The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Merle and I got up before the rest of the family this morning and walked down to see the sun coming up over Lake Minnetonka.
This “Snow Blower” contraption, I know not what of you speak?I had to run to Menards earlier to pick up a drain assembly for a bathroom sink that was leaking. That was the only thing we needed, but somehow Merle and I ended up on the other side of the store looking at snow blowers. Merle really wanted to buy one, but I reminded him that he needed to travel light, so he settled for getting his picture taken with them instead.
Please tell me that Merle is going to purify himself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka before shipping out!Merle and I got up before the rest of the family this morning and walked down to see the sun coming up over Lake Minnetonka.
Looks like you all had a great time Barrett, I always look forward to seeing your Halloween pics, and the kids imaginative costumesLast night was, of course, Halloween, and Merle got to tag along for trick-or-treating.
Scout went as a hot dog, and Eleanor was a unicorn skeleton. (Originally she just wanted to be a unicorn, then we found the unicorn skeleton costume and she loved it because, according to her, it was both fancy and spooky, her two favorite things. She also insisted that a unicorn skeleton would have a wand.)
Eleanor’s favorite stop every Halloween is “Mr. Bob’s house.” He lives around the corner and decorates his yard, garage and shed with seemingly more and more Halloween stuff every year.
I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!
Athos, Porthos, Alain and D'artagnon!!!Lovely pictures!
This will make a real souvenir for children, not the commercial thing they try to graft here! (along with black friday &so)
They nearly killed mardi-gras here, I loved to disguise when a kid, mousquetaire (what else?) my fav (I still have the sword)!
View attachment 1672100
ps Do they really eat all these treats? Waouh!
Lovely pictures!
This will make a real souvenir for children, not the commercial thing they try to graft here! (along with black friday &so)
Looks like so much fun, thanks for sharing those.
Looks like you all had a great time Barrett, I always look forward to seeing your Halloween pics, and the kids imaginative costumes
I forgot to mention the one house along our trick-or-treating route that gave out cold beer and koozies for the adults. 
They nearly killed mardi-gras here, I loved to disguise when a kid, mousquetaire (what else?) my fav (I still have the sword)!
ps Do they really eat all these treats? Waouh!
, but I’m afraid you’ll just have to get used to the pace of this thread being “slow and steady.” Thanks.
Earlier today, Scout and I drove over to a couple small towns out here west of the Twin Cities to show Merle a couple things I thought some of y’all might find interesting.
First we stopped in St. Bonifacius, MN (commonly referred to as St. Boni). At the north end of St. Boni’s Main St. is Missile Park. In addition to a playground, pavilion and baseball field, the park features a deactivated Cold War-era Nike Hercules surface-to-air missile.
Two panels on opposite sides of the missile provide some information on The Cold War, the Nike missile program and the launch site located near St. Bonifacius from 1959 to 1971.
Next to the missile is a small veterans memorial with a plaque and three flagpoles flying the US flag, the Minnesota state flag and the POW/MIA flag.
St. Bonifacius also has an interesting little public library. It’s quite small, only slightly larger than those little free libraries you see built on mailbox posts.
The building was constructed in 1916, originally used as a bank, and was turned into a library in 1931. It didn't have running water, restrooms or central heating and cooling until 1987.
After leaving St. Boni, we drove out to Waconia, MN. Outside of the Carver County Historical Society sits a WWII-era Sherman Tank, or rather, an engineless Sherman Tank shell made up of parts taken from two different models, as is explained on the panel next to it.
Here’s Merle sizing up the tank treads.
Next I thought I’d take Merle to Coney Island. Walk along the boardwalk, eat a Nathan’s Famous hot dog, ride the Cyclone…
No, wait. Not that Coney Island. This one, on Lake Waconia.
No hot dogs or roller coasters, but Merle did learn about local fish species, so we’ll call it a win.
Very nice bits of History there Barrett . Back in 1959 , I was trained on the predecessor to the Hercules , the Ajax . Merle is certainly seeing some interesting stuff while in your area .Earlier today, Scout and I drove over to a couple small towns out here west of the Twin Cities to show Merle a couple things I thought some of y’all might find interesting.
First we stopped in St. Bonifacius, MN (commonly referred to as St. Boni). At the north end of St. Boni’s Main St. is Missile Park. In addition to a playground, pavilion and baseball field, the park features a deactivated Cold War-era Nike Hercules surface-to-air missile.
Two panels on opposite sides of the missile provide some information on The Cold War, the Nike missile program and the launch site located near St. Bonifacius from 1959 to 1971.
Next to the missile is a small veterans memorial with a plaque and three flagpoles flying the US flag, the Minnesota state flag and the POW/MIA flag.
St. Bonifacius also has an interesting little public library. It’s quite small, only slightly larger than those little free libraries you see built on mailbox posts.
The building was constructed in 1916, originally used as a bank, and was turned into a library in 1931. It didn't have running water, restrooms or central heating and cooling until 1987.
After leaving St. Boni, we drove out to Waconia, MN. Outside of the Carver County Historical Society sits a WWII-era Sherman Tank, or rather, an engineless Sherman Tank shell made up of parts taken from two different models, as is explained on the panel next to it.
Here’s Merle sizing up the tank treads.
Next I thought I’d take Merle to Coney Island. Walk along the boardwalk, eat a Nathan’s Famous hot dog, ride the Cyclone…
No, wait. Not that Coney Island. This one, on Lake Waconia.
No hot dogs or roller coasters, but Merle did learn about local fish species, so we’ll call it a win.
BARRETT OMG!!! Please excuse the caps I am screaming here! Where exactly do you live?? If I'm ever talking about "where I'm from" I always tell people northern MN (most of my childhood was in Grand Rapids, MN) but I was born in St. Boni! Well, technically I was born in Waconia since St. Boni didn't have a hospital. My family didn't move up north until I was in 3rd grade. I about fell out of my chair when I saw your pics of that park with the Nike-Herc. My house was a couple blocks from there, I used to play T-ball in that park 40yrs ago! Such a small world, you've made me so happy to see these pics. I feel like Merle is family
I live in Mound. (I probably should have lead with that information when I started my stint with Merle, but having recently gone back through the Earl and Pearl threads, and revisited my own posts from when Pearl visited, it felt repetitive to give the same sort of preamble.) 
Ed, Merle only just got back to me last Thursday after traveling to California for his “procedure.” As I explained in my original post, I think a few weeks (meaning two, maybe three weeks) is a good amount of time for each participant to spend with Merle, show him around the place where they live and share that with the rest of us. I don’t plan on rushing anyone, particularly after only 5 days, and I’d ask that the same patience and courtesy be extended to myself. I know how you young’uns crave instant gratification
Ah that's not far from St. Boni at all! I have a very few memories of Mound...I can recall a chinese restaurant that we'd sometimes visit on a Sunday, and I remember that the road to Mound had a series of whoop-de-dos that were as great as a rollercoaster to a little kid. And of course I remember going to visit Tonka Toys! I remember touring the factory and at the end of the tour every kid was given a little truck as a souvenir. I still have several of my Tonka toys from way back when-- if Merle makes it up here to AK I'll try to round them up. That's nothing to do with Alaska really but it's fun to connect the dotsSmall world!
