Rambling Along the St Croix

Had to travel to Rochester this week and took a leisurely tour down and back up the St Croix river -- MN side down and WI side back.  The river is mostly frozen, but here and there are open areas. 

Nevers Dam landing 

Taylors Falls looking NE

Hastings bridge over the Mississippi near where the St Croix joins

I saw three trains traveling along the Mississippi -- this one at Hastings and the others going south at Prescott.  All seemed like 100 cars or so. 

I stopped at Prescott, at the Great River Visitor Center

A sculpture at the visitor center -- looks like frozen roadkill stuck together.  

Reminds me of my own relatives who lived along the St Croix and sometimes ate clams, canned clams and searched for pearls.  Grandpa made mom a mother-of-pearl cross, hand cut out form a shell in the depression days of the 1930s when buying something was impossible.   She thought it was beautiful. 

Margo's Back is Back in Trouble

MRI view of Margo's neck (cervical) and upper back.  The bones around the central spinal cord are pressing in on the nerves and giving her a great deal of pain.  She had the lower back fixed in early December, and now this area is next for repairs.  The pain is in her right back shoulder and neck with some in the right leg.  Nerves do not like to be pressed against by unruly back bones and disks.  Can you see 4 -5 narrow (stenosis) areas?   One solution is to take great amounts of pain killers and move to a wheel chair and another is to try to have the surgeon remove the pressure.  Margo is in favor of the surgery first before giving up walking.

Two months ago, Margo, my wife, had lower back surgery.  It improved the problem, but she still had pain, but some of it had shifted to her upper back--right shoulder and neck area with still some in her leg.  

So, today she had an MRI on the upper back and found that it too was having severe problems with narrowing the spine and squishing the spinal cord.  The MRI doctor, who looked at the image, called her on the way back home to tell her that she needed to see a neurologist and neurological surgeon immediately.  

There is danger of a fall or other injury to the back of causing paralysis as the bad part of the spine might crush or cut the spinal cord.  She is to be very careful and do nothing physical except walk very carefully until she talks to the next doctor tomorrow.  

The lower back is repaired and doing better, now the neck/upper part is in trouble.  I imagine after getting that fixed, the middle will be next.  She thought the lower back operation was not successful, because, although her leg pain is less,  she still has it.  It appears the stenosis up near the neck may be causing some of that too.  All of the nerves from toes to shoulders all run up the spinal cord, and pressing anywhere on it (top or bottom) can cause pain from top to bottom.  

The doctor explained that Margo, having had birth trauma that damaged not only her neurological system, but broke her hips and caused other spinal damage, it is all catching up with her.  Just trying to walk with the CP causes unusual wear and tear on everything.  Add to that, working many years as a nursing aide with all the physical problems that added, her back has worn out.  

However, surgeons are always optimistic that they can cut, repair, replace and glue, nail, screw and weld in new parts to fix things up. So we are hopeful Mayo will again help bring Margo's back. 

Or could it be that Scott stepped on too many cracks?

I head in tomorrow to see the eye doctor.  My eyes were messed up a little from the prednisone taken in high doses for a year and I have some trouble with seeing the writing on the wall.  

It reminds me when I was in the 7th grade, just before I got my first pair of glasses.  My teacher asked me "Why are you so mean looking nowadays?"  I didn't realize it, but I was squinting, trying to see the blackboard.  In those days, there was an eye chart and the teacher had me try to read it and I couldn't, so she sent a note home to have me see the eye doctor. 

I had the eye test, and I was quite nearsighted.  A few weeks later, I went back and got my first pair of glasses.  It was November, and the first thing I noticed when we left the doctor's office was the amazing complexity of tree branches.  There were limbs, branches, twigs and tiny twigs, all visible.  It was remarkable!

When I was in college, I liked a girl named Ann, a bright, interesting and friendly young woman, who seemed to tolerate my lunching with her.  She usually took off her glasses when I came to join her.  
    "You are vain," I kidded her, "you take off your glasses when I come so you look better."   
   She smiled and said "No, you look better when I take off my glasses."

An update:  my somewhat fuzzy vision is mostly due to cataracts and at some time when they get bad enough, I can have them removed.  However, the doctor said that my vision--at 20-25 (perfect is 20-20) is "not too bad."  

So, I cancelled my appointment with the seeing-eye dog people and am ordering a slightly different pair of glasses from my favorite cheap source -- ZenniOptical where I can buy a pair of single vision specs for $15 with all the coatings and frames I like, and a set of bifocals for under $60.  Heck of a deal if you don't mind adjusting the nose pads yourself.  When my Myasthenia Gravis was active, I bought half dozen pairs of varying types --reading, computer, distance only and bifocal, spending an average of $30 each.  

Vaccinations!

There was a young girl name Maxine
Who did not take her Vaccine
She got real sick
This foolish chick
Thus ended an anti-vax X-gene. 

   (written by Russell Hanson -- Feb 3, 2015 1:19 pm) 

I had all the childhood diseases and each took a week or so of misery to get over them.  I would not wish that on anyone.  A small percentage of folks who get a vaccine have a reaction.  A larger percentage of folks who get the disease have serious complications from the disease itself.  

 If you don't vaccinate your children or yourself, then, like the girl of our poems, it is likely you are doing the world a favor and helping natural selection along by weeding out daft genes. 

Those of us who remember polio and small pox survivors understand how wonderful vaccines are.  Jonas Salk, inventor of the polio vaccine was a true hero. 

As a scientist most of my life, I am bothered by the nonsense that is embraced, too often, by people who should know better.  There seems to be an automatic response to anything that isn't "natural."

 Sometimes I wonder if the folks who resist anything new coming out from the science world are really no different than the flat earthers, who clung to what they knew was true in the face of clear evidence to the contrary.   

Maybe the US will divide into two groups--the "naturalists" who revert to an average lifespan of 38, the life expectancy of 1850, before germ theory and modern medicine and another group that lives twice as long following the guidelines of evidence based medicine.  

This is probably the best argument that science is not killing us, the idea that we live much longer and those years are ones of more functionality.  Think a little about who you trust the next time some one tells you to skip a vaccine.  

A Two Year Lube, Fluid Check and Battery Exam

Spent Thursday at the clinic getting some tests. Hadn't been in for 2 years, and everything is wonderful except my weight, blood pressure, thyroid level, heart rhythm, 1/3 shrinkage in my back vertebra from osteoporosis, and a few dozen other minor things. 

The test results would bother me a lot more except I feel fine.  I wouldn't have gone in at all, except my ongoing prescriptions won't get refilled without a few status tests to see if I need more, less, or can idle along at the current levels.  Like my father, I go see a doctor when I don't feel fine and only after a few weeks of not feeling fine.  And right now I feel fine!

The doctor thought my feeling fine was likely early dementia, and if I started feeling better than fine, I should be tested.  

 My body is being donated to the Mayo medical school, so a couple of med students stopped over to check me out and left rubbing their hands with eager anticipation!  This gift of what is left of me meets my frugality principle:  I get someone to haul my body in the back of the pickup to the Mayo loading dock and dump it off and no other costs, and a year or so later a few ashes are returned to my family to be snuck in a relative's plot at Wolf Creek. 

Recycling me also appeals to my scientific bent.  If someone can learn about the effects of a life lived on a rich diet, low exercise, and intellectual challenge, then great.   If all that is learned is how to cut and paste in surgery, even that is fine.  Even better would be a few parts reused, although I hope to use up mine to the fullest extent before passing them on.    

After the exam and the edgeline BP, I promised to lose 25 lbs, exercise regularly, give up salt, and try to cut down on lying both ways.

I have a followup BP and weight check in a month to see if my promises are actually being followed.  I figure if I lose 5 lbs in a month and my my BP is 149/82 (rather than 150/83) I will be given an "atta boy" and left along for another 2 years!

I made a point of weighing in with my shoes on and my pockets full, so emptying them and removing my shoes should get me half way there!   

Often someone sits down at the Atrium piano and plays a song.  If only I had listened to my mother and continued my lessons, I too could sit down and impress the old sick folks sitting nearby.

Famous bronze statue of man passing a kidney stone and crying out "Why me, Lord?, Why me?"

Everything is stored on the computer!

The inside of a Family Medicine exam room -- for a Nurse Practitioner.  A place to hassle out of shape, overweight old people, while getting paid to do it.  The perfect job for a masochist!

The blinds are closed on the ground level room--the view is out to the north and second street.  

Everything about your health record is instantly available on the Mayo Clinic computer system.  The Clinic just signed onto a new project to replace the existing system with a system called "EPIC."  A huge job for the IT professionals (which I used to be at Mayo).  

A private booth so you can change into a flimsy gown with dignity and privacy before getting an exam that probes your inner-most cavities. 

Some of us look better clothed.  An old man taking a selfie. Does he look like his blood pressure and weight are above average?  Some of us are happy to be above average any way we can. 

Is the fuzziness is due to essential tremor, Parkinson's or neuropathy?    

And after the exam, I can look up everything in the online Mayo Patient application.  Here are some notes from Thursday's visit.  The PHQ is a depression test -- some questions to see if someone as old and decrepit as me is likely to off himself in the next few weeks or months, giving the clinic bad publicity.  The 0 on the test means zero thoughts of ending it all in the last week.  

IMPRESSION/REPORT/PLAN #1 RN blood Pressure check PATIENT EDUCATION Patient reports having had previous education on diet and diet which could lower his blood pressure. He laughingly states that he could be motivated to lose weight and watching his dietary intake if it meant not taking a medication, but is willing to if that is what Dr. A____  feels is necessary. 

He reports that with his Myasthenia Gravis Dr. A___ was worried, but now that he no longer has symptoms, he feels great. 

His PHQ-2 was 0 with no suicidal ideation. I will review with Dr. A___ and contact the patient with additional recommendations. He uses Mayo mail out pharmacy

IMPRESSION/REPORT/PLAN Dr. A___ has reviewed. Per Dr. A____ the patient was told "by new guidelines based on age, blood pressure less than or equal to 150/90 is acceptable, so he is right there. At this time she would recommend working on diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes to see if this number can decrease some, but he can hold off on medication initiation at this time. The patient states he is well aware of what needs to be done, it is just getting his head and body to go along with it that is the hard part. He plans to work on this. He will continue to monitor his blood pressure at home and notify Dr. A___'s office if blood pressures are going over 150/90

IMPRESSION/REPORT/PLAN  Per Dr. A___, labs test from 1-29-15 including TSH was elevated at 13 and TPO Ab was also elevated. Recommended to increase Synthroid from 75 mcg to 88 mcg (although with the elevation he may need 100 mcg) then recheck TSH in 8-12 weeks. Patient states he is taking Synthroid on an empty stomach at least one half hour prior to breakfast. BMD osteopenia, is stable and improved compared to last check. Recommended to continue Fosamax at this time for at least 5 years.

I had tests for ongoing thyroid autoimmune disease (my immune system has met the thyroid gland, decided it is an enemy and is creating antibodies to destroy it --TPO antibody test).  The treatment is to let the immune system wreak it's destruction and take synthetic thyroid medicine to compensate for the lack of thyroid output.   

I had tests for osteoporosis and have been taking a bone density medicine Fosamax, and that appears to be working and so I get to continue that.  I would very much appreciate increased bone density, although the opportunity rises rarely.  

As part of my winter overhaul, I am getting an eye exam to see if my cataracts have "ripened."   My vision is OK, although increasingly my world view is dimmed by floaters (air gaps in the vitreous humor).  I find these gaps in my humor distressing.  It appears that my large doses of prednisone in 2012-2013 for myasthenia gravis (still in remission) did do a little extra mucking about ( I think the medical term might be some other word) with my vision.  

Anyway, I feel fine, it is nice to have someone worrying about my health, and I suppose I will have to try to cut the BP as I have a followup check in a month to see if I am headed in the right direction.  

The goal of modern medicine is to keep one alive until all of his money and insurance are used up paying for the privilege.  I am trying hard not to abuse Medicare and my insurance by having a living will that says "if Mr. Hanson is unable to enter his password into his computer within 1 minute, you should pull every plug that connects him to life and Facebook and his blog."

Good health to you all. 

Cousins

The Hanson cousins got together for our cousin Marlys' funeral.  Left to Right front
Russ, Everett and Marvin, sons of Vivian Hanson
Behind: Norman, son of Lloyd Hanson
Brad son of Glenn Hanson
Harvey son of Gladys Hanson Roberts
Michael, son of Esther Hanson Haselhuhn
I didn't get cousin Pat (Maurice Hanson) on the photo although she came for the visitation.

Mike and Marlys were twins.

Cousin Arne 1932-2015

Some photos of my cousin Arne Karlsson who lived in Skee Sweden on the farm my great grandfather left to come to America. 
He passed away last week at age 82.  

Lillian and Arne in 2003 when they visited the Hansons in MN and WI

At the grave of Olaus Hansson our common great grandfather in SW Minnesota (Syllerud Lutheran Church)  

Raymon Hansson, his mother Mary Hansson, Arne Karlsson and Lillian in MN at Gammelgard the Swedish museum near the Twin Cities

Our MN neighbor likes to use old machinery.  He let Arne drive the old Farmall pulling the corn binder.  Arne never grew corn as a field crop in Skee, Sweden, as the climate there was too cool with the ocean nearby (it is 10 kilometers inland from Stromstad). 

My co-worker's son, Tyler, shows off his Belgians to Arne and Lillian in MN.  Arne loved his horses and collected carriages, buggies and carts.  He was a farrier in his early days, hauling his equipment around on the back of a motorcycle!

You can read the farm history collected by Arne for a book on the valley the Swedish family (Olaus Hansson) lived.
Ranna Farm History

Granary Dust

Such a beautiful January day in 44F and even a little sun breaking through occasionally, and with son Scott here to give me an hand, we tackled another cleanup job--the farm granary.  

Step one in cleaning the granary:  add some props to the somewhat rickety stairway going up.  Dad was 160 lbs, Scott and I are a little bigger and the steps are a little older.  This is actually the "after" photo with a pile of oats, hulled by mice, below the landing.  I did the same last year, and the oats doesn't grow, just sprouts an nice crop of toadstools.  I plan on using it for mulch in the garden.  Not even would the birds eat it as it is thoroughly mouse chewed.  

Aug, 1948, with elm lumber sawn that spring from the woods along Wolf Creek, Dad, his brothers and the Fors boys stuck up the first new building on the farm since Dad moved in back in 1941.  The war was over, farmers had some money left from the good prices during the war, and with a new Farmall B tractor, farming was going to be on a larger scale.  

Below in the garage Aug 1948

The old granary was actually an old farm house pulled from 1/2 mile up the road (on the same 60 acres where the trees for the new building were cut) down to John Nelson's farm on Evergreen Av. 

The story of moving the old house down here was like many stories in the neighborhood, one that showed "character" of the folks nearby.  We are not sure when it was moved, but likely around 1920 - 1930.  The story came from the Nelson family who did the move.  

Houses were moved in the winter time when the ground was frozen and snow covered.  Using screw jacks, the building was raised a foot or two in the air, then big logs were slid under the middle (hewed flat on the bottom and rounded up in front like a ski).  The house was then lowered on the logs, fastened tightly, and on a chosen day the neighbors gathered for a house moving party.  

John Nelson had a nice team of horses that he hooked directly in front the house.  The team was likely 12-20 feet out in front connected by log chains.  In front of that, neighbor Gullicksons's team was connected with harnesses to do a 4 horse hitch.   Mr. Gullickson had a very good team and was quite careful with them as well as having somewhat of a reputation of looking out for himself ahead of his neighbors (this, of course, is the Nelson version of it).  

Not moving the house here on the farm, but one from the internet.  Much larger house, many more horses here.   In the old days, winter was the time to pick up a house and move it.  Even some moved back and forth across the St Croix River on the ice.

Anyway, the move was across country on the flattest route possible rather than by roads.  Fences were let down, and all the way over was level except for one hill that had to drop down somewhat steeply and then back up less height.  

As old loggers and used to hauling huge loads of logs, the Nelsons were prepared with hay to put in front of the runners under the house to slow them down going down the hill.  The two teams were in front and as they started down the hill, the house decided to come along faster than the horses were walking even with the hay.  

The Hanson Farm in the 1950s looking towards it from the east. Silo (replacement for a wood silo), new wall under the lower part of the barn, the pump shed, and in the big poplars, the house.

The result--the house ran up on one of John Nelson's horses and broke it leg, requiring it to be shot.  According to John, he tried to get Mr. Gullickson (Walter's dad) to speed up his team, but he refused to push them any faster than a walk and so the house overtook the back team, 

Well, after than long side story, the old house was rat and mouse filled and a terrible granary for an up and coming new farmer.  So it was torn down, and the new granary built in time for the August 1948 threshing of the oats.  

Grandpa Pearl Hanson loved Rumely Oil Pull tractors and since about 1915 or so he always had two of them until the later years when he kept just one.  He pulled in his big separator (threshing machine), lined up the Rumely and tightened the belt and the next day the Rutsches, Noyes, Uncle Chan, Uncle Maurice, Uncle Alvin and other neighbors all came to haul oats shocks in and run it through separating oats from straw.  The blower built a huge straw stack and the oats got sacked and hauled by wagon to the granary where it was carried up to the second story (above the car/tractor garage) and dumped in to the bins.  

I first remember the threshing, then grandpa bought a combine and we no longer need a crew and neighbor Raymond got an elevator, Bert Brenizer bought a 1950 (?) pickup truck and we unloaded in the field into the truck, hauled it to the granary and shoveled in the elevator and up into the granary it went. 

My first job was in the granary, shoveling the upcoming oats into the bins and spreading it out.  Unbelievably dusty!  After two days or so of this, I was unable to breathe through my mouth for the next month.  I suppose it was an allergy.  But that was just part of farming.  

Scott is nearing the finish shoveling out the oats hulls in bin 2

The spots are dust in the air and on the camera lens.  We hadn't quite filtered it all through our lungs yet.  In the corner are old lathes, a TV, screens and windows, oats, in the upper corner, a full 2-horse harness unused since 1948 and other junk to be sorted, burned, recycled or saved.  

The last time oats went into the granary was the mid 1980s.  Then Byron and Dad both got rid of their cattle, and the oats that was up there just sat until last year when I got ambition enough to shovel out one side-- probably 100 bushels.  The mice had spent so much time in the oats bin that each kernel was chewed and only the hulls and dust remained.  I couldn't take any more of the dust so let it sit a whole year, until today when, with Scott's help, we emptied out the other side too.  

Bins for oats, soybeans, rye, vetch, and storm windows were separated by old doors.  That cameraman needs to dust his lens!

The fanning mill with the washing machine motor connected in place of the hand crank.  

Full 2-horse harness set that I plan to pass along to Mark Johnson, my neighbor with work horses (probably very early some Sunday morning when no one is stirring--a driveby delivery!).  They are pristine--having been unused and shedded since 1947 when Dad bought the Farmall B from Nicky Jensen in Cushing and gave up horse farming.  "I can go out at night after I finish milking the cows and with the B plow more land with the lights on than if I used the team of horses all day long.  And I don't feel sorry for overworking the B."  You can see a brass hame ball sticking out on the left.  I don't have the horse collars though.  I think we used them to cushion the outhouse seats!  At Mark's place last week at the SELHS Christmas Party, he showed me some of the harness tools--leather punches, riveters, cutters etc.  I think with just a little oil and elbow grease, they would be ready to use!  There are bits, eye flaps, all sorts of metal buckles, and stuff, and of course these are genuine leather. 

The fanning mill is filled junk set on it.  On top is a heat houser for the Farmall Super C.  It was a canvas cab that Dad used in the winter.  It has a clear plastic windscreen and sort of funnels heat from the engine into the driver's area.  Dad had farms spread out over about 2 miles.  In winter, he might haul wood from one to the other or plow snow or spread manure running the tractor at 15 mph up and down the roads--very chilly without the heat houser.  

A Farmall Super C with Heat Houser (not mine).  I have to clean up the one in the granary and see if it is functional and maybe put it on the Super C next winter.  I also have an umbrella mount for an IHC tractor to that I used during my 4 year career as a Stokelys Bean picking migrant worker.

A Deere and Webber # 1 with carrying handles.  Probably 100 or more years old.  Fanning mills were to clean the oats, rye, beans or whatever so farmers, who planted their own seed, didn't plant weed seed too.  Also, if you had wheat to grind for flour, you ran it through the mill to clean it.  You dumped oats into the top, ran the crank (or motor) and it worked its way down over several screens and a big fan to shake, screen and blow out the chaff.  Great grandpa in Sweden threshed on the threshing floor with flails and winnowed the seed by throwing it in the air to let the wind blow away the chaff.  Always as the old sayings goes, separating the wheat from the chaff.  We shoveled out only chaff as the mice ate the core of the oats. 

After it was shoveled out, and some of the items moved aside, it is starting to look a little more manageable.  The walls are about 5 feet on the side and so very quickly it is comfortable standing in from the edge.  The floors are tight, planed and smooth and will make a nice wood floor -- after a lot of sweeping, vacuuming and a scraping here and there.  Not sure what kind of wood they are--maybe elm, but could be basswood too.  Not much "grain" in the wood, just in the cracks!

The stairway down.  Maybe I should put a stairway inside the garage to the upstairs (note I am already not calling it the granary!)

The photos show some of the items stored in the granary.  The floor is nice, the bin partitions will all come out, and there will be a nice big open area for something.  Maybe a wood working shop?  Maybe an apartment for visitors.  Maybe we will take up farming and fill it with oats again!

My neighbor George asked me about selling my fanning mill last year about this time.  His cousin makes beer, and George was thinking about growing an acre of wheat and maybe trying some hops over on his family's Bass Lake farm.  However, what we dream about in January does not always come to pass in spring.  I told him since I have two fanning mills, this one and a Hero in the youngstock barn, I though maybe I might be able to spare one!

Finally we come to a narrow inner tube for a tire.  Old ones never were thrown away, as one never knew when you might need some stretch rubber for a band, or even for a sling shot.  This one has some cuts indicating use for something.  I would have liked to have found an old real red rubber tube, but that is life. 

Scott and I are now in the house coughing up oats, sneezing chaff and itching all over.  But, the granary is much closer to being in control again.  The mice will have to move on, I hope.