Thank You Veterans

 

Thank You Veterans

Today I am going to share a story I read in our Wisconsin Outdoor News. The author of the story is Dean Bortz. 

The Wisconsin Outdoor News 2023 Person of the Year, Rueben Kolpack. He is 103 years old and is the oldest licensed Wisconsin deer hunter.

Oh he has many milestones, I will share a few with you..

World War II soldier.

Recipient of the Silver Star for gallantry in action, the Purple Heart, African/European Medal, Victory Medal, and a Belgian medal on the recommendation of the French government.

Married 77 years to his wife, Lucille, who passed away in March at age 97, just five days short of her 98th birthday.

Father to six children.

 Successful farmer.

 

I want to share a few things from the article that Rueben shared.

Rueben grew up speaking German. While he was at basic training at Fort Riley, Kansas an officer asked if anyone could speak German. Once Uncle Sam figured out Kolpack could speak German, he was sent to radio school and then to the 2nd Armored Division where he was a radio operator and interpreter in a tank battery.

It was a tough duty. He saw a lot of things he'd rather not have had to witness - the huge cost of human lives on the beach of Normandy, the tank ahead of him getting blown to bits by a German Tiger tank and its 88 mm cannon.

"If it weren't for the grace of God, I wouldn't be here today. It was a miracle anyone survived the mortar attack where I was wounded. The stronghold was just 200 yards away on the ridge above us. Those mortar rounds just kept landing around us and the command tank. When people say there isn't a God, they're lying to themselves.

He was struck by a mortar that damaged his right leg. He spent four months in the hospital and was not fully recovered when he was forced back into war for the Battle of the Bulge because of losses in his unit.  

 

Today I say Thank You to Rueben and all the other Veterans. 

And I say thank you  to all of those who are currently serving.

Godspeed.

 

On the Road Friday ~ to the Wisconsin Executive Residence ~

Last week Thursday my husband, I and our son Atticus headed South to Madison. Our destination was the Executive Residence.

Governor Tony Evers and First Lady Kathy Evers announced that they will continue the  tradition of remembering Wisconsin's deployed service members and veterans with a "Tribute to our Troops." holiday tree in the Executive Residence.

The governor and first lady invite family members of Wisconsin's service members - past and present, in Wisconsin and abroad - to send a holiday ornament dedicated to their loved one. The ornaments will be displayed on one of the large evergreen trees on display at the Executive Residence during its holiday tours.

We created the following ornaments.

My Grandpa Sam .. WWII Veteran

 Our son Sam.. currently Wisconsin National Guard

 

The invitation is open to families of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guard members. Ornaments can be plain, fancy or personalized to honor our fallen service members, those who are deployed overseas this holiday season, and all who wear the uniforms of our nation's armed forces.

" I am pleased to be able to offer families an opportunity, especially during the holiday season, to recognize the brave folks who serve in our armed forces." Governor Evers said. " I think it is as important for family members as it is for the service members being honored in this way."

Governor Evers

 

 We met the First Lady Kathy Evers. She was interested in our family story and where in Wisconsin we lived. She had to chuckle at how far North we live from Madison.

We got to hang our ornaments on the Tribute to our Troops tree.

 It was a special day for us. 

Thank you for coming along with me today, On the Road Friday, to Madison, Wisconsin to see a very special tree at the Executive Residence.

 ♥

Carla

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my dear family and friends.

May the spirit of Thanksgiving enter your home and heart,

filling you with many blessings.

 ♥ 

Carla

 

 Let us have faith that right makes might;

and in that faith let us, too the end, dare to do our duty as we understand.

President Lincoln

 

 Be Back Soon!

Off to Basic Training Graduation for Sam.

Thank you all for the prayers and well wishes during the last 10 weeks. 

Thank You to our Veterans'

America's White Table

 

 If you have time watch the below video.

 

Thank you, Hero's!

A little - known tradition to the outside civilian world, "the white table" originated during the time of the Vietnam War as a symbol for and remembrance to service members held prisoner of war or missing in action. Solitary and solemn, it is the table where no one will ever sit.

Thank you to all men and women in uniform who dedicated their lives to freedom's cause.

 ♥
Carla

Thank You

Thank You

Our prayers are with all of those who protect our freedoms.

 

It is Back to the Happy Hodgepodge

It is Wednesday and we are back to the Hodgepodge!

Joyce asks the questions.

We answer the questions.

Click here to join the fun! 

They are no longer this small...both taller than me, but just as silly!

These two make me smile.  

 

1. Let's all think happy thoughts...share one of yours here. 

My family! Those two in the above photo!! 

2. There's a Chinese proverb that says, "If you want happiness for an hour take a nap, if you want happiness for a day-go fishing...." What say you? If you want happiness for a day _____________.

 If you want happiness for a day let us go outside!

 3. Where do you go to decompress from the world around you? 

I head for a walk. The best way for me to get away from it all is to go for a walk or take a hike in the woods. I love nature and getting outside.

 4. What song never fails to make you happy? 

Norah Jones ~ Sunrise 

5. Wednesday is National Fast Food Day. Should that be a thing? Apparently it is, so tell us what's the last 'fast food' you consumed? If you were putting together your own version of a 'happy meal' what would you include? 

 

Culver's is our family's favorite fast food.

Check out Culver's here! 

My parents are dairy farmers. We are proud to support Culver's, because Culver's supports farmers. The below statement is from Culver's website.

From Gratitude to Full-Fledged Support

Culver’s wouldn't be what it is today without the family farms that grow and produce the wholesome, delicious food we so proudly serve. From the cattle ranches of the Great Plains to the dairy farms of Wisconsin and south to Georgia’s chicken country, it’s important to us to make sure farm families across the nation clearly see how thankful we are for their hard work and dedication.
So now, through our support for the National FFA Organization, we are giving back to today’s farm families, while helping ensure the future of the next generation.

6. In a few sentences tell us why you blog. 

 

 Blogging is a way for me to share what I find fun in life with others. It is a way for me to practice writing. And it has become a special place to find encouragement and meet so many wonderful people. The friendships built within the blogging community are amazing.

 

7. List seven things you're feeling especially grateful for today. 

 

1. Family

2. Friends

3. Heat ... Wisconsin is starting to get chilly ... snow flurries are forecast for the weekend

4. Garden goodness that we harvested this summer 

5. My husband's employer ... a great company who cares about the employees 

6. Our small town of Cameron, who is still mourning the loss of a police officer ... how this community wrapped its arms around the family

7. My dog Molly, who is my walking buddy 

8. Insert your own random thought here.

 

Click here for instructions on how to make your own turkey

 

Happy Thanksgiving 

Wishing all my Hodgepodge friends a great Thanksgiving.

I will be taking next week Wednesday off from the blog.

Enjoy your holiday!

  ♥

Carla

  

♫♫ This Land Is Your Land ♫♫

This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and Me.

Words and Music by Woody Guthrie

Badlands ~ South Dakota  ...  photo from our 2016 Road Trip

 Thank You .... because of you, we have this great land. 

Thank you, Grandpa, Marv, Patrick, Robert, Jeremy, Kayla, Matt, Brendon, Glenn, Don, Cathy,  .... and so many more, because of you we are able to do ...

 As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me that endless skyway:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This land was made for you and me.

Words and Music by Woody Guthrie 

Hello November

Hello November

 November is the month of thankfulness.

Our family as created a thankful tree in years past.

I create a tree and each of us write down on a cut out leaf what we are thankful for that day. We paste it to the tree and fill the tree with colored 'what we are thankful leaves".

 We do this for the month of November.

SOURCE

A friend introduced me to Ann Voskamp. I like what she came up with for the month of November. I am sharing her calendar below.

If you want more information about Ann click here Ann Voskamp

Looking at Ann's calendar a few ideas grabbed my attention right away...

Give someone the benefit of the doubt.

Give someone 5 minutes when you do not think you have it.

Thank someone older and younger than you today.

Text someone Good Morning or Good Night!

How about you? Do you have a special way of celebrating November, the month to be thankful.

 

Happy Halloween and Joy List Monday

Happy Halloween

Thank you for the prayers last week.

Our friend who lost her dad had good news. Her son is in the Navy and the Red Cross helped him get home for his grandpa's funeral.

Today I am sharing all the carving fun we have enjoyed for the Halloween season.

 

We are Milwaukee Brewer fans in this house, but for the World Series most of us are cheering for the Cubs. We have one Indian's fan, my son Atticus.

Sam's fun jack o lantern.

Atticus' jack o lantern.

My husband carved this big ♥  for me.

Joy List Monday

a weekly ritual

a reminder to stop and pay attention

 to the little beauties and graces 

 that make life magical and to set aside time for gratitude each day

 

♥ family time ... taking time to unplug and be with family

 ♥ baseball ~ I do love the game of baseball and have enjoyed watching the World Series

 ♥ the fun of Halloween ... our neighbor has decorated so fun this year, he hung colorful pumpkins in his maple tree

 ♥ It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown ... I love this movie ... it never gets old

 ♥ the excitement our son Sam is having with his first job ... he had a great first few days

Thank you again for all the prayers and love sent this way last week!

Trick or Treat

On The Road Friday ~ Evening Ceremony at Mount Rushmore ~ South Dakota

Happy Friday

It is On The Road Friday and we are taking a trip to the evening ceremony at Mount Rushmore.

 All is dark on top of Mount Rushmore.

 The Big Dipper was just above the Presidents heads.

 At 8:00 pm the ceremony began. We enjoyed a patriotic movie about America. 

One of the park rangers gave us a quick history lesson about the importance of the four men carved into Mount Rushmore.

The lights come on! The faces of Mount Rushmore are a glow until 11:00pm.

It is beautiful.

After that the park ranger asks all military past and present to come forward to help take the American flag down for the evening.

Each and every military member states their name and branch.

It was so patriotic and I felt so happy for the military up on stage. I felt thankful as well for the sacrifice of their service.

It was a beautiful night.

 

Thank you for coming along with me for On The Road Friday!

 

Funny on Monday and Joy List Monday

Music in the Park .... Lego Style

Funny on Monday

A large flywheel company, feeling it was time for a shakeup, hired a new CEO. This

new boss was determined to rid the company of all slackers. On a tour of the facilities,

the CEO noticed a guy leaning on a wall. The room was full of workers and he wanted to

let them know that he meant business! The new CEO walked up to the guy leaning

against the wall and asked, "How much money do you make a week?"

A little surprised, the young fellow looked at him and replied, "I make $300.00 a week.

Why?" The CEO then handed the guy $1,200 in cash and screamed, "Here's four weeks'

pay, now GET OUT and don't come back." Feeling pretty good about himself, the CEO

looked around the room and asked, "Does anyone want to tell me what that goof-off did

here?" From across the room came a voice, "Pizza delivery guy from Domino's."

 Joy List Monday

♥  a weekly ritual  ♥

a reminder to stop and pay attention to the little beauties and graces that make life magical and to set aside time for gratitude each day

 ♥ taking time to visit a friend who recently had hip surgery .... enjoying root beer floats and catching up on life

♥ continued garden goodness ... green beans, cucumbers, beets, cabbage, eggplant, flowers

 ♥ receiving a gentle rain ... a much needed rain

 ♥ surprising my friend Marv for his 87th birthday

♥ a picnic and a boat ride

 

Joy List Monday

Joy List Monday

♥ a weekly ritual  ♥

a reminder to stop and pay attention to the little beauties and graces that make life magical and to set aside time for gratitude each day

 ♥ Picking fresh raspberries ... making Raspberry Cheesecake Ice Cream 

♥ Safe Travels for my boys and husband...they are in Ohio for the week

♥ Cooler temperatures for last Friday's Farmer Market

♥ Friends who check on me ... they know summer is a busy time ... I appreciate the extra e mails, notes and friend love

♥ Humidity ... I do not really like humid weather, but my plants do

How about you? What do you have on your Joy list?

 

American Flowers Week

I am back!

Thank you for all the well wishes for my trip to meet up with Betty of Heritage Flower Farm. I am happy to report the trip had a surprise twist to it. A good surprise! I will tell you all about it Wednesday and Thursday right here at The River.

In the mean time, this week is American Flowers Week!

Click here to read more

Celebrating American Grown Flowers in all 50 States!

I am also going to start to participate in Joy List Monday.

My blog buddy Anne at My Giant Strawberry

She started Joy List Monday to help us remember to stop and pay attention to the little beauties and graces that make life magical and to set aside time for gratitude each day!

I love the idea. 

My list for this week.

* Making new friends at the Farmers Market. We have a fun group of us that set up each week, brave the weather and give each other a helping hand when things go wrong.

* Fresh Wisconsin Strawberries...my boys still enjoy going strawberry picking with me, I am so thankful.

* My garden...fresh radish and lettuce.

*My road trip went well. Yay!

*Enjoying infused water. I made a batch of rhubarb and it was yummy. I just made strawberry. Next on tap is strawberry/mint.

Do you have a favorite infused water?

Thank You ~ America's White Table

I found this book several years ago. It is so powerful. If you have not read it, I encourage you to read it. I read it aloud to my boys and family each Memorial Day. 
It is a children's book, it is so well done to bring the meaning of each veteran's gift of freedom to us. 
Thank you, Hero's!

A little - known tradition to the outside civilian world, "the white table" originated during the time of the Vietnam War as a symbol for and remembrance to service members held prisoner of war or missing in action. Solitary and solemn, it is the table where no one will ever sit.

Thank you to all men and women in uniform who dedicated their lives to freedom's cause.

 ♥
Carla
 

 

How Special a Letter Is and A Thanksgiving Giveaway

The Special Art of Writing Letters

Our family recently lost a dear friend.

She was in the hospital, nursing home, back to the hospital and then to hospice.

My mom taught my sister and I the importance of writing letters at an early age.

Taking time to write a friend, it means so much to that person.

During our friends time in the hospital, nursing home and hospice. She kept my mom's letters. My mom made it a practice to write Irma a letter each and every Monday during her illness.

While in hospice, she asked for the letters to be read to her again and again.

My parents live on a farm. They have all kinds of fun things going on. They have cows having calves, chickens, pigs and of sharing about family adventures in the letters too.

I wrote Irma as well, sharing about our boys, our adventures and our garden.

While writing the letters I did not know how important they would become later for her.

Click here to read more 

 Treasure

Thanksgiving Giveaway

 

 To say Thank You, to all my wonderful readers and for all the support of my blog. I am doing a Thanksgiving Giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment below.

The winner will receive a crochet basket, towel, and a bouquet of strawflowers.

 My husband, Jeremy, will pick the winner the old fashioned way, out of a hat on Thursday, November 19th. The winner will be announced on Friday, November 20th.

Smiles from our favorite people are such a blessing.

Every time I think of you...I thank God for you.

1 Corinthians 1:4

The Message

 

Cash, Boom, Bang ='s A New Basement Wall

Crash, Boom, Bang

Click here to read about the basement wall falling down 

Thank you to all for the well wishes for our basement wall.

I am happy to report our wall is up and our project should be complete by the end of the week.

We prepared over the weekend to have our crew come on Monday. 
Our friend Lori was hoping we would find buried treasure.
While tearing out some dry wall in the laundry room, my husband found .52 cents up in the beam of the house.  "We are rich!"

Monday, we woke up to SNOW! Because of the weather our crew had to cancel the original plans.

Our laundry room is along the wall that needed to be prepared for demolition! I have been out of a washing machine and a dryer  while waiting for this project to start. Did I ever find out how spoiled I am with my washing machine.

 Thursday we woke to sunshine and warmer temperatures as the day continued.

THINGS ARE GOING TO GET LOUD!

 The wall came out easy for our crew.

 A big scoop! 

They used a dump truck to haul away the old rock foundation and old soil.
No buried treasure was found in the hole.

 A big cement truck coming in. 

 A new footing was poured. Our contractor hoped to use the original footing. It ended up not being in good shape.  Because of that set back, we were not able to lay the brick the same day as opening the house.

 Our crew had a cool way of sliding down the brick to each other.

  

Slide and catch.

Wrapping up the basement for the night.

 All day Friday rain was in the forecast.

It did not rain! It was cool and damp. Thankfully, it did not rain.

Saturday and Sunday we enjoyed a beautiful Spring day.

The wall is drying nicely. 

Monday our crew plans to put on a water proof coat.

The hole will need to be filled up.

Our driveway will need to be touched up.

Wednesday, I should be back in business with my washing machine.

I might just give it a big kiss!

Thank you again, for the well wishes. 

This project was just a wee bit stressful for me.

We had a great crew! We had great weather!

Yippee!