Hey, I’m Sunset, one of the Rob Crowe family, family cats. I’ve been around the Crowes for almost 2 years, but didn’t get to write the letter last year since the family was caught up in moving into the new homestead. It took a bit of persuasion by the kids to convince Management to let me get integrated into the family when I showed up around the last house. Anyways, I’m Mother to 5 adorable kittens; Sidney Lee, Patchwork, and Tawnypelt who stayed here, and two others (who left us for the Eberhardt Sheep Ranch) named Pumpkin Pie and Jasper Trouble, (who’s now the mother to 4 black and white kittens). Well, writing this “cat letter” is pretty new to me, so I’m allowing Valeri help me this time around.

So starting out with my first try with the cat letter, that Big Guy that thinks he’s in charge around here (actually, I’m in charge) tried racing sno-cats again in March with predictable results. He tailed along at the back of the pack of vintage sleds with an old Galaxy he’d picked up for a couple of hundred dollars. Said he had fun, though. In the summer, the family was planning to visit the Kentucky Crowe’s so BG was fixing our latest Aerostar’s transmission. Unfortunately, the transmission wasn’t cooperating so they didn’t get to go. He did better organizing the first hopefully-annual “David Johnson Vintage Sno-Cat Spectacular” held this month and it went really well...The winner of the 1st Winnipeg to Minneapolis Race in 1966 came from Wisconsin to attend. How he learned about it, I will never know but it sure made BG happy. For the last two Christmases, BG has hosted a Christmas garage party. A nice way to get the family out of the house, yet smell all those good baking smells. Then there is the music ministry—every Sunday morning the family is home, he takes the family to the Warroad Senior Living Center to sing hymns and praise songs for the grateful resident attendees. Besides those little bright points he has been working and pulling Management out of her mechanical problems.

As far as what “Management” (the other person that thinks she’s in charge) has been up to during the year I’ll tell you, but positive before negative. She enjoys being a Missionette teacher at Roseau Community Church on Wednesday nights to Kindergarten girls. She belly danced at the birthday (left hand picture) party for Red Leader, one of BG’s friends that turned 88 in June. Later in the summer she put on a “Love To Dance” event at which her dance troupe, Muses Orientale, performed prior to open dancing. In the picture on the right, she is wearing her Sunday best while supervising the “little girls” as they train their horses.    Now with the mechanical problems...this fall Management was driving home with the girls when a doe ran into them. She called a neighbor and asked if they wanted some fresh venison  Did I mention that the vehicle was the Aerostar which BG had only put into service that month? (The venison was really good and I think there is a redneck joke in there somewhere!) She has been busy driving the girls to and fro for their activities besides working at Marvin Windows... One night, bringing Alyssa home from a swim meet on super icy roads, she was driving slowly when the van just started sliding off the road to the right! Management let it go to the ditch, saw trees, cranked the steering wheel to the right, so that both ends faced the wrong direction and then the van tipped onto its side (from what I’ve heard that’s quite the accomplishment so Congrats Management). This caused Alyssa to hang sideways above Management like an astronaut. They both got out of the van by

sliding open one of the windows and lifting themselves out. Strangely enough, both of them had forgotten their cell-phones. Luckily, a couple of guys stopped by on ATVs and lent Management a phone. She called BG and he came and got them, though he didn’t get the van out of the ditch until the next morning. Let’s just say she’s had a very eventful year.

                 The family left me in charge here when they went south  to help eldest and only son, Lieutenant Travis, get married. He met Anne Marie a while back, fell in love and they decided to marry on Dec. 1st. It was peaceful here since they took Abby the dog along, both for the Thunderstorm/Shower trip in Oct. and then the wedding. Travis spent the summer interning in the Human Relations department for 3-M in Decatur, Alabama. Attending Nat’l Guard annual training, the family saw him at Camp Ripley in August.

Daughter Heidi and Robbie are settled into their very pretty, remodeled house in Elk River. Heidi took a couple of days off from growing the new lawn to visit and help us at 4-H/fair time. I was on my extended summer vacation so didn’t see her.  Robbie and Travis have a new hobby… lawn mower racing.

Daughter Erin, Kyle and little Reed have moved into the great house they’ve been building for the last year and a half. BG says Erin won the Redneck wife of the year award for buying Kyle a UTV for his birthday. Reed loves the UTV too, maybe sometime he can come up and visit us here on the farm. Oh, and they say Erin is expecting something in March!

Alyssa fiddles her time away, literally. It’s a good thing I like Bluegrass, because I hear a lot of it when the 3 little girls are practicing. They make a very good trio, thanks to my instruction, I’m sure. The picture was taken at the Wenzel recital during their great performance of Will the Circle be Unbroken. Alyssa also played and sang for the musical Cotton Patch Gospel. She flew to and visited Pennsylvania with a 4-H group. She was on the Warroad swim team and won quite a few JV backstroke races. She’s in 10th grade.

Katelyn is the rhythm guitarist of the trio, as well as learning to be a tough basketball player. She helps BG on many of his projects, one of them being the tricky transmission job. She enjoys training Shady. She’s in 8th grade

Valeri plays the mandolin, the clarinet, 6th grade basketball and loves school. She’s good at it all. She’s taking lessons from me on how to look good. I’ve taught her to do a flip or a coil of her tawny hair and come out looking like a diva. Good girl!

    This spring I started smelling trouble when the girls got two new horses, Shady & Frosty, to keep Amber company. Valeri ended up going to the hospital with a concussion from being bucked off of Frosty and stayed there for a day and night. When she came back, us cats were overjoyed. More trouble happened later when S & F were bombarded by bullflies one extremely hot summer day and ran... or more appropriately, torpedoed away from the house. It took a while to get them back, settled and sprayed down.

The family is pretty well settled into the 80 acre homestead here in the shadow of Bemis Hill near the big forest. The yard is a bit full with all the implements, vehicles, 3 horses, 1 dog, 4 cats, and 14 chickens, but I hear the plan is to expand the yard/garden/horse pens to take up part of the field to the east so I should be able to navigate a little easier once that happens. The farm has close access to miles of backwoods trails so cats and girls on horses have lots of places to go. Oh, and once BG gets a sno-cat or two fixed up to run well (no guarantees of that), there should be lots of opportunities there.

BG kept his promise to take the girls out fishing, see picture. His friend Telle took them all out in Red Leader’s boat a couple of weeks before school started. They caught lots of walleye and entertained Telle with their singing.

Well, I need to get out and check things, you know, like the flock of chickens and keep this place going, so I’ll stop here. 

May God bless you all this year as we celebrate his goodness in all things.

Sunset