Life on an Island – but not a tropical island either

Okay – all you people who live in the Great North Land know, or at least you should know, all about those people who have been raised Norwegian Lutherans, right? That’s me – raised Norwegian Lutheran. I can’t say the same for Ole because he’s a Finlander. They carry knives, you know. My little Norwegian aunt told me so the day we got married almost 44 years ago (chuckle), and as I was starting my march down the aisle asked me if I really wanted to go through with this!!

Anyway, the point I wanted to make, and I’m kinda going at this backwards, is that the definition of being raised Norwegian Lutheran is: being raised to be courteous, reserved, mild mannered, with a polite friendliness, an aversion to confrontation and a tendency toward understatement. Also with a disinclination to make a fuss or stand out. They always display emotional restraint and self-deprecation. That’s almost as good as being a Boy Scout, right? That statement about disinclination to make a fuss or stand out – why do you suppose Norwegian women never paint their fingernails red – they only use clear nail polish? They just don’t want to stand out. I could write a book about all those things, but maybe I’ll save all of that until the flood is over and my assigned duties have been completed.

Anyway ~ the point I wanted to make is: I feel SO honored. I’ve been mentioned in Tracy Briggs blog. She is currently a heavy-weight at the Forum, our local newspaper and her current title is digital content development director for Forum Communications Company. She’s a PRO.

So anyway – back to the flood fight. We’ve reached the year 2006 in Ole and Lena Land. This is the year that the Buffalo crested at 18.29 feet. If you’ve been paying attention (do I have to smack your fingers with a ruler here?) you’ve noticed that the crests are getting higher and higher each year. We aren’t necessarily getting more snow each year but the water is getting deeper and deeper. I told you it was like Water World, but you didn’t believe me.

Ole retired back in 2002. Our perfect world let us believe that we could buy a motor home and travel every winter and not endure the harsh whiteness and cold temperatures of the Great White North Land. Well, we bought the motor home, and we did travel, but nobody prepared us for the fact that we would have to come back to Minnesota before the winter was 2/3 over to deal with all the water issues. 2006 was a year that we took off in the fall and didn’t plan to return until April when all the mud had dried up and I didn’t have dirty dog feet (or Ole’s big boots tracking mud) to contend with anymore. We were so naive that we thought we could keep track of things on the Internet so we would know how much snow we had gotten, how fast it was melting and how high the Buffalo was going to go due to the “accurate” forecasts of the Weather Bureau. WRONG!!

At that time our daughter was living on the north side of our property in a mobile home. We had been granted “special dispensation” from the county to allow this for a 7-year period. Remember those words – “special dispensation.” They will appear again in later posts when we once again start dealing with the Buffalo River Watershed Board. So, unfortunately, she was living here alone when the snow started to melt and the water started to rise – FAST. Ole and I were down in New Mexico or Arizona somewhere when we received a phone call from a very panicked daughter informing us that the water was coming and it was coming fast. This was difficult to believe because we hadn’t received that much snow that winter. But we weren’t here – we had to believe what we were told.

Here’s a shot of her mobile home taken from the highway. Water is just a little on the deep side in this shot.

Following her phone call to us Ole placed a few calls to good friends back in our area who came immediately to her rescue and to the rescue of all of Ole’s antique/restored vehicles to get them out of harm’s way. They were all towed, pushed or driven and parked right next to the house on the highest part of the ground to keep them from getting wet. It was too late to get them out to higher ground. That’s one thing about Minnesota people – you can always count on them for help no matter what the problem is. They’ll be there. Notice the tip of the canoe in the photo above? That belongs to a buddy who came out every day and checked on our property to make sure that the sump pump was still keeping the basement dry and that no looting had taken place. You can place no value on good friends.

The same friends took Daughter and her two German Shepherds into their home, fed her and gave her a place to sleep along with giving a safe and dry home to her two dogs. They rescued her and tried to get the two dogs in the canoe but the dogs jumped out and swam all the way out to the highway in that cold, cold water. It’s so wonderful how our community comes to the aid of each other in the time of crisis.

Meanwhile, Ole and I are hightailing it home from the southwest as fast as we can go. By the time we got home the water had gone down enough so that our driveway was clear and we could actually drive up to our house. Daughter told us at that time that she never wanted to live through that again. That was her first taste of having to deal with water, as during the previous years she had either been away at college or traveling/living in other areas of the United States.

I’m not sure if it’s more nerve wracking to actually be here when the water rises and watch it – or to be away from home and not knowing what’s going on. Having done both, I can’t give you an answer to that. All I know is that I’m already losing sleep over what’s coming.

Love, Lena