Who hasn’t had a flat tire? Other than those people who don’t drive a car, truck, bicycle, lawn mower, tractor, motorhome, airplane, tire swing or submarine. I threw in the submarine to see if you were paying attention. I was in an airplane that blew a tire when landing at the Denver airport. On the subject of airplanes, a different flight had been delayed, canceled, took … [Read more...]
Pastor Devotions – The elusive peace
By Pastor Pam Seebach Harmony, Mabel, and Newburg United Methodist Churches Recently, someone said to me that we need to pray for the people in Ukraine. True! We held a prayer service in Mabel with Ukraine and its people as the focus. But, as I planned the service, my ears and heart were caught by multiple reports on the radio of other war-torn areas of the world. People … [Read more...]
Fresh Off the Farm-History doesn’t take naps: Why you need a Poofy Pancake today
If today was the only memory your child would have, would you live it differently? Some of us would forget everything else and have a cake fest. Others would schedule things out to the minute. Maybe some wouldn’t leave the couch to allow for every last snuggle. I doubt any of us would carry on as usual. What does this have to do with a Farmhouse Poofy Pancake recipe? … [Read more...]
The case of the purloined 3/8-inch combination wrench
I’ve never wrestled with a grizzly bear with an impacted tooth or tangled with a mountain lion that had just lost his job in the biotech industry, but I have been the victim of a fly-by pooping by a gang of ruthless gulls and had a run-in with a Canada goose. I called the honker a “wawa,” which is a Native American name for a Canada goose. The gander took exception to that and … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past Wearing bells in Houston, stuck in muck in Caledonia
They wore “beautiful brass bells, that made the prettiest musical sounds,” according to Houston, Minn., historian Ingrid Julsrud, referring to dray horses. A dray was a wagon and team of horses that unloaded freight and merchandise at the train depot for delivery to downtown merchants. Baggage might be taken to hotels. Railroads reached southeast Minnesota during the 1860s and … [Read more...]
A goodly heritage – Triumph in the farmhouse kitchen
The milk production from our cow is tapering off, but the chickens are producing many eggs. Some days customers empty out our cache of large brown eggs. Then there are other days when 20 dozen sit in the cellar waiting to be used. My husband collects nearly four dozen eggs a day. You might imagine what a challenge it is to use all of them. We give many to our children to … [Read more...]
Pastor Devotion – When words fail
By Pastor Kevin Barnhart Spring Grove Evangelical Free Words usually pour from my heart; thoughts, feelings, insights, and ideas often come naturally. But Sunday as the palm branches waved, as children shouted Hosanna, my heart began to sink. Holy week is here. This is the week we all have been preparing for, we have been longing for and yet as Jesus sets His face towards … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past Not showing off – just hanging on!
Part five of a series Sisters Barbara and Juliet Lee, on horseback, rampaged through downtown Spring Grove. Onlookers on that mid-1920s Sunday afternoon thought the teenage girls were showing off. After all, they were the daughters of renown horsemen Knute Lee. But recalling that speedy spectacle years later, Juliet told her son Mark that the girls were just holding on as best … [Read more...]
Journal Writing Project The moment I knew I grew up
By Hailey Lovejoy When do you remember growing up? Maybe it was in middle school after you had gotten bullied for playing with barbies. Maybe it was in high school when you began to realize your GPA actually does matter. Or maybe you’re just realizing you have grown up right now. For me, I thought I grew up in middle school, but in reality I was still just a child trying to … [Read more...]
It wasn’t a morel mushroom cloud
That’s no way for the weather to make friends. A tornado hit my hometown on December 15. When I was a kid, we joked about a terrible explosion in town. The wind blew up the street. The tornado was no joke. It was frightening. I remember another frightening day in that fair city. Life was like it is today — considered by some to be the worst time ever. I was a young boy with … [Read more...]