Ryder News Nov 5, 2020

Ryder News for Nov. 5, 2020  

I hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween! I am rather disappointed though in the amount of kids at my place. I know there are more than 9 kids in this town and in the area. I even bought extra candy as I thought since Jennifer and Greg Andreachi were passing out candy at the old Ryder school, that I would have lots of kids stopping here as well. I made sure to have lights on and back door light on but nope, only 9 kids. I talked to some others and they had 30 or more kids. I watched the cars go to the old school and then drive right on by my place which incidentally is almost right across the street from the school. Oh well, more candy for me to eat!!

Jennifer and Greg Andreachi

 

It’s Staci Bradley McGrath’s birthday today, Nov. 5th...I won’t say how old she is...actually I’d have to stop and figure it out. I lie about my age all the time so I suppose I’ll have to start lying about hers too otherwise someone will figure out that I’m more than 50 years old!   

 

Vanessa Fransen with her wagonload of books.

 

Vanessa Fransen’s book delivery and little free library project was featured in the NY TIMES! In 2018, Vanessa installed a Little Free Library in Makoti’s town square. Vanessa is from Makoti, ND and you can read her story at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/neediest-cases/where-covid-left-holes-volunteers-stepped-in.html  

 

Twelve year old Vanessa Fransen.

Pastor Jonathan Starks said, “Wow, today was our 30th Drive In Service and the 3rd in the deer stand! We continue to share the Good News. It’s Heaven’s help for such a time as this! We all need to be reminded to keep looking up! Also we would like to say thank you to Malik from KX News and Michelle from the Fargo Forum who came out to hear our story!” Isn’t that exciting, KX News and the Fargo Forum came to our little town of Ryder to report on Pastor Starks' unique way of holding his church service!  

Ron and Muriel Peterson spent last Saturday and Sunday in LaMoure. Their grandson Tate McCartney Mart was confirmed at Zoar Lutheran Church on Sunday. A group of friends and relatives enjoyed dinner with Tate and then returned to their homes. Muriel Peterson received the news that Sheila Johnson, the wife of James Johnson has passed away. James was a former resident on a Ryder farm, and a graduate of Ryder High School. They were now living in a nursing home in Larimore, ND.  

An update on James (Jim) Bakken. Jim Bakken was a Ryder educator and a former Ryder Cenex manager. He passed away due to Covid 19. His wife, Marvel, also a Covid patient, fell and broke her femur and wrist. Her Covid is under control and Jim’s funeral will be held when Marvel is able to attend.  

The Ryder Community Club will be postponing the Annual Turkey drawing and Thanksgiving Celebration due to Covid 19. We would like to continue to help out our local families with your support. We will hold a Covid Safe Drive-by Turkey give away Saturday Dec. 19, 2020, at 1:00.  

We lost another former Ryder High student: Duane Baumgartner died Oct. 27th from a heart attack. Duane would have been with the class of 1964. He and his wife, Jolene (Lies) were living at Rice Lake where they had built a home. His parents were Steve and Hazel (Ness) Baumgartner, who are deceased as are his brothers Marvin and Ron. His youngest brother, Arlyn and wife, live in Columbia Falls, MT.  

This terrible wind that we had last Sunday did cause some damage in the area. Terry Hovde lost an old wooden grain bin. I had some damage done to my pickup due to the roof blowing off an old shed at the farm and hitting the right side of the pickup. The damage consisted of several large scrapes all along the box on the driver’s side of the vehicle plus other scrapes.  

 

Just received this e mail so will pass it along.  

“Dear Ms Bradley, My wife's dad's family lived and had a store in Ryder. The Olsen Store. His name was Steven Olsen, his wife's name was Gina. Some years ago we met George Officer and he took us on a tour of Ryder and we attended church there that Sunday. One of the interesting things there, there were many, was the old newspaper office in Ryder. He showed us a copy of Gina's obituary. We had no way to copy or photograph the obit. But we are still very interested in somehow obtaining a copy. Is there any way that you know of to get a copy? We are talking about 1920-25. Please let us know if this may be a possibility. Thank you!  

Sincerely, Doyle and Mary Olsen Turner  

dmturn@arvig.net”

 

Upcoming Events:  

 

Nov. 8...10:30 a.m. Ryder’s Calvary church will continue to hold Parking Lot Drive-In Church services at 10:30 every Sunday morning until further notice. Tune to 107.5 on your FM radio station to listen to the service.  

 

Nov. 8...9 a.m. Worship Service at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church of Makoti.  

 

Nov. 8...10:30 a.m. Worship Service with communion at St. John’s Lutheran Church of Ryder.

Ryder News Oct 29, 2020

Ryder News for Oct 29, 2020

ELECTION 2020 NEWS:

BALLOTS can be brought in person or deposited in the secure drop box at the Ryder City Hall until 5:00 p.m. on Monday, Nov 2, 2020.

IN PERSON VOTING: You can vote in person from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Nov 3, 2020. 

 

I’m still in the moving process and boy oh boy, this is taking a long time. Just a bunch of little stuff to be moved and then the headache of trying to find a place to put all of it. I am making up boxes of stuff to put in a rummage sale next year! I wonder why a person thinks they need all this stuff. John, Staci and Johnny McGrath helped me once again this weekend. She has been trying to get all of her stuff out of the house too.

I neglected to mention that Troy Alderman was home last week to do some hunting. While he was home he delivered a washing machine that I had gotten from his mother. I sure do appreciate all the help I’ve been getting  from everyone. Elaine Alderman came in one day last week and helped me organize my new living room. We moved my couch, curio cabinets and also put my bookcase together. She was a big help, as evidently she likes to dust and wash glass in curio cabinet doors. I wonder if she will do this every once in a while for me! 

 

DRIVE-IN SERVICES CONTINUE 

“Ryder pastor holds services from deer stand”  

Pastor Jonathan Starks says, “What a great headline and an uplifting write up by Eloise Ogden in the Minot Daily News! I am so thankful for the opportunity to continue to minister to this community in these days where we need to be reminded of Jesus’ hope, peace and love more than ever!” 

Read the article here: 

https://www.minotdailynews.com/news/local-news/2020/10/drive-in-services-continue/ 

 

Another former Ryder High attendee has passed away. Romona (Underdahl) Schroepfer died on Aug. 10, 2020. Her parents were Martin and Johanna (Gotenberg) Underdahl and their farm was near Makoti. Her siblings were Gertrude, Gladys (Haugen), Millie (Campbell), Pearl, Ralph, Kenny and Vi (Knutson). Records show that Romona and Vi attended Ryder High with Vi graduating in 1943 while Romona finished her high school in Minot. She is survived by 2 sons, Daniel and Jeffrey, Jeffrey's wife, Melinda, and grandson, Evan.  

 

Another Underdahl, Annie Jensen, graduated from Ryder High in 1936. Do any readers have an update on her for the museum records? If so, just let me, Sue, know. 

 

Marilyn Hudson

I just saw in the paper that Marilyn Hudson had passed away in a Bismarck hospital on Oct. 22, 2020. Since I used to live in Raub, ND I used to see her once in a while and we became friends in later years. Her brother Raymond Cross was a classmate of mine in high school. Marilyn Cross Hudson, 84, Parshall, died Thursday, October 22, 2020 at a Bismarck hospital.  Marilyn Old Dog was born on June 11, 1936 in Elbowoods, North Dakota where she attended school and graduated from Elbowoods High School in 1953. She continued her education at Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas. She had a major role in the history and culture of the Three Affiliated Tribes. She was the historian of the information of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes. The tribal knowledge keeper. 

The family will celebrate Marilyn’s life privately, in respect of CDC, North Dakota, and Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation COVID-19 guidelines. A public memorial is tentatively planned for June 2021. 

My sympathy goes out to her family and friends. 

 

James (Jim) Bakken

James (Jim) Bakken, 81 of Minot, longtime educator and administrator, passed away on Friday, Oct. 23, 2020 in a Minot hospital due to Covid 19. Due to the pandemic, funeral arrangements are pending and will be posted once arranged by the family. This is all the information that I have at this time. 

My sympathy goes out to his family and friends.

 

Upcoming Events: 

 

Nov. 1...10:30 a.m. Ryder’s Calvary church will continue to hold Parking Lot Drive-In Church services at 10:30 every Sunday morning until further notice. Tune to 107.5 on your FM radio station to listen to the service.  

Nov. 1...9 a.m. Worship Service at St. John’s Lutheran Church of Ryder. 

Nov. 1...10:30 a.m. Worship Service with communion at Hope Lutheran Church of Makoti. 

Ryder News Oct 22, 2020

Ryder News for Oct. 22, 2020 

 

It seems everyone knew who the Karna boys were in that sort of a Mystery Photo I had in my column last week! Shelly Otteson Sherven said she used to babysit for them! I neglected to mention in last week's news that Caleb Karna was the groom in the picture and he married Trina Howell. I just found out that they have bought the Elmer Wolff farm west of Ryder and that’s where they will be living. 

 

I’m still in the process of moving and throwing lots of things away and putting some in boxes for  a rummage sale next year. I can’t believe all the stuff that I have accumulated in the last 44 years at my farm home...wow! I had quite a bit of help again this last weekend with John, Staci and Johnny McGrath helping and my new neighbors across the alley, Ethan and Kayla Hill. Wes Ford, my neighbor across the street and 2 of his crew moved my freezer over and even unpacked it and brought the food over too. With all this wonderful help, we got a lot of the furniture moved and tentatively put into place, that is until I change my mind about the placement of things!! 

 

Janice Eick sent me a message saying, “Sue. Loved the museum’s. We were there on Sunday. My son enjoyed the blacksmith display of his great grandfather’s. John (Warner) was very helpful. Thanks to all for keeping history alive.” 

 

Calvary Outdoor Church service preached from a deer stand.

My son Rick Sprinkle had this to say about the Calvary Church service last Sunday, “Drive in church service, Pastor Jonathan Starks preaches the good word out of a DEER STAND!!! This is awesome!!!” 

 

An amazing spooktacular display at the old Ryder school.

Jennifer and Greg Andreachi are going to be passing out Halloween candy at the Ryder school on Halloween starting at 5:30 p.m. I said I’d be sure to stop and get some for myself! Be sure to take your kids over for a Halloween treat! Jennifer has done an amazing job of decorating the old Ryder school with all kinds of spooky things! 

 

There will not be a Halloween party this year in Makoti as in the past. The kids can just go trick or treating door to door. The people will have their lights on and be ready to pass out the treats. 

 

Another writing from the mind of Gus Mueller. You can find his musings on Facebook under Gus’s Things and Stuff. 

 

Gus Mueller’s leaves

LEAF ME ALONE! 

It’s fall.  The leaves are falling. 3,508,180! I’ll get back to that number shortly.  Trees have always been a precious commodity in North Dakota. Just ask all the early settlers who built their houses out of sod. You readers who live in or near Ryder might take note of the large evergreen tree located in the yard just north of the Ryder gym—my mom’s old place. It was about 3 feet tall when she planted it in the spring of 1975, the year after my dad died. No, it was not in memory of my dad—for the first time ever, my mom had her hands on the checkbook and had always wanted a tree in the front yard! My dad would have never paid money for a tree. 

As a child in Ryder, a pile of dry leaves translated to something to roll in, or to bury your dog in. And if you had to identify one single “smell of fall,” it certainly would be burning leaves. As a teenager, fallen leaves also were a source of income.  It was common for the older ladies in Ryder to pay some young guy to come by and rake her yard (I know, I know, it easily could have been a young girl, but it wasn’t). My main annual employer was Tillie Lundahl, who lived in the house just west of the Ryder Tennis Court. She paid $2.00/raking. Doesn’t sound like much for an afternoon’s work, but to put $2.00 into perspective, in 1961 that would have bought 8 hamburgers at Nick’s café, or 400 root beer barrels at Butch’s Drug Store! 

Today I live on Fox Island, along the Missouri River on the west side of Bismarck.  Prior to the Garrison dam, most of Fox Island was undeveloped and was more or less a large sandbar, as it flooded regularly—a perfect growing area for cottonwoods. Most of the lots still have several giant cottonwoods on them. To be exact, ours has 42! Keeping up with the falling leaves is too big of a job for my wife and I, so we hire a professional lawn service. After having a beautiful leaf-free lawn five days ago when they left, I looked out today and saw that the yard is totally covered with leaves—a lot of leaves. How many you might ask?  So did I. 

I went out to several different places in the yard and sampled how many leaves were in one square foot—It varied from 62 to 138, with an average of 103/sq.ft.  Our lot is nearly an acre (40,916 sq.ft.), and from this I subtracted the footprint of the house, garage, deck, and the ground covered by the driveway, leaving 34,060 of ground for leaf accumulation. So let’s do the math: 34,060 x 103 (leaves/sq.ft.) = 3,508,180. Yes, that’s correct, I’d predict that today there are over 3 million leaves in my yard. 

As you probably know, with cottonwoods, when the leaves fall the stem stays attached, and the average length of a leaf + stem is 6 inches. If we were to take all the leaves (+ stems) in the yard and put them end-to-end using the 6-inch average, it would total 21,049,080 inches, or 1,754,090 feet. To give you a visual on this, if you were to take the leaves (with stems) in my yard, and placed them end-to-end on I-94 heading east from the Montana border, you would end up 8 miles short of the Minnesota state line! 

All this probably sounds like I’m not too fond of fallen leaves, but I do have to acknowledge one thing—they always get prettier when they age, something that most of us can’t claim! 

 

The Ryder Food Pantry is looking for farm eggs. chicken or duck eggs. we CAN accept these and we are very low on eggs. If you are cleaning out your freezers for fresh meat, think of us for donating your old meat  (not too old). They also would LOVE honey, if you have older honey you haven't used.  

 

There was a real good turnout for the flu shots at the Ryder Senior Center last Saturday. I was one of the first ones along with Harvey and Denise Johnson.  

 

Upcoming Events: 

 

 Oct. 25...10:30 a.m. Ryder’s Calvary church will continue to hold Parking Lot Drive-In Church services at 10:30 every Sunday morning until further notice. Tune to 107.5 on your FM radio station to listen to the service.  

Oct. 25...9 a.m. Worship Service at Hope Lutheran Church of Makoti. 

Oct. 25...10:30 a.m. Worship Service with communion at Immanuel Lutheran Church of Roseglen.  

Oct. 27...10 a.m. Bible Study at St. John’s Lutheran Church. Everyone is welcome.