As plant growers, we do all that we can to ensure happy, healthy plants are sent home with customers. We hope that the plants are installed immediately, watered in to settle the soil, and lovingly cared for all season long. Sometimes, however, Mother Nature has other plans for that particular plant. I lost quite a few plants this winter, likely due to the lack of insulating … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past The Lady on the Hill still receives visitors
Part three of a three-part series “The Stone Lady” or the “Lady on the Hill,” a unique hand-stacked landmark on a hill in Black Hammer Township has surveyed the landscape ever since the late 1860s or 1870s. Black Hammer Hill was the most pronounced feature of the topography, overlooking to the east where the Winona-Fort Atkinson Indian Trail crossed an older trail between the … [Read more...]
You conquered the grind, now clang the grad gong
Angry hailstones the size of bowling balls had battered my poor car. That was not on my to-do list. OK, the hailstones weren’t quite that large, but that’s what I told my insurance company. That’s not true, either. I haven’t called them. I did call my health insurance company because they denied a $3,000 bill from the clinic because I’d had the right test done at the wrong … [Read more...]
Pastor Devotion – That we should be called children of God
By Pastor Michael Harman St. Johns Lutheran Church and School There is great comfort in First John 3:1. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.” ESV. God’s Word tells us we can’t earn His love. It’s given. A free gift. By His … [Read more...]
A little of this, A little of that
I spent some time recently in a sisterhood. No, did not enter a convent or escape to a nunnery! I spoke at the Root River Conference Spring Gathering at the Chatfield Lutheran Church. The church is beautiful with a rose window. I found the expert on the church organization, Michelle, the administrative assistant. She found a small table that I needed for a demonstration … [Read more...]
I can’t deal with cards even with an automatic shuffler
Hasenpfeffer, euchre, hucklybuck, sheepshead and pepper. Are they personal injury attorneys? Nope. Card games. Hasenpfeffer (pfeffer) is also a rabbit stew. Hucklybuck is sometimes called hucklebuck. Euchre, shouldn’t be mistaken for Bob Uecker, the Milwaukee Brewers broadcaster who played the announcer Harry Doyle in the movie “Major League” and said things like, “Heywood … [Read more...]
Pastor Devotion – The importance of faith, worship, commitment and being involved: A time for renewal
By Pastor Mark Woodward Maple Leaf Parish Spring Valley: Faith, Cherry Grove, Fountain, Preston (and Lenora) United Methodist Churches Here is an old photograph from about 1890 of pioneer people standing in front of the historic Lenora Church. It must have been a church picnic, a holiday of some sort as the people came together for this photo. I am impressed with the … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past How old is Black Hammer’s landmark lady?
Part two of a three-part series A local newspaper stated, “V. Valtinson returned to his home at Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Monday after a five weeks visit here with relatives and friends. Mr. Valtinson is one of the real pioneers of Black Hammer Township and can tell thrilling stories of the early days with the Indians. While here, Mr. Valtinson added a few stones to the stone … [Read more...]
Don’t even think about texting while bungee jumping
He hadn’t run amok. He’d bungeed amok. The historical society hosted a program on ghost towns. Most of the settlements had been tiny and failed because the railroad didn’t come their way, the people didn’t arrive as expected or the residents forgot where they’d put the village. Some of the names were Bancroft, Bath, Buckeye, Crayon Park, Dorwart, Knatvold, Lerdal and Sigsbee. … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past The Stone Lady of Black Hammer – Who? Why? How many?
Part one of a two-part series It has long been a double distinction – the name and the landmark – for the Houston County hamlet of Black Hammer. That early landmark, ”The Stone Lady,” still looks down from a hill named Black Hammer, 1.3 miles south of the village with the same name. Early 1850s settler Knud Olson Bergo lived near a bluff in Minnesota that reminded him of a … [Read more...]