By Pastor Kris Hertsgaard Kincaid Christ Lutheran Church Preston When the earth shakes and the tomb stands empty, God reveals that resurrection is not only something we witness but something we live – here and now – as a community raised with Christ, learning to walk through a fearful world with great joy. Easter begins with a tremor. In Matthew’s telling of the … [Read more...]
Listen When We Can – We Have a Lot to Learn
When I was a little boy a couple of years ago, I wore clip-on ties to church. I wore a bow tie or a necktie. A clip-on tie is a bow tie or necktie that is permanently tied and worn by attaching it to the front of the shirt collar with a clip or a band around the neck, fastened with a hook and eye. I preferred a bow tie if there was a chance of eating soup, plus it looked … [Read more...]
Fillmore County Flashback – The Peterson Trout Farms
By Cheryl Boyum Eaton Peterson Museum Board Member When I think of the Peterson Trout Farm, I think of the facility located south of Peterson on County Road 25, past the East Grace Cemetery. It was managed by Bill Atkinson in the 1950s. However, this was not the first trout farm at Peterson. In 1874 Peter Peterson Haslerud, the founder of Peterson, owned a farm at the … [Read more...]
Thyme & Again – On Eggshells and What’s Fulfilling
By Angela Denstad Time and again spring teases us along. It tempts tender green shoots out of the earth, brings back songbirds and waterfowl, coaxes us to forego our winter coats, if only for the day. But just as you soften into the fragile newness of rebirth, winter blankets us again. Such a fickle season! A far cry from winter’s predictable celebrations, the Easter … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past – English Spoken with a Heavy Norwegian Accent
Part two of a two-part series There was a Norwegian immigrant girl who pretended she could not speak Norwegian and a United States Civil War soldier who could only speak and understand Norwegian. One immigrant learned to speak Norwegian again before moving to Wilmington Township. These unusual, 19th century language revelations were preserved through the research and writing … [Read more...]
40 Years of Building Community Through Economic Development
By Mary Athey Vice President of Entrepreneurship, SMIF In small towns, people are always showing up to fill gaps – the chef makes extra meals at the church; the mechanic fixes cars out of neighbors’ garages. One person with a skill can make a big difference in a small town. But how does a neighbor helping out become a lasting part of the community? With the right … [Read more...]
Pastor Devotions – No Expense Too Great
By Pastor Jeff Jacobs Unity Lutheran Parish - St. Paul, Saetersdal and St. Matthew’s, Granger Decades before cell phones and internet, long before television or radio, the fastest way to send a message was by telegraph. But it was not always the most precise, as a story from that era illustrates. In the 1890s, a wealthy lady was traveling through Europe when … [Read more...]
Your Flying Farmer – When the Girls are Gone
Making syrup has always been intriguing to me. Is it true there could be so much goodness flowing through the trunks of trees? I had been hearing tales of tapping for several weeks. Those die-hard sappers kept telling stories of the woods. Their stories, and my love of syrup, kept calling me to give it a try. There’s that old saying, “When the cat’s away, the mice come out … [Read more...]
A Slow Driver is Anyone Ahead of Us
The car ahead of me was plodding along. It was moving a mile an hour faster than if it had been parked. The driver apparently found driving the speed of a herd of turtles to be invigorating. He was accomplishing as much as if he were milking a Plymouth Rock chicken. As an impatient teenager, I would have mumbled in the direction of the aggravation on wheels, something … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past – Farm Wife Flattens, Silences Loudmouth Lumberjack
Part one of a two-part series Four years ago, for the 2021-2022 school year, wrestling for girls became a sanctioned high school sport in Minnesota. But about 160 years earlier, sometime about 1860, one female took part in possibly the first wrestling tussle in Houston County that included a female, surely the first one recorded in a history book. And that 19th century, … [Read more...]