Long before the current AI craze, farmers were knee-deep in “AI” every single day – but this was a whole different kind of artificial intelligence. It wasn’t the kind of thing that could run algorithms to predict the stock market, or write you a Shakespearean sonnet on demand. Nope, this was the real deal: Artificial Insemination. And I’ll tell you what, if they’re giving out … [Read more...]
The Table of Infinite Knowledge at the Eat Around It Cafe
I’d walked by one of those little free libraries on my way to the cafe. It shushed me. We needed one of those libraries when The Table of Infinite Knowledge gathered at the Eat Around It Cafe. It’s a playground during recess. It’s a place where the world sometimes makes sense. That’s all we ask. It was right smart weather we were having. “Right smart” means … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past – Arriving in a Hupmobile, They Never Lost a Mother or a Baby
Most Houston County babies were born at home during the first half of the 1900s. And many homes were rural. If the mother was fortunate, there would be assistance from a midwife or nurse. Doctors made house calls, but getting to the farmhouse could be arduous, especially in winter and during spring rains, especially at night. In the in the southeastern part of the county, … [Read more...]
Pastor Devotions – Peace and Grace to you in the Name of Jesus Christ our Redeemer
By Pastor Bridget Sheely Co-Pastor of Prairieland Parish As we walk through each day and navigate our way through ups and downs, joys and concerns, happy moments and heartache, it becomes very clear that this earthly life is anything but redundant, mundane or one dimensional. Yes, we can feel at times that we are stuck in a rut. But the truth is we all have our peak and … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past – Coulee Region’s Poet Laureate from Looney Valley
When she stopped at the homes of friends and found no one home, she would spontaneously pen a short poem and leave it at the door so they would know that Edith Thompson had stopped to call. Far beyond her friends’ doors, the Houston County native influenced countless lives, coast to coast, directly as a teacher and social worker. Indirectly, even more knew her as a soil … [Read more...]
Thyme & Again – A Good Go-Around
By Angela Denstad Stigeler Time and again as winter trudges along, my tastebuds begin to grow a little weary of slow-braised roasts and hearty stews, as if there’s only so much culinary comfort one can stand. A first-world problem, to be sure, about which I’m fortunate to be able to complain. But nevertheless, somewhere along midwinter, I find it’s time for a break from the … [Read more...]
Money Can’t Buy Happiness Unless you Buy a Backscratcher
We are spoiled. I once sat around a dimming campfire, holding a flashlight under my chin and telling my grandchildren that I’d once left home without my phone. That scary story provided nightmares for years. I watched a dairy cow. She wasn’t holding a flashlight under her chin and telling frightening stories to calves about eating hay with a thistle in it. She was … [Read more...]
Journal Writing Project – The Northern Lights and the Solar Cycle
By Sarah Schneekloth Over this past year I was able to witness and enjoy the northern lights multiple times. This awe inspiring sight reminded me of the stories about the lights that my parents told me throughout my childhood; where the lights would dance across the sky and light up the entire area. From their stories I always thought that the northern lights were something … [Read more...]
Pastor Devotions – The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
By Pastor Mark Geselle Valley Christian Center “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “all people are like grass, and all their glory (like the K. C. Chiefs) is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is … [Read more...]
Fillmore County Flashback – Native American Mounds
By Sally Ryman Rushford Historical Society Native American mounds in the Driftless region are generally massive earthen effigy mounds that are concentrated on high bluffs and ridge crests overlooking rivers. If you’ve been lucky enough to watch “Decoding the Driftless,” you’ve seen them photographed from the air. Created by various Native Americans hundreds to … [Read more...]