Wow, it is again time for an update letter. Preparatory to writing this letter, I read our updates from the last two years thinking, “what’s new that I need to share?” Laurie and I sat for a few minutes and made a list of “significant happenings” for the year, but I’m resisting a list of dates and events. That can be boring to the reader and to the writer. Then I thought about the one thing that we’ve immersed ourselves in these past few months…photography. Since we bought our first digital camera in September, we’ve both enjoyed photographing the beauty around us. When I read our past update letters, I noted that we used a lot of words to try to describe the glory of creation around us. It seems like most of the words we used were an attempt to describe the pictures we carry around in our minds, so I decided to share the actual photos instead. As I started inserting the photos into this letter, the “chore” became fun. Hopefully, it’s enjoyable for the reader as well.
The first photo gives you a glimpse of the woods surrounding our home; it is amazing to us how dense it is before the leaves fall. The second photo is our grand daddy maple tree at the beginning of it’s fall transition. What magnificent colors! This tree is about three feet or so in diameter at the base. I’m no judge of tree age, but this one’s old. Below that photo is a fern that grows among many other lush green plants at the base of that same huge maple. The leaves from the trees above, fall and rest on top of the ferns below. Laurie noticed this one and then added a few more leaves for color. Fall comes to Minnesota with it’s beautiful leaves, acorns, and funny bugs. The next photo is of a “walking stick” on a maple leaf. Laurie found it on our shed outside.
As usual, we traveled quite a bit this year, exploring the Duluth area, the Minnesota River valley, and many local museums. We camped some, but ended up in cheap, roadside motels mostly. We are finding that our big tent is quite time consuming to put up and take down and not as weather-worthy as we’d like. We got an all night drizzle one night in October that made for a soggy pack up time and an Indian summer that brought the black flies and Japanese beetles (both of which, bite) out in such droves that we left the tent packed and scouted a motel. Needless to say, we hope to be purchasing a small travel trailer this spring so that we don’t have to be subject to the weather or the bugs for camping.
May first was our tenth anniversary, so we stayed two nights in a cottage perched on a Cliffside in Fountain City, WI, right on the Mississippi River. It was up in the treetops, so we were able to see the spring leaves begin to open from the top side instead of the underside. What a neat perspective! We explored the beautiful, mountain-like area by taking walks, drives, and paddling in Trempeleau wildlife preserve, which is on the Mississippi River.
In June, a friend from Colorado came for a visit. We took her camping a few nights by the Boundary Waters near Ely, MN, and visited the living history museum at Grand Portage National Monument near the Canadian border. One of the living history interpreters, dressed as a voyageur, carved a small beavertail paddle for Margaret while we talked about the fur trade and the French voyageurs of the 1600 and 1700’s. We’ve enjoyed our living history museum tours so much and have such a love for history ourselves, that we’d really like to get involved with historical re-enactments and do some interpretation at living history museums someday.
July was our house project month. We designed, installed, and finished our stair railing and later installed hardboard in our shed in an effort to clean up and cut down on mouse habitat. We feed them tons of poison and yet they still come back for more. Go figure. The photos at left show our stair rail project and our finished shed, the latter taken while it was snowing.
Early August found us flying down to St. Louis, MO, to take part in a memorial service for my grandmother, Olivia Finley, who died in January of this year at age 95. It was good to see my cousins and other family members, many we’d never met. We spent three days in Chester, IL, the town that my father, grandparents, and great grandparents grew up in. We visited a couple of family members there, found graves back to my great, great, great grandparents, and discovered that I have ancestry that dates back to the 1600s in Maryland. We also visited a fort (Fort DeChartres which dates back to the mid 1700’s) that sparked an interest in French Colonial history in me and the birth of a story idea I’m working on.
My mother and step-father drove up to Minnesota after the memorial service and spent a week at a resort just 45 minutes north of us. We did an epic one-day road trip with them to Winnipeg, Canada, and visited the Manitoba Museum of Natural History. They have a replica of the Nonsuch, a ship (that you are able to board) that took part in the establishment of the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1667. We also saw a wonderful, musical play with Mom & Ed called, Songs From the Tall Grass right in our little town of Fergus Falls. It brought to life the stories and music of the early prairie settlers. It was so fun to watch that we both decided we’d like to take part in a play someday; if only we had the time. Fergus Falls is only 13,500 strong, but it has a wonderful emphasis on the “arts” and we’ve been to many really, neat concerts. Fortunately, one of our friends tunes the piano for the Fergus Falls Center for the Arts, so we often get free tickets!
Back to the photos on the left. You can tell which of the habitats are preferred for the two, tiny tree frogs. Laurie had quite the time trying to keep the green one on the bright, red maple leaf so I could photograph it. She was also holding a piece of white mail over it to catch the setting sun for more light. We are so fascinated by their toes! The colorful leaves with acorns were in our yard. The tree stump with leaves on it was another “spot” and embellishment by Laurie. She is my “spotter” as we walk and take pictures. She has an incredible eye for what’s beautiful and what colors go well together.
In September we altered our employment hours in order to have more time to start on the research and writing that we hope to eventually make a living at. As much as we love our Minnesota “home base”, we are realizing that we LOVE to travel and learn the stories of places and people. A dream of ours would be to travel around the country learning the history and then telling stories about real people and how they spent their lives. I’m also looking forward to doing some genealogical research this winter, fueled by a head start from a cousin I met in Illinois and my mother, who has always been putting this kind of stuff together.
Part of gaining time to research, write, and photograph, involved cutting back on volunteer hours that Laurie put in at the Pregnancy Center. She still occasionally designs forms for them at home and is available for some software support. I resigned my position as a computer geek and went to work part time locating underground telephone cables for a company out of Montana. In December, Laurie resigned from her position at American Family Insurance due to a change in policy standards that would require her to be licensed. Since she was only working two days a week, she didn’t feel that it was beneficial for her employers to spend the time and money to license her, especially when my job may mean we have to do some travel in the near future. It looks like January will hold quite a bit of change for us. Please pray with us that we follow God’s will.
In my efforts to make a living I’ve been a photographer, printer, a graphic artist, a computer graphics systems consultant, a bicycle mechanic, a mental heath worker, a manager and expediter, and a computer geek. I’m working on doing some self-driven learning on website development and design in order to integrate all of the writing, photography, artwork (mental health…bicycle mechanic?!?) and computer stuff into some skills that will help me promote the photography and writing I’d (someday) like to sell.
In October Laurie’s sister and her family came for a fall visit. We played in the leaves and spent much of our time outside. In November we had a short visit with Laurie’s brothers and our nephew, who came out from CO to hunt white-tailed deer. Our niece spent her Thanksgiving break from Wheaton Bible College with us and Laurie’s sister came with four of her daughters for sledding and games the day after Thanksgiving. The next two photos show them at the table in our home and being pulled by the four wheeler through the woods on sleds to our sledding hill out back. It was good fun, but Laurie ended up with a back bruise since she was often in the back of the sled.
We attended a contra/square dance in Fergus Falls this fall and danced non-stop from 7 to 11 pm. Though we had blisters, we had so much fun that we wished we could do it weekly, especially because it was such wonderful exercise. Unfortunately, they haven’t contacted us for another dance yet. However, it got us to thinking and researching what history re-enactments incorporate the old ballroom dancing and found some right here in MN. We haven’t had time to get involved yet, but hope to in the future. It sounds like great fun to dress in period costume and learn to dance the formal, historic dances.
Our weekly fellowship group has grown from 2 couples to 4 couples this year and we thoroughly enjoy the stimulating conversation. We come together to discuss things we’re struggling with or what we’ve learned from the Bible or how to apply biblical standards to our daily lives and situations. We even sing praises together occasionally. This group is our “church” and we’re thankful for it.
Going back to the photos, you’ll see a beaver dam that was taken on the Otter Tail River just upstream from Fergus Falls. I was locating telephone cables (my job from September to November) in the vicinity because the beaver dam was scheduled to be dynamited. The next photo is of a small beaver pond about 1/2 mile north of our home. I was taking a walk and saw where the beaver had cut down a small tree to take to the other side of the road and must have been interrupted
We didn’t canoe as much as we would have liked this year, but we did have some memorable trips. We got close enough to a beaver to enable Laurie to touch it with her paddle. It was amazing. We watched and listened to it crunching the plants it was eating along the shoreline of the Pelican River. We also took friends on their first-time canoe trip. We went to Glendalough State Park and paddled Annie Battle, Molly Stark, and West Battle Lakes. There is a wonderful connecting creek (navigable during high water only) that ties the three lakes together. As we waited in the lake downstream, we saw our friend, Ed Perret, standing, head above the reeds, in the back of the canoe. He is an (ex?) surfer from Downy, CA. I think he proved that surfboards are more stable than canoes because he and his wife Teri both ended up in the lake when he lost his balance. We paddled back to help them gather all of their personal items including their cellphone and truck remote-start-transmitter. Fortunately, once everything had dried out, they worked just fine. The laughter that ensued after the “ordeal” was wonderful! We just wish we had the camera with us to get the look on Ed’s face just before the inevitable dump.
Two months later we took our niece, Jolene, and her son, Josiah, on an attempted trip up the same creek, but the water was too low for passage. In turning the canoe around, Laurie and I waded through a waist-deep bog. Ugh! We were lucky to get our legs and aqua socks out of the thick, black muck. That experience gave us new appreciation for the skills and stamina of the early voyageurs who crossed miles of bogs with canoes loaded in furs. We had fun wading the creek and cleaning off the black muck after we made it back to clear water.
This next photo shows the ice crystals that had formed on some leaves piled on a beaver dam built on a small creek leading out of Maplewood State Park. It was taken about four miles north of our house. Winter has arrived. That same day we were able to watch a muskrat swim beneath the ice near the shore of a small slough that fed the creek that the beaver dam was built on. Unfortunately, my photo of that muskrat wasn’t clear enough to use.
The prairie grass photo was taken at the Lower Sioux Agency in late summer. It was an Indian Agency office that was involved in the 1862 Dakota Sioux uprising. We were researching some interesting stories that occurred around this time in Minnesota history. Basically things were in disarray at the beginning of the Civil War. The annuities promised to the Dakota Sioux were late and there were numerous attacks and murders of the Minnesota River Valley settlers. The largest mass execution in US history occurred in Mankato, MN, when 38 Dakota Sioux were hung. President Lincoln had stepped in to pardon many more that were sentenced to be executed…as I said, I love history.
Next, you’ll see Laurie in the front of our canoe, with the water dripping from her paddle on the still water. It was taken in the evening, just after sunset, on the Otter Tail River early in October. The next photograph shows how flat and still the river can be. It was a beautiful evening with the glow in the western sky silhouetting the oak trees along the west bank. As is our custom, we paddled up-river in the early evening and only turned around after the sun set, which is perfect in the summer, however, October is a bit different. Unfortunately, Laurie got a bit too cold and started to experience a bit of hypothermia. We drove home and I tucked her into bed with the electric mattress pad on high (a wonderful Christmas present from the previous year), fed her some soup, and she slept like a baby. Needless to say, we learned to bring warmer clothes with us on our fall canoe trips, regardless of how warm the day seems. Since it is our custom to be out past sunset, I’ve also learned to stow the canoe back on the truck, in the dark. During the summer, the only challenge is fighting off the mosquitoes. One of our long-term goals is to canoe the entire Otter Tail River. It flows mostly south and west, ending up in Breckenridge, MN, where it joins the Bois de Sioux to form the Red River (the border between MN and ND) which flows north into Lake Winnipeg and eventually into Hudson’s Bay. Here in western, MN, we are on the north/south continental divide.
The following photo was taken one wet and cold (but not freezing) morning in our woods. I was trying to get some cool fisheye effects in the droplets. I thought it was neat that you could see upside-down trees. The broken tree in the next photo is the work of the wind in our woods. We have many “deadfall” trees that we’d like to clean up and give away for firewood. This fall, two of our friends took wood from the piles that we used to have to supplement their winter heat. We still don’t have a wood stove, so we welcome friends that can use it in their homes.
Down the page a bit is the sunrise over the second lake south of us, Jewett Lake. It was taken when the lake was not yet frozen (I’m sure there’re ice-fishermen standing out there today), and the fog is wafting off of the warm lake water into the early morning air. All is gray now with six to eight inches of snow in the woods. The sun goes down at about four-thirty and doesn’t come back up until nearly eight each morning. The days seem short at this latitude. What sticks in my thoughts though, is not any particular stage, it’s that all of creation is in a state of change. Winter is a time of rest, it’s a time to do inside tasks rather than outside projects. (Laurie proved that by trying to wash windows outside, ending up with a smeared, frozen mess instead!) Spring is a time of rebirth…a time when the snow gives way to mud and wildflowers, the white and gray give way to green and blue, and a time to plan summer projects and canoe trips. Summer is the time of growth, the corn and wheat gets taller and taller, the bugs annoy, and the days (and nights) are warm and humid. It’s a great time to wade into a lake to cool off. Fall is the time of color…that one last glorious display of vibrancy before settling down for that cold, quiet time. Fall is our favorite and really the best time of year weather-wise. It’s cool enough to work outside, while being mostly dry and without the messy mud of Spring.
The logo (that we hope to use in marketing our work) is to the left. I started it, but Laurie tuned it up by finding the right photo, the right fonts, and the right shade of color. The photograph across the “Together” part of our logo is one we’d taken on Beers lake (it’s the mirrored image just above the photo of us). It was taken from our canoe in Maplewood State Park just 8 miles north of our home. We’ve been thinking of trying to work on our own for some time now, because we’re weary of dealing with all the “stuff” that comes with working for others. Of course we realize that there’s a lot of “stuff” related to working on your own, but we are hoping that this is the time. A difficulty for both of us is that we’re not “salesmen” types; we are not skilled at self-promotion. We are hoping that the changes that the digital age have brought to marketing and sales will be more in tune with our own skills and gifting. Time will tell.
“Together by Design” is the name the Lord brought to our minds some years ago to call our “business”. Back then we thought of it being some combination of my woodworking and computer skills and Laurie’s crafting and office management skills, but now we believe it will include the study of history, writing, travel, and photography some how. The name is based on the fact that God called us to be married to each other, to work together, and to applaud the fact that He is our “designer”. Please pray with us that we’ll be able to grow in what He’s created us to be, and that we’ll be able to, in our work, bear witness to the beauty of creation.
I had a few kinks to work out with this website…my first ever, so we didn’t get it out and available until after the new year. We spent nearly two weeks away during the holiday season in December. Our work schedules finally allowed enough time off for us to drive to Colorado. We visited over 48 people which included family and friends. It was good to visit everyone, but many of the visits ended far too quickly. Though we were anxious to see the mountains again, we also noticed that Colorado is sooooo dry! We both struggled with allergies and dry sinuses that resurfaced. Getting back to Minnesota was refreshing for our sinuses!
Thanks for the time you’ve spent in reading this letter from us. We hope that this year will bring forth a rebirth of the desire within you to see and serve the One who set all of creation in motion…the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, the Father of the Messiah whom He sent to save us.
Kent & Laurie Anne Runge
