Anamoose, ND

At 27 below I don’t think there would be too many people wanting to go ice skating today.  For this winter we don’t even have a skating rink, but plans are in place for one next year.

The Albrecht family has donated their lot north of the Lutheran Church parking lot to the city to be used for a skating rink.  (see picture)

The warming house on main street sets next to the new fire hall that was built on the skating rink lot.  The city board discussed that they will move it to the new lot so next winter our youth ( and maybe a few older) will be able to skate again.  This is one of our goals in our Strategic Plan. 

The Raider’s Boys Basketball Team played the Velva Aggies last night in Drake. Although they lost by eleven points, they have had a good season. The team has won 6 games and lost only 3 games. They will be playing in Bottineau for districts on February 22.

I hear there is a wedding coming up in Anamoose between Joe and Ana this summer - that will be the talk of the town!  I see that Joe Moose is now on the banner for your blog also - congrats on being the first to make a change in the banner.  Looks great!

Lynette Flage, ND Horizons Director 

        Mardelle Helm taught a group of crafty ladies to make the cute snowman displayed.  This was one of the Horizon goals to bring crafts and lessons to the area citizens.  The project is the first of many planned for the year.    Alyce Heer & Lois Rott    Lillian Schmidt, Deloris Gienger, Angie Kesler, Kathy Rademacher, Phyllis Zimmerman & Leela Sprenger

 You can have a free weekly BP check at the Anamoose Senior Citizen’s Club between 11:15 AM and 1:00 PM every Monday.  Area RN’s (Phyllis Zimmerman & Mardelle Helm) are here to take your BP and advise you to get further medical attention when there are indicators.  Many lined up today to get and document their results.

Last night we had our annual Quad County Economic Development meeting at the Whistle Stop Cafe in Drake. 

We are loaning Darryl Keller money to open the Shani”s Bar in Drake. 

Maria Effertz Hanson, McHenry Co. JDA Director, spoke on the benefits of living in ND.  She referred to the article in the January issue of National Geographics, The Emptied Prairie, where they said ND is litered with dead towns.  Many ND people, including me, wrote in to let them know what we thought of the article.  We have a lower population in ND than a lot of states, but we have a lot of positives.  To view the article go to:  http://abcnews.go.com/search?searchtext=north%20dakota&type  

We just got home from eating a buffet breakfast at the Anamoose Cafe.  What a huge crowd, as you can see in the pictures!  The breakfast was delicious  Over breakfast, we talked about how it is great to be able to eat Sunday breakfast in Anamoose before or after church. 

Next Sunday we can eat breakfast at the Anamoose Senior Center, when they serve their second Sunday breakfast from 9:30-1. 

This was one of our Strategic Planning goals-to have Sunday meals for seniors.  I am sure the rest of the people in Anamoose enjoy it too. 

Friday we had our second blogging training session at Carrington with Mike Miller, and I learned how to change the banner at the top of our Anamoose site.  It is our Anamoose Welcome sign cropped to fit.  I had to cut part of his antlers off to get it in the area allowed. This is the sign that will have Ana added to the left side.

On the Gackle blog site I saw a great idea to promote a blogging site-plus I see that they fed their new bloggers.

    “To generate awareness we are going to give out business cards with the Gackle “Blogging site added to everyone who attends the upcoming Gackle Horizons Pep Rally.”

Our Anamoose Area Community Foundation met last night with Kevin Dvorak, ND Community Foundation president, for an organizational meeting.  We started planning on how to get our $25,000 goal for the  year.  Our $10,000 that we will be getting from the Horizons program is a good start. 

From left around the back of the table are:  Kevin Dvorak, Brent Weninger, Rose Weninger, Joe Weninger, Bill Goodwin (behind), Calvin Buxa, Dennis Zimmerman, Shirley Nitz. 

This morning we were discussing the Anamoose Foundation over coffee at the cafe.  Suddenly one woman got up, got her checkbook, and made out a donation.   That made my day!

A few members of the Communications committee got together Monday to look over the Anamoose brochure.  We liked the looks of it, but Mary Jund plans to change a few things yet.  Mary was a leader in both our Study Circle groups and Leadership Plenty.   

 We questioned the name of the lake directly south  of Anamoose.  I have always heard it called Stelow Lake after the Stelow family who lived in the farm by the lake.  In geological articles about how a glacier formed the lake, they call it Steele Lake.  Does anybody know what is correct? 

The picture is of Deloris Gienger, Joe Weninger and Mary Jund at the Anamoose Senior Center.

Last week I attended the Nature Based Tourism conference and Marketplace of Ideas at Grand Forks. One of the speakers said that ND is listed in a book as one of the 50 best birding places in the world.   This  reminded me that we have 3 great birding trails around Anamoose and Drake.  We have birding brochures that can be picked up in the cafe.  One more brochure holder will be put up in Anamoose soon.

Friday we discussed the birds that our “local birdwatchers” have seen (that doesn’t include me as I don’t know one bird from another).  This winter they have seen bluejays, downy woodpecker, cedar waxwings, chickadees, nut hatchers, and bright red finches. 

One of our goals in our Strategic Plan was to be able to eat out in Anamoose at least one to two Sundays a month.

The Anamoose Senior Citizens served the first breakfast on Sunday, January 6th.  The crowd seemed to enjoy the pancakes and sausage-and visiting.  A couple of Pastor Olson’s family had to have eggs instead of sausage when the sausage run out.  We talked of ordering an extra 5 lbs when we have sausage again. As you can see we have lots of help

in the kitchen. We plan to serve again Sunday, February 3rd. 

The cafe plans to serve a breakfast on Sunday, January 27th.

Pat McIntosh (left) from Castle Rock, WA, sent us our first donation of $25 for our Anamoose Endowment fund.  Dorothy Leier (right) sent her aunt one of our christmas letters that tells how we are putting our $10,000 that we will receive from the Horizon’s program.  The letter is on our Anamoose web site, http://www.anamoose.com/   The endowment fund will provide us with a method of receiving funds/donations to benefit projects in Anamoose. 

Our Anamoose tri-fold brochure is in it’s final stages.  I went to Martin to take this picture of Keith Reinowski, Angie Mack (center), and Mary Jund (communications chairman).  They are working on the brochure at Keith’s business, Midwest Graphics.  Keith has a neat website http://www.midwestgraphicsandsigns.com/ 

The brochure will be distributed in the Anamoose area and at rest stops in ND. 

The Steering Committee met at the Anamoose Senior Citizens Center with only one member unable to attend. The Strategic Plan was discussed and brought up to date. Members were given new activities to complete some of the areas of the plan. Pictured from left to right: Shirley Nitz, Joesph Weninger, Bill Goodwin, Alyce Heer, Chairman, Bonnie Dockter, Mardi Helm, (missing: Dennis Zimmerman who left before the picture was taken and Janice Buchholz, our snowbird).

In December we had a Stop and Shop day held at the Anamoose Senior Center.  The event was organized by Deb Reinowski and Annette Leier with 12 vendors present.  They had a variety of products from jewelry, home products, cosmetics, etc.

Deb told me”I liked doing it in conjunction with Santa Day” which was right across the street in the VFW hall.  In the evening the Baptist Church used the senior center.  “I would do it again.  It is another reason to bring people to Anamoose”. 

Frances Lageson is having makeup applied by Katie Fitzgerald, who along with her mother, Pattie Reeves, makes Cambens Naturals.

Great info on the blog Anamoose - I sure enjoy reading your updates!  Congrats to all who have taken leadership to share the great stories from your community.  Have a great New year!

Lynette Flage - ND Horizons Director

I had heard that Matt Rudnick had a lot of miniature wooden replicas, but I was surprised

   
when I saw his large collection.  The 4 wheel drive tractor has 875 custom made peices. 

Matt has only been making wooden replicas for 6 years.  He said he was holding a hammer one day and thought “I can make one like that”.  He took a 2×6 and within a few hours, he had a wooden hammer replica.  “When I took it to the cafe to show they asked ‘what’s next’.  He made his oun blueprints for the wind generator and oil pump that “carry out a ND theme”.  They operate on electric motors. 

All of Matt’s toys are operational.  He gave an example that his scissor and tim snipes can cut paper. 

My neighbor, Emanuel Kesler, likes to collect lots of things like radios (over 100), toy cars, 3 restored Studebaker cars, approximately 50 bikes from the 30s to the 50s, and other smaller collections. 

Emanuel has been restoring a 1928 Whippet car.  He has had to get parts all over the US.  Matt Rudnick and Emanuel made the steering wheel out of wood. 

My husband, Vernon, is another big time collector, but he collects John Deere toys.  He has a room just for his precision toys and collectibles, plus some smaller ones in our basement.  He likes everything John Deere from toy tractors to puzzles, planes, sun catchers, pens, belt buckles, plates, and on and on. 

I took this picture of Kathy Selzler at her computer where she has been working on her January Anamoose Community calendar. Kathy includes activities about community events, school and church activities, and larger ND events that people in Anamoose usually attend.

She has about 60 copies printed at the school by her daughter, Corinne Engen, or Mary Beck. From there she takes them to the cafe, senior center, and bank for people to pick them up. She also emails the calendar to the Anamoose web site, www.anamoose.com where you can find it under “Events”.

The printing of the calendar is paid for by the Anamoose Civic Club, which also pays for the Anamoose web site.