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Interview & photos by Pam Roberts
Neil Lepisto: “I just got done with work and picked up my daughter Mirabella from a friend’s house. We’re going to hang out here and do some chores at home and go and watch the girl’s volleyball game tonight. She’s not playing volleyball. She ran cross country this year. I am working for the city of Ely, Public Works Department as an equipment operator. I love it! I run skid steers, back hoe, dump truck and do labor jobs like we’ve been replacing sidewalks in town on West Harvey Street this year. So I’m helping with that project learning how to do cement and set forms. Also mow grass in the summer if needed. Getting ready to plow snow. It’s coming. We had flurries flying this morning. We’ve been blessed with really nice fall weather. Get out and vote!”
Jim Nelson and Marsha Kauppi: Marsha: “We’re taking the apples to the cabin to feed the deer.” Jim: “I’m retired and been retired for a long time. I worked for U.S Steel. I just came back from Florida. I was on a golfing trip. So we are at the cabin now. We’re trying to get some things done before winter. Everything’s good.” Marsha: “I’m cleaning up my yard. Putting vegetables away. Cleaning up the garden. And putting up Halloween decorations.” Jim: “Yeah, we did that today. Halloween is coming!” Marsha: “We’ve used these apples for apple pie, apple sauce, apple bars and now we’re giving them to the deer. I grew up on this street, Harvey Street. My sister actually owns this home, Rose Marie Mobilia. My maiden name was Mobilia. And this apple tree has been here forever. It’s the icon, as I think I am.” Jim: “There were so many apples on this tree earlier we had to support the branches to keep them from breaking. It was just incredible.” (Here is a natural recipe for worm prevention in a fruit tree: 1 banana peel, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup vinegar, 1 cup water. Mix and put in gallon jug with a hole cut open in side and hang in the tree.). Marsha: “You were doing the Whatchyamacolumn before weren’t you? That’s what kept my mom going. I always gave her the Whatchyamacolumn for her to figure out what it was. The grandkids would come over and she would say, ‘What do you think this is?’ It was something for her to do. Good for these old people.”
Abby Dare and John Scully: Abby: “We are doing some late fall landscaping. Trying to remove the lawn/grass and put in some native perennial plants and flowers. We’re going to do the whole front here and the front over there. We won’t have to use our lawn mower as much. John and I live here. I moved to Ely in 2012 and bought this house in 2020. I worked for Outward Bound for 11 years and just this past year John and I opened up a new shop in town called: The Meadows, on Sheridan Street. It’s an Art Gallery and rentable artist studios in the back. The front space, the gallery, is a fun, eclectic, colorful shop full of regionally made, handmade arts and crafts and some really cool special stuff. The back has four rentable studio spaces and we are hoping for some local folks who are looking for a space of their own, to move in and be part of our community. They can use it to make their arts or crafts or whatever they do. If they want they can sell their stuff in the shop but it’s not a requirement. It’s just a work space for them. We just opened in June. The Meadows Gallery and Studio. I have some watercolors over there and John has pottery. These shoulder seasons where the weather starts getting maybe a little uncomfortable is one of my favorite seasons to be around here.”
Scott DeNio: “I’m just running errands. I have to go to the pharmacy and the grocery store. All that good stuff. Going to give away some more money. I have been doing absolutely nothing anymore. I’m retired. I’ve pretty much been starting taking care of my sister Lynn. My sister Jean is the other caregiver and we double team Lynn. Get her up in the morning and put her to bed at night. All that fun stuff. You can’t get a PCA anymore. The PCA she had leaves for the winters so she’s gone and the company Lynn has for the PCA, they can’t get anybody up here. She’s been fighting with this for a couple years, having a PCA here and there. It’s hard to find a PCA. My health isn’t that good either.” (If anyone knows of someone interested in helping out as a PCA that would be much appreciated). “I have friends from Tennessee, they come up and stay with me two months out of the summer. We go fishing and whatnot. They left and I didn’t get to put my boat in the water this summer because my truck is broke down. It’s at the shop getting worked on now. Just in time to put the boat away... You need to cruise around on the East end of town and look for all the deer running around. It is so fun watching them. I get them that stand in my front yard. I’ve got one that I can just about pet it now. It’s literally been within six inches of my hand. I just love it. It’s good entertainment and it don’t cost anything. I can look right out my dining room window and I watch them come through the yard and they are up in the neighbor’s yard. It’s a lot of fun. I enjoy watching all the different animals. I’ve had coyotes come through the yard and timberwolves. I’ve had in previous years pheasants in the yard. I don’t know where the heck they come from but I enjoy watching Mother Nature.”
