straight River, 49 of photo album with 4 other views on the frozen Straight River in winter 1941.  (As you can read below, the Weaver's gave this land through the Nature Conservancy to River Bend Nature Center to honor the life of Dr Paul Henry Weaver (1910-1981)  who loved the out of doors and enjoyed this land he called the "prop".) 

"In the process of looking for a suitable place, we spent time at what we called the Langslag Property, which had many attractive red-berried shrubs, hearts- bursting-with-love, Euonymus atropurpureus. I was sorry that we found none of this at the Prop."

"Wanting a shack at the Prop, we bought Mrs. Saufferer's chicken coop, sawed it into four sections and secured a permit from the Highway Department to have a truck haul it to our place. (See picture #3, p. 136.) In the meantime we had fun making a simple road in the form of a loop, cutting down trees by band with a cross-cut saw and securing the right-of-way beside a small railroad track. A cement foundation was made to support our shack (my one and only experience at puddling). After scouring the coop and putting it back together, we painted it brown with yellow window trim. It was nifty!"

Cabin in Summer 1942,  Ruth Berhow, By Berhow, Peg Weaver, Marde Berhow...by PHW

 

Photo described from 1942, p 136 of Peg Weaver's "Rememberings" Ken Agerter and "Pete" Weaver, with smoke from his pipe.  

 

July 1942 L - R Peggy Agerter, By, Ruth & Marde Berhow, Ken Agerter, Mary "Butch", Stan Henning and Peg Weaver - at the "prop" in Walcott Twp south of Faribault along the Straight River.

 

Dr Paul H Weaver on the phone on the tree box summer of 1942.  I way to be in touch with patients while being "on call" as a general practitioner

"Ray Lieb, a pharmacist who owned a quarry near Faribault, gave us limestone for a fireplace. Pete and Ken built a handsome, huge fireplace which worked beautifully. Such fun we had in our dirt-floored shack. Beer left in the shack was frozen beer in the winter. Pete had a telephone installed on a telephone pole, so that he could be reached in case of an emergency. Although this was long before my mushroom days, I remember seeing many interesting fungi during one wet summer, some that I have never seen again. The Prop was a fun place to have picnics with: Jim and Carol O'Neil; Mary Henning and her boys, Stan and Butch, (Don Henning, Headmaster of Shattuck, was serving as Chaplain in the Military Service);By, Marde, Ruth and Tom Berhow; Peggy's parents, the Harlans, and Peggy's sister and her husband, the Kicksmillers."..."We had spent the afternoon at the Prop when we heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor on our car radio as we were returning home. That night we went to Roger and Isabelle Kiekenapp's for a scheduled bridge club meeting, but were too shocked to play bridge."

 

Here is the only photo I found of the completed Shed that I think hung in my fathers office.   I don't remember being in it and I think it was burned down by trespassers in the early 1950's and all that remained has the fireplace and foundation. 

Taken in 1972, here is the author at the side of the prop woods, where the field was still being plowed for crops.  Later this farmland to the left, was sold for the Chadderdon Edition.  Dewey Van Orsow and his boyscout troop from IC School I believe would camp on the property and one spring in the 1960's the troop planted evergreens on the part of the prop that was next to the fields.  I drove the 1961 red Plymouth there (in the tall plants around the trees) to see how thing were growing. 

Paul H Weaver MD  Addition to River Bend Nature Center Dedication Summer 1983. 

 My dad was a long time supporter of education - natural history in particular.  Mom and his three sons, Jim, Jack and Tom (this author) agreed that part of his legacy would be the gift of the prop to the River Bend Nature Center.  

Some of the correspondence prior to the Ceremony in 1983.  Ron Osterbauer, Ex Dir writing Peg Koering of The Nature Conservancy cc to Charlie Turnbull and Orwin Rustad, in Feb 1982 mentioning the dwarf trout lily found on the property in the past.

So the four of us Weavers returned to the land and met a variety of local folks who are active in supporting protection for this land for future generations.  Thanks to all who showed up!

After my dad's death in January 1982 in Brainerd, the family decided to give the land along the river to the Nature Conservancy who then passed it on to River Bend Nature Center. Here are some of the folks who showed up in 1983 for the dedication ceremony. 

Peg Koering of the Nature Conservancy Led the Dedication here on the prop. 

Jack Weaver, Larry Knutson, Jim Weaver, Peg Weaver and ? on the property during the dedication ceremony with Peg Koering of the Nature Conservancy and Orwin Rustad. 

Orwin Rustad, local visionary for the River Bend Nature Center and naturalist at Shattuck School at the dedication. 

At the foundation and fireplace built by my dad, Paul H Weaver and his friend Ken Agerter from Shattuck School in the early 1940's, the group including Kay Jankey fourth from the left, Tom Merner and his wife, Bernice Knutson, Jack and Peg Weaver join in the dedication. 

Near the bluff overlooking the Straight River, includes Tom Merner, Bernice Knutson and Jack Weaver

Faribault High School teacher, Larry Knutson, who taught Advanced Algebra and Physics, meeting with Jim Weaver who is working at this time as a research physicist at M.I.T.  Jim was one of Larry's students at Faribault High School 

Summer 1983. After the dedication, Orwin Rustad, Jim Weaver, Larry and Bernice Knutson, Peg Weaver in Jeep Wagoneer parked by the Knutson Home on the "old golf course development in southern Heights Faribault. By T Weaver

Peg Weaver's description in Rememberings p 112 "In July 1983 Jim, Tom and I drove from Pelican, Jack, from Wisconsin, for the dedication of the Paul Weaver Wood Bluff Preserve, what Pete, Peggy and Ken Agerter and I had fondly called "The Prop". Since Pete had often mentioned that he would like to give the Prop to some nature group, I was pleased

that The Nature Conservancy agreed to accept the gift. I had hoped that Peggy would give the Agerter share, but she preferred to sell it to the Nature Conservancy.

Because the Prop contained large areas of the Minnesota Dwarf Trout Lily, Erythronium propulans, Minnesota's only endemic plant and an endangered species, The Nature Conservancy was interested in its protection. This beautiful, little spring flower occurs only in Rice and Goodhue Counties in Minnesota, with the largest number of colonies recorded at the River Bend Nature Center, adjacent to the Prop. Mary B. Hodges, a teacher of botany at St. Mary's Hall in Faribault, first collected this rare wildflower in one of the campus ravines in 1871. The plant was sent for identification to Dr. Asa Gray, botanist at Harvard University, who gave it its scientific name.

Most of the thirty or so people attending on a hot, sticky day were from Faribault: Tom and Betty Kaul, Bernice and Larry Knutson, Rita and Burt On, Ardis Siemers, Orwin Rustad, Tom and Bess Merner, Kay and Ken Relyea, Peggy Agerter, plus others I didn't know. Peg Koering, from Minneapolis, represented The Nature Conservancy. Seeing Don and Lib Lawrence from Minneapolis, very active Nature Conservancy members, was a pleasant surprise. Especially, I enjoyed a long visit with Bernice and Larry Knutson who used to be our Faribault neighbors."

Peg Weaver with the sandstone bluffs and the Straight River behind taken from the bridge over the river. Note some of the birch trees that attracted Peg and Pete with the Agerters to purchase the property in the early 1940's.

Another view with Peg Weaver with the bluffs and river in the background 1983.

Glessners Inez and Harry 1942 in Faribault to 1972 in Findlay

I visited Findlay Ohio in 1972 with my mom, Peg Glessner Weaver who was born in Findlay 3 June  1910.  My maternal grandmother here is Inez Chase Glessner, under the street sign of Glessner Avenue and Main Cross in Findlay. Inez married Harry Chappelear Glessner in March 25, 1908 in Findlay.  Here is the author with my Carleton College blazer on that I wore when singing with the Carleton Knights, 1965 -69. 

Here are Inez C Glessner and Margaret Mary "Peg" Weaver at the same street corner in Findlay. 

1942 Christmas Visit - Grandparents Inez and Harry Glessner with James Cowles "Jim" Weaver, having "tea".  Jim was born in Faribault MN Sept 8, 1940 and this was taken in the rental home, small limestone 201 4th Ave SW, mentioned in Peg Weaver's 1994 Rememberings Memior.  This is the third and last rental property prior to the Weaver's purchasing the larger limestone home at 425 SW 3rd St, Faribault in 1943, prior to John Eicher Weaver AKA "Jack's birthday in October of that year. 

Spring Weather in Minnesota - Time for Biking!

Reading in the Magazine, hard copy, a gift from Steve B, my disc golf mentor, about the role of blogging during the Arab Spring.  And sensing putting anything out on the web is now a part of co creating history.   I am starting to "get" how much of a shift to equality on the web is happening in real time!  Be in the present and grateful.    Peace, love, joy and beauty each day. 

My good friend Bob P, from Bloomington MN, Called me up early Sunday AM, and asked if I wanted to go for a bike ride.  We both intuitively flashed on the Dakota Trail starting on Wayzata Bay.  On Saturday, my friend Andy M and I did my first of the spring, starting from his place in Prospect Park near the U of M, and taking the Greenway to Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet.  He even had a goal to visit his friend Monica a few blocks west of the river in the Linden Hills neighborhood. 

The YOU ARE HERE, allowed Bob in me, to be really present to being here now!   On the trail. 

At the same stop, this overview map shows where we started to the east, and how the trail goes through Lake Minnetonka's Bays, and finally on the west out to St Bonifacius.

 Here is the Bistro, St Boni Bistro where Bob and I had our breakfast.  He figured this is 12.5 miles out, and the 1/2 point on our trip.

 Here is Bob at one of the stops along the way.  Notice the lack of leaves on the trees.  This is the second of two 70 degree plus spring days, April 28 and 29th..

On Saturday, Andy M and I stopped for ice cream at Sebastian Joe's in Linden Hills.  We noticed a lot of pot holes on the streets of Minneapolis, and I just had to have a scoop of the local recipe "Nicollet Ave Pot Hole".  Chocolate with sea salt and not sure what else. Refreshing and a lot of folks out enjoying the day.