By Emma Heiden University of Minnesota Extension There are many things to do and to consider when seeding mid-July to early August alfalfa. Seeding during this time is great if you have land available because it can be great for getting ahead of annual weeds and potentially increasing your first-year yield compared to spring seeding. With late summer seeding you typically … [Read more...]
It Was the First Time a Hush Fell Over That Crowd
A cat owns my wife and me. We have three litter boxes because cats are territorial about those things. The cat isn’t always a precious pet. It purrs as it knocks things from my desk to the floor. If the Earth were flat, cats would have pushed everything off it by now. I think of my narrow boyhood as an outstanding one in which I dabbled in perfection, but I can find no … [Read more...]
Pastor Devotions – Summer’s Lease Hath All Too Short a Date
By Pastor Jeff Jacobs Unity Lutheran Parish - St. Paul, Saetersdal and St. Matthew’s, Granger No, that’s not a quote from Scripture, but Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18. And at mid-August, I’m sure many of us feel summer is flying too quickly – again! The prophet Isaiah had his own spin on transience: “The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past – Working Many Jobs Was Better Than No Job
Delivering milk all over Spring Grove before school was his first job, earning $2 a week. In 1930, that had the purchasing power that $38 has in 2024. During the Great Depression, many jobs were lost. Any job was better than no job, especially for a schoolboy like Mervin Dvergsten. Although on stage in all the high school plays and musicals, Dvergsten worked many jobs during … [Read more...]
Your Flying Farmer – Not on My Farm!
I recently saw someone talking about their food, saying, “Why do farmers need to spend so much time and effort when most people just get their food from the grocery store anyway?” Grocery stores must have a great big manufacturing facility somewhere that takes air and turns it into all the food that you eat. I imagine that a grocery store would be kind of like that … [Read more...]
The Best Used by Date is Today
I hadn’t heard from him since he went off to college at the South Dakota School of Mimes. I thought it was because he’d stopped talking, but there was another reason. I paid my respects to him, family members, friends and loved ones buried in a rural cemetery with their locations marked by gravestones showing expiration dates. A cemetery is any large burial ground, while a … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past – No One Else Ate Any of It
Blackcap sauce over cooked rice was an original family recipe and “comfort food” on a Houston County farm on South Ridge in the 1940s. Most food, including berries, came from the family garden, but blackcaps (small black raspberries resembling caps) were a rare wild treat. Annually, around the Fourth of July, the Beckman family would unpack long-sleeved shirts, because … [Read more...]
A Goodly Heritage – Rasberry Tactics
With the ripening of berries like currants, Juneberries, and especially raspberries, I have been reminded of past situations at berry time. The following story taken from the book, “Tales From Heritage Farm” by Randall and Wenda Grabau illustrates such a memory. Judy, my mother-in-law, had a raspberry patch which I inherited when my husband and I moved onto Heritage Farm. I … [Read more...]
A Driver Wearing Only One Mitten Might Be Lost
Technically, nothing is lost until I stop looking for it. Most men have a favorite shirt. Someone said, “You look good in that shirt.” Boom! That’s his favorite shirt. We’d wear that shirt every day if we could get by with it. I know a grown man in Alaska who owns only two shirts. They’re identical. I stood in front of the closet. I moved my eyes and hands to every shirt … [Read more...]
Pastor Devotions – Do You Ever Feel Lonely?
By Pastor Mark Woodward Maple Leaf Parish Churches: Spring Valley: Faith, Cherry Grove, Fountain, Preston (and Lenora) Traditional, Christian hymns have much to offer our world today. In about 1855 Joseph M. Scriven composed the words to a great Christian hymn. From time to time, I believe we all feel lonely, discouraged and sad. For our devotions today, I’d like … [Read more...]