When Timmothy was invited to share his cartoon with the Northern Sentry (Minot Air Force Base newspaper) he was given a brief lexicon of terms Airmen use. One of those terms was Dakrat which refers to our gopher population.We have two or more gopher breds in North Dakota but the two dominant breeds are the striped gopher and the Golden gopher. Both dig a lot of homes. The Golden gopher is much larger than the striped gopher and much more destructive.Until last year I had not seen a golden gopher in the City of Minot, they always hung around the edge of the city.Last year they moved into my neighborhood on a plot of City owned land used for an ice skating rink. Now they are moving to residential lots and the destruction to lawns they are leaving is unbelievable.So how do you deal with th... 06/02/2025

Just one fly in my house is enough for me to declare war! I have yet to purchase a "Salt Gun" but I have a full arsenal of various fly swatters.Flies in our area generally are not a big deal until we have a stretch of hot dry weather. We have been in a long (several years) drought... until the past week. It looked as though the drought was going to continue being earlier in May we set three record high days in the upper 90's. Believe it or not we just set a record low high for the last day or two and we have received 5" of rain in the last week. The farmers are rejoicing but now most of us are looking for a little break. One other benefit to this rain, wood tics don't like it.This is my first post in several days due to a maddening work load. I intend to make up for it by posting two or... 05/21/2025

A house burning or burnt is not somethingwe want to see twice.I know I will be looking at the burned out shell of this home for a few days. The fire was just yesterday and only a few blocks from my home. A close friend lives directly across the street. Lucky for my friend that the wind was from the opposite direction.There are some things that deserve a double take.While this post is not directly related to Home Inspections it kind of is. Initial reports said the fire in the  home  above was started by an electrical problem.When I purchased my home the heart of the electrical system looked like this. The home inspector was not well educated on such systems so I had an electrician take a look at it. He discovered it was not adequate for the power service going into it. He commented: "You... 04/29/2025

Every Spring thaw reveals the garbage that was beneath the beautiful white snow. It seems to me that every year the volume of garbage revealed gets to be greater and greater. Even as a young man I never understood the mentality (or lack thereof) of anyone thinking it's okay to just chuck their trash anywhere on the ground.I think my disgust started with my first job at the age of 15 when I worked for a Holiday Inn as a porter and when things were slow I would pick up around the hotel (mostly cigarette butts).The picture above was the aftermath of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. What were they protesting... that the pipeline would pollute the earth. I would be interested to know if there has ever been a study as to who litters. My guess would be that HOMEOWNERS would be very low on ... 04/22/2025

I, for one, CAN make a stay-cation work. I love having a free schedule at home so I can tinker with things (tinkering is my passion). I also think camping pretty much is a stay-cation being our camper is pretty much our 2nd home.This summer may prove to be more challenging then others as far as camping goes. I had booked a few dates at our favorite campsite for the summer BUT just this week it was announced that our site and a few others we visit are closed due to staffing issues. After posting this I will be looking for alternatives and if nothing is found we will certainly be doing more stay-cation then planned.  04/19/2025

The photo above is a two fold sign of spring and with a new twist to me. The first thing that came to mind was the white duck. I have seen plenty of water foul all ready on the river but I don't think I have ever seen a white duck over the last 20 years. Second, today was the first day I've seen the river ice free this year.This picture is also two fold. I got the grill out and used it for dinner tonight BUT Timmothy and I also installed our screen doors today. There are very few flying insects out yet but now we are prepared for their invasion.And yet another double header. Timmothy and I got our bicycles out of storage and tuned up, ready to ride. In the background you can see the gate to Corbett Field is open (yes the gate that almost killed me last year). The Boys of Summer started ... 04/12/2025

This is a very brief video of Timmothy in his art studio creating two pieces (comic strips) for The Northern Sentry Newspaper (the official newspaper for the Minot Air Force Base). Timmothy produces a comic strip every day for this blog as well as for The Northern Sentry. I don't know how he does it, not just drawing the strip but having a funny message every day.  04/04/2025

The portrait above is part of a painting by Ben Slocum's grand daughter Tarryl Gabel of New York. If you look at her work you can see it was heavily influenced by her grandpa.This print by Ben Slocum was created January 4th of 1966. It is print number 3 out of an unknown quantity (my guess would be of 12 or less). The actual print, not counting the frame or matting, is 12-1/2" wide by 9" tall. Ben was a farmer/rancher in SW North Dakota. Since it has been displayed in the gallery several Western ND ranchers have perked up when they have seen it saying "Ben painted my grandfathers ranch". The only information I have found on line about Ben Slocum is a snippet of an interview with Ben's granddaughter Tarryl Gabel. Along with the interview is an oil painting she did of her grandpa sitting ... 04/03/2025

The Art Work of Len HaabakLen Haabak is a guest Artist at the Titus and Philemon Art Gallery. Lenn is well known in the Minot area not only for his art skills but as a Musician, Troubadour, & Building contractor.Len has been with us, the Titus & Philemon Art Gallery since we opened in 2020. Here are a few pieces we have in the gallery. Pardon the flash distorting things a bit.The pieces we have here are all prints brought to us by Len Haabak himself however Len will sell originals and will also create Portraits for you from your photographs. For more information call me and I will hook you up with Len.AMMENDMENTWhen I wrote this post I noticed the link to his website was not working so I called Len. The result of the call is that Len brought in more art, many being originals! It was a w... 04/02/2025

I made an unscheduled trip to my office downtown to help a friend look for her billfold. She thought she may have left it there on Thursday when she came to help me clean. When I got to the building I could hear a whole lot of honking going on. When I looked up there was a never ending flight of geese above. I must have stood out there ten minutes and the migration never slowed. I thought I'd take a few pictures for you. This is one of my favorite signs of Spring... oh, and the temperature as I write this at 9:00 AM is 21 degrees.You get the point... there were a lot of them.Another one of my favorite signs of spring is for the last several years one goose in perticular likes to hang around downtown going from rooftop to rooftop calling out for his mate. I spotted him this last week but... 03/29/2025

The little snow squall we had this evening (03/28/2025) had the largest flakes I'd ever seen. It reminded me of an old movie with W. C. Fields in it and it was snowing. I believe He said "it tastes like corn flakes". It was an inside joke as I understand they actually did use corn flakes  in the movies back then to simulate snow. This short video gives you the idea of just how big the flakes were.  03/28/2025

Unfortunately many who are eager to be pet owners did not think things out before they purchased or adopted their pet. This is the number one reason humane shelters across the USA are full and even worse, animals are abused and reported to the ASPCA.There are two rescues for pets in the Minot ND area. One I do not recommend, the other is excellent. I advise people to avoid The Souris River Animal Shelter. It is my opinion their track record of putting fundraising first caused the catastrophic collapse and emanate closure until the City jumped in and took over.On the other hand I encourage people to support For Belle's Sake. For Belle's Sake is located SE of Minot (just a few miles) and they care about the animals FIRST and they have never had money management problems.Those of you who h... 03/28/2025

On Wednesday I posted a video of myself welcoming you to come see the Titus & Philemon Art Gallery. That video and this one were recorded to submit to the website builder working on Timmothy's Art Gallery and Studio website.We appreciate your input. The developer would like us to submit at least one or two video's per week. After these two we will work on stories about each creation in the gallery as well as Timmothy recording "how to" create comics, acrylic fine art, and more.Please let us know what you think and feel free to include constructive criticism. 03/22/2025

Timmothy and I have been submitting materials to a web developer for his new gallery web page. I just sent them this video as an introduction. We, Timmothy and I, hope to upload several more in a short amount of time so I hope you will let us know what you think is good and what is not so good. Here is my WELCOME video.I hope to have a welcome from Timmothy by the end of the day that I will post tomorrow. I don't want to post to much at one time. 03/17/2025

I am a little lost on this one but this is the comic strip Timmothy does for the Minot Air Force Base news paper, The Northern Star, and he gets all his ideas from the same paper. Thus I assume the base has a new Latin and Central American grocery store.It is somewhat surprising to me that Minot itself does not have any specialty grocery stores. I am going to assume that it is because all the stores in town are very large and cover a multitude of ethnic foods making something new coming in uncompetitive.I know when I first saw this I said to myself "why didn't I think of that" especially being I knew a friend who did very well with it in Fargo when I lived there.Oh well! Carol has probably stayed away from ethnic foods knowing I am a meat and potatoes guy. Now that being said I do love ... 02/22/2025

Yesterday's comic strip with Titus's portrait can be found here. Following up to today's strip sometimes it's just best to say NO to offers of help.Yesterday I had my first experience with Angi, formerly Angie's List). Here is/was my experience. The bold white print on their homepage above is BS, anyone who pays Angi's fee is "top-rated" (my opinion). The situation: Our dishwasher had ceased to function in a satisfactory manner. We purchased a new one at Karl's. Being an experience DIY person I thought I may install it myself. Timmothy and I removed the old one but the new one appeared to be more than I wanted to tackle.When I failed to get connected to the handyman who advertises on Christian radio I turned to Angi. I left messages at 3 numbers. The first "expert" quoted me $600.00. I ... 02/21/2025

Leonardo da VinciOkay, if you can read the caption under the portrait you will see this a copy to the honor of artist da Vinci's Mona Lisa. The true artist is my good friend Len Haabak. Len usually turns photographs into paintings and they are so realistic that we have to tell visitors to the gallery that his works are paintings. If you are interested in purchasing this piece are any other work by Len please go to his website at lenhaabak-art.com and let him know we (The Titus & Philemon Art Gallery) sent you. 01/08/2025

As much as one may wish there is no way a human can hibernate for the 6 months of a North Dakota Winter. If you could the last 3 days would have been a good time to start.The photo above was from Thursday morning after we received 4" to 6" of snow overnight. Then we received more snow and an abundance of wind that moved it all around. Believe me if you are a homeowner you can skip the gym on days like these.Of course if you are a guest to Minot courtesy of the United States Air Force  and you live on base you are going to love the new indoor facility at the Minot Air Force Base fitness center.If you are a new homeowner in Minot ND and you have never shoveled snow before be careful. Heart attacks happen.   12/20/2024

A little sadness in the air. A 40 year tradition of giving food and toys to the poor in Minot ND has ended. The local Christian radio station, KHRT, closed this past Spring and with it the Horn of Plenty ministry went by the wayside. Over 12,000 families were served through The Horn of Plenty.No doubt this event was on Timothy's mind when he produced the cartoon for today. Our family always participated in The Horn Of Plenty. The kids helped sort food and toys every year and I manned a hotdog booth inside a local grocery store with all the proceeds going to The Horn of Plenty.I always had a lot of fun serving in this capacity. It was great to be out in public serving Christ and serving others. I also enjoyed eating a few hot dogs while on duty.Regretfully no one has picked up the 40 yea... 12/11/2024

One weekend a year, prior to Christmas, the LDS Temple in Minot has a display of nativity scenes. It is the only time we visit this church because it is not the denomination we attend BUT Carol has her own nativity collection and we all enjoy going to this event to admire the creativity shown there. It's very difficult to pick out a few favorites as there are always hundreds of nativity sets on display. I like the one below (L) because we have one like it but ours is about 12" tall.I like the simplicity of this: The Lamb Of God.Because I love dogs.So detailedWrapped in an AngelMary gets a breakSavior of the world.Lighted Stained GlassThe TimmsMerry Christmas from the Timm's. 12/08/2024