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Sauk Centre This Season

Sauk Centre Journal

Weather updated each hour

Wednesday, February 3, 2010. I haven't been out of the house since Monday. Nothing serious: and I'm going to keep it that way.

So everything I know about what's happened here in Sauk Centre is either what I've heard, or read in the Sauk Centre Herald.

The big-deal item actually made it to the St. Cloud Times. The good news is that apparently nobody got hurt. The bad news is that Adam Gress is down by a snowmobile, a four wheeler, two cars and a house. The St. Cloud Times seems to say that the fire started in a wood stove. I'll skip the usual stuff about being careful with that sort of heater. I'm just glad everybody got out.

Remember that power outage, a week ago last Friday? The St. Cloud Times says that ice caused the outage. The headline was "Ice breaks pole; Sauk Centre without power". The two accounts aren't contradictory. The St. Cloud Times mentions the fire in their second paragraph.

We've gotten a little more snow since Sunday afternoon. My son cut a path from the driveway to the back yard - but didn't include the grill in his route. I'll be encouraging to get that done. I've mentioned this before: I like to grill.

Now, at the risk of getting dull (duller?), here's that plug for Haiti again:

I see in the Sauk Centre Herald that First State Bank is offering $20,000 in matching funds. Here's what the Herald says, in part:

"To make a donation checks should be made payable to the American Red Cross and dropped off or mailed to First State Bank of Sauk Centre, PO Box 266, Sauk Centre, MN 56378. Contributions will be accepted until Feb. 15."

If you haven't given yet, there's the rest of this week, and all of next, to do so. From what I've heard, the folks there can really use help.

Sunday January 31, 2010. Before anything else, an urgent reminder for my fellow-husbands: Valentine's Day is two weeks away. There's still time to get your wife something thoughtful. (I'm set: my wife knows my limitations - she told me what would be thoughtful.)

Okay. What's been happening here in Sauk Centre?

Cold. Snow. Ice. And Ice fishing.

Road to the ice fishing huts on Sauk Lake. January 29, 2010.

Minnesota is in that part of the world where water is a mineral for part of the year. That road is lake ice on Sauk Lake, east of Highway 71, by the bridge north of town. Right now, it's safe: and I've yet to hear of someone breaking through up there.

I'll say this for living in a slightly extreme climate: it encourages situational awareness and common sense.

Let's take a closer look at that photo:

A little village of fishing huts: and probably more around the bend. January 29, 2010.

There's a signboard on the landward side of that ice road, with official notices that are, by and large, more appropriate to the part of the year where unattended water is in its liquid state.

That "Exotic Species Alert" is important, but I've sometimes felt a sort of admiration for new species that survive a winter here. January 29, 2010.

Finally, a plug for my webcam's blog: Small Town America: Minnesota. You'll see live streaming video from near the corner of South Ash Street and 9th. I think it's the first on-the-street webcam in Sauk Centre, with 24/7 coverage. Apart from a few minutes interruption now and again, of course. Or, in the case of that power outage and some of my more spectacular technical issues, an hour or more.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010. That power outage Friday night affected quite an area. This week's Sauk Centre Herald says the lights were out from the north end of Sauk Lake to the Lynx golf course, south of town, and as far as West Union. All because of a fire at an XCEL Energy pole near mile marker 123 on I-94, between Sauk Centre and West Union.

What's still amazing to me is that there aren't more outages. The power grid is a finely-tuned, continent-wide system, and remarkably sensitive to problems like that fire. That far out of the way, I'm impressed that power came back on after no more than maybe an hour and a half. After reading the paper, I know why there was so much traffic here at South Ash and 9th. There was a boys basketball game at the school Friday night. And, a hockey game at the civic arena. I've yet to be in a public place when the emergency lighting kicks in: and don't mind a bit.

Jitters Java: new sign on the door. New hours, too, I think. At least, I don't remember their being open Sunday, 8:00 to 2:00. January 22, 2010.

Traffic at the corner of South Ash Street and 9th, around 8:50 p.m., Friday night. No street lights. January 22, 2010.

A column in Jitters Java serves as a bulletin board - one of several around town. If you've been meaning to donate to that Haiti fundraiser: there's still time. Here's what I wrote last week:

I see in the Sauk Centre Herald that First State Bank is offering $20,000 in matching funds. Here's what the Herald says, in part:

"To make a donation checks should be made payable to the American Red Cross and dropped off or mailed to First State Bank of Sauk Centre, PO Box 266, Sauk Centre, MN 56378. Contributions will be accepted until Feb. 15."

I'll admit that I'm emphasizing that Haiti fundraiser quite a bit. My household gave at the second collection at Our Lady of the Angels on Sunday. The folks in Haiti can use help.

Yoga and a weight loss program: and a desert display case in the background. January 22, 2010.

Main Street Coffee Company: with a new menu. Sauk Centre's other specialty coffee shop. January 22, 2010.

Again with what's in this week's Sauk Herald. There's a DVD available, "A Walk to Remember." Dr. Julian Dubois, Jr., walked around Main Street and Sinclair Lewis Avenue with a cassette tape recorder, talking as he went. Pretty good idea, actually. There's more about the DVD and the people who made it in the paper. I'm glad to see that folks are making records of what they remember about this town. It's sort of what I'm doing with this journal.

Wednesday afternoon, school bus, under-used bird feeder. January 27, 2010.

I took that photo this afternoon, out the north window where I do most of my work. That's also where my webcam is. It may be Sauk Centre's first on-the-street webcam. It's supposed to be on 24 hours a day, with a few minutes down time now and again. Key phrase here is "supposed to" - the thing was offline for quite a while today. I'd say "technical difficulties," but I may have hit the wrong button.

If you want to check out the view, streaming video from the webcam is at Small Town America: Minnesota, the webcam's blog.

Sauk Centre Journal Blog
A copy of these bi-weekly updates, plus the occasional bonus photo and observation.

Easy Griller
Grilling year-round with simple equipment and almost no skill

Through One Dad's Eye
Raising a family and writing blogs in small town America

A webcam on Sauk Centre's south side

Starting a Small Business Without Losing My Mind
The continuing adventure of publishing online....
Or, getting laid off for fun and profit.

Behind Every Website, There's a Webmaster
Me, at a computer

Another War-on-Terror Blog
(As if we needed another one.)

Corpus Christi Procession, Sauk Centre, Minnesota, June 14, 2009
(Another part of small-town life.)

Sunday, January 24, 2010. The big deal this week was the power outage Friday night. It lasted over an hour, starting before 9:00 and going until about 10:10 p.m. I'm looking forward to reading what the Sauk Centre Herald has to say about it. As I wrote on the Sauk Centre Journal blog Friday night, lights were on in Alexandria, but not West Union. I've heard that folks in South Dakota had it much worse that we did.

Traffic at the corner of South Ash Street and 9th, around 8:50 p.m., Friday night. No street lights. January 22, 2010.

Aside form that, it's been pretty much business as usual. Except that I just remembered that I've forgotten about my wife's Valentine's Day present. Hoo boy.

Okay. I'm back. I've made a sort of note to myself, about that Valentine thing.

Two of Sauk Centre's businesses. Their vans, that is. January 15, 2022.

Something new in town, coming in the last decade or so: businesses with vans, and advertising on the vans. Well, new to me, anyway.

My wife and #3 daughter are at Soo Bahk Do: and recording the Vikings-New Orleans Saints game. Ain't technology great?

Santa's landing lights: and Valentine's Day decorations. January 22, 2010.

Icicles: the long one's over a yard long. January 23, 2010.

Another 'winter storm' over the weekend didn't do much apart from touching up the snow with a fresh surface.

My household pitched in at the second collection for Haiti at Our Lady of the Angels church today. And, repeating from Wednesday's entry:

I see in the Sauk Centre Herald that First State Bank is offering $20,000 in matching funds. Here's what the Herald says, in part:

"To make a donation checks should be made payable to the American Red Cross and dropped off or mailed to First State Bank of Sauk Centre, PO Box 266, Sauk Centre, MN 56378. Contributions will be accepted until Feb. 15."

(Just a thought.)

Earlier Sauk Centre Journal entries are in the Sauk Centre Journal Archive.

The idea, when I started this page, was to have a little journal, where I recorded events as they happen here in Sauk Centre.

It grew.

Above, you'll find this Sauk Centre journal. I update it twice a week.

Brian H. Gill, Webmaster, Brendan's Island

Mary Quite Contrary
"Growing up has never been so surreal"
Online comic by Brigid's World