We finished harvesting our garden last month. While we didn’t have any harvestable corn, we managed to harvest some butternut squash, a few pumpkins and some beans. While the experiment wasn’t as bountiful as I hoped it would have been, it was a great endeavor that I enjoyed nonetheless. Seeing the excitement on our children’s faces when we harvested beans and squash was worthwhile.
I’m looking forward to next year 🙂

It’s day 91 and we are starting to see some fruit from all the laboring.

While only a few stalks grew this year , it probably wasn’t enough to get some ears of corn to grow. Corn is a self pollinating plant and to get enough corn for consumption you need about 4 acres of corn. While I’ve seen some ears start to grow on some of our stalks, another culprit may prevent a yield of corn this year: rabbits have been spotted in our garden and have so far eaten all of our green beans and sweet peas (which were located in the elevated bed). Some of the more fruitful corn stalks have been bent over as if something were laying down in the center of the three sisters. Time will eventually show if any yield is possible this year.

Spanish black beans and pinto beans have been harvested from the garden this year. While it’s been a paltry amount , it’s enough to excite our children. We have found some more growing but we have taken the drying then pick approach.

Squash, as you can see from the photo, has completely taken over our garden.
We have a pumpkin growing near our fence line and some buds for pumpkins, butternut squash and spaghetti squash growing up as well. I’m happy to report that numerous honey bees have been pollinating all of our flowers this year as opposed to the overall paucity of last year.

I’m hoping that we will be able to harvest more next month, so please stay tuned!

It’s been awhile since I’ve written about my experiment. It’s not for lack of trying, it’s because I’ve been working in Alaska for the last 3 weeks working and trying to deco operate/catch up with my family. Our overall garden has blown up to the proportions of “little shop of horror proportions”. The Corn I already above knee high but is getting strangled out by the beans and the squash is just being…squash. A pretty lazy but delicious plant 🙂

More updates to come. A blog about my Alaskan adventures is to follow soon (when time finally allows)

I had buckled my daughter in her car seat and drove the short drive over to the Medcenter One Emergency Room as fast as I could.  I parked my car outside the bay doors where EMT ambulances park with the blessing of a security guard who was waiting at the front door.  I was trying to stay calm for my daughter’s sake, but nerves were beginning to get the better of me.  I texted her parents and mine when answering machines came on. 

As I waited in the waiting room three other familes were there: one with a 5 year old in a two casts up to her hips-one yellow, one pink- another family whose elderly mother had suffered a fall, and a father and his friend who were waiting on results of a cat scan due to his youngest son suffering a seizure at daycare. 

After what seemed like an eternity, a nurse and EMT finally came into the waiting room.  The EMT began talking about how our car insurance covered the cost of moving my wife to the hospital when I cut in, “FUCK THAT!! WHAT HAPPENED?? IS SHE CONCIOUS?? DID SHE HIT ANOTHER CAR??”

The nurse and EMT both blinked and looked at me and calmly replied, “no, her car rolled”

“Is she ok though??”

“yes she’s fine, their just patching her up now”

“Can I see her??”

The nurse looked down the hall as the EMT handed me a form to fill out stating that “his duties had been obligated and he had hereby released from blah blah blah” or some such.  By the time my John Hancock had been left on the page, she quickly waived to me and ushered me to the front door of the Emergency room where the doors open and I saw three people working on my wife who was laying in a bed. 

I felt a lump develop in my throat as I saw the condition that she was in: She had what looked like a black eye on her right eye…part of her left ear, a small triangular cut was missing, but a nurse/doctor was working on gluing it together…another doctor was putting water on her hair and was in the process of removing small chunks of glass from her hair with the aid of a small flashlight….she had some nasty cuts up and down her forearms on both arms…but she was alive and awake.

“Hi Honey” she said in a breaking voice

I think she saw the look on my face and was trying not to cry herself.  If Liana, our daughter could talk at that point, the expression on her face would have said, “Mommy??”.

The next few moments speaking with the doctors and nurses about what had happened is a blank, but the next thing I knew, A North Dakota State Highway Patrolman was standing in the doorway and talking to me.  He began to fill me in when I saw a gigantic needle being inserted into one of Val’s giant nasty scars on her left arm and I asked if we could take the conversation out into the hallway so I didn’t turn into a crying mess in the ER. 

He began to fill me in on the details out there: somewhere between the Luther’s home and Mandan along Highway I-94, one of the tires on her car had blown.  The scary thing about this is that the speed limit in North Dakota is 70 mph.  So when the tire blew, her first instinct was to overcompensate and steer the wheel in the other direction.  A short moment later the other tire blew and she ended up rolling the car onto its hood.  What followed next can only be described as providence: an off-duty sherrif’s deputy was behind her when the accident happened and he immediately helped.  A surgeon with the V.A. in Fargo (he was on his way there) was the next car that came along and he stabilized Val while the deputy called for help and waived down the EMT’s. 

“We checked for signs that she may have hit something, but from what we can tell at this point, we are ruling this as ‘Catastrophic Technical Failure’ ” he finally concluded.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means that their was an engineering failure in the brand of tires that she had on her car” he told me. 

I let that sink in for a moment while my daughter gave him the ‘googly eyes’ “. 

The Highway patrolman withdrew a deputy sticker and handed it to my daughter which she then inserted into her mouth and began sucking on it. 

That elicited a long laugh.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————

After all the stiches, poking, prodding and tests had been run, Val was released from the hospital and I took her home.  The doctors and nurses told me that while she had only a mild concussion that I need to watch for any nausea, dizziness or other symptoms of a concussion and to bring her in if she does. 

When we got home, my dad had called and we ran through everything that had been explained to me.  He asked me if she had anything that looked like “Racoon Eyes” or bruises behind her ears.  When I saw what looked like one, he told me to get her back to the ER to get checked out as she may have internal cranial bleeding.  When the nurse at the ER checked it out though, she showed me that the bruise was actually from the seat belt holder when Val’s head had hit it (it was in the shape of it). 

After calling my dad back and telling him and my mom that all was well, and Val’s parents all was well we finally had a chance to lay down and rest.  Val was healthy enough two weeks later to fly out with the rest of us to a family reunion in South Carolina and after about a month we finally had a response from our insurance agency that the car was a “total loss” and they cut a check for the worth of the car (post damage). 

What was unsettling to me was when I saw the car, the entire hood of the car was crushed and the worst area was where my daughter’s car seat would have been if she was in there. While its been 5 years since that day, there is not a time that goes by that when my wife goes out in her car- with or without our children – that I feel a sense of dread in my stomach.  I know that they will be well, but still that feeling comes even as I hear the garage door closing.  I always make sure that everything is right with her car down to the wiper blades she uses.  

The takeaway that I got from this entire situation is that you always treasure the time you have with those closest to you.  Take more time with them, hug them a little longer, check in with a “thinking of you” text…because tomorrow is never guaranteed.  

It was the end of a 12-day on archaeological project when I came home that day. It was only supposed to be a ten day project, but another project had popped up as I was driving home on day 10 so I had to make a two-day detour.

When I came home that day, I had dumped all my paperwork, Trimble and vehicle/safety logs and left, getting to start a four day hiatus.

I was greeted at our home by my beautiful wife and infant daughter. After adjusting to home and playing with my daughter, my wife looked at me and told me she was going to Katie Luther’s place in Mandan. Katie’s place was a haven for her to get away and get some genuine “girl time” which I had no problem with. She also got to get yarn and knit with like minded women in a beautiful part of Morton county.

“Do you want me to take Liana with me?” She asked.

I looked down at our daughter who was trying to “walk” along the edge
Of the couch. Hearing her name, she turned her head up and stared at me with these big doe eyes of hers. I was tired and exhausted, but my wife needed and deserved the time.
How could I say no to a sweet little face like that anyway?

“Don’t worry about” I told her giving her a kiss and a hug, “I’ll take care of her, you go and have some girl time. Enjoy yourself!”.

With that she stepped out the door and left.

—————————

I don’t remember what we did during that time together. I always enjoyed Time with my daughter and it almost always involved laughing and giggling. At around the 2 1/2 hour mark, nature began calling my name. My daughter was starting to crawl at this point so I scooped her up with a plush toy she had gotten from her uncle Todd and put her in view where I could see her. I walked back to the couch with her and saw that I had missed two
Phone calls in the space of a few short
Minutes.
Normally, I wouldn’t have redialed the phone number but that amount of calls within the short span of time…
Out of curiosity, i redialed the phone number.
The dial tone went for a short while when a woman answered on the other line:
“Hello?”
Pause. “Yes? Who is this?”
“My name is chandler Herson, you dialed my phone number?”
pause. “Is your wife Valerie?”
“yes, why do you ask?”
“She’s been in a car accident and they are taking her to Medcenter One”.
My heart leapt into my throat then stopped as it dropped into my stomach.
“What??” I managed to wheeze out,
“Is she ok??”. Panic and fear were beginning to set in.
“I don’t know, the paramedics took her a few moments ago”.
My heart, which had stopped beating about a second ago and was residing now in my stomach began to come back to life due to terror.
My mind began to race: “what kind of condition was she in? Why wasn’t she able to call me herself? Did she hit
Someone else?”
I thanked the woman for calling me and immediately grabbed my daughter and her car seat and – as calmly as I could – proceeded to my truck. One thing I learned as a father is that children can sense fear, anxiety and overall stress, so I was trying to stay calm. I strapped her in and then very quickly drove to Medcenter One.

———–End of Part 1———

No sooner had I written about the so called “black hole of mill run”
Then a construction crew was outside of it putting up a new business sign for “ContactUS communication”
And gutting out the inside for a partial piece of the building.
While this is still a long way from a grocery store replacing the old,
It’s a start.