Tag: Lariat Bar and Grill

The Rooster Crows – February 10 and 17, 2023

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By Bill Anderson

On Saturday, February 4, after more than a week in the deep freeze, winter finally relented and allowed the temperature to soar all the way up to 37 degrees above Zero in Rutland, that’s 5 degrees above freezing. Snowdrifts that had been the consistency of granite since November were turned to mush by the combination of sunshine and higher temperatures that brightened spirits, warmed aching joints and removed some ice from streets and sidewalks. The local groundhog, Rutland Roscoe, would have seen his shadow had he been out on Thursday, February 2, predicting 6 more weeks of winter, but the temperature barely got above Zero on Ground Hog’s Day, and Roscoe stayed snug and warm, curled up in his burrow. Daily high temperatures in the mid-30’s continued from Saturday, February 4, through Wednesday, February 8, and then dropped back down to single digits before rallying back up to the 30’s for Super Bowl weekend, and even up to 42 on Monday, February 13. Valentine’s Day, Tuesday, February 14, started out nice, with no wind and the temp getting up to 34, but the bottom fell out at about 5:00 p.m. and the mercury plummeted as fast as the wind speed rose. A blizzard warning was posted, and the Weather Service meant business this time. There wasn’t a lot of snow, but what there was got piled up in front of doors and in driveways by the 50 mph winds, creating obstacles to foot and vehicle traffic alike. The spell of mild weather at the beginning of February did not mean that winter was over, but it did restore hope that this winter will end, one of these days.

The Rutland Sportsmen’s Club held its regular monthly meeting for the month of February and its 2023 Annual meeting to elect officers and chart the course for the coming year on the evening of Thursday, February 2, in the back room of The Lariat Bar in Rutland. Before and during the meeting members enjoyed a supper of soft-shelled tacos, tater tots & chips prepared by The Lariat, as well as beverages served by the staff of The Lariat. Club President Shannon Hajek was re-elected for another 3 year term. Vice-President Kyle Mahrer and Secretary-Treasurer Mark Wyckoff had been re-elected to their respective offices in 2022. The Treasurer’s report indicated that the club currently has approximately $27,000 in its operating fund, and approximately $33,000 in its gaming fund. Several events and activities have been scheduled for the coming year, including: Coyote Hunt on Saturday, February 11; Annual Great Northern Pike Fish Fry on Friday, March 3, at the Rutland Town Hall; Second Annual Gopher Classic on Saturday, May 6; Annual Youth Day on the Sunday before school starts in August at the John Narum Memorial Trap & Rifle Range 3 miles west and 1½ mile south of Rutland; and, a 50th Anniversary celebration on Saturday, September 9, at the John Narum Memorial Trap & Rifle Range 3 miles west and 1½ mile south of Rutland. Additionally the High School Trap League will be shooting on the Sportsmen’s Club’s range this spring, and the regular Trap league will be shooting at the range this coming summer. The Rutland Sportsmen’s Club was organized around a table at The Lariat Bar back in February of 1973, after Darwin Brakke had posted a notice on the wall asking anyone interested in getting a club organized to write their name on the signup sheet. The response was good, and in short order Attorney Bob Case had filed the paperwork to organize the club as a North Dakota not for profit corporation, and John Narum had volunteered to sell his farmstead north of Silver Lake to the club for use as a trap shooting range and rifle range. Club members volunteered to clear the old buildings from the farmstead, except for an old boxcar granary and attached lean-to shed that became the clubhouse for several years. A used manual clay pigeon thrower was purchased from the Cogswell Gun Club to get the club’s first trap shooting range going. Volunteers also leveled the south side of the property and constructed a dirt berm backstop for the rifle range. Tree belts were planted on the north and east sides of the property, and other trees were planted to mark the edges of the rifle range. Over the years there have been many improvements constructed on the club’s grounds. Some have come and gone, and some remain. Back in 1973, some of the powers that be at the time thought that no club organized in a bar by a bunch of guys who enjoyed a good time could long endure. Now, half a century later, in 2023, however, the Rutland Sportsmen’s Club is still going strong, bigger, better and more active than ever, with the club members still doing good things, and still enjoying a good time. Most of the original members are now gone to their reward, but their spirit remains, evident on the faces of the young sportsmen and sportswomen who now utilize the club’s facilities. Sometimes you can do a good thing and have a good time at the same time.

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The Rooster Crows – Jan. 27, 2023

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By Bill Anderson

January, which has been content to let December claim the credit for most of this Winter’s ferocious weather, has decided to lower the hammer on the final weekend of the month. Predicted highs for this coming weekend, beginning on Saturday, January 28, are all below Zero, and the predicted lows, of course, are even lower. This siege of arctic cold is expected to last until Ground Hog’s Day on Thursday, February 2, maybe longer, depending on the mood of the Ground Hog, Rutland Roscoe, a cousin of Punxsutawney Phil. Anyway, we live in North Dakota, and we cannot expect to escape Winter’s wrath indefinitely. We can consider ourselves fortunate that it has held off as long as it has. We are lucky that we have not had to endure some of the winter weather encountered by our pioneer ancestors back in the 1880’s and 1890’s. John Bloomdale, one of Rutland’s original residents, recounted that in the terrible Winter of 1895-96, or maybe it was 1896-97, he was living in a small, tarpaper covered shack located toward the east end of the rail yard, near the old Great Northern stockyard which stood on the south side of the siding, just north of where Calvin & Wendy Jacobson’s home is now situated. According to Mr. Bloomdale, the cold that winter was intense. He said that on one occasion he had made a kettle of soup and set it just outside the door to cool. The soup froze instantaneously, he said, so fast, in fact, that when he pulled the frozen kettle of soup back into his shack, the ice was still hot to the touch. There was a tremendous amount of snow that Winter, and by Christmas it had completely covered his tiny home, threatening to cover the chimney and cut off the draft for his stove. Bloomdale said that he went to the hardware store and bought another 3 foot length of stovepipe to extend the height of his chimney. The snow kept coming, though, and he had to extend his chimney several more times. When the snow finally melted that Spring, he discovered that he had 18 three foot lengths of stovepipe towering above his shack. Another phenomenon Mr. Bloomdale described was the effect of the extreme cold on the railroad locomotives’ steam whistles. When the locomotives approached the yard limit, on arrival and on departure, they blew their whistles, but the cold was so extreme that the steam froze before it could do anything, even make a squeak, and the frozen lump of steam would fall silently to the ground. When all those frozen steam whistles thawed out simultaneously on the first warm day, Bloomdale stated, the racket was deafening. Some of the steam whistles, he said, were buried under big snowbanks on the shady side of the track, and they kept on thawing out, surprising folks with a whistle blast from a long departed locomotive until early Summer. Well, it was Mr. Bloomdale’s story, and, as the late Ray Erickson often pointed out, he could tell it the way he wanted. If anyone who was around back then wants to dispute his account, let them step forward and be heard. He was there, and we weren’t.

Sonja (Anderson) Christensen, one of the organizers of the 27th Annual Rudy Anderson Memorial Pinochle Tournament, recently posted the information that, as of Monday, January 23, 43 teams have now pre-registered for the event. The tournament will be held on Saturday, February 4, in the Rutland Town Hall. The Rutland Community Club will be serving morning and afternoon lunch to tournament participants, as well as a Noon repast featuring Rutland’s scalloped potatoes with ham, made with real potatoes, real ham and real cream. Any pinochle enthusiast interested in signing up to participate in the best run pinochle tournament in the region, or in obtaining more information about the tourney, should contact Sonja at cschristensen@midco.net, or call her at 701-899-1463 or 701-642-6793. 

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The Rooster Crows – Jan. 20, 2023

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By Bill Anderson

The January Thaw, if it was a January thaw, was brief, but welcome. On Sunday, January 15, the mercury clawed its way above the freezing mark for the first time in 2023. Some thermometers even registered temperatures as high as 35 above for a couple of hours. According to Dennis McLaen, a UFO report was about to be made on the bright, shining object that appeared in the sky on Sunday afternoon, before someone figured out that it was the Sun, making its first appearance in several days. Dennis and his grandchildren took advantage of the beautiful sunny day to go sledding in the hills south of Rutland, just west of the Jesse & Bobbi Jo Maly farmstead. The short reprieve from January didn’t last long, though, as the temperature was below freezing all day on Monday, the 16th, and the northwest wind blew in another 4 to 6 inches of new snow. On the bright side, according to the local TV weathermen, there is more snow and cold weather in the forecast for the remainder of January. Just what we wanted.

Chuck Anderson was checking weather reporting web sites on his cell phone during the morning coffee session at the Rutland Seniors’ Center on Wednesday, January 18, and came across the North Dakota Agriculture Weather Network (NDAWN) web site. NDAWN has reporting stations across the upper Great Plains, from Montana to Minnesota. There is a monitoring site at the Kelly Cooper farm, near Brampton. According to NDAWN, the thick snow cover that has blanketed this area since mid-November has insulated the soil, and prevented the frost from going very deep. According to the NDAWN statistics, the frost depth in Sargent County ranges from 0 to 12 inches, not very deep for a winter that has been consistently cold for 2½ months. The good news from this information is that the frost is not likely to prevent the snowmelt from being absorbed by the soil when the snow finally melts in March, April or May. With a little bit of luck there will be enough soil moisture to get a crop started this spring, despite last year’s drought conditions. So, even though shoveling snow is a pain in the neck, in the back, or somewhere else on the anatomy, snow is good for something, once in a while.

The best laid plans of mice, men and fishermen sometimes go awry. That was the experience of Cameron Gulleson and Darren Ptacek when they accompanied two representatives from Peterson Farms Seeds on an ice fishing expedition to Lake Of The Woods during the second weekend in January. Cameron reports that they had no sooner arrived at the resort where their expedition was headquartering than Darren came down with the nasty variety of influenza that has been plaguing this area. Six hours later, Cameron was afflicted with the same ailment, and shortly thereafter the2 seed reps were also laid low. All four were aching, wheezing, sneezing, hacking & coughing in unison. It was not the type of fishing trip they were expecting, Cameron said. After suffering in their cabin for a few days, they finally crawled out and drove home on Tuesday, January 10, still suffering the symptoms of fever, congestion, aches, pains and exhaustion. As of Tuesday, January 17, Cameron reports that he is back in the land of the living, although he still occasionally feels some of the effects of the illness. Once a person has acquired this particular brand of influenza, they can expect that it will take a month, or more, to fully recover from its effects. The Rutland community extends best wishes to Cameron, Darren and their friends for a speedy and complete recovery.

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The Rooster Crows – Nov. 18, 2022

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By Bill Anderson

The winter storm that began on the evening of Wednesday, November 9, and continued through Thursday & Friday, November 10 & 11, covered Rutland and vicinity with an inch thick coating of solid ice, and left a trail of broken branches, snapped power poles and downed lines in its wake. Otter Tail Power’s service in Rutland had only a few, brief interruptions of a couple of minutes or less, but downed power lines on the Dakota Valley (formerly RSR) Rural Electric Co-op’s system left several hundred farm and rural customers in Sargent, Ransom, Dickey & Lamoure Counties without electric power for a day, or more. Several dozen linemen from surrounding RECs came in to assist Dakota Valley meet the emergency and get its lines back in service.

Most rain gauges have been taken in for the season, but a few of the sophisticated all-weather electronic gauges were still in operation during the storm. Chuck Anderson reports that the electronic gauge at his Weber Township farm had filled up with ice, so he had to bring it in to let it thaw out before it would give him a reading. He states that once the ice had melted the gauge held .94 inch of liquid water. An unconfirmed report of .68 inch of precipitation was received from Sargent County’s Hub City, our neighboring community of Forman.

Jim & Mary Ann Levery called their Ransom Township neighbors, Mike & Jill Anderson, on the evening of Wednesday, November 9, to check on the weather. Mike gave Jim the bad news, and then Jim informed Mike that he & Mary Ann were at the Grand Ol’ Opry in Nashville TN, attending the annual Country Music Awards ceremony. They had great seats, Jim reported, as far back and as high up as you can get. The acoustics were very good, though, and they could hear the music just fine. Anyone who has heard Jim sing and play the guitar during Rutland’s Uff-Da Day might have thought that Jim was in Nashville to receive an award, but he said, “Not this year.” The Leverys had departed for Nashville on Sunday, November 6, and met up with a tour bus that took them to Nashville for a week of touring the sites and enjoying country music. One of the places they visited was the Johnny Cash Museum which contained many artifacts from that Star’s career. Jim said that the weather in Nashville was very pleasant during most of their visit, with the temperature in the 70’s most of the time. The temperature began to drop and the rain began to fall right after they departed Nashville, headed for home. They arrived home on Sunday, November 13, and report a very good time in the Capitol City of Country Music. 

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Hens Do Crow! May 8, 2020

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The custom of distributing May Baskets on May Day has almost, but not quite, disappeared from American culture. Those who grew up in the 1950’s remember making small baskets from cupcake papers, putting some candies and maybe even a flower blossom into the basket and then hanging them on the doorknobs of those for whom they held special affection. The custom was that the basket was to be delivered stealthily and included the requirement that a recipient who discovered the basket being delivered was to chase down and kiss the delivering party.  Young boys and girls ran very fast when they were 8 or 9 years old but got a lot slower by the time they were teen-agers. Last Friday, May 1, three youngsters from the Rutland community — Paislee Pherson, Brooklyn Pherson, and Kyler Pherson — accompanied by their grandmother, Ione Pherson, revived the old May Day tradition by delivering May Baskets to several homes here. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the kissing part of the custom was suspended this year. The Pherson kids are the daughters and son of Brian and Lyndsee Pherson of this community.

State and national regulations and recommendations intended to prevent, or at least slow, the spread of the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, have had a dramatic effect upon individuals and communities throughout the country. In North Dakota, bars, restaurants, hair salons, barbershops and other businesses were closed by the Governor’s Executive Order back in mid-March. Many of these businesses have been allowed to reopen, on a limited basis, as of Friday, May 1. In Rutland, though, the Lariat Bar has remained closed. Most bars in Sargent County had elected to continue their off-sale liquor and takeout food business during the shutdown, but Mike Pyle and Jeremy Becker, who have been operating the Lariat Bar for the past four or five years, elected to lock the door and walk away, leaving their patrons dry, but not high. This is the first time that a bar has not been operating on Lots 9 & 10, Block 2 of Cooper’s Addition in Rutland since prohibition ended back in 1933. Back then, Ingwald “Ink” Skoglund, who had been operating an ice cream store and café at the location, obtained a liquor license and reconfigured his business as a liquor establishment known as Ink’s Bar. In 1947 Ink sold the business to Bud & Toddles Bohn, and the name was changed to Bohn’s Bar. Bud & Toddles remodeled and redecorated the premises in 1953, and renamed the business “The Lariat Bar,” the name by which it has been known ever since. Other owners and operators of the Lariat since 1958 include: Ronald Donaldson; Darwin & Kathy Brakke; Calvin Jacobson, Boyd Jacobson Jr. & Art Carlson; Dead Eye Dick Povlitzki; Bruce & Paula Meiers; Norman & Rita Preble; Janice Christensen; Bradley & Rebecca Christensen; and, Mike Pyle & Jeremy Becker. The original bar building was moved from the site it had occupied since the 1890’s back in 2009, and the owner at that time, Janice Christensen, had the current Lariat Bar building constructed on the site, retaining much of the original ambiance, including the western motif mural on the north wall, the classic antique backbar and the wagon wheel chandeliers. Janice also promoted the business, had consistent hours, and provided service with a smile, three attributes that it is hoped any future owner will bring to The Lariat, a Rutland community institution since 1933.

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Hens Do Crow! July 19, 2019

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By Deborah Banish

Rutland is not a dying town but a town that tie-dyes as evidenced by over 80 people who attended the Rutland Community Club Groovy Art in the Park event on Thursday, July 11th. Rutland residents were joined by families from Havana, Forman, and other towns for a fun night. Kids and adults alike tie-dyed T-shirts, socks, and bags with many outstanding designs and lots of color. Even the adults got some color, especially Bryce Carlson who had some beautifully colored legs thanks to his playful kids. The grass in the Veteran’s Memorial Park provided some color and many a child had colorful feet before they left. The Community Club provided refreshments and beautiful t-shirt cookies and multicolored cupcakes. Thanks to the Community Club and to everyone who attended to make this a successful event. Photos of the event and some of the completed items can be viewed on the Rutland Facebook page and the blog.

The Rutland City Council reconvened on July 11 to award the bid for the Emergency Lagoon Repair 2019 Project. Two firms bid on the project and City Engineer Tracy Eslinger, from Moore Engineering, summarized the bids for the Council. The Council voted to award the contract to D.L. Barkie Construction of West Fargo for a Total Base Bid of $174,599 plus Alternate 1 (Crossover Pipe and Gate Valve Bid) of $22,488 for a total project estimated cost of $197,087.00. Acceptance of the bid is contingent upon approval of the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and Community Development Block Grant for the additional funds to cover the increased costs. The City Council will hold its next meeting on Monday, August 5 when the 2020 preliminary budget will be approved, as required by State Law; the final budget is required to be adopted after a public hearing no later than October 10.

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