M-E-R-R-Y   C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S 2013

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our friends and relatives wherever you may be. This year Margaret and I highlight our past year utilizing the first letters of each word in that timely message.

Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home in Abilene, KS, was a stop on my way to ND in April. What I didn’t realize is that there was already a museum on the grounds of the former President’s childhood home before he became president. His mother lived in the house until her death in 1946. Since Ike was the Supreme Allied Commander of the European Theater during WWII a military museum depicting the D-Day invasion was established on the location by the Eisenhower Foundation. When Ike left office in 1961 his Presidential Library was then built on the grounds. He and Mamie and their son Doud are buried in the Place of Meditation on the grounds.

R is for the reunion that I had with my sister Ardys in Hudson, WI, before returning to Tucson in August. She worked as a traveling nurse in Watertown, WI, this summer and since she lives in South Carolina it was the closest we have been to each other in a number of years. While together we drove down to Pepin and Stockholmsouth of Hudson on the Mississippi River. It is the area where our great grandparents Eric and Ingeborg Backman first settled when they emigrated from Sweden in 1869. In 1886 they decided to leave Wisconsin because of crop failures and homesteaded in the Slaughter area north of Bismarck ND, east of present day Wilton 13 years before it was founded. Later that day we got together with our cousin Jim Kurle who lives in St. Paul and had a very good visit.

R is for the other reunions that we had during the year. I arrived in ND in May in time to surprise my cousin Archie on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Earlier in the year he moved to an assisted living center. In July upon my return to ND and after Margaret arrived we hosted a family dinner in Bismarck with my brother Sam and his wife Bernice, cousin Eldo and his wife Marilyn as well as Archie in attendance. We also went to dinner one evening with our friends Alan and Sheila Schwalbe and took them to the Harvest Brazilian Grill in Mandan (yeap, have to travel to ND for a good Brazilian restaurant!). They had been there before but Margaret had not yet dined there. I also spent a day at the Oliver County Fair in Center and saw numerous friends from my days as the county extension agent. I even purchased a pie at the 4-H premium sale in support of the 4-H program.

We were also able to get together with Margaret’s brother, Len, twice during the year. He was in Tucson in January attending a pharmaceutical conference and in June we had dinner with him while he was in Phoenix on business.

Yearly membership at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum allowed us to recently attend a concert there to support Project Oasis an arts project of the museum. Singer BethNielsen Chapman performed at the concert. Earlier this year we attended the presentation of the musical Wicked. We also continue to enjoy our annual subscription to the Tucson Pops.

Connections to old friends (and not just with Facebook!) is very important to us. I am especially grateful to Art and Val Olson who I stayed with while in Bismarck. They let me take up residence in their basement during my two stays in ND and to leave some clothes there in between my visits. Rudy and Lucy Radke from Fargo, Allen and Lorraine Schmidt from Beulah and Walt and Sarah Wolf from Center and I got together in Bismarck in May for dinner to reminisce about past times. In July we attended the ND State Fair with the Schmidts. The Wolfs helped Margaret out by putting her and her sister and cousin up the night before they visited theBNI coal mine at Center.

History is made every day and for those of us of a certain age the date of November 22, 1963, is a day when history took a dark turn. As I began writing this the nation was remembering the 50^th anniversary of that terrible day and weekend when President Kennedy was assassinated. During the week I immersed myself in the TV coverage of that weekend.

R is also for the reunion that Margaret had with her sister Carol from Syracuse and cousin Beth from Boston. Last year they had their first “girls’ weekend” in San Diego and decided to try it again this year. Beth’s sister Catherine didn’t make the trip due to a last minute illness. Margaret met them in Dorset, MN. They visited the headwaters of the Mississippi at Lake Itasca where they walked across the Mississippi and took a boat tour of the lake. They also had an opportunity to attend the “world famous” Woodtick Theatre in Ackeley. From there they headed west and ventured into North Dakota where they encountered the big buffalo in Jamestown and the world’s largest sand hill crane. (They continued their “giant” animal adventure by seeing the largest walleye in Nevis and Paul Bunyan in Akeley.) When they visited the Johnson Farm, I gave them an Agronomy 101 lesson in the development of wheat and corn plants. They also toured the BNI coal mine at Center and were able to ride on the dragline. From there they went to Ft. Abraham Lincoln and the Mandan Indian village. The next day they drove the Lewis and Clark Highway 1804 to Washburn and toured the Lewis and Clark Foundation and Fort Mandan. They thoroughly enjoyed their first visit to the northern plains.

I (Margaret) am still spending my free time as a volunteer for Market on the Move, a non-profit that sells fresh produce throughout Southern Arizona. I also continue to volunteer with Literacy Volunteers of Tucson, part of Literacy Connects, in helping adults to learn English. I continue being employed with ATI and traveled many miles this year, just not as much as in the past years -- only to 34 cities and 17,575 miles. I welcomed a new sister-in-law to the family when Len married Pamela this summer. I also welcomed two nieces when my nephews Joshua and Jordan were married in the spring (just weeks before Jordan was deployed to Afghanistan). I am also happy to hear that my brother Mark is engaged to Cathy. The Fairfield clan is growing!

Sedona is where we again spent the Thanksgiving week. The week started out overcast; Arizona’s first major winter storm (the same storm that moved across the US Thanksgiving week). We went on daily hikes in the morning and then relaxed in the afternoon by the pool. Thanksgiving Day we spent at the Grand Canyon and after walking the south rim we had our Thanksgiving dinner at the El TovarHotel.

The Tasteof Dorset on August 4th is what Margaret, her sister Carol and cousin Beth attended before returning home after their girls’ weekend. That annual event in the little town draws hundreds of people every year. The restaurants in Dorset, which are open mainly in the summer to serve the fishing resorts in the area set up booths in front of their establishments on the state highway that is closed to through traffic and serve the throngs that attend. You have to try a spaghetti ball, pork chop on a stick, and of course awesome Mexican food. Dorset made history by re-electing the youngest major Bobby Tufts (only 4 year old when re-elected).

M is for the miles that I traveled this year. I left Tucson on April 24th heading to ND stopping in Abilene and then spent a weekend in Lincoln, NE, with my brother-in-law John Fairfield. I delivered a brass bed to him that has been in the family for years; we had retired it last fall. When I left Lincoln I headed north through Sioux Falls, SD, and stopped to visit my Peace Corps friend Clare Becker. I then proceeded on to Dorset, MN, where Margaret’s mother Betty and her uncle Mike had arrived in early April. It was still very cold and there was snow in sheltered areas at the end of April. I stayed with them a couple of days and then pressed on to Bismarck. I stayed in ND until May 17th and then flew back to Tucson. I left my truck at the farm so that we would have transportation later in the summer. I returned to ND on July 6th. Margaret flew into Bismarck on July 20th and we did several things in the area before driving to Dorset to meet up with her sister and cousin. I returned to ND and waited for the “girls’” visit. After they departed I stayed in the area until August 22nd when I departed for Tucson by way of Hudson, WI, where I met up with my sister. When I left Hudson I made a stop in southwestern Iowa and spent a night with my friends Randy and Jill Euken. I then crossed Nebraska on my way to Denver where I visited my cousin Ruthann Remele. When I arrived in Tucson on August 28th my odometer said that I had driven 8,972 miles since my departure back on April 24th.

Aerial photography was a part of my summer adventures. While I was in ND my cousin Archie chartered a plane so that we could fly over our farms and get updated photos. I was the designated photographer. Flying north out of Bismarck the first thing we encountered were some of the more than 100 wind turbines of the Wilton Wind Farm which have sprung up over the last few years.

Semi-retirement is where I find myself at the end of this year. I continue to serve on the boards of the Campus Christian Center and Lutheran Campus Ministry where I am the treasurer.  I am also investigating some other volunteer positions.  Season’s greetings to you and yours, and here’s hoping that we all take time to reflect on the Reason for the Season.