View from a Prairie Home By Hege Herfindahl, Columnist My daughter, Ingvild, lived in Gainesville, Fla., for five years while her husband, Patrick, went to graduate school there. It was traumatic for me to have her so far away and I spent every single extra penny and vacation day to fly down to see her. In retrospect,… Read More

Views from the Cab By David Tollefson, Columnist For anyone traveling on Minnesota’s highways, it’s pretty obvious what the #1 crop in the state is: CORN. But, of course, there is more than one kind of corn. Coming out of the ground until the time of tasseling, all corn looks pretty much the same. Sweet corn is… Read More

Growing Green By Robin Trott, Extension Educator ‘Tis the season for holiday plants to start blooming. Many people may wonder why their Christmas cactus is blooming at Thanksgiving or even earlier. There are actually several popular holiday cacti: the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and less familiar Easter cactus. Despite the name ‘cactus’, these plants are not from the… Read More

The Outdoors Scott Rall, Outdoors Columnist I just read the 2022 state of bird report and for an outdoor enthusiast it is totally disheartening. The report concludes that “Grassland birds have suffered the biggest bird declines of any terrestrial biome since 1970… due to habitat conversion, tree and shrub encroachment and pesticide applications.” About two-thirds of… Read More

From Where I Sit By Pat Spilseth, Columnist Around the Thanksgiving table did you add your thoughts to the round robin question of “What are you grateful for this Thanksgiving?” That’s been annual ritual at our family Thanksgiving, and I’m so pleased that we still continue this custom. Around the world there are so many living without… Read More

Pope County residents were greeted with winter-like weather last week.  Temperatures dropped, we received some snow that actually stayed on the ground, and most of the area sloughs and shallow lakes donned an ice covering that will likely be there for the winter months. Lake Minnewaska was ice-covered on the Glenwood side over the weekend, but… Read More

Stoneage Ramblings By John R. Stone The election of 2022 is behind us, or behind most of us, except for the folks in Georgia who will be having a runoff for their Senate seat and Alaska where ranked choice voting will take a little more time for their Senate seat. I was surprised there wasn’t a… Read More

Questions about safety concerns on new ‘overpass’ on Hwy. 29 From Steve Nestor, Glenwood (former bridge construction supt.)  Dear MnDOT design and safety engineer, After driving over the recently completed “Mount Wagner Bridge” on Highway 29 north of Glenwood, I must ask: Where are the guard rails on either side of the bridge? Why are… Read More

View from a Prairie Home By Hege Herfindahl, Columnist I have rowed my whole life. It takes effort. And persistence. If I row on a river or a very shallow slough, I will encounter barriers. Rocks. Fallen trees. Even beaver mounds. I think growing older is like rowing. Most people will encounter barriers. That is unless your… Read More

Growing Green By Robin Trott, Extension Educator Trees can experience many stresses during the winter months including lack of water, sunscald, wildlife damage and winter injury. Young trees (one to five years old) should be watered throughout the year, until the soil freezes. Watering young conifer trees from October to soil freeze-up is critical.  Sunscald is… Read More