By Bill Anderson

The cold weather of the past several weeks has thickened the ice on local lakes to 7 inches or more, enough to support the weight of ice fishermen and ice fishing houses. Norbert Kulzer reported that there were three ice fishing houses on Buffalo Lake on Tuesday, December 4, and one on Consolidated Lake, along with a couple of fishermen out on the ice in cold weather fishing gear. Several houses were on the ice at Silver Lake last week, but they had picked up and moved to some other location by Tuesday afternoon. No reports of fishing success have been received, and when fishermen aren’t talking it usually means that they are catching fish and don’t want anyone else to find out about it. Of course, it could mean that there just aren’t many fish being caught, but that’s not as interesting.

Rutland native Dan Narum, Presiding Judge of North Dakota’s Southeast Judicial District for the past several years, was preparing to deliver jury instructions at the conclusion of a trial in the Dickey County Courthouse in Ellendale last Tuesday, November 27, when he stood up from his desk and discovered that his right leg was numb. A terrible pain in his back put him to the floor. Ever the professional, the Judge got himself back to his desk, called the 2 attorneys in the case into his office, explained the situation to them, then delivered the jury instructions to the waiting jurors in written form, and had himself taken to the hospital. He was first taken to Aberdeen, the closest hospital, where a serious back problem was diagnosed. Immediate surgery was necessary, but a surgeon capable of performing it was not available, so Dan made a trip to Sanford Hospital in Fargo where the surgery was performed on Tuesday night. Tests indicated that the surgery had been successful, and, “…when I moved my toes about ¼ of an inch, they really got excited,” Dan reported. On Friday, November 30, he moved to Sanford’s Physical Therapy Unit on South University Drive for what was expected to be 2 weeks of intensive physical therapy, but his recovery and progress was so rapid that he was scheduled to be released from the hospital to return to his home in Lamoure on Wednesday, December 5. Dan states that he has an elk hunt booked in northeastern New Mexico beginning on January 1, and is still planning, and hoping, to be able to make it happen. Well, Dan is a tough and determined guy. If he can’t make it to New Mexico, maybe he can issue a judicial order, and have the elk brought to him. In the meantime, he is recuperating at home, in the care of his wife, Caroline, and their 2 children. Dan’s many friends in Rutland wish him a speedy and complete recovery, and a good hunt, too.