Mountrail County Promoter - Columnists

Back In The Flowerbeds
In the years that Dale and I have been in our home that was Dale’s childhood home, we have spent some time working on flowerbeds. Usually, that starts with one of my “bright ideas”.
We started out by cleaning out the shrubs in the front bed on the house. That was a lot of work, but once done it provided a beautiful space for both perennials and annuals.
Then came the day Dale was pulling an old double wash basin out of the laundry room in the basement. As he thought he was taking it to the dump, I saw another planting opportunity. It became a focal point for a planting area in the back yard. The basin holds colorful annuals each year, while the area around it is surrounded by perennials. I’ve had to replant some of those over the years, but it is another spot I really love.
Last year, to Dale’s dismay, I decided to plant some daylilies along the driveway. It started out with Dale having to till up the space first. We worked to clear most of the grass and weeds and I happily put the plants in the ground. They were doing really well and then I broke my foot.
They spent the end of the summer and fall being surrounded by weeds. I finally finished getting them fully cleaned out this weekend and we worked on a project that was Dale’s idea this time.
After I got them cleared and could see that they were doing really well, we put down some fabric. Let me paint a picture for you. It was a beautiful day to be outside, that is until we went to put down the weed barrier fabric. As we rolled it out and cut it, the wind came up. There we stood, holding the fabric, as the wind pushed it out. I swear, we could have almost parasailed to Palermo. We got the fabric down and then put some fencing around them. That was followed by a layer of nice white rocks. We picked up four bags to start with. Silly us, we ended up going back for ten more. We also picked up some new solar pathway lights to put along the driveway.
It looks amazing and I’m hoping that Dale’s thought  process that it would cut down on some of the weeding plays out.
Dale also looked at a spot in the back yard between the basement windows. We can never get grass to grow there well, so he thought maybe we could put another planting area. We got some wood edging and Dale worked up the dirt. We then added more dirt to fill in the space. I picked up some beautiful perennials to put in that spot as well.
By the end of the day on Saturday, we both were beat. I headed out to White Earth to take some pictures at the rodeo and then came home to take a hot shower.
Before going to bed, there was some pain in this old body. Waking up Sunday, my body reminded me I’m not as young as I once was. By Monday, I was able to move without groaning and I know that I’m going to love the work we accomplished over the weekend. Maybe I need to really practice my plans of working for a while and then resting, and repeat. Unfortunately, once I get started, I forget to take more than short breaks every once in a while.

The End Of School Sports
The final state tournament for high school sports for the year was held last week as golfers took to the course in Grand Forks in Class A and Carrington in Class B.
I know that we have no control over the weather, but I felt horrible for the kids golfing in Carrington last week.
First, their tournament was postponed a day because of the rains that had left chunks of the course under water. As the day progressed, they started being told how the tournament would look. It started out with talk about a one day, eighteen hole tournament instead of the two day thirty-six hole tournament. By the end of the day, they had decided to go with nine holes on the first day and eighteen the second.
That first day was less than ideal conditions, but they got the first nine holes in on the back half of the course where the water had receded. The second day, they were faced with more windy conditions and still wet holes. That led to a twelve-hole second day.
I saw pictures and video of the course and felt that it was too bad they couldn’t have found a way to reschedule the tournament or move it to a course where conditions were more favorable. I know that isn’t the easiest decision to make or accommodate, but I still feel like the athletes that competed throughout the season deserved more from their state tournament.
That being said, kudos and hats off to the kids that powered through. It might not have been the tournament they imagined, but they qualified for that tournament by being the best in their regions and the best golfers in the state!