“Its that time of year again!  Time to rake leaves, mow the grass, trim around trees and buildings, plant gardens, clean out the garage and/or basement, and basically just spruce it all up for summer.”  This is the first paragraph from a letter I received in early May from the Anamoose City Board.  They outlines ways they would help us clean up our yards, plus ordinances regarding keeping our properties cleaned up.

They set May 16-23rd as Clean Up week.  It started Saturday, May 16th with a Dead Appliance Pick-up Day.  As in previous years, a construction dumpster was parked behind the Historic Bank.  As you can see it was filled to overflowing.

The city dump will be open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10am-2pm through June 15th for lawn and garden waste, concrete, and wood with no paint and tree branches.

Friday, May 23rd the grade kids were out picking up liter in  Anamoose.

Last Monday Civic Club & Happy Feet members cleaned up the ditches on Highway 52 out to the new Agronomy Center.  Pictured are:  (Standing) LindaDusek, Janice Buchholz (Front) Sandy Cartwright, and  Phyllis Zimmerman waiting for Norma Martin and JoEllen Ehrman.  We didn’t find too much liter as we had picked the ditches in the fall. 

The ND Today show featured Anamoose Tuesday.  It was only a 4 minute segment, but they packed a lot into it.  The only thing I wished they hadn’t cut was Hunter Street skateboarding on the new pavement.

We were chosen for this after Dallas Knutson wrote a letter to the Valley News Live of Fargo recommending us for the “Small Town Spotlight”.  A paragraph from her letter bears repeating,” At a time when many small communities are fading, the Anamoose community with a population of 280 residents, is remaining strong with area residents working diligently to keep the community alive”.  She continues telling how 3 decades ago or so, the “Buffalo Commons” predicted we would be dried up and dead within 20 years.  But 10 years beyond this prediction we are very much alive and active.  Dallas lived East of Towner and worked for the Minot Commission on Aging, so through her job she became familiar with Anamoose.  She now lives in West Fargo.

To watch the video google “KMOT.com”.  On my computer I next get “KMOT-TV:News, Weather” to click on.  This gets me to “KMOT.com” where I clicked on “North Dakota Today” on the 2nd bar.  On the top bar at that site I found “Daily Link” under “Show Link”.  This takes me to “More Top Stories”.  Scroll down to “small town spotlight: Anamoose”.   I received a call from one of the men who came to Anamoose to do the spotlight & he suggested this.

Later—I just had a call from one of the men that came to Anamoose from KMOT.  he told me another way to get the video.  Go to KMOT.com & click on “North Dakota Today” on 2nd bar.  On “North Dakota Today” highlight “Show Link” on top bar & it will bring up “Daily Link”.  This will take you to “More top stories”.  Scroll down to “small town spotlight:Anamoose”.  This link will probably be on longer than the other one.

The VFW & VFW Auxiliary had their usual Memorial Day program followed by a potluck with lots of food.  The day was beautiful so we were able to go to the park for part of the program. Pictured from left: Keith Schilling, Gary Vannatta, Elaine Miller, Reynold Buchholz, Dick Eckart,  & LeRoy Miller. 

Kristin & Lee Reinowski sang patriotic songs.  Kristen read her ND Voice of Democracy speech in addition to the speakers.

Memorial Day wasn’t just a remembrance for our Veterans, but it was also David Gienger’s 93rd birthday.  David is the oldest resident in Anamoose.  He still loves to help Bartz’s farm.   

Kassidy, Kelsie, Michael, Tricia, & Grant. Missing: Grant

Alyce Heer and Mardi Helm , the “Welcome To Anamoose Ladies” were at the home of our newest residents on 05/28/14.  The 6 member family of  Michael & Tricia Kite and children, Kelsie (17), Gavin (16), Kassidy (13), and Grant (10) come to us from Sioux Falls, SD and a year before that their home was always in North Carolina.  They came to Anamoose for Michael’s job at Butler Machinery in Minot.  He arrived in April and Tricia and the children came as soon as school was over in Sioux Falls.  They are excited about their move to the small farm south of Anamoose as it is very much like the places the parents grew up.  They have 2 beautiful horses and 2 small friendly dogs, (Maggie the poodle & Mindy the Shiatsu).  The 2 oldest kids have jobs in Harvey and Tricia and the other 2 kids are busy getting settled.  Their hobbies include; hunting, singing, cooking, horses, feeding the birds and the squirrels as well as caring for the acres of property they live on.   The children went to register for school in the fall today as well as welcoming us into their home.

Eight year old Halie Fletschock took second place at the “Pitch, Hit & Run”contest on Saturday, June 21st at Target Field in Minneapolis.  She won the Pitch & Hit portion of the contest.

Halie won first place at the local contest at Drake & first place at the Sectional to advance to Minneapolis.  The Minneapolis contest was 1 of 30 teams around the US.

Halie comes from a sports -minded family.  Her dad, Brad, works with the Summer Recreation program & her mother, Becky, plays with the Anamoose women’s softball team.

Tristin Martin was picked to play International football at Indian Head, Saskatchewan on July 8th .  I asked his mother, Barbie, to send me some info on his game.  She sent me such a good email that I will just quote her directly.  “This was such an experience for him to get to play in an International game like this.  They had to learn how to play with the rules Canada go by, which made it very interesting.  Even though Team ND didn’t bring home the win they played a great game.  They were 5 players short from the roster of 24 players.  They played with 19 vs the Saskatchewan team of 30!  Final score was 42-34.  It rained there for 3-4 straight before the game and they had to pump water off the field as several places of the field were under water.  So it was a pretty muddy game!  I’m so glad he got the chance to play in this once in a lifetime International Game!”

Joe Toth, Princeton MN & Barbara Nolden, Minot ND

It all started with a family going through a mother’s memory box after her passing.  Or in our mother’s case many memory boxes!  Some of you are familiar with my mother, Helen Rice Nolden.  She was born and raised in Anamoose and while she did leave from time to time to explore other places, she was always drawn back to her hometown, her beginnings and where her heart was.  She was taught life 101 from her parents, her older siblings; as well as a variety of Anamoose teachers and citizens.  And what she learned was handed down to my siblings and me in spades!  Love of family, hard work, giving to and giving back, saving the past for the future, and being grateful for the freedoms of the country we live in.  We were taught these freedoms were not free and came at the price of brave young people making a commitment to keep all of us safe and free.
Patriotism runs deep in the family in one way or another. I remember my grandfather, Kasimir Rice, telling us how lucky we were to be born in this country and how very proud he was when he became a US citizen (I still have the test and scores, the small flag and the photo, he was looking so pleased).  So when we found this package of military rank and unit patches in among our mother’s things, we wondered what intentions she may have had for them. We weren’t sure where they all had come from. Mother’s two brothers Kasey Rice in the Army and Allie Rice in the Navy served, both during WWII. Her two sons Tom Nolden in the Army and John Nolden in the Army National Guard and Active Army served. One grandson, Chris Toth served in the Army Reserve and lastly, two great grandsons Joe Toth in the Army and Mike Palmer in the Marines served. My sister, Barbara Nolden volunteered to be the keeper of the patches until she could do some research and decide what should be done with the military memories.
So the quest began, first by gathering more patches from members of the family, then the inspiration to compile all the patches into a quilt to be kept in the family as a reminder of those we are grateful to for their service to keep us free.  When Barbara told me she had found the way to preserve the patches our mother had saved so carefully so long ago, I thought to myself “WOW” what an ambitious project!  She sounded so excited about getting started, shopping for the right fabric, the right thread, collecting more patches to fill the blocks and finding military buttons to tie the quilt.  Every day there was a new progress report and I could hear in her voice the excitement and emotion that this project was evoking.  Then just before the quilt was completed came the question, how to determine who would be the recipient of the quilt.  Barbara used her own formula and we siblings agreed.
The quilt (and Barbara) appeared at the VFW in Anamoose, the VFW in Minot, and on the KX Noon Show with Karla Burbidge, before making its way to Anamoose for the final presentation.  On the July 4th weekend 2014 great aunt Barbara Nolden presented it to Joe Toth, Helen Nolden’s, great-grandson, at a small family gathering in Anamoose.  He was not expecting it, but seemed to be pleased with the task given him to be the keeper of the patriotic quilt.  Both Joe’s proud grandmother’s Dorothy Leier and yours truly Jacque Reis are Anamoose residents.
What a great way to celebrate the freedom gained on the 4th of July in 1776.
Thank all who have served our great country to keep all of us safe and free!

A benefit was held Sunday at the VFW hall for Don Beck to cover his medical expenses.  Don had a kidney transplant May 28th.

180 people attended the benefit where French toast, sausage, & fruit were served.  The benefit was sponsored by Thrivent, Anamoose Civic Club, Anamoose Baptist Church, school employees, & VFW.

Mary Beck asked me to express their deepest gratitude to the family of the donor & to all who participated in the benefit & for the love & concern shown to them.

A walk around Anamoose finds a very large percentage of yards spruced up.  I can see the pride residents are taking in their community.  The nice rains we have had have helped keep the grass green.  Just this past week on Main St. Angie & Emanuel Kesler had their house painted & Bob Becker moved out his garage & looks like he is preparing for a new one.  Last night I heard that the old gold house west of the school will be torn down.

The 8 hanging baskets on Main St. resemble large round pink balls.  Linda Dusek & Janice Bucholz planted flowers in the pots on the corners, so there is lots of color as you drive down the street. Jerry Helm is watering the flowers again this year.

Mark & Corinne Engen are preparing the corner lot south of them for their new manufactured home that hopefully will  be here before school starts.  On the lot south of that Ted Mertz is putting up a garage.  Ted has also been working on the Wagner house-gutting out the inside & tearing off the garage.

With the State Fair over and vacations wrapping up, the attention turns back to school shopping and preparing for the new school year.

Superintendent Heim

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Superintendent Steven Heim of the Anamoose-Drake schools recently to talk about what’s in store for students this year.  We met in his office in the Anamoose Elementary school where there was all kinds of activity, making the class rooms and the rest of the building ready for kids to start on another year of education. To kick off the 2014 school start there will be an Open House for parents, students and the general public Monday, August 18th from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM. School starts August 20th this year!  Seems too early!  Where did the summer go?
Mr. Heim told me enrollment this year will be 105-110.  With students moving in and out the enrollment number is in flux.  Mr. Fletchock’s 6th grade class is the largest in the past decade, with 22 students.  There will be some changes to the teaching staff for the new school year.  A new teacher, Mr. Ethan Brooks, will be on board as Physical Education teacher for both Drake and Anamoose.  He will also be head football coach and interim basketball coach.  Mr. Loff will go from PE to teaching the 4th grade class.  Mrs. Heim will be the new elementary music teacher with Mrs. Holler spending 1 hour per day with the elementary music program & 3 hours per day with the high school music program.
A new reading program, The Daily 5, will be implemented to improve reading skills for K-8.  New computer and network upgrades for the high school also coming this year.
If you want to keep up with the activities at school or check out your student’s progress, meet the staff, go to the school website for all kinds of helpful information, http://www.anamoose-drake.k12.nd.us/
Even if you don’t have children or grandchildren in school these days, come out and see what’s happening with our future leaders and entrepreneurs. It was easy to see and hear the passion in Mr. Heim when he spoke of his students. I am planning on doing some school spotlight interviews in the future with teachers, support staff, etc. to keep the interest alive.
By J-Reis

As I arrived at the Anamoose City Park last Monday evening (August 4th), there was a fairly good crowd already gathered and indulging in good food, good company and shopping a variety of items to purchase and take home.

I found fresh vegetables, baked goods, jewelry, hand crafted aprons and more presented by vendors such as, Slavic Heritage Farms from Rugby, Frieda Rau of Harvey and others.  The products the vendors bring to the market are wonderful for gifts or just to take home.  The food is always good and who can pass up a Root Beer float on a beautiful summer evening. 

If you have not visited the Market in the Park in the past, it is time to partake in the fun.  There are only three more markets to attend this summer, so mark your calendar and plan on supper in the park Mondays 6:00 – 8:00 PM.  See you there!

By J-Reis

I just got home from checking on the corn for our Corn Feed on Sunday, August 17th.  Each year TJ Martin, Manager for Farmer’s Union Oil of Velva, plants corn varieties & plants some that we can use.  This will be the 6th Corn Feed for our Anamoose Area Community Foundation.

We worry every year if it will be ready, but it always seems to turn out, especially if we continue to have some hot dry days like we have been having.

Besides corn, we are having grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon, & ice cream with toppings.  The cost is $8 for adults, $4 for school kids 10 & under, & preschool free.

We will have a wide variety of pies for sale for $8 each.

We are again having it from 11am-1:30pm at the Anamoose Senior Center, so we don’t have to worry about the weather, mosquitoes, flies, etc.  At noon 5 grant awards will be given out.

Come support the Anamoose Area Community Foundation & enjoy a good meal with friends.

Alyce and I welcomed the Palmers this afternoon. We had beautiful weather and sat on the front porch of their home which formerly belonged to his mother and before that his grandmother Helen Nolden. He has many ties to Anamoose with family and friends residing here. He came to us from the Twin Cities and has spent many vacations here making many memories. He is employed by Drake Cenex. Tami is currently working at JW’s in Harvey, but is a licensed cosmetologist and enjoys working with hair. She also likes to read. MacKenzie, is 13 years old and a 7th grader in Drake/Anamoose school system. She is thinking of playing basketball and likes Animal Jam and being with friends. Sean plays the base guitar, enjoys fishing and is very good at drawing. He has allot of plans for the future and being an active community resident.

I was walking my dog Jack yesterday when I come upon these volunteers hauling rocks at the Anamoose Park.  They had widened the area from Main Street back to the Veteran’s Memorial & were filling it in with rock.  Next spring they will plant shrubs in that area.  Mike told me that it was “Torie’s project”.  But whoever’s idea it was it looks really good!

Volunteers were:  kneeling-Torie Dosch & Mike Schmaltz; working behind them-Frank Sieg; on flat bed-Bradley Lageson & Joe Dosch.

Sorry, but I forgot all about putting something on the blog about our Anamoose Area Community Foundation Corn Feed in August.  We had a good turnout at the Senior Center.  Many people remarked this was the best corn that we have had.  We also sold about 20 pies plus caramel rolls.  Pictured above: 1. Husking corn on Saturday.  2 Rose Weninger-Corn Feed Chairman

We gave out $7000 in grants this year to:

• $1500-City of Anamoose- replacing downtown sidewalks
• $1500-MainStreams-repair & replace electrical wiring in Anamoose Historical Bank
• 1500-Park Board-new playground equipment
• $1500-Anamoose Housing Corporation-new central smoke & fire alarm system$1000-
• $1000-Tri-county Senior Meals & Services-subsidize shortage of program income

Maurie Becker accepting Housing grant from Shirley Nitz

Alyce Heer (right)accepting MainStreams grant from Rose Weninger

Bill Goodwin accepting grand for Tri-county Senior Meals from Phyllis Zimmerman

Kim Meckle (right) accepting Park Board grant from Alyce Heer

The Anamoose JDA & Civic Club met together Monday night to hear Mirek and Julia Petrovic, who live north of Anamoose, and Sue Balcom, the director of the FARRMS agency located in Medina.  Mirek and Julia Petrovic plan to start a Food Hub in the former Sally’s Upholstery building.  Using a Food Hub, small farmers and growers can take their produce to a central area to pool their resources that can then be sold to schools, prisons, grocery stores, and restaurants, etc.  The manager of the Food Hub will find markets for the produce using a specialized computer software program.

Mirek stated the basement will be ideal for cold storage.  A certified kitchen will be added to the back of the main floor so food could be preserved by canning, dehydration, etc. to add value to the product.  In addition, the certified kitchen will be used to pool resources so that members can have their value-added items tested to be within guidelines set by the USDA and First Health District.

Sue Balcom shared information on Food Hubs.  She talked of the “Investment in your community for future generations”, the “need to educate consumers and need to educate farmers.”  “Schools do not want to deal with individual farmers.”  Balcom expressed her excitement about having this Food Hub, the first to operate in the entire state.

Mirek and Julia Petrovic are requesting $15,000 from the JDA/Civic Club to replace the roof and gut the second floor.  During phase 2, they plan to convert the 3 apartments into 2:one 1-bedroom and one 2 bedroom.  Mirek has owned and operated a construction firm for 23 years and will do the work on the building himself and will hire a crew to assist him.

Friday evening found us Seniors behind the old Beauty Shop on Main Street.  Mike Borgen, the new owner of the building, showed us his 32 Homing Pigeons.  He is training his 6 month old pigeons to return home.  Pigeons can fly home from any place in the US, but Mike is only taking his out about 10 miles this year.  When asked how they can fly back, Mike replied that they can sense a magnetic pole on earth.

The pigeon coop has a low “handicapped” entrance for 2 birds that broke their wings and never healed completely.  These 2 females have become partners and raise eggs for others.  It takes 18 days for the eggs to hatch.  So he does not get too many babies, Mike will sometimes substitute plastic eggs for the real eggs.

Pigeons can be used for weddings and funerals.  When released they will fly in circles before returning home. Rollers, smaller pigeons, do acrobats. Mike would like to have other pigeon owners so he can race them.  He would donate pigeons to them if they would be willing to raise them for racing.  He would also let his pigeons be used free in Anamoose.

I’m seeing green John Deere tractors in my sleep.  We are getting ready for an auction Saturday of my husband’s collection of 1500 John Deere toys!  The Anamoose VFW Hall is packed with John Deere toy tractors, semi’s, airplanes etc.  There are a few other colors in the collection as Vernon liked to go to toy  shows and would many times get their featured item.

Come see this huge collection on Saturday, starting at 10:30 A.M. .  You will enjoy looking even if you aren’t a collector. I like the gold and silver tractors best.  Guess they aren’t typical as I’ve never seen one in a field.

I remember years ago people said nothing ever changes in Anamoose.  That definitely doesn’t apply to Anamoose now, although most of the changes are not earth-shaking.

I drove around Anamoose yesterday and took pictures of the changes that I know of.

Mark and Corine Engen moved into their new home and are getting a new garage and steps.

A new roof is going on the old Sally’s Upholstery building that Mirek and Julia Petrovic have purchased for a Food Hub. 

People are remarking on this neat new sign on the fence north of the school.  This was an idea of Pat Windish, Anamoose school principal.  His family put it up.   up. 

Linda Uhlich and Bob Becker had new garages built in the last few weeks.  Brad and Becky Fletschock are adding on to the back of their garage.

Linda Uhlich’s garage

Bob Becker’s garage

In the ditch north of Bonnie Kummer’s house 2 large culverts have been put in and covered with dirt.  Yesterday Oakie Thompson was filling in rocks around the culverts, while Al Sherlock was smoothing out the dirt covering the culverts.  This is a natural waterway, but in the past it could not handle the water and basements would flood.  Bonnie said that years ago her husband Foster would sit in the ditch and pull the tall weeds that grew there.  She is so happy to have this improvement after living next to the ditch for over 40 years.

The pile of Agrilime was purchased by the Civic Club.  It will be mixed with black dirt for the softball infield and grass will be planted.

Dennis and Phyllis Zimmerman just had their house painted a few weeks ago and Marino Linardon had his garage painted.

Dean Martin just built these steps on the west side of his house.  This summer he built a deck on the east side of the house.

The old garage of the burned out Wagner house has been torn down and the rest of the house will be demolished.

I’m sure there are other improvements that I don’t know about, but you can see that things are happening.  Visitors that come to Anamoose remark what a clean neat community we have. Residents take pride in their yards.