Karla (Carla) Ochsner Kruse, age 78, passed away on Thursday, September 24, 2009. Carla was born on October 8, 1930 to Arthur and Emma Ochsner of Plain, Wisconsin. She attended Little Prairie Elementary School and Baraboo High School, followed by the Sauk County Teacher's College and Platteville Teacher's College. Following College she taught at Harrisburg School in Troy Township and then Friendship Rural School in Westfield Township. As a teenager, Carla helped her parents to remodel the barn at their Baraboo residence in order to establish The Barn Restaurant (historically famous for its German Egg Pancakes, ("Barn Cakes"). During the late 1940's Carla met Harold Kruse of Loganville at a Sauk County Rural Youth Group square dance. They were engaged in 1950 and married on June 2, 1951 at the Park Hall in Sauk City, Wisconsin. Following extensive travels throughout the Western United States, they settled down to operate a farm in Sauk County, near Loganville. Throughout her life Carla was an active member and/or board participant in multiple regional and statewide organizations including the Citizen's Natural Resource Agency of Wisconsin (CNRA; Harold and Carla were engaged at the 1950 annual CNRA meeting), the Wisconsin Society of Ornithology (WSO; the WSO land near Leland is formally named the Harold and Carla Kruse Preserve at Honey Creek), Wisconsin Inter-County Nonprofit REcycling (WINR), Sauk County 4-H programs, Dane County Farmer's Market, the Natural Foods Association (NFA), the National Farmer's Organization (NFO), and Sauk County Homemakers. Carla's independent path in life stemmed from her family heritage with people such as her grandfather who founded the Sauk County Free Congregation (Freie Gemeinde/Freethinkers) and the Swiss Chemist/Physician Paracelsus who practiced alternative medicine during the middle ages. Carla found great satisfaction in life through activities associated with organic and sustainable gardening. She began selling produce at the Dane County Farmer's Market in 1972 and this heritage is currently being carried on by her children. Carla was preceded in death by her son John in 1984. She is survived by her husband, Harold (Maplewood Nursing Home, Sauk City), sister-in-law Caroline (Reedsburg), son Richard (Loganville), daughters Heidi and husband Richard Powell (Hillpoint), Peggy (Talkeetna, AK), Gretchen and husband Richard Shuman (Hayden, ID), and 7 grandchildren. Since springtime meant that the garden could be planted, the songbirds returned, and the woodland flowers would bloom, it was Carla's favorite time of year. Therefore, the family will hold a potluck gathering and celebration of her life in early May at the Park Hall on Polk Street in Sauk City. Correspondence can be directed to Gretchen Kruse, 214 E. Hayden Ave., Hayden, ID (gretchenkruse@msn.com).