Behind the Lines: by David Heiller

David Heiller Cindy called me at 4:30 last Wednesday afternoon, September 22. “Let’s go for a walk at Banning,” she said. It had been a busy day at work for us, and a busy night was planned, with one of us to pick up our son from football practice and the other to attend a confirmation meeting with our daughter. But we needed that walk at Banning State Park. We only had an hour to spare. How could we not afford to spare it on a fall walk? A walk in the woods is ALWAYS a good plan. “Sounds great,” I told Cindy, and in half an hour we were there, Cindy and Mollie and me, on the familiar trail heading toward the Kettle River. The air had that fall hue to it, of sunlight filtered through red and orange and yellow. A couple of hard frosts had knocked back the bugs. A few leaves lay on the trail, but not so thick that we kicked them up. The trees hadn’t dropped a lot of leaves. That’s happening right now. We walked hand in hand in hand, three abreast, on the wide trail. M...

David Heiller The ice storm of 1991 could just as well have been the ice storm of 1891 for a lot of people including our family. It happened last Friday night and Saturday morning, March 22-23. First rain fell, then sleet, then snow. They combined to break trees and power lines with a thick mass of icy gunk. Α lot of people were not only stranded, but they were stranded without electricity and telephones for quite a spell. Usually power outages last only an hour or two, which is a fine commentary on our electric utilities, both the co-ops and Minnesota Power. But this storm left both the telephone and electricity out at our house for 14-plus hours, from 11 p.m. to 2 p.m. the next afternoon. In an ice cave Us “young” people (say age 50 or less) don’t realize how much our lives revolve around electricity until it is suddenly not there. Sud­denly there is no light, no radio (and of course no batteries for the AC-DC radio), no refrigeration, and worst of all for a Saturday ...

David Heiller A couple weeks ago I asked Mom if she still had any red cedar for making a walking stick. Mom of course knew exactly what I was talking about, even though the subject of walking sticks hadn’t arisen in the old homestead for about 10 years. “Yes, in the far corner of the basement, by the furnace;” she said. David with his walking stick and his  sister  Jeanne walking through  the hills of Brownsville. Sure enough, there they were, just as I had left them after a stick-gathering walk in the woods a long time ago. Maybe 20 years, not 10. I hefted several of them, and found the right one. It’s going to be a Christmas gift for a certain someone. I’ll call him “Alex.” (I always like how the advice columnists put names in quotation marks to hide their identity.) Alex is a lot like me, although without a 52-year-old girth. So I figure if I like the stick, he’ll like it. I took it home and could hardly wait to peel off the cedar bark and trim ...

David Heiller Some big families live fairly close together, and see each other often. I think they are lucky, even if they sometimes don’t get along so well. Yet, maybe it’s not all bad that my siblings are spread over the United States. It makes the occasions when we do get together all that more memorable. Heillers, at a family wedding. Like last weekend. Six of us brothers and sisters went to St. Charles, Illinois, to attend the wedding of our niece, Jenny. Everybody brought their kids too. It was a beautifully hectic time. I tried to squeeze two years into two days with Jeanne, who I hadn’t seen since 1992. That’s impossible. But small conversations can mean a lot, especially when you grew up together in a loving family. People don’t say many profound things at real life reunions, like they do in Hollywood. They talk about their jobs, or their kids riding in mountain bike races. You get a taste of their lives, and you put the ingredients t...

David Heiller We are hosting a big family reunion this weekend. About 20 people will be here for a couple days. I’m not sure what we’ll be doing for a lot of that time. My sisters were supposed to plan some activities, but last I heard they hadn’t put anything together. Our homestead, the venue for  a fun-filled family reunion So as I ’ ve been working around the farm the last few days, I ’ ve come up with some creative games that I think everyone will enjoy. I ’ m sharing them here in case you need them for a reunion of your own. Move the Freezer. The chest freezer in the barn needs a new home in our basement. This simple game takes four strong adults to carry it to its new location. Kill the Burdock. This is a healthy activity that appeals to the outdoorsman. Glen Jostad is the honorary chairman, since he is an authority on the subject. We will each be given a garden spade, which Glen will sharpen. Then we will walk back and forth on our six acre home site and use the spades...