Tag: COVID-19

Hens Do Crow! May 1, 2020

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Happy May Day! For many this date may bring back memories of May Day baskets and dancing around the maypole at school. May Day marks the official half-way point to summer so that is a good sign of things to come.

April was the first full month of social distancing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thankfully, people in and around Rutland are enjoying the change of weather and getting outdoors while social distancing continues.  Parades of decorated cars, with honking horns, have gone through Rutland and area towns to help celebrate birthdays. Within the past week or so, farmers have begun spring planting which helped them get out of the house. The threat of rain is looming, so this planting window has been cut short. Many local gardeners were able to get their vegetables in the ground too if they had their seed in hand. The recent pandemic has brought a shortage of many things and some vegetable seeds have been in short supply. Area greenhouses are open, with restrictions, so there are still options for getting plants for several garden favorites. There will be some farmers markets in Rutland over the summer and fall so watch for the dates when they are announced.

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The Rooster Crows – April 24, 2020

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By Bill Anderson

The old-timers around Rutland, and most other American small towns, used to say, “There’s nothing that happens that is so bad that someone can’t get some good out of it.” The Covid19 pandemic crisis, with its shutdown of economic activity, especially travel, coupled with the oil production war between Russia and the OPEC countries led by Saudi Arabia, has resulted in the lowest gasoline and diesel fuel prices in the past 30 years. On Monday, April 20, 2020, regular gasoline with a 10% ethanol blend was selling for $1.39 at Rutland Oil Company’s pumps on Main Street, and diesel fuel was only a few cents more. But the collapse in the price of refined petroleum products is nothing compared to what has happened to the crude oil market. For a while on Monday, April 20, the price of a barrel of American crude oil on the spot market was less than Zero. That’s right, the producers were paying the customers to take it off their hands. A few years ago, the price of crude oil was over $100 per barrel, and everyone was worried that we were running out. How times have changed! Greg Donaldson, owner of Rutland Oil Co., said on Monday that his sources are saying that they do not expect the price of crude oil, or the refined products, to rise significantly for quite a while. So, with gas prices low, travel is relatively inexpensive. The biggest problem is that the entire country is shut down, so there’s no place to go. “Every silver lining has its cloud,” is something else that the old-timers used to say.

Fuel prices couldn’t have collapsed at a better time, as far as local farmers are concerned. There was not much field work done right in the Rutland area as of Monday, but the Brekers were seeding fields in the hills south of town, and Greg Donaldson reported that the Heimbuch Farm near Brampton was getting fields ready to plant potatoes on Monday morning.  Some of the local farmers are still harvesting last year’s corn crop, and report that the quality of the crop improved over the winter. Mark Wyum reported last week that corn that weighed in at 48 pounds per bushel and was at 28% moisture last December is now up to 52 pounds and down to 16% moisture, making it a product worth hauling to market.

Meanwhile, on the national scene…well, the national scene is too chaotic and depressing  to waste time commenting on it. Suffice it to say that America and the world will breathe a sigh of relief if and when a new American Administration takes over the reins of power in Washington D.C. on January 20, 2021. As of Friday, April 24, 270 days remain until that day.

On the local scene, Rutland has plans to bring the community together again. Stay tuned, and remember that Memorial Day is the last Monday in May, and that Uff-Da Day is the first Sunday in October. We’ve never had a “virtual” Uff-Da Day before, and you never know, it might be fun!  Later.

Hens Do Crow! April 10, 2020

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News this week has been hard to locate. Everyone is behaving and nobody working. The war is just like the weather…. WAIT! WHAT? That’s how L.S. Sanderson started his Sanderson Says column in the Sargent County News on January 18, 1951 referring to the Korean War.  (So, I’ve been cleaning out old newspapers and happened to find that with some family memorabilia. Just another way to pass the time and avoid housecleaning!).

News has been harder to locate as people have self-quarantined and the coffee clutch talks have stopped for now.  There are other ways people have been gathering – like the caravan of cars to celebrate birthday’s for Whitney Mahrer in Rutland and Charlize Willprecht in Forman. Friends and family waving as they pass by in their cars decorated with balloons and streamers and other birthday designs lifted the spirits of the birthday girls and their own as well. More things are happening remotely, and people are utilizing technology to keep in touch, but we must remember that there many people of all ages who are not connected by computers and smartphones.  Thankfully, the weather has warmed a bit – at least for a while – providing more inspiration to get out and walk, ride, jog or run.

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Hens Do Crow! April 3, 2020

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The weather looked promising with some sunlight this past week, but it quickly changed to cloudy and gloomy. That certainly doesn’t help the mood of everyone who is staying close to home and social distancing themselves. More events have been cancelled and it doesn’t look like there will be much going on during Easter this year. Watch out summer when the coast is clear!

Students at Sargent Central School began their online classes on Wednesday, April 1, and they will be continuing them for the next several weeks. As ordered by the Governor, in-person classes were suspended on March 16th and all 175 school districts were required to submit an online learning plan to the State Department of Public Instruction. Sargent Central’s plan was approved and students and parents received specific details on the process earlier this week. The online classes will continue during the COVID-19 restrictions. College students have been home since spring break and will not be returning to in-person classes for the remainder of the school year.

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Hens Do Crow! March 27, 2020

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Rutland has been a bit quieter and less busy the past two weeks or so. Meetings and events have been cancelled and restaurants and bars have cut back hours or closed — and school is out. Yes, the Sargent Central students had a nearly a two-week ‘spring break’ but are not returning to the classroom for now. Classes are expected to resume, online, on April 1 and will continue until the end of the school year. The busyness has slowed down but that doesn’t mean that this rural area is closed. It has been fun heading to Forman to window peak at the Four Seasons Manor and Villas to wave and visit with the elderly through the open window. Then, ordering food to be delivered to your car to take home for a family sit-down meal. We can keep in touch with people and family in other states and countries so much easier than was possible during the flu pandemic of 1918 which infected over a third of the world’s population and ending the lives of 20-50 million people. The community has stepped up with making grocery runs and dropping off necessities for families. The Sargent County Courthouse may be closed but families are still able to get supplies from the Food Shelf. Where there is a will, there is a way.

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Hens Do Crow! March 20, 2020

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A large crowd of family and friends gathered in the Rutland Town Hall on the afternoon of Saturday, March 7, to participate in a celebration of life honoring the late Jerry Sapa of this community. Jerry passed away at Sanford Hospital in Fargo on Wednesday, February 26 after a brief but spirited battle with an aggressive cancer. Jerry was the youngest of the six children of the late Joe and Helen (Silseth) Sapa, who had made their home in Rutland from the 1930’s until the late 1950’s. Jerry was born in 1956, when the family resided here, and moved to Fargo with his parents  and sisters shortly thereafter. The Sapas always considered Rutland to be their hometown, though, and Jerry frequently accompanied his parents on visits with his maternal grandparents, Arthur & Nellie Silseth, on their farm south of Rutland. Jerry’s great-grandfather, Ole Silseth, had been one of Sargent County’s early pioneers, having homesteaded near Silver Lake in Rutland Township back in 1882. After he had graduated from Shanley High School in 1974, Jerry took up the trade of carpentry and earned a reputation as a master of his craft as well as for the precision of his work. A little over 20 years ago, Jerry moved from Fargo to Rutland to practice his profession and to pursue some of his favorite activities, hunting whitetail deer, upland game and waterfowl. Jerry made many friends in this area, and always maintained contact with the friends he had made as a youth growing up in Fargo. Those new friends and old friends were often his hunting companions around Rutland, and also established a connection to the Rutland community. On Saturday afternoon many of them got up to speak about Jerry’s character, skill and good humor, and about the good times they had enjoyed in his company. Those attending the program enjoyed a supper featuring Rutland Scalloped Potatoes at its conclusion. During his years in Rutland, Jerry became the community’s “Mr. Fix-It,” working on many projects, large & small, including projects in and on the Town Hall in which the celebration of his life was held. He was generous with his time and his talents. (Back in 1947, Jerry’s Dad, Joe Sapa, was one of the volunteers who donated their time and talent to build the Rutland Town Hall that Jerry worked to maintain and improve.) He is survived by two sisters: Margaret Ann Hartze of Fargo; and, Jeannie Seifert of Fargo; by his 2 beloved dogs; by numerous nieces and nephews; and, by a multitude of friends. He will be missed by all who knew him.

The Rutland Community Club held the annual Fun Night on Sunday, March 15, with a good crowd of Rutland residents attending. Katie McLaen and Morgan Peterson organized the evening of games for the kids and bingo for the adults. The Hall was full of energy and activity for two hours concluding with the drawing for over 70 prizes for the youth. Individuals helped with the clean-up and it did not take long to take down all the decorations and seating which had taken hours to prepare.

Sargent Central High School, along with all K-12 schools in the State, took off the week of March 16-20 as announced by the Governor. Sargent Central students were already scheduled to have March 19-20 off for spring break. Students could get necessary items from their lockers at school on the morning of Wednesday, March 18. Information on when and how classes will resume is anticipated on Friday. The students may be home longer making it difficult for working parents who still need to work during this time.

The gathering of Rutland residents will soon be confined to ten or less as recommended by the ND Department of Health amid the spread of COVID-19. People have been urged to participate in “social distancing” to help stop the spread. Basically, avoid social gatherings of 10 or more and try to be in excess of 6 feet of others. Use caution when getting groceries or shopping. Now is the time to hunker down with a good book, go for a drive, watch movies, take a walk, start that indoor spring cleaning or take an online class. 

Information will be posted on the City of Rutland website and Facebook page as needed on events and activities in Rutland so be sure to check regularly. Events are being postponed or cancelled so be sure to call before planning to attend. That’s it from Rutland for this week. Stay warm and stay healthy!