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

The Outdoors By Scott Rall, Outdoors Columnist I have purchased a deer license every year for the past 37 years and this year was the first year that I actually filled my tag. I purchased my deer license before Sept. 1 and this automatically enrolls you in the doe lottery. In Minnesota every hunter that buys… Read More

From Where I Sit By Pat Spilseth, Columnist November means families getting together to remember our blessings and enjoy a huge Thanksgiving meal. Today families are usually smaller and cousins spread out across the country. It’s harder to host a large family gathering of cousins, aunts and uncles, but our immediate family loves to get together. This… Read More

Publisher’s Perspective By Tim Douglass, Publisher of the Pope County Tribune I get a lot of interesting, but often trivial information that crosses my desk.  From time to time the trivial is worth mentioning.  So here goes. In a study about talking fast, Minnesota has been ranked the Number 1 fastest-talking state in America, averaging 5.34 syllables… Read More

Stoneage Ramblings By John R. Stone A couple of Saturdays ago we got in the car and headed out for a “let’s go see how this area is doing” road trip. We do this every month or two, just poke around the area for part of a day. That day’s trip was west. We headed up… Read More

Now politicians should work across the aisle, listen to the common person From Gene Rossum, Starbuck Well, the election is over, and we don’t have to listen to the political ads for a few months. Next we celebrated Veterans Day.  It is the day that our country recognizes and honors all who have served in the… Read More

View from a Prairie Home By Hege Herfindahl, Columnist We rose early on All Saints Day because we had moved our clocks back one hour.  We had received a letter from our church that the lives of those who had passed into heaven since last All Saints Day would be celebrated by lighting a candle as their… Read More

Views from the Cab By David Tollefson, Columnist A few weeks ago I wrote a column called “Hot and Dry to Cold and Dry.” Fast forward to this week. The dry part is no more.   On election day, November 8, began a wet period. I was working at the General Election at the Blue Mounds town… Read More

Growing Green By Robin Trott, Extension Educator Garden centers have put their fall bulbs on sale, and there is still time to purchase some for indoor forcing projects. Forcing flower bulbs indoors is an excellent way to brighten the cold, gray days of winter. Choose bulbs that are large, firm, and unblemished. Large, high quality bulbs… Read More