Marion Gunderson Art (and the Farmer's Daughter)

(Click image to enlarge.)

It won’t be long before I change the red and green banner at the top of this blog. Before I do, I hope you’ll take a close look at the red rectangle and green rectangle in the banner. They are from portions of Mother’s (Marion Gunderson) Red Flower watercolor, painted in 1969.

Red Flower has been a great seller, with the profits going to the Rolfe (Iowa) Public Library for the online newspaper project. This watercolor is so vibrant and “feels” so alive.

Red Flower is listed online as a print on foam board (or loose in a tube) in three sizes. Also, when purchased directly through me* (with the funds still going to the library) the smallest size is available double-matted in two choices of mat combinations. Either a deep red outer mat and a whitish-cream-colored inner mat. Or, with both mats being the whitish-cream-color. When the small size is matted as such, it will fit in a standard size 11″ x 14″ frame.** The double-matted prints are $29, not including shipping costs.

These watercolors were painted by Mother and are now in Bill's and my home. Mother signed the middle watercolor while she was in the nursing home, less than a year before she passed away in 2004. The watercolor had most likely been painted decades prior. (Click photo to enlarge.)

Several people have wanted a print of something painted by Mother, but don’t have wall space to add something large, and/or don’t want to have to take the time to go somewhere to pick out mats and a custom frame. Or, don’t want to have to wait for a custom frame. The pre-matted prints are a win-win-win for all of those reasons.

*Red Flower matted prints are sometimes, but not always, available at the Rolfe (Iowa) Public Library and Wild Faces Gallery in Rolfe. If you prefer to purchase in Rolfe (as to opposed to at the online “store” or through me) anything of the prints offered, and if you let me know your desire, I’ll communicate to make sure what you want is in Rolfe for you. mariongundersonart@gmail.com

**To clarify, the double-matted prints fit in an 11″ x 14″ frame if the frame is cut for those dimensions. I’ve run across one frame that was advertised with those dimensions. However, it was actually a 10 7/8″ (not 11″) frame by 14″ … so the matted print would not fit. Otherwise, the standard size frames have fit just fine.

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(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)

Gunderland, about 1969 or 1970. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Almost always at this blog I include things that I hope will appeal to people outside of my family, as well as my family. However, sometimes I post something more with the narrowed intended audience being my own family…to keep our heritage fresh in our minds. I figure this is probably one of those posts.

In the last post I mentioned Charles’ (my brother) recollection that Daddy fed cattle one year in the 1950s. That made me wonder what photos my family might have related to those cattle.

Hmmm … Below are two photos of my five siblings and me on/in front of the cattle chute at Gunderland. On both photos my notation says “Christmas 1977.” In these photos, I was a shade over five months pregnant with Abby.

The cattle chute and we were on the west side of the barn (toward the north end) that stood at Gunderland. In the thumbnail photo (above left), the camara is “looking” south-southeast. The right-hand side of the barn is the west side of the barn.

December 1977. L to R: Helen, me (Louise), Clara, Marti, Charles and Peg. The wood pole in the background at the left is in the vicinity of the house. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

The photo above shows more of the roof and chute. The photo immediately below shows more of the west side of the barn. Later the roof of the barn was damaged. Neither the barn nor the chute stands any longer. Sometime I’ll post more about that.

December 1977. L to R: Helen, me (Louise), Clara, Charles, Marti and Peg. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

This photo of Gunderland was developed in 1965. The barn and cattle chute are toward the left side of the photo. The cattle shed is between the barn and corn crib; none of these three buildings is still standing. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

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(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)

This is a manure spreader beater bar. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

UPDATE January 24, 2010: I just received a subscription notice for this post, so assume that all of the other subscribers of this blog did, as well. I have not opened the editor of this post since I published it, so the notice was sent in error by the blog service. Because this is the second time this has happened, I will check with WordPress Support to see if whatever glitch can be fixed so this doesn’t happen again. Again, I apologize for any confusion. Louise

In the previous post the “mystery item” is ….. a manure spreader beater bar. In their comments, Chris, Glenn, and a gentleman who emailed me knew exactly what the item is, and Patti and another woman were close knowing that it was used to break up something in the field.*

Below is a YouTube video about today’s ABI Classic Spreader. I have no idea if all of the information in the video is valid, but I do know that the segment from the 2:49 minute mark to the 3:56 mark illustrates the principle of the shredder (i.e. what we are calling the beater bar).

I asked my brother, Charles, what he remembers about the manure spreader that Daddy (Deane Gunderson) had/used. Charles said he remembers that it was red, and thinks it was a McCormick. Of course, we don’t know for sure that the beater bar shown here is from our red manure spreader, in which I rode to get to the school bus one day!** But for sentimental sake and since it was found either at Gunderland or where my dad was raised, I want to believe it is the same unless I find out differently. (If you know something about the shape/design of it that would mean it is from a different kind of spreader, by all means, please let me know.)

Charles said that our dad’s spreader was used for both hog manure and cattle manure. Charles said, “I never ran it.” Then, with a chuckle he said, “But I filled it up!” Sometimes with a pitch fork, but mostly with a shovel.

“Dad also had a cage put around the spreader so the corn sheller could blow the corn husks from corn shelling into the spreader. He’d also load corn cobs into the spreader to spread out in the field to get them out of the farmstead, and also for a little bit, but not much, of nutrient value.”

Charles said, “Dad stopped having hogs within a year or two after Grandpa died [in 1956], but then I had 4-H hogs through my sophomore year, which would have been until the summer of 1959.”

“At one time he also had cattle at Gunderland. I think he had cattle only for one year and that was after the barn was built. [Charles estimates the barn was built probably before 1948, and the wood crib was built in approximately 1951.] He bought 100 heifers and fed them to 750 pounds. Maybe that was the year Grandpa died. I don’t know for certain the exact year. Dad took the cattle to market in Sioux City and sold them at the stockyard there. At the time Dad thought he might want to feed cattle again. He soon found out that the cattle someone was trying to sell him were the ones he had just sold!”

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I learned a new vocabulary word last night. Tilth. Bill told me that spreading the cobs, etc. is good for the soil’s tilth. As the Rolfe notable science teacher Mr. Spaulding has told me several times, “A word a day keeps the idiot doctor away!”

*Thank you to all of you who passed along what you either knew what the item is or were guessing. It is fun for me to receive your comments, whether on this blog or in your private communication to me.

**The getting-to-the-school-bus story is told in the third paragraph of this post.

(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

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Anyone have an idea what this item (pictured) is? And, if so, any elaboration of how it works and/or how you were involved with something similar at some point in your life?

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(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)

Looking south-southeast. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

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This morning when I looked out the window I felt like I was in a Currier & Ives* setting. Sparkles-cold-white outside. Christmas tree-warm-colorful inside. Perfect for some sort of Irish Mocha Mint commercial.

Each of the photos in this post includes contrails*, with a more recent one (i.e., more of a straight line) in the second photo. Before seeing these contrails, I had just watched the news reports about airport closings and canceled or delayed flights out East, with approximately 450 people spending the night at LaGuardia. Yikes.

As I watched the jets/contrails today, I couldn’t help but wonder how many of the people in those jets were counting their lucky stars that they weren’t stranded in an airport.

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(Click on photo to enlarge.)

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I didn’t know until today that “contrail” was short for “condensation trail.” How did I miss that? (If you didn’t know it either, come on and raise your hand!)

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currier_and_Ives

(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)

By 1:00 PM CST time today I’ll add a new snowy Christmas-time post. I hope you’ll check back to see it today or tomorrow if you have time.

I know some of you will be with family, and some of you will be missing family. Whatever your Christmas Eve and Jesus’ Birthday will be like, I wish for you a peaceful Christmas Eve and Christmas.

Always on the Friday night just after Thanksgiving is Perry’s (Iowa) annual Lighted Christmas Parade.

In the fourth photo are Marines who served with Lance Corporal Josh Davis. These Marines traveled to Perry to honor Josh who was killed on May 7th of this year while serving in Afghanistan.

Clicking on the photos will enlarge the images.

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For these photos taken November 26, 2010, I used my 50mm lens and f/1.4 and ISO 1600 settings. The shutter speed varied.

(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)