Monday, April 30, 2007, 23:43

Thoughts and Prayers Needed

I received this note from Rural Route 2 subscriber Suzanne Monday afternoon:

"I am Suzanne. Please pray for our family. My adopted daughter from my first marriage (my husband died young, tragically) just lost her 5 month old tiny son. She bled much and had to have a D&C so she is in much pain and is completely anemic. Thanks for your prayers and caring."

Let us all keep Suzanne and her family and her daughter in our thoughts and prayers during this time of need.

LeAnn R. Ralph

Monday, April 30, 2007, 13:18

And They Just Kept Coming. . .

Sunday was such a beautiful day here in west central Wisconsin. Warm, with a temperature in the 80s, sunny, breezy out of the south, puffy white clouds.

In fact, it was such a beautiful day, we were all pretty sure that not too many people would show up for our church dinner. After all, on such a nice day in the spring, there's garden work to do and lawn work, or home improvement projects, or people would want to get out and go fishing. Or hiking. Or biking. Or the few farmers who are left around here would be doing fieldwork.

With all of that available, why would people want to sit around and eat dinner at a church?

We were wrong.

People *did* want to sit around and eat dinner at church.

All together, we are thinking we served close to 200 people.

We started out with 17 pies (cut into 8 pieces) -- and ran out of pie before we ran out of people coming for dinner.

We started out with 15 pounds of coleslaw -- and ran out of coleslaw before we ran out of people coming for dinner.

We started out with four of the big coffee makers of coffee (ranging in size from 30 cup to 50 cup coffee makers) -- and we ran out of coffee before we ran out of people coming for dinner. (We were scurrying to make smaller pots of coffee to keep up with the demand.)

We started out with four gallons of punch (a juice base, a bottle of 7-up, some drink mix and lots of ice) -- and ran out of punch before we ran out of people coming for dinner.

We started out with nearly a Nesco roaster full of baked beans -- and ran out of baked beans before we ran out of people coming for dinner.

The only thing we didn't run out of was potato salad and chicken. We started out with 50 pounds of potato salad (there was still some of that left, although not a lot), and we started out with 220 chicken quarters. There were 28 pieces of chicken left.

We figured we would shut down at 1 p.m. -- but people were still coming for dinner. By the time 1:30 rolled around and some of us were thinking we ought to head into town because our choir was scheduled to sing at the nursing home at 2 p.m. -- there was still a basement full of people sitting around, chatting, laughing and drinking coffee.

Randy, who got up at 4 a.m. to go into town to help start cooking chicken, stayed at the church to help the other ladies finish cleaning up.

I love it that people come to eat and then sit around and visit. I have seen old childhood friendships rekindled during a church dinner. I have watched people who have not seen each other in decades get caught up on what has happened in their lives. I have seen fences mended among several who might not have been getting along so well. And I have seen elderly people who have lost their spouses not feel so alone for the time they are there, surrounded by the warm friendship and the concern of others.

So, all in all, I would say it was a successful church dinner. I was practically ready to collapse by the time we got done at the nursing home, though. Do you know how hot they keep it in a nursing home even when it's 85 degrees outside?

As for my garden, I managed to get my lettuce seeds planted in tubs on Saturday. I watered the tubs Saturday and then again Sunday. I don't want the seeds to dry out. With all of the hot, dry wind, it doesn't take anything long to dry out. Clothes hung up outside are dry in a half an hour. The humidity has been right around 20 or 25 percent. And I noticed on Sunday, too, that the wasps are out already in bunches -- and they, too, are flying around looking for water. They were very interested in the wet laundry.

The other day, I filled up the shallow frying pan with fresh water that I've got sitting on a round table in the backyard for the birds. I filled the pan. Set it on the table. Went in the house. Looked out the kitchen window. And already Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal were getting a drink, and there were blue jays and chickadees sitting in the lilacs, waiting their turn. Later on, I watched a field sparrow (the ones with the pink beak), splashing around happily, taking a bath. There just isn't any water pooled up outside for them. The barn swallows and the cliff swallows, I have noticed, are having a hard time finding mud to patch up their nests.

I am afraid we will lose our birds again this year if it stays dry. And right now, it is certainly looking like we might have another year of drought. Last year before the middle of the summer, most of the song birds took off for places where there was water.

LeAnn R. Ralph