By Rev. Debra Jene Collum Chatfield United Methodist and Commissioned EarthKeeper of the UMC There are some things that are incomprehensible to me. Like the fact that helium is in short supply because there isn’t more helium that can be made. Isn’t helium just air that makes us talk funny and keep our balloons inflated? Can’t you just make it from regular air? Somehow? You … [Read more...]
The Monster Hiding Under My Bed Was a Family of Muskrats
I was on a chicken bus in Mexico. It was called that because chickens sometimes rode the bus to market. A woman seated in the rear of the bus I was on held a live chicken – a little red hen. The bus driver ground the gears on every shift as the vehicle struggled uphill. He couldn’t be blamed, as the shift lever on the floor was at an odd angle, indicating it had been … [Read more...]
Your Flying Farmer: How Do You Look When You Die?
“Turn on the dancing music!” yelled my 4-year-old son. We had decided it would be fun to learn a dance move called “the running man,” which is essentially a series of marching and sliding backwards in such a way where it looks like you’re walking but you’re staying in the same place. It hurts your brain at first because your legs are moving back and forth but you’re not going … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past Winnebago Lived Peaceably Among White Settlers
Part two of a two-part series Around 1903, newlywed Grace Greener and her husband moved to Reno, Minn. Word spread that she owned a modern miracle – a sewing machine, and the Winnebago Indians living in the nearby river bottoms frequently brought clothing for her to mend. They often paid her with wild game and fish. During the last half of the 1800s, the European-heritage … [Read more...]
Happy Fall, Y’all!
By Pastor Bridget Sheely Racine/Wykoff/Sumner Center UMC Peace and grace to you in the name of Jesus Christ our risen Savior! I hope you have had the oppor-tunities these last couple of months to find your way down many paths of adventures in the sun and /or days spent sitting on a porch, in a park or with a friend just enjoying all beauty that the wonderful season of summer … [Read more...]
Watching Cricket Races While Thinking About Flutophones and Twinkies
The garage door opener is a wonderful invention. I used to have to get out of my car in the pouring rain and dodge lightning bolts while I yelled, “Lower the drawbridge” or “Open sesame” before grunting the door open manually. No more. I pressed the garage door opener and the door lifted as I sat comfortably in my car and marveled that the door knew where to go and when to … [Read more...]
A Goodly Heritage – Memories Come
Memories can come at any time. But today as I have been out in the garden, memories invaded my thoughts. As I picked each buttery-colored wax bean, I thought of my mother. Even when she lived with me at the age of 94, she helped me snip beans. Along with the beans, I brought in a fine bouquet of gladiolas to please her and to perk up the scenery in the house. Though her … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past Winnebago Relocated to, Relocated Away from Southeast Minnesota
Many southeast Minnesota settlers in the late 1800s had direct contact with or at least observed local Native Americans, most notably the Winnebago tribe. Marlene Meiners wrote her grandfather would barter with skunk hides for chickens. The Indians made baskets, which they sold for $1 or $2. The great “Indian scare” did not involve those mostly-peaceful Winnebago neighbors … [Read more...]
The Simple Blessings of Summer From the Peanuts gang
By Pastor Mark Woodward Maple Leaf Parish Churches: Spring Valley: Faith, Cherry Grove, Fountain, Preston (and Lenora) Over the years I have much appreciation for Charles Schulz and his Peanuts characters. On Facebook I enjoy “Snoopy’s Everybody’s Best Friend.” Now as summer moves ever closer to autumn, I saw a Peanuts cartoon which kind of spoke to a late summer … [Read more...]
Fresh Off The Farm – Every Mom Knows….
I couldn’t believe my ears. Relief flooded over her face as she told me her story with a beaming grateful smile. As she talked, I wondered silently: Could raw milk really change someone’s life? It’s funny I could wonder, because people tell me every week how raw milk is changing their lives. People constantly tell me stories of raw milk healing eczema, clearing up breakouts, … [Read more...]