Memorial Day - Carrington, ND

Carrington's Memorial Day Program starts this year at 11:00 a.m. at the cemetery with Todd Ingegretson (VFW Post #3524) presiding. In the event of rain, the program will be held at Trinity Lutheran Church. The Memorial Day address will be given by Chet Pollert, our State representative. KDAK will broadcast the ceremonies live. This is a program well worth attending in honor of our loved ones. After the ceremony, all participants are invited to a noon luncheon at the CrossRoads Golf Course (courtesy of the VFW Auxiliary).

Note: Did you know that the "National Moment of Remembrance" was created in 1997? 'Taps' is at 3 p.m. throughout America to honor the contributions of our dead soldiers. All Americans are encouraged to pay respect to them by keeping silent for one minute in their memory at 3:00 p.m.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free, and I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me and I'll proudly stand next to him to defend her still today, 'cuz there ain't no doubt I love this land, god bless the USA." -Lee Greenwood

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. -Albert Einstein

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. -John F. Kennedy

“Four things support the world: the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the good, and the valor of the brave” - Muhammad

“That's what it takes to be a hero, a little gem of innocence inside you that makes you want to believe that there still exists a right and wrong, that decency will somehow triumph in the end” - Lise Hand

"When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today." - The Kohima Epitaph

The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions.
- Robert Lynd

Carrington, ND Home For Sale By Owner - Owners.com Real Estate

Carrington, ND Home For Sale By Owner - Owners.com Real Estate

This house has quite a history. It was built in the early 1900's and was built to last! The foundation, wood and overall structure are amazing. To begin with, it was used as a carriage house and servants' quarters for the mansion that was removed (due to a fire and lack of care). The owner (before us) was Aldo Lee, who completely remodeled the main floor and turned it into two complete, very nice 3bedroom/2bath units with over 1200 square feet each. Yes, the house is BIG!!

Interestingly enough, the second story used to have four fully functioning apartments. Somewhere along the line, perhaps when Aldo Lee remodeled the main floor, the plumbing was dismantled, and they became used as storage. The apartment structure is still totally there with each apartment having a bedroom, bath, kitchen and living room - all ready for some handy person to fix up and rent out!

At the moment my husband and I are in the mood to sell, but that may change, as we may sell our main house and move into one of the units ourselves, so don't be surprised if this house doesn't stay on the market much longer. We are in one of those big decision making periods of life when one makes rather big changes. You know what that's like! We are older and traveling a lot due to my husband's business, so we are consolidating our responsibilites so we don't have as much to worry about when we're away. We want to sell either this duplex or the beautiful Victorian that we now live in. Which one... the duplex... or the Victorian... Mmmm...... Have you ever been in a situation like this when it's hard to make up your mind? I'm sure you have! At the moment, if someone buys the duplex, we will stay in the Victorian. Otherwise, as I said, we will sell the Victorian and move into one of the duplex units. We've decided that we just don't need two big houses to maintain!

If we move into the duplex, that will make one less rental unit for Carrington. As you must know, it's very difficult to get a rental here nowadays. We have been able to rent our units consistently since we bought the house. In fact, we usually have a waiting list, with people calling quite often to ask about their availability. We rent the units out for $450, but we could get $500/550 if we needed to (information for someone who wants to make more money on them!).

This house has actually been a good investment for us... and could be even better if we had the time and energy to fix up the second floor of apartments. We could pull in around $2,000 a month if we wanted to work on it. But, that may be a project for some other person who has more energy/skills and wants to take it off our hands. We are in the mood to wait a little longer and see if that special person shows up.

So far, we haven't advertised our house in the newspaper or given it to a realtor. I thought I would give Foster County locals a chance to think about it first. Then later, if we still really want to sell it, we will seriously advertise it. At that point, I don't think it will last very long on the market, since it is truly a great investment for the right person.

Foster County Commissioners Vote To Not Allow Carrington Residents on Planning and Zoning Board. Is That Legal?

Foster County Commissioners: LeRoy Hart - Jim Carr - Dwayne Erickson

The Foster County Independent finally published the official minutes for the November 4th and 18th, 2008, Foster County Commissioners meeting at the end of December.

One wonders why it takes so long for the county commissioners to publish their minutes for public perusal. Could it possibly be that they want to keep Carrington citizens in the dark as long as possible regarding some of their group's decisions?

For instance, how many Carrington citizens know that they will no longer be considered for appointments to the Foster County Planning and Zoning Commission? That's right! To quote from the commissioners' official minutes published in the Independent: "Future appointments to the Planning and Zoning Commission were considered. Chairman proposed that the county zoning commission should be made up of rural county residents. Hart moved to adopt the policy that Planning and Zoning Commissioners must be rural residents, and second by Carr. Upon roll call vote: Hart voted "yes," Carr voted "yes," and Erickson voted "yes. Motion carried and policy adopted."

These three men seemingly do not want any input from Carrington residents (the largest population in Foster County) when it comes to making decisions for the county. Doesn't it seem strange that they voted to not have ANY city or town's people on the Planning and Zoning Commission? Why aren't they interested in input from city residents - other than Mayor Fry?

Shouldn't the Foster County Commissioners be looking for a balanced group of members for their Planning and Zoning Commission - both city and rural county residents? Shouldn't they be listening to the county as a whole, not just one aspect of it?

Where is this policy leading? Does this mean that the current city and town residents on the Planning and Zoning Commission will be requested to give up their appointments? Perhaps our three county commissioners weren't happy with some P&Z members' vocal opposition to having the Van Bedaf mega-dairy locate so close to Carrington. Is this their way of getting rid of city members who didn't go along with their ideas?

It will be interesting to see where Mr. Hart, Mr. Carr, and Mr. Erickson lead us next, particularly if they don't want any city or town input from Carrington citizens in their decision making.

Snow / Winter Stories

Up and down the streets of Carrington, you can see mountains of snow rising as high as some of the buildings. Having only lived in Carrington for four years, I'm not used to such an abundance of the slippery cold white stuff! It has been quite an adjustment, learning to live safely with a minus-fifty-degree chill factor at times. I've taken the advice of a columnist in the Jamestown Sun who suggested that everyone should have a survival kit tucked away in every vehicle. In fact, I quoted his list on CarringtonNews.Com and have tried to gather and store many of his suggested items in all our vehicles.

I thought it would be interesting to share some cold weather stories that have happened to friends and relatives around Carrington. As for me, I'll never forget the first time that I saw sun dogs! No one had ever told me about a natural phenomenon where you could see three suns in the sky at once. I was so astonished that I practically ran off the road, momentarily thinking that the end of the world must be near! No one along the Carrington streets seemed to be reacting to the images of three suns, though, so I decided not to be frightened and took some good pictures of the event instead.

Later I learned from Wikipedia that "a sun dog or sundog (scientific name parhelion, plural parhelia, for "beside the sun") is a common bright circular spot on a solar halo. It is an atmospheric optical phenomenon primarily associated with the reflection or refraction of sunlight by small ice crystals making up cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. Often, two sun dogs can be seen (one on each side of the sun) simultaneously." In fact, there are many instances of sun dogs mentioned throughout recorded history, as far back as ancient Egypt and Greece, where they are described with awe.

Note: The sun dog picture was taken at the intersection of Highways 200 and 281.

Please feel free to post comments and/or stories about Carrington winters.