You couldn’t sneak up on us. On our farm, we had worthy watchdogs. One was a dog that doubled as a cattle dog. The second was a flock of guinea fowl. The babies are called keets. It’s claimed that guinea fowl eat ticks, Japanese beetles, earwigs and grasshoppers. I know they loudly announce visitors, warning poultry and humans. A relative removed his hearing aids and claimed … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past When first built, it was claimed to be the best in state
Part four of a series. An 1882 history of Houston County included a collection of occurrences that reflected life in the county during its first three decades. One typographical error has been corrected, but otherwise, the following text is quoted with the original spelling, capitalization and punctuation (or lack thereof) from that large hardbound volume. Current 2022 … [Read more...]
Pastor Devotion: Do not lose heart
By Pastor Jeff Jacobs Unity Lutheran Parish - St. Paul, Saetersdal and St. Matthew’s, Granger In his letters to the Corinthian church 2,000 years ago, St. Paul writes about successes and disappoint-ments in their community, occasions for celebration and causes for dismay. He could easily have written much the same to our world today. We’ve seen progress against COVID with … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past Sleeping on the counter, running unclothed for his life
Part three of a series. Two men had been observed around town making small purchases. One claimed he was working on a model for which he would soon be applying for a patent. In 1870, it was surely common to see non-residents in a town on the heavily-traveled Mississippi River. It was later learned these two men had been staying in a log cabin not far from town – again not … [Read more...]
If I only had a brain with more bran
We didn’t have The Weather Channel. But we still had weather during my formative years. Things have changed. We continue to have weather, but today, The Weather Channel produces it, except for the wind. Wind turbines generate the wind. When I was a clever teenager, I’d noticed that all adults talked about was the weather. I grew up in Minnesota. The weather was a constant … [Read more...]
Fresh off the farm
My real (not “reel”) habit story for 2022 My daughters and I were struggling. Specifically with school attitudes. For three years, I tried all the bells and whistles to make homeschooling more fun, do the energetic “cool teacher” thing, or adapt the assignment. I felt like I was running laps in a three-ring circus – with pom poms. This story wouldn’t make the … [Read more...]
An answer to the eternal question
“Are all men idiots?” That was a challenging question and one with epic consequences. It was my wife who had asked. I couldn’t pretend I hadn’t heard her. I’d just had my ears cleaned. It might have been the first time, although I’d had uncles blow smoke in an ear or two to quell an earache. Fortunately, my ears never became hooked on smoking. The nurse hit each ear canal … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past They bounced their ears off a bang board
A bang board stood upright in a horse-drawn wagon. It was a target for a contestant to hit with an ear of husked corn, so the ear would fall into the wagon without the corn picker having to look at the wagon. He or she could continue looking only at the corn being husked or shucked. In 1940, witnessed by approximately 1,000 spectators, George Reining of Caledonia successfully … [Read more...]
A new year means a new hope
By Pastor Stuart Weist First Baptist Church of Preston Do you like change? Me either, I have always been a man of routine. While working for an engineering firm in my 20s an engineer once told me “The only constant in life is change”. I did not believe him; however I have found his statement to be truer than I ever thought possible. Twenty years ago, I was a kid that … [Read more...]
A little of this, A little of that.
I am a carnivore, not a salad lady. I enjoy salad along with my meat. I guess God and inflation want me to eat less of it. I have been thinking about food much of the time lately, especially about stretching meat. Then I realized I already knew how. My mother and grandmother did it all the time. I wasn’t grocery shopping or cooking at the time so I never noticed. Before I … [Read more...]