CAPITOLETTER

September 25, 2023

Alvin and Marlee Cordell have had hunters visiting from Watertown, this week. Ryan Cordell and Wade Pearson vaccinated calves on Sunday. On Saturday night, Alvin and Marlee went south of Alzada for the J. O. McDonald seventieth birthday party. Alvin and George Davis had gotten thirty-five hundredths of rain.

Erma Albert had a physical therapy appointment in Buffalo on Tuesday. She also visited the Senior Center to play bingo and cards. She didn’t win at bingo, but her luck was better at cards. Mosquitoes were quite bothersome for a day or two but have now departed. On Thursday, Dick and Erma went to town for a dentist appointment and some shopping. Friday was their day to attend the Senior Citizen dinner, and Erma stopped to pick up Delores Sperle to take her along. After the dinner, Erma and Delores stayed to play cards for a while. Erma didn’t stop to visit after taking Delores home because she was on her way to the ‘Healing Mass’ at the Catholic Church. On Sunday, they attended church again and then had dinner at Saloon Number Three with the Helms family and Father Brian.

Bruce and Lynn Gustafson had only one-tenth of an inch of rain this week, but they noticed big puddles down the road at Jane Teigen’s. On Tuesday, Lynn went to the Diligent Doers Meeting, and they completed some of their plans for hosting the Fallon-Carter Fall meeting. On Friday, Bruce and Lynn went to Camp Crook to visit Pete Anderson and Dixie Garr, and Bruce helped Pete with some work on the house. Then they had supper at Over The Edge. They attended the Little Missouri Church service on Sunday.

Doug and Julia Davis had about three-tenths of an inch of rain this week. There is still some alfalfa to be cut. The trees on the river have begun to change color. On Friday evening, Doug and Julia had supper at Over The Edge in Camp Crook. On Saturday, Julia helped Doug move cows. Sunday was such a nice, cool day, that they decided to go for a drive, and went up to Ekalaka. They came back by way of the Sheep Mountains, and saw that the mountains were beautiful.

Shirley Melum is watering her trees in preparation for winter. The trees along the Little Missouri are turning a deeper gold, now. On Monday, they gathered with family for a picnic on the river. The weather was beautiful, and cool, and aside from a mosquito now and then, it was a lovely evening. On Saturday, Ernie, Rachel, and Tommy went to Meadow, South Dakota for their Threshing Bee. They got to hear the very talented Bluestem musicians play again. They had heard these musicians before, when they had put on a concert at the Carter County Fair in Ekalaka. On Sunday Ernie’s family went to Baker for church, and Rachel helped accompany hymns with her violin.

Last Saturday, Dorothy Padden joined Bryce and Dawn to attend the junior high Football Jamboree at Buffalo. On Tuesday, the three were in town again, and this time it was for volleyball games. On Thursday, Bryce, Dawn and Dorothy went to the Homecoming Football Game at Buffalo. Dawn was busy taking pictures for all of the events including coronation.

Karen Odell met Ernie Melum and the St. Onge representative on Monday at the Overn place and checked on the cows. Her cows are looking really well, and it brings tears to her eyes when she thinks about selling such beautiful cows, but she knows winter will come, and she could not and should not try to keep them. That evening, Karen came back to the river to join in a picnic with Ernie, Rachel, Tommy, Junior, and Shirley Melum, Carol Kalbach, and the David and Sarah Waterland family. The meadow along the Little Missouri was beautiful. There were only a few mosquitoes, and it was cool. It was a great evening to visit.

Karen made a business trip to Buffalo, Belle Fourche, and Spearfish on Thursday. On Friday, she made Welsh Cakes, and on Saturday, she went into Camp Crook for a short visit and a ‘thank you’ to Morgan and Mattie Buck. Karen spent that afternoon watching two of her grandson Kellan’s football games on YouTube. She is lucky that Mitchell games are available on YouTube.

Karen visited Murphy Odell on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. She went to church twice on Sunday. First, she went to the Methodist Church in Camp Crook, where she played piano for the hymns. It was a great service presented by Yvonne Yoder and Tyler Wolfe. Lynette Wolf presented the Children’s sermon. Then, at home, Karen watched YouTube for the service at the First Presbyterian Church in Marietta, Georgia. She visited with all her kids in the afternoon. Micki and Murphy were on their way to a Seahawks game. Karen’s good friend from high school, Mary Ann, called; and then Mollie called and shared some pictures. Their discussion went into the depths of moose migration and local partridges.

Ronda Cordell met the Carter Charter in Ekalaka for a very early ride to Billings, where Ronda had an oncologist appointment. She arrived early and was surprised when her name was called twenty minutes ahead of time for a blood draw, and nearly thirty minutes early for her doctor’s visit. It had been a beautiful day, and Ronda received a good report from the doctor. It was just a twelve-hour trip, up and back. Diane Wear had come to do chores in the morning, and she went out and picked a gallon of buffalo berries. The birds may have gotten a few of them in Ronda’s front yard. Just as Ronda was about to ‘hit the hay’ after the long day, her daughter, Cristen, called to tell her she should go out to get pictures of the Northern Lights. Ronda did some experimenting with her new and old cameras. Her old camera captured some pictures that were not too bad. Cristen took some nice ones with her smartphone.

On Tuesday, Ronda met with Nellie Howell in Ekalaka and they had coffee and ice cream. Then she stopped to visit with Marion Kerr. Dague’s hauled hay down from Table Mountain, and also a load of straw from Rosencranz’s, this week Clint Zolnoski has been working on preparing the big field over west for winter wheat for next year’s hay. The little showers we’ve gotten have helped the project along.

Wednesday was Darla’s delicious lunch at Wolffy’s. Clint Zolnoski and Ronda went to get a couple cow-calf pairs from Lewis’s. Ronda came home the back way, to put out minerals-salt for cows, and pick enough buffalo berries for one batch of jelly.

The advantage of real life is that the background music is so much better.