Where Chocolate Easter Eggs Come From

Gee whiz and big golly whompers – I’ve neglected all you good folks for an entire week.  Guess I deserve TWENTY LASHES WITH A WET PIECE OF LUTEFISK – but please take the bones out first so it won’t hurt so much.   If I can be allowed to make excuses – there’s been a lot of stuff going on around here.  I’ve been busy watching the water go DOWN and the snow and the rain fall.  Man – this winter just won’t give up.  Every other morning there’s a new inch of snow laying on the ground.  Maybe this is going to be one of those summers without a summer if you know what I mean.

 

It’s over, Folks.  The river is pretty much back in its banks – not saying that the first heavy rain won’t bring it back up – but for now it’s done.  I feel so bad for the residents of Valley City, a town about 60 miles to the west of here.  Valley City is located in the Sheyenne river valley and is just below the Bald Hill Dam and Lake Ashtabula, which of course was a Corps of Engineers project when it was built and they, of course, continue to run it.  I truly wonder about the brightness of the light bulbs in their box.   All winter long that area has had tremendous amounts of snow, and the lake was at record levels going into winter.  Now “brightness” would say to drain down some of that water before the spring flood season starts.  And I guess they did – down to “legal limits” whatever they are.  As the Sheyenne River rose to flood level and beyond this spring and the people of Valley City were busy building dikes to protect their city, the Corps came out with the statement last FRIDAY that they would have to raise the release levels from 6500 CFS to 7000 CFS on Saturday, 7500 CFS on Sunday and may even have to go to 8000 CFS shortly thereafter.  This left the poor residents really scrambling to get extra diking in place and hoping that it would hold.  They went to a tremendous amount of expense and work, let alone the tremendous stress levels that these poor people felt, to accomplish this.  MONDAY the Corps came out with another statement that they wouldn’t be raising the CFS levels any higher than 6500.  Now I ask you – what was it that happened that caused them to renig their statement.  There were no weather events during those three days that would have caused any changes, nor have the temperatures changed much causing a quicker/slower melt .  Just think of all the headaches and heartaches that their MISCALCULATIONS have caused the people of this city and several others downstream.  And if you follow the Corps of Engineers you will hear these kinds of stories time and time again. 

 

Enough.  It’s story time.

 

I think Lovely Daughter was about three years old one Easter when Ole and I decided to have a bit of extra fun with her and her Easter basket.