Time out with the kids Grandpas and grandmas can find it a challenge to get time with their grandchildren. Time and distance take a toll on how often and how deep their relationships can go. Our children’s families are not unlike many others. Their homes are not situated close to the farm. So we are faced with making the times we have together something special. One … [Read more...]
Pastor Devotion – Give God a call
By Rev. Deanna Woodward Maple Leaf Parish United Methodist Churches of Cherry Grove, Fountain, Preston and Spring Valley How do you feel when you call a business to ask a question and get one of those recordings? You know, the kind that lists a long menu of options that may or may not lead to a live person on the other end of the line? Have you ever wondered what it would … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past Pioneers were defenseless against most formidable foe
Physically strong, self-sufficient men realized they were capable of taming the frontier but not always able to save the lives of their children and wives. During the last half of the 1800s, the first white settlers in southeast Minnesota had strategies for protection during Indian raids, but these hardy pioneers were defenseless against their most formidable enemy – disease. … [Read more...]
Baw boomp ba
Baw boomp ba. Baw boomp ba. I tossed the ball against the wall, caught it on one hop and then threw it again. The small, yellow stress ball promoting Iowa Lakes Community College helped me to become lost in my thoughts. I was thinking summer leaves too soon. It comes quickly and then is looooooooooooooong gone. I don’t want it to go. Summer leaves carrying my claw marks. … [Read more...]
Real Bites Twin Springs Supper Club
Restaurant owner Roumel Reynon does it right. My wife and I recently visited Decorah, Iowa, for dinner at the Twin Springs Supper Club. It’s a uniquely placed restaurant tucked back in the woods on what seems like a private drive. That uniqueness adds to the ambiance, as you drive by homes of distinction. We had heard great things about the restaurant from our friends in … [Read more...]
I can still fit into my old classroom
One of us had a pet rooster named Gary. My primary school class was made of equal amounts of good intentions and mischief. Naps were supposed to settle us down, but just as we’d fallen asleep in a lake of drool, it was time to wake up. We had a water fountain in the corner of the classroom, which fostered a need to raise our hands when we needed to use the restroom. “May I … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past Fillmore, Houston were among top tobacco-farming counties
Fillmore County, more than once, was the top tobacco-producing county in Minnesota. Houston County ranked seventh in 1860, third in 1870 and then second in 1880, according to U. S. Department of Agriculture statistics. Fillmore vaulted to number one in 1890 with five acres yielding 7,158 pounds of tobacco. In 1900, Fillmore was still on top with 86 acres producing 105, 420 … [Read more...]
Pastor Devotion – Teach us to number our days…
By Pastor Kevin Barnhart Spring Grove Evangelical Free Thrumming in the deepest part of my heart was a steady reminder that this breath is a gift. I would like to tell you that eons ago I learned to number my days, but that isn’t altogether true. I am and have been learning this lesson for a lifetime. Every day we are being sharpened by God. Flawed…human... too often … [Read more...]
Do UFOs believe in you?
“A dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets, but one man is still trying to find the answers to life’s persistent questions — Guy Noir, Private Eye.” That’s from the old Prairie Home Companion radio program. “Do you believe in UFOs?” someone who wasn’t Guy Noir asked. Like everyone, he had some crackpot ideas like the Vikings winning a Super Bowl during his … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past Some stomped, others popped those large tobacco pests
Minnesota is not often associated with tobacco farming - more likely, Virginia or Kentucky. But there were tobacco fields in Houston County. Local historian Georgia Rosendahl wrote about her tobacco experiences after her father Oscar Kroshus, one day in the mid-1940s, announced he was going to grow tobacco on the family farm just southwest of Spring Grove. “He had told the … [Read more...]