By MYRNA FAUSKA
The neighbors continue to stay at home except for a few trips out for necessary business. As we travel the country roads, we notice more signs of spring. The pussy willows are just showing up, and daffodils and jonquils are brightening sheltered beds with their cheery yellow blossoms.
Next door, the Steve Schumann family has been busy cleaning up the yard and preparing the site for their new house on the hill near their west line fence. Since the young folk have been so diligent in getting things ready, Steve and Deb decided to treat the family to Culver’s drive through in Tomah and have a picnic at the lake Sunday afternoon.
Although we haven’t been able to have personal contact with sister Darlene Martalock on South Ridge, we do keep in touch by phone. She reports that nephew Butch Martin and wife Linda have gathered and canned 21 gallons of maple syrup in the past month. Darl helps with the finishing of the sweet stuff and has 84 quarts stored in her spare room for sale. It was a short run this year, but the syrup is especially flavorful. Give her a call.
The highlight of our week was Saturday morning, when we loaded up the van and headed to the Town of Glendale dump. On the way, we stopped on the top of the schoolhouse hill, where cousin Bruce Zirk of Dutch Hollow had just come out of the field on the Zirk farm, and we were able to have a short visit, keeping social distance in our vehicles. Then we went on to Glendale, where Joyce Schroeder tends the dumpsters and Pam Strike was there with her disposables and helped us unload our junk. Again, we were able to do some blessed visiting while keeping our distance from each other.
Randy Parkhurst was up from Orfordville, Wis., last Tuesday to take his parents Jim and Mary to Hillsboro to pick up meds at Peterson Pharmacy and deliver some groceries he had brought.
At the west end of the neighborhood, Lynette Vlasak has been having virtual meetings with the Winding Rivers Library System on Monday afternoons. On Tuesday she was in Tomah on business. On Thursday she and Sally Dana took milk to the Elroy Food Pantry and picked up groceries to deliver to Debbie Wildes Petersen and Le Roy. Since it was niece Mary Marty’s birthday, Lynette and Sally grabbled a Schwan’s pie out of their freezer and added pizzas from Kendall’s Hidden Inn, taking them to the Marty home for their family party. They dropped a couple of pizzas off at Allan and Heather Vlasak’s on their way past and went home to enjoy their pies in solitude.
On Sunday, Lynette and Sally picked up chicken dinners at Hansen’s IGA in Elroy, and later in the afternoon, they gathered with their church family in the parking lot at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kendall for a drive-through holy-communion service.
In the book of Isaiah in the Holy Bible, chapter 41, verse 10, it says, “Be not afraid, for I am with you.” Again, in verse 14, it states, “Be not afraid. I will help you.” Chapter 43, verse 1, opens with, “Be nor afraid. I will save you,” and verse 5 repeats, “Be not afraid, I am with you.”
With these assurances from God, how can we fear this Covid-19 pandemic when we know that He is still in control and has us in His loving care? We must do our part to use the intelligence the Lord gave us to keep safe and continue to thank and praise Him even in these circumstances. End of sermon. Amen.