Anamoose, ND

I woke up yesterday morning sure that it was going to rain on our outdoor moose wedding, but the sun came out and we had a great crowd that gathered for our program & wedding.  The program was first with Danelle Olson as MC.  Richard Derrickson read a poem “The Tale of Joe & Ana Moose” composed by Judy Derrickson.  Speakers were: Senator Ryan Taylor from Towner; Lynette Flagge, Horizon’s Director; & Eleanore Dossenko, who spoke on the 3 R’s of Marriage.  The men’s Centennial singers entertained the large crowd. 

The wedding party arrived by Ron Bartz’s horse & buggy.  There were quite a few protests to the bride & goom getting married, but the marriage went on with the groom presenting the bride with a HUGE “ring” & the happy couple nuzzling after they said their “I do’s”.  Around 200 people enjoyed the picnic meal of barbeques, potato salad, beans & wedding cake.

The video shows some of the events of the day.  (This is only the second video I have ever made, and some of the pictures got deleted & I couldn’t figure out how to get them back in. ).  Dick Hauser & his crew set up chairs (pictured), while Steve Heim & helpers set up the sound system   The wedding cake was made by Marceline Hoaglund.  The next 3 pictures show the speakers: Ryan Taylor, Lynette Flagge, & Eleanore Dossenko.  The wedding party was led by the ring bearer-Donna Hase & flower girl-Doug Rademacher.  The bridesmaid,LeRoy Becker, shows her(or should that be his) open backed dress & the groomsman, Judy Derrickson, sports a white shirt & tie.  They are followed by the bride, Ron Cartwright, carrying her beautiful arrangement of wild flowers; & moosegroom, Barb Martin, dressed in his best attire.  Ted Sitz & his back up singers provided a moose musical rendition for the happy occasion.  Maurie Becker, the moose minister, tried to keep the wedding ceremony on track.  We even had a moose hunter (Curtis Hase) in the crowd. The bride & groom fed each other wedding cake.  The bride posed by herself, while the groom posed with the flower girl. Ryan Taylor got a moose kiss from the bridesmaid, (I wondered why LeRoy had a ton of lipstick on). I got some of the wedding party to pose for me, but some disappeared to change clothes.    Marceline Hoaglund, Pam Heim & Bonnie Dockter (not pictured) served the cake.  Bonnie & Pam told me they were aunts of the bride.  Missy Lucas helps little Katie show off her Joe & Ana T-shirt.  Judy Derrickson held games after the picnic lunch.  The meal was served in the park shelter by Bill Goodwin & his crew.  The last few pictures just show the groups of well fed people that stood around visiting.

Our upcoming bride, Ana Lope, was very nervous at her wedding rehearsal last night.  She had to try on her wedding attire to be sure it fit.  Joe Moose was as calm as a cucumber.  Maurie Becker, a certified moose minister, made sure the couple knew when to say “I do”. 

Saturday is the big day for the wedding.  Ana & Joe invite all of you to join us at 3pm in the park for a program, the WEDDING, & a free picnic meal with wedding cake, favors & all.  The forecast is for a beautiful day. 

                 Reannie May was officially welcomed to Anamoose today by the Welcoming Committee.  She recently moved back to Anamoose from the state of Washington where she moved to after graduating from Anamoose High School in 1966.  She received a packet of important information with phone numbers, history, business listings, emergency protocol, etc, as well as gifts from the city, including a “Welcome Sign” she is pictured with.  We are so glad she has returned to our little city! 

  Ten Anamoose crafters made welcome signs for their doors today at the June craft class.  They each had a “MOOSE” displayed on them with the warm welcome.  Please click on the pictures to see them in action and the final product held by each crafter.  We had 2 Bottineau crafters that joined us today, after seeing our handiwork on this blog site.  They are Byrnae Feight and Betty Lund and are pictured in the top picture with Kathy Rademacher.  Other  participants in action are Alyce Heer & Phyllis Zimmerman (see bottom picture).   In the middle picture back row is Leela Sprenger, Marlene Whitaker,  Kathy Rademacher, Byrnae Feight, Lois Rott, Betty Lund and front row seated are Phyllis Zimmerman, Alyce Heer’s sign being held by Chloe Gunderson (Lois’s Granddaughter), Arla Mae Vannett and Mardelle Helm (instructor for this lesson).

We have many volunteers in Anamoose.  I will show just a few.  1.  Janice Buchholz planting 4 barrels of petunias on Main St.  2.  Wayne Vanette goes to Granville to get commodities from the McHenry Co Food Pantry during his 6 months in ND   3.  Pam Heim painting in the park  4.  Phyllis Zimmerman organizes the annual Blood Drive.  5.  Myself & Angie Kesler were helpers for the  Blood Drive.  6.  Mardell Helm gives monthly craft lessons at the Senior Center.  7.  Community Foundation Fund thermometer painted by Pam Heim & Phyllis & Dennis Zimmerman keep it current. 

Some other examples of volunteerism are: workers at Monday night bingo, taking care of flowers & shrubs by Anamoose sign, delivering Monday meals to shut ins, cutting grass for others, changing the marque, senior quilters, and the list goes on & on. 

Pam Heim has done many moose designs over the years.  In 2002 she won a contest for a t-shirt design for the 2nd 4th of July Fun Run.  Since then she has continued to design the yearly t-shirts & be in charge of the event.  The Anamoose Civic Club liked her 2002 design so well they had her design Joe Moose who leans against our Anamoose Welcome sign at the Highway 52 entrance. 

Pam’s moose designs are also on the water tower, peek-thru welcome sign in the park, t-shirts for our Joe & Ana-Moose wedding, a window of the old grocery store, our Anamoose Area Community Foundation thermometer, & several of our yearly demolition derby t-shirts.  She drew Joe & Ana-moose designs for a grade coloring contest this spring.   Pictured are 1. Pam painting peek-thru sign in park.  2.  Water tower  3.  Joe & Ana-Moose t-shirts  4.  Anamoose Area Foundation  5.  Joe & Ana design  6.  Joe (on right) designed by Pam.

Today was a busy day at the Anamoose Senior Center as 39 people participated in the annual senior citizens blood drive. 

Pictured are: 1.  Brad Rosel-Drake  2.  Elroy Stotz-Anamoose  3. Rose Weninger, Judy Derrickson, Joe Weninger & Richard Derrickson 

Anamoose’s kids baseball team played Harvey today. It was a beautiful day for a game, bright, sunny, and just a small breeze. In the fairness of the game, both teams won.s7300233.JPGs7300227.JPG

I attended an excellent workshop, Rural Community Forum, yesterday at Bismarck at the Heritage Center.  Many communities shared their stories about reusing school buildings, community operated businesses, using local foods & starting community endowment funds.  Annette Schilling, ND Tourism, also talked on Learned Based Vacations. 

The facilitator, Cher Hersrud, in introducing the Community Foundation Funds topic, stated “If I ruled the world, every town in ND would have one”.   Patricia Bowen, Ellendale, stated “People can give back to their communities”.    This topic was of great interest to me since we just started an Anamoose Area Community Fund.   We have over $13,000 so far. 

    Several city residents gathered together at the future home of Katie & Zach Fitzgerald and children, to plant a garden as a surprise, when they arrive in Anamoose in July.  Katie loves gardening but just had a baby girl in Jamestown recently (in fact after the garden was planted).  Seeds and labor were donated by these caring people of Anamoose.  I’ve been waiting for pictures of the actual action but have not received them to date - (they will be added if I get them as I didn’t have my camera with me).  The picture is of the planted plot waiting for the little seeds to sprout.

Twelve ladies made the glass decorated block lights as shown ( click on picture to make larger).  As you can see there were as many variations as there were ladies making them.  Mardelle Helm was craft leader this month.  Craft classes are offered monthly to anyone interested, for the cost of materials.

   Participants at the first class were Kathy Rademacher, Marlene Whitaker, Arla Mae Vanette, Phyllis Zimmerman, Janice Buchholtz, Angie Kesler, Barb Martin and Lois Rott.    Participants at the make up class were Lillian Schmidt, Leela Sprenger and Alyce Heer.                                                                                                                          

It’s a little early yet with this cold weather for garden vegetables.  But we had some vendors at our Farmer”s Market Monday evening.  We hold it Monday evenings as the VFW has Bingo at 8pm. 

I found a great idea when I visited the Gackle blog site.  Gackle, ND will be adding a Summer Arts Program “Capture the Coteau” to their Farmer’s Market.  They will “look at all the wild life and Flora which surrounds Gackle, study it, draw it, sculpt it, photograph it, and then use it to adorn banners, planters, benches, or what ever we can think of to help us beautify the town”.   Go to gackle.communityblogs.us   to learn more about this program and the grant they received. 

The Anamoose City Park on Main Street has taken on a new look.  Last week Kari Weninger painted the animals and Pam Heim painted the Joe-Ana-Moose Cut-out.  The Park Board planted flowers around the fountain and by the memorial. 

Pam Heim also painted designs on the two windows in the old grocery store.  It really looks nice as a couple weeks ago volunteers painted the front of the building.  (See article on “Things Look Brighter on Main Street”).  Click to enlarge pictures.

We had 2 more babies this past week to increase our Anamoose population.  Lacy & Chris Becker had a baby boy, Everette. (pictured)

Kaydence was born to Katie & Zach Fitzgerald at Jamestown Hospital on Saturday.  They have purchased a home in Anamoose and will be moving here soon.  Sorry that Fitzgerald is spelled wrong on the sign. 

The Anamoose Senior Citizens is raffling off a queen sized quilt.  It has over 3000 peices in it.  Tickets can be purchased from any Senior Citizen members.  It will be raffled off on Sunday, September 21 when the Seniors have their annual fall fund raising meal. 

At present some of the seniors are quilting on the lap sized quilt. 

Usually when I go to Minot I am lucky if I see a couple of people that I know, but yesterday at the annual Verendrye meeting there were many people from Anamoose and other area communities.  Maybe the free meal and a chance to win $3000 attracts us!  I didn’t win the money, and nobody won the $3000 either. 

They had many interesting vendors, with four from our Anamoose area, and one from McHenry County.  This is a good way to promote our small businesses & our county.  Booths pictured are: 1.  Deb Reinowski-Park Lane jewelry  2.  Keith Reinowski-Midwest Graphics & Signs. Also Angie Mack, Brenda Kenney, & Kristin Reinowski.  3.  Jackie Fix & Brad Mincher-Sage Hill Bed & Breakfast  4.  Mabel Forschen-Home made gifts & Watkins.  5.  Maria Effertz Hanson-McHenry County   Also there were people there like Shirley & Bill Nitz who were there just to enjoy the food, etc. 

Yes, Joe Moose is patiently waiting for his marriage to Ana-Lope on Saturday, June 28th.  The Ana-Day committee met last night for final plans for the wedding when Ana will join Joe on the Welcome sign, and change her name to Ana-Moose. 

The program will start at 3pm in the Anamoose Park.  Rev Danelle Olson is the MC.  The men’s Centennial group will sing; Helen Nolden, Eleanore Dossenko, and Senator Ryan Taylor will speak.  Richard Derrickson will read a poem about Anamoose and the wedding that was written by his wife, Judy.  A mock wedding will be held after the program.  The wedding party consists of: Minister: Maurie Becker, Bride: Ron Cartwright, Groom: Barb Martin, Bridesmaid: LeRoy Becker, Best Man: Judy Derrickson, Flower Girl: Doug Rademacker, and Ring Bearer: Susie Littrel.  Following the wedding a free picnic meal will be served along with wedding cake and moose nugget favors.  You will be able to have a photo shoot with the wedding couple, or Joe and Ana cutouts in the park for a small fee.  There will be a Moose Shoe Contest and some games for kids. 

Plan to join us for the wedding Saturday, June 28th. 

First picture: around the table from left to right-Maurie Becker, Pam Heim (behind),LeRoy Becker (trying on antler), Doug Rademacker, Fern Reinowski, Judy Derrickson, Richard Derrickson, Susie Litrell, Phyllis Zimmerman(behind), and Bonnie Dockter. 

      The first night of the Farmer’s Market brought vendors and customers to the Anamoose park shelter.  A wide variety of items were for sale: fresh eggs, homemade noodles, cookies, handicrafts, painted mailboxes, jewelry, canned fruits and vegetables and fresh rhubarb to name a few items.  I left with arms full and a promise to be back next week!  Vendors present this week were: Rosemary Vollmer, Wayne Vanette, Gertie and Alma Rau, Mabel Forschen and Gladys Schnase.  It will be held every Monday from 6 PM to 8 PM - come out and get something fresh, homemade and home grown.  Contact Farmers Market Chairman - Bonnie Docktor @ 465-3088 for information.