Merry Christmas To All

and to all a Good Night

New In Town

Opening in Theaters January 30, 2009, New in Town stars Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. The film, set none other than in New Ulm, sadly filmed elsewhere, has high powered consultant Lucy Hill landing in this small Minnesota town armed to close the plant. After her frosty reception she warms to the community, finds herself accepted and rescues job security for all. Hope this remains a romantic comedy and not any dismal forcast. Oh and those accents?! The Director, Jonas Elmer, great guy, did visit New Ulm, even sending a dialect coach. Still sounds like Fargo.

New Ulm has successfully 'opened' it's shopping season and this Friday eve, join us downtown as we trip the light fantastic with a spectacular parade of over 30 lighted floats! Don't get gobbled up by the holidays this year: Sure we are a GREAT village for shopping, but remember to carve time for yourself, it will make you better for everyone else as the 'hectivities' begin! The only leftovers we will serve this weekend at The Bohemian will be an extra days stay at half off! Room pricing begins at $89.00 up to $199.00 with half off applied to second nights stay. Leftover change in your pocket while holiday visiting? Sure beats another turkey sandwich!

On Thin Ice

Fun to see what guests are up to on their visits. One always takes home fond memories and a good time after a trip to New Ulm. This family took home medals! Congrats also to the New Ulm Figure Skating Club who hosted another great skating competition for the midwest region!

CD Release Party

Nov. 22 Dick Kimmel and Adam Granger, CD Release Concert and Party (3-5 p.m. CD signing and open house, Performance at 8:00 p.m.) at the Rhein River Arts Center, 208 N. Minnesota

Open One Last Weekend

At least for a Diva Extravaganza's Cocktail Cruise and great buys, prizes and fun for the infamous shopping Opener in New Ulm! Brought to you by Eat Stay Play, The Bohemian is the perfect spot to settle in with your favorite group of girlfriends. Last weekend was filled with laughs, roses, tango and chocolate. This weekend brings a ticket to ride and enjoy New Ulm's hot spots and quaint pubs in a guided bus ending at the Holiday Inn with a DJ and the opener frivolity! Sat brings a new step to the party: Artscape, local artists will exhibit and market their unique work and one of a kind art thoughtout town with a party at the Larkspur Market with artists, musicians and appetizers. A silent and live auction with a shoe collection not to be missed will raise money for the Red Boa Scholarship Fund for entrepreneurial women. So visit for the last of the Opener, but don't forget New Ulm, not up North, and open all year long!

Stomping out the last few tickets...

Morgan Creek Vineyards Annual Winemakers Dinner has a select few seatings open Saturday November 15, 2008 in partnership with The Bohemian reservations. This oft sold out six course gourmet meal is paired with 5 wines selected to celebrate the best of the 2008 growing season. The meal is designed by Chef Kim Ernest complementing wines produced and selected by Georg Marti & assistant Winemaker Ben Marti. Hors d'oeuvres 6:30 pm with Dinner at 7:00. Cost is $74.00 per person plus room rate. Rsvp and remittance by November 7.

"Innkeepers from New Ulm, MN proudly competed in the Morgan Creek Vineyards annual Grape Stomp Festival, wearing BedandBreakfast.com robes. Dubbing their team "The BedandBreakfast.com Babes", Shannon McKeeth of Bingham Hall B&B was joined by fellow New Ulm innkeepers including Bobbi McCrea from the Bohemian B&B, Ramona Sonnenberg from the Auf Deutsche Strasse B&B and Peggy Beyer from the Beyer Haus who all competed for the grape stomping champion. Able to leap tall grapevines in a single bound, and stomp out more than just muffins in the morning, the BedandBreakfast.com Fab Four took home a second place title, showing the world once again that innkeepers are jacks of all trades." Thanks Marti for the mention!

BOO!

Halloween Spooktacular - Absolutely Ghoulish!

Join the Historic Inns of New Ulm for their Annual Halloween Spooktacular weekend. You’re guaranteed to have a hair-raising good time!
Arrive Friday evening and join in “scary hour” complete with ghostly appetizers, wine and beer. Please come in costume since prizes will be awarded. A list for Saturday’s scavenger hunt will be handed out during cocktails as well as pumpkins and rules for the carving contest. Dinner that evening will be a private party at one of New Ulm’s fine dining establishments, followed by a “session” with the renowned medium Mary Kay Jansen.
Saturday morning you will be treated to a 4-course gourmet breakfast at your chosen Bed and Breakfast and then you are free to enjoy the sights and sounds of beautiful New Ulm. Wander the city with your scavenger hunt list and see how many items you can collect.
Saturday evening you will be wined and dined with appetizers and beverages. After happy hour your horse drawn carriage will arrive and take you on a quick trip around New Ulm ending up at George’s world-renowned steaks and spirits. A gourmet four-course meal is included. After dinner your carriage will be waiting to transport you on a guided cemetery tour to learn about some of the famous past residents of New Ulm.
Sunday morning you will be treated to another wonderful breakfast where prizes will be given out for the costume contest, scavenger hunt and the best carved pumpkin.
The cost for this fun-filled weekend is $125.00 per person in addition to the room rate at your favorite local Bed & Breakfast.
Reservations must be made by 10/24/08
Please call for more info 866.499.6870

Fresco Found

Fresco technique seems to be what is lurking under all the white paint here at The Bohemian. Recovery has not yet started, but really, this is gonna be big! Scott, Ty and Elenor from the Minneapolis firm Scott's Faux Design Now if we find out it is Anton Gag's work that would really be something! It could happen. And really it could. Anton Gag completed interior decorative painting with his partner Chris Heller at the time this home was constructed (1899). The records are sparse and incomplete, but I know Wanda's first journaling efforts where on her Father's ledgers! Those journals are secured in Pennsylvania. To anyone's knowledge they haven't been reviewed for anything but Wanda interest. I'm on it. Heller & Gag: "These gentlemen have made themselves illustrious by their art and though they are not appreciated as they should be their work is none the less admired." The Journal 1902/08/27.

New Bohemian

Announcing Orelia Mary Slavik, beautiful daughter to Nick and Amy. For those of you taking Notes from the Iron Mangle, Nick recently painted The Bohemian. I had the pleasure of watching Nick and Amy's graceful dance of pregnancy and expectation, a very true mid summers night dream....here she is "Come True"!

Being a casual practitioner of Feng Shui, the landscaping project here at The Bohemian became somewhat of a personal event. As the old nostalgic shrubs, bushes and plants were wrenched from their foothold both of the earth and my sentimental soul, it became instantly apparent that we invent reasons which prevent us from moving forward. This can be reflected with our houses and the environment surrounding them. Just as a house may require painting for example, a great deal of work needs to be done causing the majority of us to postpone such tasks, silently restricting us from moving on. In my case, to remove the vintage spirea, or bridal wreath (even the name evokes beauty) was a daunting hurdle to overcome. The second they were gone, taking minutes balanced against the 6 years I have pondered about them, I knew it was the right choice. Instantly I felt a reprise from regarding life, joyful as it is, as an occasional uphill struggle. The overgrown unmanageable maintenance, which I incurred every spring and fall was a constant reminder of what I was not able to successfully accomplish, and frankly, not welcoming, however majestic, original and true to the original landscape. For years I have walked around the yard visualizing classically formal gardens interspersed with whimsy that guests might enjoy and a colorful style that would showcase the integrity of the house. I thought often 'instant landscape' as much as I wanted to do it myself. That law of attraction is no secret, so what we have now at The Bohemian is pretty much as close as one can come to what I have been hoping to evoke throughout the last several seasons. The gentle beauty of gardens long lost, the kind with blossoms and surprises that create a sense of space in which you want to linger and breath easy again. I am happy to be the recipient of another of life's graceful gifts, meeting Heather & Lynn Hacker, who with their honorable crew whipped up a delightful outdoor wonder I invite all to enjoy.

Full Meal Deal

This past weekend was like a smorgasbord for me, I didn't even eat with the guests and I am stuffed! Lasagna gardening?!? which doesn't have anything to do with being Italian, but it certainly added to the fun that someone in the party used to have a pizza joint. Since half of what I do here is all about food, this layer technique for the garden sounds right up my alley. I've got the first draft of landscaping plans, from A to Zinnia, and I am going to embed this carefree breezy style into the earth around here. Where else can the enchanted garden I am envisioning spring from? A lot of ideas served up here over the weekend,including dessert, on the menu?: Cakes by Barb, we even plated a side of sitcom: a slice of life from a guest job: "The Regulator", hey, we figure it could air along side 'World Championship Poker' (and it ties nicely to all the sugar running, cat house piano player antics my Great Grandpa Bockus was involved in when he ran the New Ulm Grocery Company, which is still around, as is The Still, pushed in the Cottonwood River by the old prohibition regulator.) Real History Reality TV, right here in New Ulm. Good Morning America, History Detectives all just in August, all for your viewing, but why aren't YOU here?

Savvy Birthday

Last year on this date I was still manuevering my girth around tables. Thank goodness I am tall, as the unborn and I were still able to clear the chairs. Just like everyone else, I fret, and wondered what I would do with 'an infant' here at the B & B. It has been a piece of cake, in no small part to all of you, and I now look with magnificant wonder at this beautiful child who miraclously belongs, right where she is. Just like all of us. Savvy Grace indeed: how one smile, small kindness or act of comfort can bring peace to our restless souls. Happy Birthday to all who have been part of The Bohemian this year.

Cry of the Lakemaid

Or maybe it is just my tears! The Bohemian missed the boat, and when you are spotting for Lakemaids, this my friends, is a baaad thing! So when the summer soltise, the perfect window for spotting these fine aloof freshwater creatures, came and went with nary a bottle besides regular Schells in the house, well, you can imagine my dissappointment at missing a potenial party! So mark your calenders for the 2009 soltise...and keep your eyes peeled, we'll see if the guest this weekend will download his encounter with the National Lakemaid Reporting Center!

The Bohemian secures a painter. For many who have experienced the serendipity here, his name will come as no surprise. Nick Slavik will be tackling the delicate work of restoring 304 South German to her 1899 glory. Only here, in New Ulm, could a Slavic paint a Bohemian. As 'Nick Slavik Painting & Restoration' continues the detailed scraping and fine workmanship that this house deserves, I invite you to join our "Forever Stay" program. It is because of your thoughtful choice of lodging that you play an important role in preserving the architecture of America's heartland. Time and again Historic Preservation proves to enhance community by maintaining identities that are held within the walls of our older buildings. Your patronage guarantees that our histories are not lost and that we ensure interesting places to live and work for ourselves and future generations. Purchase a $100.00 gift certificate while we paint and it is valid for one night in any room, no matter the rate, forever. Room rates today from $89.00 to $199.00. Based on availability, a pretty good buy. I can't offer relief at the pump, and there may be a ladder to walk around for a while but I can reward you with a purchase that matters. You make a difference, a big one.

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The Bohemian Strikes Gold & It's Green!

Two summers ago I built my very own composter. I have used a spinner one, plastic tower and a nice 3 bin wood unit at Higher Ground, the co-housing community in Oregon where I used to live. They were all nice, but I was after the lowest maintenance composter that I could build with my bare hands. No tools and no money down. I found a model on line that used pallets and bailing wire. Pallets are never a problem to rustle up and I got some wire from my friend Penny. I had seen a really neat bin while out walking the alleys (a Midwest event for exercise, but primarily to check out peoples gardens!) that had encased the inside with black liner material. That seemed like a neat idea to keep things hot inside so I lined mine with used garbage bags. The back pallet was higher than the others so it looks like a throne. One of the goals was that a person didn't have to turn it much, you could just pick it up and move it over after a while. Well, try telling that to the backyard BBQ gang. They could not get there was no bottom to the bin! I couldn't do it myself, but finally with a couple of extra hands, move it over we did! Was it ever the Midas touch: that throne served me well, Black Gold! Which is of course true and honest 'green'. Sustainable practices having always been used at The Bohemian. This first batch of composting will go in the shade garden as I transplant the hostas and native grasses away from the house in anticipating of painting!

Mai Fest & The New Ulm Opener

New Ulm's May Basket is full again this year! Morgan Creek Vineyards celebrates their 10th season! Hat's Off to them! And you: for the 50 first visitors to the vineyard, ya get one free! There is also music and dancing from 6:30 to 9:00 pm and great options for their ever popular case club. The Wanda Gag House and Putting Green Eco Center begin their summer hours and there is Shakespeare in the Park. Not to mention, as far as openers, the Brewery offers their extended tour hours for the season. Believe me, they need 'em! Most of my guests run up and get tickets after breakfast for an afternoon tour cause those tastings sell out! And with the new Schell's Stout available all year, the bacon here is even better. Well, you know The Bohemian, always full of surprises, call for our stimulus packages to stretch those anticipated extra dollars. 866.499.6870.

Recycling Futures EvAeRrTyH DAY

That's what I think of as I trip over another fly away of over flow from the recycle box in the kitchen (which should really be called the living room, cause that is truly what goes on in there amidst all the cooking!) Pictures are worth a thousand, in this case: dollars. Generated from the pounds of paper waste collected from people willing to put up with the mess, these budding artists have, not just a few, more bucks for their future. Our earth just keeps putting out, and still offers us a way out to give back. Honor her today, by making a commitment to recirculate and reinvent that paper waste. Imagine...where we can be putting those dollars instead of the landfill? In the New Ulm area, Hy-Vee has a big green dumpster from waste management in the parking lot for collection of paper waste, with a different designee every couple months.

Lights Out Art Work

Everything at The Bohemian is a 'happening'. Like Warren repairing the radiators to get me through spring, only here could a major mechanical problem be spiritually healed in order for me to budget for it's physical repair in the fall! Well, the same goes for the delightful new touches of whimsy and talent added to a couple suites in the carriage house! It was a Craig's list happening! I inquired into a gentleman artist wishing to build his portfolio, so with New Ulm roots he was serendipitously on his way. Andy even looks suspiciously like Anton Gag, who in addition to being Wanda Gag's father was New Ulm's foremost decorative house painter briefly at the end of the 18 hundred's. Maybe with this new interior artwork, some of the old stenciling will now surface...It wouldn't surprise me.

Boiler Plate

Easter weekend here did not produce any bonnets, nor did I discover any boiled eggs, but rather no heat from the boiler generated radiators! Thank heavens for some inefficient forced air, the usual delightfully complying guests and a scary space heater: we all stayed warm. The last time I had problems with the boiler was two years ago resulting from a busted pump(over 50 years old). Based on the $750.00 set back to my checking account and the longevity of the first pump, I'm betting this might be just some value bleeding requirement. Now my heating and cooling guy is a savant in the way I have been called the same for my hospitality. Not only that, he is a HUMA healer so I trust him, but as I contemplate a new blog entitled Diary of a Foreclosure, holiday repair rates are not in my budget. So as I hedge, I turn to the Internet and look up radiator troubleshooting. Down in my vintage museum of mechanical what not I gauge everything to be in somewhat working order. In other words the gas is on, nothing is leaking and the pipes are hot. Now another secret about this house, Indian in the cupboard it isn't, every key is here for every lock! Including the magic valve radiator key. There it was, mysteriously dangling right next to the instruction box. Blissfully undiscovered for several hours. In the meantime I am calling my B&B compadraes who eagerly give me, free, tutorials. The sacred key broke on the first valve, I bled water instead of air and gave up until today. After about.com's nifty diagram showed me all the parts (a new picture, but exactly like my ancient appliance!)I was ready to tackle the expansion tank. Days of cursing and desperation resulted in a beautiful "Jane" moment, not my first ever, but the first coined that term. (Thanks Paula) Unfortunately I still have no heat. Expert Warren is coming later this afternoon, but I am empowered.

'Murder History Tour'

For those foolish enough (or those who are not on April 1st) the New Ulm Bed and Breakfast Guild is offering a Murder Mystery Weekend April 18 &19. A weekend away or relief from tax time, join us in our enchanted village with a mystery story filled with intrigue and tales from the Schells Brewery. Highlighting New Ulm flavors, myths, a new beer (only available here!) and plenty of local characters. Oh! and murder! We will be having private tastings and tours all about town and your choice of winding down in one of our award winning B&B's. Come join us in New Ulm, where we are all 'partners in crime'! For details contact Auf Deustsche Strasse, Bingham Hall, Beyerhaus or The Bohemian...more clues to follow.

Great Gig for the Grammys

In addition to guests I am fortunate enough to experience grade school and grammer. Subbing is a great gig! The other day I got to be the band teacher. I mean how cool. I had as much fun as I did when we played school as kids in the basement. So when I found myself in the real school basement teaching band, I was beside myself! There is nothing like seeing these eager children puffing up with probably not enough practice and misplaced air just go to-ot it! I was absolutely blown away with their unabashed determination and innocence. Puff hopes, puff dreams, puff the magic dragon, cheeks red and faces glowing just like the artists at this weeks Grammys! Those award shows make me cry, just like I did last week in band. The winners, and the musicians who back them all start in the basement. Rehab or not, look who walks home with a Grammy. Note worthy upcoming events this month in New Ulm: Brandon Sampson of Six Mile Grove with Sally Barris at the Rhein River Arts Friday Febuary 15 and Bob Wooton of Johnny Cash Fame at Turner Halle on the 23. Both within walking distance of The Bohemian.

Bock Fest

Today it is bitter cold, yesterday howling wind. Perfect weather for the long anticipated celebrated festival to kiss winter goodbye on it's frosty behind! Bock Fest comes early this year, following the holy calender, the Saturday preceding ash Wednesday. My guess is we still have a cold hard winter ahead. Never the less, no elements can deter the hardy adventurers of the upper Midwest! This is a beer drinking fracas starting promptly at 11:00 am February 2 at the Schells Brewery. Be prepared for lines, all day, at the gate, the beer booths, fire pits and, you guessed it, the potties. But that is half the fun. There are 7000 revelers to enjoy the afternoon with: definitely a fun place to stand around in the freezing outdoors! The other fun half is our Bockfest Boys. One word: Ring of Fire. And by the close of day, that'll seem like one word. This party, that also hosts a legendary medallion hunt, (I know guys who have been hunting those 'bocks' for over twenty years) ends at 4:30. But then Fashing and the downtown lights up, in every way imaginable. Turner Halle and Georges Ballroom will have more contests and bands, but basically it is a matter of where you can, literally, fit in. This town is Packed! Quite a legacy for a couple of monks in the pre Renaissance Rhien , arguing over an old goat during a drinking contest. Truly the makings for one hardy ale. Those Germans. Who else could originate a party so notoriously traditional, your pals will carry your image on a stick if you can't make it in person?

Ryokan: Poet of Ordinary Happiness

Today's begging is finished: at a crossroads

I wander by the side of the Buddhist Shrine

Talking with some children.

Last year a foolish monk.

This year, no change!

(tr: John Stevens)

discovered in Jack Kornfield's After the Ecstasy, the Laundry

For a good year, insert what ever it is you do for 'monk'.

The above crossroads were discovered at The Bohemian this season by the Fantastic Group of Mothers and Daughters from St. Michael's. They get it.