This column was written in the gently-cat-chewed shade of a small but blooming collection of branches from my yard. Thanks to local plant expert Nicole Zempel’s Facebook post, I remembered that this is a thing you can do: collect bare branches, stick them in water, and then enjoy leaves a little ahead of schedule.
On Saturday evening, a crowd almost more than the Lee-Mar Ranch Equine Center could hold gathered for the fourth annual Healing Hearts Night at the Barn fundraiser. The event featured a multitude of silent auction items donated by area businesses and organizations - everything from saddles and riding gear, to stays at a local Air BnB.
When an athlete shoots a “Perfect Score of 25” they receive a 25 patch from the Minnesota Clay Target league. Also, for that 1st time accomplishment, YME Trap coaches chose to give those athletes a gun case as an extra bonus. The following Trap team participants were presented were certificates and the gun cases: Ryan Brouwer and Logan Hoff. Both accomplished their perfect score last season. “We would like to thank the Runnings store in Marshall, MN for the donation of a gun case for our young shooter(s),” says coach Sandy Berthelsen. This past week the team shot with the simulator. “I know the kids want to shoot outside but nobody is. So this is the next best thing. We hope to be on the range to shoot soon if the snow would ever stop piling up,” Berthelsen says.
Looking for local sites to “pick” The American Pickers are excited to return to Minnesota. They plan to film episodes of The History Channel hit television series throughout the local area in June 2023.
Paulette O’Connell, of Clarkfield, has been volunteering with the Lee-Mar Ranch Equine Center’s therapeutic riding program since 2011, helping with at least three sessions each year. The program provides the opportunity for those with disabilities of all kinds to engage in therapeutic sessions that utilize horseback riding at the facility.
Belview GRACE LUTHERAN CHURCH Sundays: 9 a.m. Holy Communion, 10:15 a.m.
When life is going well, it’s easy for Psalm 118:24 to pop into my mind, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” And that’s wonderful! But that isn’t the kind of day the psalmist was having when this psalm was written.
Last week my son spent the majority of it trying to convince me (still) to fly out to New York to be at his Army promotion ceremony. Alas, it wasn’t a possibility at this time with so much going on here. So when it came time for his ceremony to begin, one of his buddies was kind enough to man the phone so I could watch on FaceTime.
At least once in your long and delicious life you owe it to yourself to go hear Olivier Messiaen’s “Turangalîla-symphonie” and don’t wait until you’re 80 as I did but finally last week went to hear the New York Philharmonic take us on this wild 90-minute roller- coaster ride in which Catholics are kidnapped and Baptists go Buddhist and you think in French and fly in a formation of geese and get a taste of molecular physics as horses go galloping down the aisles, and in the gorgeous slow passage “Garden of Sleeping Love” you will fall in love forever with the person next to you so be very careful where you sit. I sat next to my sweetheart and after years of thinking I was averse to modern music, here was a hymn to joy and time, movement, rhythm, life and death, with big Wagnerian chords, delicate intervals, a dozen percussionists, a genius pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and we’ve been happily married ever since.
Typically Minnesota ranks high on all sorts of charts, whether it’s for US Census participation or quality of life. So I was a little disappointed when I read we are ranked 39th in SNAP Access.