Travel on the Gravel

I'm not sure what to make of what we saw in Hannaford, North Dakota, the other day. Some citizen there seems to be more than a little upset with his neighbors; they likely have their opinions also. Anyway, here are the images.
Prepare to Meet Thy God
Repent Ye Therefore
Fools Make a Mock at Sin

Driving back from a fruitless day of fishing, we decided to loop into Fingal for a beer, and there we stumbled into the Fingal All-School Reunion. Missed the parade, but there was still a lively crowd in the bar, which thinned a bit as we were leaving, for reasons I'll get around to. On previous visits to Fingal I had noticed the Star Lite sign, which I had presumed, correctly it turns out, to be that of a one-time dance hall. Today this round-topped stucco building houses the American Legion post, along with all sorts of town and school memorabilia, but in its time, I gather from conversations with residents, it was a jumping joint. Festivities in Fingal on the day of our visit were mostly the usual wholesome small-town stuff, except I noticed this somewhat lurid poster. It was the attractions of The Playgirl and company that lured the crowd away from the beer hall.

Saturday, 15 July, we joined a Preservation North Dakota work party at Sims Lutheran Church, in the ghost town of Sims, North Dakota. A gorgeous day, satisfying work, wonderful church-basement food provided by our generous hosts. Sims has a terrific sense of place that can't be captured in photographs, but here are a few images anyway.

Sims Lutheran Church & Parsonage, viewed from the hill across Sims Creek
The parsonage, subject of the day's restoration work
Wind generator alongside the parsonage
The old NP main line bridge into Sims
The old Gray house, a magnificent ruin just north of the church

I have some catch-up blogging to do, beginning with the present. The bad news is it's August 1, meaning that summer is slipping away; the good news is we're having some real summer (not always to be assumed on the northern plains)--blue skies, minimal mosquitoes, big garden and all that. It's high garden season, only a few tomatoes, but lots of other produce, cukes especially. With the help of irrigation from the creek, the garden looks great--including these cages of tomatoes, rank and green. A week or so ago farmers in this part of the valley with barley began taking swathers into the field. This past weekend the windrowers were into wheat, including my neighbor. The local Canadas know the routine. The swathers hadn't laid down half the field before a flock of honkers sailed in from the diversion and waded into the windrows.