TODAY WE MARK Veterans Day, and honor the service of generations of Americans who stood and fought for their country. Many to ‘the last full measure of devotion.’ We especially honor what they stood FOR, and hope against hope that American democratic values and traditions, threatened these days as seldom before, will withstand the challenge of all enemies, foreign AND DOMESTIC, and will be fully restored and protected, lasting for countless Veterans Days into the future.

On this day we also mark the famous Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940, which cut a 1,000 mile swath through the middle of the country, particularly ravaging Minnesota. Twenty-seven inches of snow fell, driven by 50 to 80 mile per hour winds, and 146 deaths were recorded, with many duck hunters on the Mississippi caught by big waves and bitter cold. Today it feels as though all the woods waits with bated breath, as the first real winter storm of the season approaches, with a damp west wind shaking the tree limbs. It will not be a repeat of the infamous storm, but it may well be a good-bye wave to the long and gentle fall we have experienced, accompanied by the first cold breaths of approaching winter. The birds are busy. The squirrels are busy. All the woods awaits.