Spring planting, tree care, deck restoration and bee removal around the old homestead.

Hard at work re-habbing the deck in our back yard is neighbor and friend, Bob the Builder.  Old cedar planks come up, and new treated pine goes back in its place.  Braces are added, precise measurements taken, everything is squared and leveled. Bob is a meticulous, creative, and very smart craftsman.  I'll post a "job done" foto soon so you can oohh and aahh over the deck as we have done.

The massive Sugar Maple you see here was taken down and hauled away by Rainbow Tree Care  this week.   The arborist walking across the photo is Brian, and he sawed away the canopy non-stop (I think Brian was in the bucket for 1 ½ hours) before the trunk could be felled.  The red helmet in the background belongs to the highly skilled "claw" operator.  The blue-hard hatted guy is foreman Eric. These guys did an awesome job.

Here's our neighbor and friend Dave presenting us with a the biggest hornet's nest we'd ever seen.  

And this cute young Chinese Cherry tree gets tucked into place by neighbor Bruce giving Poppina a hand.

Ireland's pre-historic Fort of Dun Angus.

My friend Ken Weir writes:

"Pre-historic fort on the cliff is Dun Angus. I went there when I was about 16 years old.
It stands on a cliff about 150 ft high; shear into the Atlantic."

05 . 06 . 16 -- 05 . 10 . 16: St. Paul, North Minneapolis, Minneapolis NE.

Jeremy, Ty and Shannon celebrate their first full year in business at St. Paul's Workhorse Coffee Bar. Cheers to these spirited young entrepreneurs, and best wishes for many more years of creating community at Workhorse, and making the best iced latte in town!

And on the subject of spirited entrepreneurs, good pal Dan Cramer 

is a founding member of 4th Street Guild -- a decades old, highly successful worker's cooperative of architects, furniture makers, lighting designers, and the occasional sculptor and metal craftsman.  The shop is located now in North Minneapolis; you can see Dan here, raising the main door to let in glorious Spring sunshine.  Or, is he, like a latter-day Atlas, just holding up the sky?  

Dan and I popped in at the MoJo Coffee Gallery on California St. for a hearty breakfast and more good conversation.  Each of us chose the daily special -- in this case the "La Bamba Bowl."  Very tasty scrambled eggs, veggies, likely some tofu, salsa, not sure I remember the rest of the ingredients.  The iced latte was special.  On the way out I stopped to admire the handmade pottery items for sale, ended up buying a mini Indian-style bowl for Mother's Day giving.

Anyone recognize this head mannequin?   He's sporting a MoJo ball cap and a pair of hand-made "Steampunk" goggles.  I'd seen the word steampunk in print, had no clue what it meant.  MoJo server Rick P. explained the term, suggested I buy a pair of the goggles -- only $125.00, plus tax.  "Tomorrow's antiques, today," was the way Dan put it.

Have I written about my involvement with Forecast Public Art in St. Paul, and their superb bi-annual magazine, Public Art Review? I'm an ad sales consultant, handling a number of ad accounts myself, and working with Executive Director Jack Becker (he's also Publisher of "PAR") and his team.  We just "closed" the Spring/Summer 2016 issue, and it's at the printers now.  The cover of PAR 54 looks like this.  The rest of the issue will be revealed to eager subscribers around the first of June.  You will be pleased, astonished, greatly rewarded for picking up the magazine, learning, as I have, about the breadth, depth and diversity of Public Art wherever in the world it appears. 

Cars and Trucks Shouting Loud and Proud.

A ‘Go’ Community

Getting people to come is important because you can’t have community without people, but getting people to come is not the end goal. We wanted to create a community that invites people to come experience being deeply known and loved, and an experience so compelling that they become eager to go—to go free the prisoner, feed the hungry, comfort the grieving, love the addicted and mentally anguished, house the homeless and ‘stand in and close the gap’ between those who have what they need to fulfill their God-given potential and those who do not.

Descent Into Love is available here.

K. Killian Noe
Source: Descent Into Love: How Recovery Cafe Came to Be

Minneapolis Bike Shop, ca. 1950 - all coaster brakes, all the time.

Saw this pic at the Hennepin County History Museum.  No date or store name/address on the frame, but the bikes are of a certain vintage: heavy steel frames, balloon tires, coaster brakes, two-tone fenders (steel, again), nary a Sturmy-Archer 3-speed shifter in sight.  No hand brakes, either. Check out that Junior version in center of photo:  was there a kid in America back then who didn't dream of getting this for his 6th birthday?

I was the mighty proud owner in that era of a Schwinn Phantom . It came from the J.M. Repple shop on Water Street, in Chillicothe, Ohio, my home town. My Phantom was red and white (I think) with plenty of chrome. 

The ride was comfy as could be:  Mr. Schwinn saw to that by installing a rough-road dampening shock absorber called "Knee Action."

Battery operated horn in the "tank" hanging from the top tube.  Driving light on chrome front fender, and I think there may have been a brake light built into tail light assembly.

Top of the line?  Almost, but not quite.  That honor belonged to the Schwinn Black Phantom.  Mr. best buddy Fritz H. was the lucky owner of one of those.