Summer 2020
THE JOURNAL PRESENTS
Simply North
Live. Play. Enjoy.
BUTTERFLIES
And how they get that way
MRS. VIOLET KIELCZEWSKI
‘The Saga’ continues
POSTAL CUSTOMER ECRWSS
PRESORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID INT’L FALLS MN PERMIT NO. 30
Back To School:
Are Your Kids Ready? As summer begins to wind down, it’s time to get prepared for the upcoming school year! Rainy Lake Clinic providers are here to help keep your family healthy and ready for the school year. Update immunizations before returning to child care programs, school, and college. We have two locations with extended hours for busy families. Rainy Lake Clinic-Int’l Falls: Mon, Tues, Wed 7:30am – 7pm | Thu & Fri 7:30am – 5pm Rainy Lake Clinic-Littlefork: Tues & Wed 8am – Noon | 1pm – 5:30pm Our clinics are practicing spaced out appointments and all COVID-19 cleaning practices required by the CDC and MDH for the safety of our patients and staff.
Rainy Lake Clinic 1400 Highway 71 International Falls, MN 56649 218-283-5503 Rainy Lake Clinic - Littlefork 912 Main Street Littlefork, MN 56653 218-278-2000 2 | Simply North • Summer 2020
Contents
Summer 2020
4-5
‘TIS THE SEASON for blueberries, that is
6-9
FOR THE GRINDALLS Dogs are all in the family
10-11
VIOLET KIELCZEWSKI Where we left her last....
13-14
GROWING TO FLY Raising monarchs and more
18-19
HILDA RIZZO And Norman’s birdhouses
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To contribute or advertise, please contact: Karley Mastin at karley@ifallsjournal.com or Laurel Beager at laurel@ifallsjournal.com COVER PHOTO BY EMILY GEDDE
218-285-7411 Simply North • Summer 2020 | 3
Blueberry picking season I
t’s blueberry season in Borderland and that means two things — there are a lot of good recipes being made and sore backs being treated. Picking the sweet berries can be a lot of work, but most would likely agree the end result is worth it. If exploring the vast number of islands and shorelines full of blueberries in Voyageurs National Park, one gallon per day is allowed to be picked. However, according to park staff, there can be no sale of the berries picked in the park.
Blueberry crisp Ingredients Blueberry mixture 10 cups blueberries 1 cup brown sugar 1 Tbs all-purpose flour 1 tsp ground cinnamon Crisp mixture 2 cups quick-cooking oats 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups packed brown sugar 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 2 tsp ground cinnamon 1 cup butter, cubed while cold Instructions Preheat oven to 375 degrees Prepare a 9x13 pan with baking spray Blueberry mixture
Blueberry picking season arrives in Borderland. (Contributed photo)
4 | Simply North • Summer 2020
Place blueberries in a bowl. Add brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Stir and completely coat blueberries in mixture. Set aside. Crisp mixture Combine the oats, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon together. Use your hands to combine in the butter. The butter to be pea-sized and completely coated. Spread 3 cups over the bottom of the greased pan and press flat. Pour the blueberry mixture over top and press down with rubber spatula. Pour the rest of the crisp mixture over top of the blueberries Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 3545 minutes.
Blueberry muffins Ingredients 2 cups blueberries 4 eggs 2 cups sugar 1 cup vegetable oil 1 tsp vanilla 4 cups all purpose flour 1 tsp salt 1 tsp baking soda 2 tsp baking powder 2 cups sour cream Instructions Preheat oven to 400 degrees In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside. In another bowl, beat the four eggs for a few seconds Gradually add in the sugar Slowly add the vegetable oil Add the sour cream Add the dry ingredients into the egg and sour cream mixture Stir in the blueberries Spoon mixture into muffin tin — fill to top Bake at 400 degrees for 17-20 minutes Makes two dozen muffins
Blueberry pancakes Ingredients 2 cups all-purpose flour 3 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt 4 tbsp granulated sugar 1 cup buttermilk 3/4 cup milk 2 eggs 1/4 cup butter melted 1-2 cups blueberries Instructions Stir to combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a bowl.
Add in buttermilk, milk and eggs. Stir to combine. Add in melted butter and stir just until combined and batter is thick and lumpy. Let batter sit for 5 minutes. Scoop about 1/4 cup of batter onto a preheated skillet on medium heat. Slightly spread the batter out with spatula. Sprinkle the blueberries onto the top of each pancake. When pancakes begin to bubble, flip and cook until golden. Only flip once. Enjoy!
Blueberry lemonade Ingredients 2 cups blueberries 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice 4 cups cold water 2/3 cup sugar Instructions Cook blueberries and lemon juice in small saucepan over low heat. Cook until most of the blue-
berries have popped, stirring occasionally. It should take less than 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and pour mixture through a fine wiremesh strainer into a large measuring cup. Pour the blueberry mixture into a pitcher. Add water and sugar. Mix well and chill for a few hours until cooled.
Simply North • Summer 2020 | 5
Life with dogs, and the experiences they bring BY DOUG GRINDALL
W
hen I was asked by Laurel (Beager, editor) to write another article about dogs, I have to admit that I was at a loss for words as I had previously written about most of my dog training tips to make a good family dog. After a couple days, I thought about all the dogs my family has owned over the years and some of the better stories I had about them. If you are ever with a group of strangers and are having a hard time making conversation with someone, just ask them if Doug Grindall they own a dog. The majority of people do and this is a great opening as people love to talk about their dog(s). Most of our friends have or have had dogs so that is the great bond between us. We have only owned three breeds of dogs during our 50 years of marriage — German shepherds, Labs, and now golden retrievers. Although all of these breeds are very easy to train and great family dogs, each breed has a positive characteristic that stands out from the rest. The intelligence and loyalty of a German Shepherd is unbelievable. My wife always says a Lab’s fur is like Teflon 6 | Simply North • Summer 2020
as most burrs and thistles do not stick to them. They dry quickly after being in the water. Our golden retrievers pick up burrs and thistles like steel to a magnet. One of our golden retrievers is still wet the next morning after swimming the previous day. Even with those drawbacks you can’t beat a golden retriever as a great family dog that feels its goal in life is to make you smile. Each of these three breeds sheds and it takes a very understanding wife who loves dogs to put up with all the hair in the house. At times there seems to be enough dog hair in the vacuum cleaner that I wonder if she vacuumed up one of our dogs. Dog hair seems to have an attraction to dress slacks also. These negatives are minor compared to the benefits of owning a dog if you have to have sufficient time to spend with them so they can become a great family dog. That said, I want to tell a couple stories about some of the dogs that we have owned. Most of the stories will have humor, but there are also lessons to be gained from a couple of them. One of ours friends once commented that he felt a dog gets to enjoy Heaven on Earth if it is brought into our family. I don’t know if that is completely true, but we do enjoy the company of our dogs and they seem to realize that and want to please us. A person has to remember never to compare the dog
you have now to one that you had in the past just as you can’t compare one child to another. Every dog has its positive attributes. A person also tends to forget the bad things that your previous dogs did. ‘WOLF’ Our first dog after we got married was a German Shepherd that was mostly black. We named him “Wolf” which I probably wouldn’t have done if I had known we would be moving to International Falls within 4 years. Nothing worse than yelling “Wolf” when you are walking thru the woods during hunting season. I grew up with a German shepherd that had the markings of Rin Tin Tin for those older readers who remember that TV show, so it was natural to want another of that breed. I loved to partridge hunt and the area around Crookston was a partridge mecca. We had a big field behind our house with tall grass, so I would place partridge scent on a stick and throw it as far as I could into the tall grass. Wolf loved this game and caught on quickly what he was looking for when I took him hunting. Wolf soon learned that partridge loved to be in brush piles in that part of the state and would often circle around a brush pile so the bird had to flush back to me. Once a bird made the mistake of
flying toward Wolf and he leaped up over 6’ in the air and caught it. As I watched those jaws close on the bird, I figured the wings must be broken now. Wolf brought the bird to me and dropped it at my feet and it took off. I was so surprised that I didn’t shoot as it flew away. The look that Wolf gave me was classic. Luckily I watched where the bird landed and I shot it when it flushed again. Wolf could cover ground quickly and efficiently to find birds with his German shepherd nose and my only task was to keep up with him. A friend who had never hunted with us before commented to me after the first 15 minutes of the hunt, “Don’t you realize that we can shoot the birds and we don’t have to run them down!” Wolf would retrieve almost anything that I shot. I have read that woodcock have a strong oil in their feathers and this must be true as Wolf would spit any woodcock out several times as he brought it back to me and I could always hear where he was due to his spitting sound. I have to admit that woodcock tasted like liver to me and I was never thrilled to eat them. One day my friend who was the area Department of Natural Resources wildlife manager at Crookston called and asked if I wanted to go snipe hunting. I told him I had heard that story before and didn’t have a bag to put them in. He assured me that this was for real and that 25 was the limit. His last name was Wolff so I would be hunting with two Wolfs that day! The area we hunt had an inch or two of water and created very slippery walking. These small birds were a real challenge to hit due to their aerial zigging and zagging. Wolf loved retrieving all the birds but would slip and slide in the mud often as he went to retrieve a bird. Soon he was covered in mud and my black German shepherd was brown and needed a bath when we got home. We quit hunting long before we reached 25 birds apiece. The next day my friend called me and said I had shot most of the birds. I knew that wasn’t true and asked what was up. He admitted that he had looked at the wrong line in the DNR regulations and we were not allowed 25 apiece. I gave my share to my buddy and he said they weren’t bad tasting. In the 1970’s there were a lot of moose in northwestern Minnesota and I saw or heard them many times crashing thru the woods when we stumbled into them. One time Wolf and I got between a bull and cow moose that apparently were more interested in other things that we were able to get that close to
them. I knew Wolf would run toward me if the bull charged him. I didn’t know if a shot in the air would turn a rut crazed bull moose. I told Wolf to stay while the moose stared at us from less than 100’ on each side of us. They say you can hear or feel your heartbeat in situations like that and it is true. There were two other times when I remember hearing my heartbeat and both of those times also involved blundering into a moose at even closer range. It seemed an eternity with those moose staring at Wolf and me, but it was probably less than 10 minutes and eventually they slowly wandered off. I would like to think that standing still was what resolved the situation, but actually I don’t think my feet could have moved anyhow. Another time we were hunting sharptails in a field with very tall grass. Wolf was bounding thru the tall grass when suddenly he yipped and jumped straight in the air. I figured he bumped into a sharp stick and just continued hunting. The fellow who was hunting with me commented shortly after that a skunk must have previously sprayed in the area. After another couple hundred feet he commented the skunk must be running after us in the grass as the smell was getting worst. I knew then why Wolf had leaped in the air. He was one of the few dogs I have owned that was smart enough to leave a skunk alone if he had the opportunity to spot it in the woods first. My friend and I used to drive up to Sebeka in the early 1970’s from the Cities due to the fantastic number of partridge at that time. Even though hunting was good in the Crookston area where we moved a couple years later, I wanted to return to Sebeka with Wolf and see what a difference a dog would make. However, we weren’t flushing very many birds that day and I soon figured I had found part of the problem when I saw a couple of large raccoons sleeping high in tree. I figured their hides would pay for my gas for the wasted drive over there, but was concerned about Wolf being injured if the raccoons were still alive when they fell to the ground. I hoped to shoot fast enough as they fell to avoid this happening. It seemed the raccoons broke every branch they hit on the way down and were dead when they hit the ground. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Wolf running away as fast as possible as he figured the tree was coming down. Carrying those two large raccoons out of the woods was not fun. Wolf wanted nothing to do with them and kept at least 20 feet away from me.
THE AUTHOR DOUG GRINDALL, HIS WIFE MARLYS, AND ONE OF THEIR BELOVED GOLDEN RETRIEVERS
‘SHADOW’ I figured if I could train a German shepherd to hunt, I do really do wonders with a Lab and talked Marlys into adding another dog to our family. The family we bought “Shadow” from said he would be a great outside dog as the pups were raised outside. Once Shadow got home and learned how nice a warm house was, it was difficult to get him to go out to do his bathroom jobs. I worked with him on retrieving as much as I had Wolf. However, Shadow figured if I was the one to throw something, I should be the one to go get it. A friend who had his dogs in field trials told me to get rid of that dog. We can’t get rid of a dog that we have had even a week, so this wasn’t an option with Shadow. One day it was like a light bulb went off in his head and he became one of the better hunting dogs I have owned. The lesson here is that every dog has its own learning curve and to have patience. He was such a connundrum as he hated getting wet and would actually pee off our steps when it was raining to avoid getting wet, but would retrieve ducks all day long. I never worked on teaching him to stay after I shot and it was not fun having a wet dog shake itself in the canoe if it wasn’t necessary. Here again if your dog is doing something wrong, you should probably look in a mirror to see what caused the problem. One day I was hunting on a point of land for ducks and have to admit that I couldn’t hit Simply North • Summer 2020 | 7
anything that day. Shadow was leaping into the water every time I shot. After about the 20th shot of not hitting anything, he gave me a look that said, “Even I could hit more ducks than you if I could shoot!” After that he always watched to see if a duck fell before he would leap into the water. I was field hunting geese in the Warroad area with Shadow, my son and the neighbor’s son. We spotted a field with a large flock. The game plan was for the boys to drop down in this drainage ditch and sneak into position. I was irritated with them when I suddenly saw them run up the bank and down the field before disappearing again. It is fortunate that they were far enough away from the geese that the geese didn’t fly. Shadow and I went around to the far side of the field and started our walk. One of the geese was foolish enough to let us get within range before the entire flock flushed. It still flew almost a 1/4 mile before it finally dropped. Shadow didn’t see it and I had to run across that plowed field to get close enough that Shadow could see what we were after. We finally caught up with the wounded goose, but I was pretty winded. I had to walk by the area where the boys had come flying up out of the ditch and I quickly learned what had happened when I inhaled a deep breath of skunk smell. I was already out of breath, but this really did a number on me and almost put me to my knees. I went into the doctor the next day to see if I had a heart issue. My health was fine, but he told me to stay out of a skunk spray when winded. Sometimes a dog even learns something on his own. I was hunting in thick brush with Shadow when I heard him give a blood curding scream up ahead. I figured for sure that a bear had him and went running as quickly as possible without giving any thought about what I planned to do when I got to the bear. I couldn’t help but laugh when I learned Shadow who was about 6 months old at that time had fallen into a ditch with steep sides and couldn’t get out. After that he remembered how quickly I would show up when he screamed and would do that whenever he treed a partridge. When he became too old to run the 4 miles into our hunting shack, either Marlys or I would have to sit on the back of the trailer behind our ATV and hold him. He hated that and would howl all the way out. I was always amazed
8 | Simply North • Summer 2020
“Basically the same ideas apply to when your kids are small. Spend a lot of time with them and keep a watchful eye on them. Time spent with your kids and dogs when they are young comes back hundredfold when they are older.” DOUG GRINDALL
that we didn’t have a wolf check out what sounded like a wounded dog! ‘PAL’ I worked with our next Lab, “Pal,” quite a bit and he had retrieved a duck, goose, and a pheasant by the time he was six months ago. We would sleep in a 10’ X 12’ tent whenever we went duck hunting over to Thief Lake in northwestern Minnesota. It was below freezing that first night of tenting with Pal and Marlys placed a couple wool blankets over him as well as under him. Sometime during the night, he came to my sleeping bag and nuzzled my face. I moved over in the bag and he crawled in and went to the bottom. I was concerned about him smothering down there and was awake until I could feel his breathing and heart beating against my leg. He was so hot when he crawled out of the sleeping bag the next morning that I could see steam arising off his body in the darkness. He learned a lot from that night and would always get on my cot and sleeping bag when we camped before I could get in. I finally bought him a used sleeping bag and cot at an auction, so I could get a good night sleep without having to share a narrow cot and sleeping bag with a dog when tenting. Our daughter’s husband grew up with golden retrievers, so that is what they bought as their first dog. I was impressed with their dog enough that I kept the thought of owning one in the back of my mind. A few years later there was a picture in the newspaper of a golden retriever that had been at the dog pound for a couple of weeks. Marlys was out of town visiting her mother when I went to look at this dog. He was skinny, but very friendly. I had a note for Marlys when she got home to go out to the dog pound if she wanted to add a little consternation to our lives. She was willing to give it a
try, but was concerned how this dog which appeared to be less than a year old would fit into our family. I told the law enforcement officer in charge that we wanted a trial period to learn if this dog got along with our dog, wasn’t gun shy, and was house broken. It was as if this dog had heard everything I said as he licked our Lab, Pal, all the way out to where we could see how he reacted to gunfire. Marlys said she wanted to give this dog a bath before he came in our house. I saw how this dog copied everything Pal did, so I went to the boat landing by Second Creek and threw a dummy in the water for Pal to retrieve. Pal dove in and this golden retriever also followed, but apparently had never swam before as he started trying to swim with his front feet thrashing out of the water. I had already thrown my glasses and wallet on the ground and was ready to go in and save him from drowning. It is fortunate that he started swimming before I hit the water as I wasn’t looking forward to getting wet in late October. ‘RED’ We did adopt him and called him, “Red.” You can see that we aren’t very creative with names for our dogs. It is fortunate that we adopted him as an examination by a vet showed he had worms and giardia and a couple other issues. The first couple weeks he would come along side our bed at night and nuzzle my face as he seemed to appreciate his new home. He was so skinny that he also displaced his front shoulder just as we were preparing for a long weekend hunting at Lac Qui Parle for geese and pheasants. A quick trip to the vet relocated the shoulder before we left, but the vet said no hunting with Red for a couple of weeks. Red had to be kept on a leash at all times, so one of us would stay in the pickup while the other hunted with Pal. The geese were flying high that weekend and the only one we got was a cripple that Pal found. He also found two wounded pheasants, so when someone would ask how we did that weekend, I would reply that we didn’t get anything, but our dog got a goose and 2 pheasants! Red became a great hunter by observing and working with Pal. Later that month, I took the dogs out to a pheasant farm. Pal went up to a clump of grass and put his nose in. He caught the pheasant before it could fly. Red also caught a pheasant before it flew. They finally flushed one for me. When I came home, Marlys asked me how we did. I replied we each got one. Although Red was
very gentle, he would quickly kill smaller animals. One morning when I was walking the dogs in the dark before work, I saw Red swinging something. I soon learned it was a young skunk. The skunk was dead, but the mist was everywhere. When I walked in the house, Marlys asked who got sprayed by a skunk. It was more serious the next time when he came across a porcupine. He came out of the woods with a mouth that looked like a pin cushion. We were over 2 miles from the pickup and I couldn’t remember putting a pair of pliers in the Polaris Ranger. Luckily there was a pair there. Red allowed us to pull over 50 quills out of his nose, mouth, and tongue without a struggle. A trip to the vet the next day was necessary in case any quills had broken off. After that I have always carried a Leatherman type tool in my pocket. ‘GOLDIE’ We had to put Red down due to hip issues after a short 10 years of being with us. Within four months, a friend called me to ask if we were interested in adopting a young golden retriever from an older couple. I am wise enough that I know there had to be buy-in from Marlys on such a decision and told her to check with Marlys. I was greeted by our friend, Marlys, neighbors and “Goldie” when I got home from dog obedience class that night. Goldie was our first female dog and has been a real joy in our family. After losing Red, we also had to put Pal down 6 months later due to health issues and probably needed Goldie even more than she needed a new home. She had no previous hunting experience yet the first bird that Marlys shot that fall was retrieved by Goldie before Marlys could leave the trail. There must have been good hunting traits in her bloodlines. LIFE WITH DOGS When I read or hear stories of wolves attacking dogs, I am thankful that I never had a problem during all the years that I walked our dogs before work in the dark for at least 4 months out of the year. We knew there were wolves on our trails though as we would occasionally hear them howling at night behind our house or see their tracks when we would walk in the daylight on the weekends. One of the benefits of being semi-retired is that I can now walk the dogs in the daylight. One morning I had a wolf cross about 200
feet behind me and the dogs. Luckily the dogs were looking the other direction and weren’t aware of the wolf presence until we went to walk back and they hit the wolf’s scent. I had a hard time getting them under control to leave the wolf’s trail alone. I told Marlys to bring a camera when we walked the next day and I was lucky enough to spot the wolf lying on a high rock outcrop about 50 yards away just watching us. However, it took off before Marlys could get the lens off the camera. Another time we spotted what appeared to be a wolf thru the trees running down a trail that would cross in front of us. Marlys yelled at the dogs to come and she took off running down the road. I never realized how fast she could run until that day! I figured I could get the wolf to turn into the woods when I yelled and I stood there waiting to see how close it would come. As it got closer, I could see the wolf was a husky with its female owner jogging a ways behnd it. We had seen those two jogging since the husky was just a pup. I learned that day in case of a real wild animal attack I would probably be some critter’s lunch as I couldn’t outrun Marlys or the dogs. However, my biggest peril when walking in the dark has been primarily skunks in the springtime. Tomato juice does nothing to eliminate that smell, but I finally learned of a combination of three ingredients that does work. When I couldn’t cross Second Creek to walk behind our house, I would walk along the river. I generally didn’t carry a flashlight and just let my eyes adjust to the darkness. One morning Pal growled as we were walking along the river in thhe springtime. He never growled at anything so I knew I had a big problem and figured there must be a bear in the woods. I felt my option if the bear charged was to leap into the river hoping the dogs would follow and the bear wouldn’t. It is fortunate that I always went to the bathroom before my morning walks or it would have happened before I could say the word. I heard brush snap and saw a man walking out of the brush toward the trail. I saw an emblem on his jacket. I don’t know who was more surprised at that time – me or the Border Patrol officer who apparently had been watching the river. After that I would see their vehicle parked along the road occasionally and would always make sure to call out the dogs’ names loudly to avoid surprising them in the dark. Most of them would get out of
their vehicle to give my dogs some attention, which they loved. I’m sure many people would ask what I have learned after a lifetime of owning dogs and what I would do differently since our first dog. Here is my condensed answer. We seem to always have good family dogs and this is probably due to our dogs being around us all the time. It is important to create that bond so they want to please you. Our dogs always are looking forward to what we are going to do next, so we can let them outside without putting them on a chain or having a fenced in yard. Even at that we check on them every couple of minutes to see what they are up to and they aren’t out very long at a time. Basically the same ideas apply to when your kids are small. Spend a lot of time with them and keep a watchful eye on them. Time spent with your kids and dogs when they are young comes back hundredfold when they are older. We try to expose our dogs when we first get them to all the things that we want them to be comfortable with later in life such as swimming, being friendly around people and other dogs, and riding in a car, boat, or Side-by-Side, etc. We probably enjoy our dogs more today than that first German Shepherd as I am not as strict. The last dog book that I read was about training dogs for the military. Even there they talk about using more carrot and less stick, in other words always positive reinforcement. Thoughts on training have changed for the better over the years and most trainers will agree that a good family dog raised in a comfortable house can still be a good hunting dog compared to life in a kennel. Some feel a dog knows when it has done wrong. However, they are just reacting to your tone of voice and facial expression. A dog’s attention span for what it has done is just a few seconds. Training with kindness and a lot of attention applies to more than just dogs. There is an excellent book at the library called Beautiful Jim Key that shows what a horse can learn when kindness and a lot of attention is given. I read every article that I can about dogs, as a person can always learn something new and I try to pass this information on to friends and participants in my class, so they don’t have to reinvent the wheel themselves. Grindall, former Koochiching County engineer, has led a Community Education dog training course for years.
Simply North • Summer 2020 | 9
SURVIVAL IN THE WILDERNESS The saga of Mrs. Violet Kielczewski continues Editor’s note: The following are chapters 17 and 18 about the woman who became Mrs. Violet Kielczewski and her life in early Borderland. Born in 1911, she spent much of her life in the rugged wilderness. Parts XIII and XIV were published in the fall 2019 edition of Simply North. Parts XI and XII were published in the summer 2019 edition; Parts IX and X were published in the spring 2019 edition; Parts VII and VIII were published winter 2019; Parts V and VI were published in the fall 2018 edition, parts III and IV were published in the summer 2018 edition and parts I and II were published in the spring 2018 edition. XV and XVI were published in the winter print edition of Simply North. We left Violet in 1944, when alone, Orrah Jr. cut his face, which got infected, and he nearly died. XVII In the waning days of summer in 1944, Orrah and Violet towed a boom of logs to the Border Mill leaving 11-year old Floyd and 9-year old Elnora to look after the dogs. Violet felt for the kids being alone as she had spent many times alone tending the dogs while Orrah was off to Fort Frances or Mine Center. Storms slowed their progress, as occasionally they were wind-bound for days waiting for calmer weather to tow the boom of logs. During this time if possible Orrah would hunt down a deer so they could have fresh meat to go with their other staples. Arriving at the mill they docked across from Mr. Matthews houseboat that, according to Violet was a “Floating Mansion.” Mr. Matthew paid Orrah for the logs and in turn Orrah made an offer to Mr. Matthew and gave him down $500 on the houseboat and Mr. Matthew’s told him to tow it away, but he 10 | Simply North • Summer 2020
said he wanted a little job done when Orrah was beaver trapping in the spring. That was to bring him enough “live” beaver so it would make up the equivalent of another $500 and Mr. Matthew got a permit in his name for the live beaver. Orrah came back down to the steam tug and told Violet they now owned the “floating mansion.” Violet was ecstatic. They bought their winters grubstake which consisted of about a half ton of potatoes, 300 pounds each of carrots, onions, rutabagas and cabbage, white flour, bran and whole wheat kernel, a couple of barrels of powdered Klem Milk, and Violet reported “plenty of other staples.” The houseboat floated high and towed amazingly easy behind the steam tug. Upon arriving home, Orrah blew the whistle and Floyd and Elnora came running, and when they saw the two-story houseboat they were just jumping up and down. They docked the houseboat on a shallow beach for the winter and then Orrah and Violet took Tony and the two older boys mink trapping, while Orrah and the boys were trapping Violet hunted squirrels. They were gone about a month and when they came home, Violet tried to teach Orrah Jr. and Floyd to read and write. It was very hard because they worked outside all day long and they were just too tired to concentrate and besides that their dad would whisk them out to the trap line. After arriving back to the Kettle River, Violet never bothered to move into their old home and wasted no time in moving on to the houseboat. Orrah was in no hurry to move, but Violet promptly took matters into her own hands and told the boys to tow it out in front where she could start moving in. Violet made changes to the bedrooms and built-in lockers; she ordered new bed springs and
Bernarr McFadden, author of the book that Violet used to get her through illness and injury in the wild.
factory-made mattresses from Eaton’s; she had quit making deer hair mattresses. Violet ordered yard goods to make curtains, she had lots of windows to make curtains for and she loved every minute of it. Orrah cut a hole for a chimney through an outside wall and up past the second story. They had to be extra careful because every so often it would catch fire and burn red hot, however after a few ordeals, Orrah would burn the chimney out once a month so that when they left the older boys or Elnora alone with the other children she did not have to worry too much. Violet later notated that they had plenty of beds and plenty of everything; she had taken everything out of the old house
except for the white flour sack curtains that she had put fancy red ruffles around the edges. Orrah asked her to leave them to remind him of the house that she had fixed up as he would be using it as a last stopping place when he tended his traps in the spring. Even Violet was a bit sentimental over leaving the place as it was once the nicest home she had ever had since she was first married. It had been comfortable, warm and she had given birth to two of her children there. In the fall of 1946, with the houseboat docked, Violet was repairing the top when she fell through the roof just missing the cast iron box stove. The fall was terrible, causing the start of a horrendous time for her, next up Violet has it tough. XVIII While repairing the roof of the houseboat, Violet fell through, just missing the cast iron box stove. She described the fall as terrible and not too long after, she became very ill and weak; so weak that she couldn’t lift her left arm above her head, it was just too painful. Then the pain began to spread to the other arm. She mentioned the pain in front of some of the children; she later learned that Orrah Jr. went to the engine shed on the back of the houseboat and got on his knees asking God to intervene and heal her. Violet suffered a miscarriage and somehow the placenta did not come with the fetus, and she then began to get, in her words, “terrible sick.” An abscess appeared on her left collarbone. Orrah took a piece of vitriol, a deadly poison in itself, and drew out the poison from the abscess; a piece of the collarbone was gone. Violet again turned to Bernarr Mcfaddens Encyclopedia on Health and Natural Methods. She began to fast one day a week, drinking only water; she would fast one day and eat five days, then fast two days until she was fasting three days drinking only water. Violet kept fasting until she was able to fast an entire week. At this time she would fast a week at a time and drink canned grapefruit juice for several days. Violet’s son, Floyd, would come off the trap line and just sit and look on sadly; this is when Orrah began to look into the Holy Scriptures and cursing and swearing no longer came from his lips. Orrah told both Floyd and Elnora to pray fervently for their mother. Violet was at her sewing machine when she started to hemorrhage and sent Floyd to get Orrah,
who was only a 100 yards away. It took only a minute for Orrah to get there, but in that time she had lost what she termed a tremendous amount of blood. Orrah came in ghost faced and immediately tore up anything in the line of bed sheets to pack her and stop the flow of blood, he elevated her feet so they were higher than her head. Wesley took over the scrubbing of the clothes and also helped Elnora with the housekeeping, cooking and associated chores; the other boys all got in wood and cooked the feed for the dogs. Orrah made a trip out to Fort Frances with the dog team and flew back in one of Mr. Matthew’s smaller planes, which was a Beaver, and landed out at the forks of the Pipestone and Falls River. He hitched up the dog team and came back to the houseboat telling her he was sending her to Fort Frances in one of Mr. Matthew’s big ‘Northmen.’ Violet had started to feel better and she told Orrah she didn’t want to go and she was going to be OK. A few hours later the big Northmen buzzed the house; Orrah waved him on. Violet continued to fast on and off for another month, and in March the sun began to come warm, so she would lie on a blanket on the front deck of the houseboat. Violet then started on a milk diet; she drank quarts and quarts of milk mixed from the whole powdered Klem milk. She began to do housework again and take care of the mink; in her own words, she went from skin and bones to “pleasingly plump.” Violet never felt any ill effects from the ordeal, and knew that many prayers went up to God in heaven from her children and loving husband. In April, after she had recovered, she painted both stories of the houseboat white and the rails green. While painting the bottom story, she was standing on a 55 gallon wooden keg when the bottom fell out and she went right through. There she was standing inside of the keg on the houseboat walk, the walk was over the deep water and scared 12- year old Elnora, who told her that had she fallen in the water she would have perished as she couldn’t swim. The next year Elnora did the painting and Violet did acknowledge that her children were always very concerned about her. Next up: Violet reads scripture to her children. She not only read the New Testament but the entire Bible. Spring trapping for muskrat and beaver begins, and Mr. Matthew wants more live Beaver, but it was the last time. The saga continues.
Mike Hanson
About the author Mike Hanson, a former Koochiching County commissioner, notes he has a keen interest in people who settled here, what challenges they encountered, and especially what they took for granted. He finds it interesting to see how the foundation of what they did back then affects people today.
Did you know? The Koochiching Museum galleries feature 10,000 years of Borderland history. Exhibits document the northern Minnesota region including Native history and culture, European settlement, and the exploitation of natural resources through the fur trade to modern forestry. The Bronko Nagurski Museum is a lasting tribute to this 1930’s sports legend. This is this only museum in America dedicated to this All American Minnesota Gopher and NFL Hall of Famer Chicago Bear. As any sportsperson knows, Bronko Nagurski may have been the greatest football player of all time. Contact (218) 283-4316 (218) 283-4316 (Fax) 214 6th Avenue International Falls, MN 56649 US
Simply North • Summer 2020 | 11
Raising MONARCHS
12 12 || Simply Simply North North •• Summer Summer 2020 2020
BY EMILY GEDDE
W
hen my daughters and I released three monarch butterflies into the wild last year, we experienced an unexpected amount of pride and joy. After watching the three caterpillars transform into the pupa stage, then go into chrysalis and emerge as butterflies, we were hooked. We were proud. We were sad to see them go. Rena is 10 years old, and Ruby is 5 years old, so we’ve turned the experience into a fun learning project. The girls and I have researched the life cycle of a monarch butterfly and have kept a journal about the changes happening daily. This year, we have four butterflies currently in the chrysalis stage, and we’re getting anxious to release them in a few days. We feel a little more attached to the 2020 batch since we found them ourselves. I have a friend who lives in Big Falls with a large crop of milkweed on her property. Last year, she delivered the caterpillars to us, but this year, we took on the challenge of finding them. Since milkweed is what monarch caterpillars eat, we spent a warm evening hunting for the black, yellow and white creatures. We keep them in a container specifically designed for raising monarchs and we’re able to watch them eat their way to pupa stage and eventually chrysalis. Ruby and I
Rena shows off one of the caterpillars we found on a friend’s property in Big Falls. (Photos by Emily Gedde)
Ruby, 5, watches as one of our caterpillars sheds its skin and goes into the chrysalis stage.
Rena studies one of our 2019 caterpillars before it flew away.
Ruby shows off one of our 2019 caterpillars.
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were lucky enough to catch one shed its skin and go into chrysalis. Now we wait. CYCLE COMPARISON This year has been challenging for our family and the rest of the world. We did not expect to endure a worldwide pandemic, and like everyone else, we often find ourselves in a whirlwind of emotions that change daily. These caterpillars are a constant for us. They’re giving my daughters daily joy and impending excitement of the final release. As they hang in their green chrysalis, I can’t help but look at their life cycle and compare it to ours. Sometimes, it may seem like time is standing still, like the pause button has been hit, which is how I have felt since March. The chrysalis stage, which lasts about 11-12 days, is the pause button. They don’t change much during this stage, other than becoming more transparent toward the end. But soon, the butterflies will emerge and fly onto the rest of their lives. Life didn’t just begin for these creatures, but transformed into something different and new – much like our new normal going forward. There are a lot of unknowns in our world
Three of the four caterpillars we found snack on some milkweed.
and this experience has reminded me to take each day, each step of life. one day at a time. Life is short and always changing; we need to embrace it all.
One of our caterpillars travels along the rim of a milkweed leaf. The creatures eat 200 times their birth weight in milkweed leaves by the time they form chrysalises. (Staff photos by Emily Gedde)
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According to wikipedia.com, to prepare for the pupa or chrysalis stage, the caterpillar chooses a safe place for pupation, where it spins a silk pad on a downward-facing horizontal surface. At this point, it turns around and securely latches on with its last pair of hindlegs and hangs upside down, in the form of the letter J. After “J-hanging” for about 12–16 hours, it will suddenly straighten out its body and go into peristalsis some seconds before its skin splits behind its head. It then sheds its skin over a period of a few minutes, revealing a green chrysalis.
Wikipedia.com describes this stage as: At first, the chrysalis is long, soft, and somewhat amorphous, but over a few hours it compacts into its distinct shape – an opaque, palegreen chrysalis with small golden dots near the bottom, and a goldand-black rim around the dorsal side near the top. At first, its exoskeleton is soft and fragile, but it hardens and becomes more durable within about a day. At this point, it is about 2.5 cm (1”) long and 10–12 mm (3/8–7/16”) wide, weighing about 1.2 grams. At normal summer temperatures, it matures in 8–15 days (usually 11–12 days). During this pupal stage, the adult butterfly forms inside. Within a day or so before emerging is due, the exoskeleton first becomes translucent and the chrysalis more bluish. Finally, within 12 hours or so, it becomes transparent, revealing the black and orange colors of the butterfly inside before it ecloses (emerges).
Simply North • Summer 2020 | 15
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16 | Simply North • Summer 2020
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Simply North • Summer 2020 | 17
Birdhouses
keep local woman occupied during pandemic BY EMILY GEDDE orderland winters can be long, cold, and lonely for some people who are unable to venture out during the seemingly never ending season. Throw in the COVID-19 pandemic on top of it, and it can be downright depressing. At 93 years old, Hilda Rizzo of International Falls, still lives in her home and is as sharp as ever. Still, because of winter’s wrath coupled with unnecessary exposure to the novel coronavirus, Rizzo and her family decided it was best she stay home as much as possible. “I’ve got to stay busy,” Rizzo said. “I can’t just sit around and knit.” Rizzo’s daughter, Julie Ehrman, said the family brainstormed ways to keep her mother occupied. “This winter was long and cold and with the arrival of COVID, it was a struggle to keep her spirits up,” Ehrman said. Several years ago, Norman Boyum had made a few birdhouses Rizzo painted, so Ehrman and her husband reached out to Boyum to see if that was something he’d be interested in providing Rizzo with again. “The next day, mom had a knock on her door at 8 a.m.,” Ehrman said with a laugh. “It was Norman with a birdhouse... Since then, he’s been bringing them regularly.” Now, Rizzo’s 10th Street home is full of colorfully painted birdhouses in all different shapes and sizes. Some are decorated like churches, others like schools and the one she is working on now will look like an apartment complex. “They’re everywhere,” Ehrman said. “She doesn’t even know how many she did.” Rizzo nodded. “I’ve done so many,” she said. “It’s been
B
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(Staff photos by Emily Gedde)
wonderful... I even got one this morning and he doesn’t want them back anymore.” Ehrman praised Boyum’s generosity for keeping her mother happy during a stressful time. “It has been a lifesaver and she loves the
diversity and challenge,” she said. “Norman is so selfless and he works so hard to bring her new houses each week. We are all so grateful for his kindness and support to help her out and bring the unique, one-of-a kind birdhouses.”
Hilda Rizzo shows off a few of the birdhouses she painted. Norman Boyum builds and delivers birdhouses to Rizzo regularly to keep her busy.
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