NRHEG Star Eagle

137 Years Serving the New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva Area
Newspaper of Record for NRHEG School District
Newspaper of Record for Waseca County, MN
PO Box 248 • New Richland, MN 56072

507-463-8112
email: steagle@hickorytech.net
Published every Thursday
Yearly Subscription: Waseca, Steele, and Freeborn counties: $52
Minnesota $57 • Out of state $64

The scurs were on the edge of their seats as the rains fell last Wednesday night and Thursday morning. They’ll be focusing their efforts for the upcoming week to see if we get weather to allow us to finish a storybook season. Starting Wednesday and Thursday, partly cloudy with highs of 50 – 55 and lows of 35. Partly cloudy for Friday with a slight chance of showers. Highs again in the low to mid-50’s and lows near 40. Mostly cloudy on Saturday with a slight chance of showers. Highs of  45 and lows of 35. Mostly cloudy for Sunday with a slight chance of rain. Highs again near 45 and lows dropping to near 30.Parttly cloudy and cooler for Monday with a chance of rain with highs of 45 - 50 and lows around 30. For Election Day, partly cloudy with highs around 50 and lows falling to the mid-20s. The normal high for November 6th is 48 and the normal low is 29. We will also experience 10 hours of daylight on the 6th, the same as we typically saw February 4th. We also will see the sun set at 6:01 p.m. on the 3rd, yet it will set at 5 p.m. on the 4th due to the end of that ultimate in government meddling known as Daylight Saving Time. The scurs will be riding to the polls on Tuesday, sitting in the backseat bitterly clinging to their guns and religion.

The rains that fell on the 24th and 25th were just what the doctor ordered. Not only did it allow farmers to feel more comfortable about anhydrous ammonia applications, it also allowed the graders to take out the washboards that had overtaken many of the area gravel roads. It also marks the largest rainfall event since September 5th.  Altogether we managed 1.07” at the ranch and in town where no one actually farms a tad over 1.3”. The effect in the fields and area pastures was almost immediately apparent. In the fields some of the large hunks of soil were already beginning to break apart as of Friday and the pasture at the ranch had a nice green hue to it, something not seen for many weeks. After a cloudy cool weekend forecast, the Monday sun will likely be a welcome sight.

Not a lot new in the bird department other than I saw a Harris’s sparrow on its journey back through to their overwintering territory which is primarily in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. They’re a little less showy in the fall but they’re still unmistakable. Something that has my dander up is the suet I put out while attracting the desired woodpeckers, nuthatches and chickadees, has also been attracting starlings (expected) and house sparrows. Since they’re being persistent, I may employ one of my long awaited plans to hang the suet cake feeders from the bottom side of a board. Woodpeckers and the like are used to crawling around and hanging upside down whereas the starlings and sparrows reputedly lack that ability. Anything to make their lives less pleasant would be worth it.

Saturday at the ranch it was time to trim some of the lower limbs off the trees that had been slapping me in the face all summer in addition to deciding what trees to water first. As luck would have it, examining one poor little oak I’d been nurturing for years I discovered the rabbits were already in midwinter form, having chewed off all the impressive new growth it had put on over the summer. It wasn’t even the end of October yet, I thought to myself. So I strung the hose down to one of the pear trees and proceeded to get out the spiral tree wrap. Good thing I did too. Checking on the 15 Freeman maples planted in the windbreak, a couple of them showed signs that Peter Cottontail had been chewing the bark. Back in the yard not far from the aforementioned oak, one of the small Red Splendor crabapples was also barked up. This means war and a scorched earth policy literally when the wind is in the right direction. All the brush piles are prime targets now we’ve had some rain, given the proper wind conditions and an okey-dokey from the brush fire police.

The cooler weather has meant a renewed enthusiasm in the Studebaker Lark project. The early harvest has meant that field operations will soon cease and there should be more time to work inside. Picking up where we left off last spring had me searching for a water pump, a fuel pump, a heater core and a heater control valve. It’s not as simple as going to the local parts store. Finding the right part involves looking it up in the body and chassis parts catalog, yourself, and learning how to cross reference to know which parts are interchangeable on other models. They can be found, sometimes for a price, from several vendors so it’s best to shop around as well as checking the swap pages. It’s amazing through the network of the Studebaker Driver’s Club how many parts are still readily available, much of it NOS (new old stock). After all, the car is 52 going on 53 years old and Studebaker has been out of business since 1966. The deeper I get into the project, the more enamored I find myself becoming with the company which was often ahead of its time.

Have I always had an interest in Studebakers? Sometimes seems like it. It probably started early on. As a wee lad of 4, I remember Alfred and Cora Meinke who lived across the road from us at the Stewartville farm, had a bullet-nose, probably an early ‘50s model Champion. It was a dull blue as many of them were. Paint seemed to oxidize more readily in those days especially since many cars had to sleep outside. When we moved to the Spring Valley farm, the neighbors on the corner also had one. Marzolf Implement in town was the local Studebaker dealer. Then there were the old car magazines we got from Cousin Phil, an avid car collector himself. Poring over those pages in our makeshift playhouse we were introduced to the likes of the Golden Hawk, the Packard Hawk and the Avanti, cars that commanded respect not only for their rakish styling but for their performance. The Lark VI itself was noted for neither but it was a tough, practical, reliable little car that became a member of our family. At only 38,000 miles, it deserves a chance to relive some of its previous glory. Probably a good thing it can’t talk though. Besides, I’ve owned Fords, Chevys, Dodges, Buicks, Pontiacs and even an orange AMC Gremlin. Not many can say they’ve actually owned a Studebaker.  

See you next week…real good then.

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