Essays

<span style="font-size: 14px; color: #6c6b6b; ">Freshly cut hay on a perfect summer day. (Photo by Greg Schieber)</span>

Essay | Making Hay…as Well as Memories

Greg Schieber on carrying on the tradition of cutting hay with his own kids.

Connection with a neighbor and quick action by a local ambulance crew brought aid to Don Bell.

Root River Diary | Counting on Your Neighbors

Lanesboro’s Don Bell can count on his neighbors. This is an entry in our Root River Diary.

Reclaiming the garden was one of the first projects after moving to the Big Woods. (Photo by Greg Schieber)

Essay | Time is Illusive on Our Farm in the Big Woods

There is never enough time for all the projects on this small farm.

Each spring, the Mississippi River’s backwater streams gradually return to life across the Reno Bottoms south of Brownsville. (Photo by Ken Lubinski)

Essay | Spring Rising

Essayist Ken Lubinski reminds us we’re not the only ones awaiting spring.

The Wolf Moon is also called the Moon on the Frost of Tipis by the Dakota people. (Photo by Sharen Storhoff)

Essay | Winter Silence

January is a time of silence and the Wolf Moon. An essay by Loni Kemp.

The author, Don Bell, is pictured by Amish Experience in Lanesboro—his grandfather’s leather shop was located on the ground floor in the 1950s. The building at one time housed the Odd Fellows Lodge.

Essay | I’m Changing My Ways with Water

Julie Little is inspired to save life-giving water at home.

"...a flowing stream, a crackling fire..." foster companionship along the Root River. (Photo by John Gaddo)

Essay | Campfire Truths

Writer Ken Lubinski advocates replacing the annual business conference with a tribal campfire.

calf

Essay | Scottish Highlands South of Highland

A Big Woods amateur homesteader raises Scottish Highland cattle.

The Power and Control Wheel (The Duluth Model) is a comprehensive wheel that outlines patterns of abuse encompassing physical, emotional, psychological, and financial aspects. It includes tactics such as intimidation, isolation, threats, coercion, and manipulation.

Essay | Listening is Doing Something

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Gardening teaches us life lessons about death and life. (All photos by Loni Kemp).

Essay | Harvest, Death and Life

The garden harvest is a metaphor for life and death

Bulbs and rhizomes produce familiar annual blooms in southeast Minnesota gardens. Some, like these baby iris, are hardy and relatively carefree—whereas other varieties, more tender and less winter-hardy, must be dug up and properly stored until spring. (Photo by Nancy North)

Essay | Storing Tender Bulbs

Tips on when to dig and store your tender flower bulbs

Sterling Drug currently owns what originally had been the family-owned Slindee Pharmacy in Harmony; prior to its purchase by Sterling, the pharmacy was owned by Witt Pharmacy, a community chain based in Rushford. (All photos courtesy of Luke Slindee)

Essay | Pharmacies in the Root River Valley | A Recent History

Luke Slindee documents the disappearance of small town drug stores.

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