Carol & Chuck Morello
welcome you to our electronic home with a view of our physical home

Greetings from where the Arrowhead of Minnesota meets the Iron Range and just outside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). Truly one of the best kept secrets around.

Life is complex and so are we.

Here are some things about us and this beautiful area of Minnesota:

We are both graduates of the University of Iowa. We both like to sing and have been members of choirs in the Deutscher Chorvergand (the Bamberger Oratorienchor, the Stuttgarter Oratorienchor, and the Gesangverein 1864 Germania Oftersheim and, most recently, the Washington Sängerbund), and are members of the the East Range Choral Society. We also like to garden (flowers and vegetables), swim, ride bicycles, cross-country ski (we usually have the snow here for it), and canoe on our lake. We were both active in St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Virginia, MN, where we had been called to the Total Ministry Team. New leadership on the Vestry forced the Total Ministry Team out of the congregation. Since then we have been attending St. James Episcopal Church in Hibbing, MN (Bob Dylan's Hometown).

Carol is also big-time into sewing (counted cross-stitch mostly). For over a decade, she played the violin in the Mesabi Community Orchestra, finally hanging up her bow in 2009. Carol's pride and joy are the flower gardens on our property and the vegetable garden lakeside. It is often a challenge to get some flowers to winter over in this climate, but she does a beautiful job. Our long-term project is the expansion of our "Wild Flower Garden" on the hill leading to the lake. It is a multi-year project and we'll bring photos from time to time.

Chuck is also a graduate (MA) of The Ohio State University and an active member of Episcopal Communicators. His business, IRIS Enterprises, does electronic layout of books , as well as web design and management for religious communities in Minnesota. Chuck also worked part-time with Elder Services Network, where he managed a program teaching senior citizens how to use computers. Chuck's talents keep him busy, but he is never against meeting someone new. Chuck also likes to mess (key word) with the computer and has an unrequited love for model railroading. For the year 2005 Chuck was the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Laurentian Chamber of Commerce.

Our son, Charles, a graduate of Virginia Tech, has completed his time on active duty in the US Army. He is now working as a software developer in the Washington, DC, area, where he lives with his wife, Andrea, and their cat. He has put his involvement in building seaworthy model ships on temporary hold. We invite you to visit Charles' site for some interesting Christian insights and some outstanding graphics.

We live outside of the city of Eveleth, MN (best to see: US Hockey Hall of Fame, the World's Largest Hockey Stick), about 60 miles due North of Duluth, MN (yes, due North does not mean going along the North Shore of Lake Superior), and just to the South of Virginia, MN in Fayal Township and along Ely Lake. There are many noteworthy and interesting things to see in this part of the God's creation (Ironworld USA, Giants Ridge ski area, the Greyhound Bus Museum, International Wolf Center, North American Bear Center, numerous open pit iron mines, and Voyageurs National Park) and we hope you take the time to visit.

We've lived in the same house for over 15 years, well longer than any other place we have lived together in our married lives. Since we've lived here so long, we have to undertake upgrade work to the outside. You can follow the pictoral report of the work efforts of various contractors, if you wish (it's a yawner right now).

So, why are we where the Iron Range meets the Arrowhead? The Holy Spirit has led us around the world in the past, including working with the Episcopal Church's Suffragan Bishop for the Armed Forces (now called Bishop Suffragan for Chaplancies) while with the military in Germany, and the Holy Spirit led us here in 1995 to work in Environmental Clean-up in the former Warsaw Pact countries (unfortunately, the company lost interest in helping out). Our interest in helping the environment has led us to a deep association with the Environmental Stewardship Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota, and with the Episcopal Ecological Network, where Chuck is the "webverger" for both groups. We know that when we have completed whatever the Holy Spirit had in mind for us here, we will be led elsewhere.

 

POWs never have a nice day. Let us not forget them and our bond to those who've served. Let us also not forget those who have have given their lives or been wounded in body or mind in hostilities in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2002.