Ole Becomes a Movie Star

Well, Folks, it has begun. The all-day-long-everyday having the coming flood thrown in your face. You can't get away from it. The local news is full of all the gloom and doom predictions of how bad everything is going to get and what the two cities of Fargo and Moorhead are doing to prepare. This is all good and well, but when it's constantly in front of your face and accosting your hearing your internal systems become overloaded and it becomes all you can think about - especially out here in the rural areas where you have no city that is going to come to your defense and help you fight the water. Believe me - when you live in the country you're on your own. That being said, it doesn't help when you have a local watershed board that does everything they can to make the situation worse by allowing all the local farmers to ditch and drain all the areas that would normally hold water and prevent the spring run off from flushing into the river like someone flushing a toilet instead of just percolating through like it used to years ago. (Whew - that was a long sentence, wasn't it.)

Yesterday I was down on my hands and knees with my head in the scrub bucket cleaning up all the dust bunnies that seem to accumulate on our steps going to the basement when the phone rang. Daisy and Ole were down in his basement shop so they couldn't hear the phone which meant that I had to disturb my work and race for the telephone.

Me: Hello?
Caller: Good afternoon - this is Rob Kupec, a reporter from WDAY Television. My cameraman and I were out filming along the Buffalo River and have filmed stories about this river in past years. We know you've lived here a long time and we were wondering if we could interview you about what you're doing to prepare for the coming flood?
Me: That would be fine - when would you like to come out?
Caller: We're sitting in our car in your driveway in front of your garage right now! Could we come in now?
Me: (as I run my fingers through my unkempt hair, think about the fact that I have NO makeup on along with my scrub jeans and t-shirt) Well, I guess so - as long as you're here.

I answer the door and wonder why Daisy, the Barking Doorbell didn't respond to the fact that there was a car in the driveway. She normally is capable of hearing the mailman put the mail in the mailbox 500 feet out at the end of the driveway. We just call her Radar Ears!!

I invited them in and ran down the basement to get Ole as there was NO WAY they were going to interview me and put me on camera in my scrub clothes, unmakeupped face and hair that was enough to scare anyone.

Rob and his cameraman were here about a half hour - and here's the result of that interview.

http://www.wday.com/event/article/id/43390/

This was aired on the six and ten local news last night and again this morning. I've gotten tons of emails regarding this interview along with one from another reporter for our local newspaper that has asked me to write a blog about the flood to be published in the newspaper and linked to in the online version.

I'm a bit hesitant about some of this because we are in the beginning stages of getting a lawyer involved regarding the uncooperative attitude we've had from the State of Minnesota and the Watershed Board - those who determine whether or not we will be allowed a dike. At one point we would have been happy with a dike - now we're going to push for a complete buyout.

It's going to be a long remainder of winter - as I'm already losing sleep over this whole issue. We've managed to keep our house dry all these years, but this is the year we may not be able to do so.

Love Lena