A warm airmass has been with us for the best several days. We have had the clouds hanging around at times too along with some light rain off and on. A southerly flow has been pulling in the mild air, but it is also pulling in some moisture at times. The moisture has helped with the wild-fire concerns that can be quite high this time of the year.
We recently spent a fun couple of weeks traveling around in Norway. We flew to Oslo (which included a short layover in Iceland) and spent a couple of days there before driving to Lillehammer, Trondheim and Alesund on the west coast as well as several tiny, scenic locales tucked among the many scenic fjords. Our travel wasn’t just limited to roads, with many ferry crossings in our rental van. And our travel wasn’t limited to driving either, with an overnight, and next-day, ship cruise from Alesund to the bustling seaport of Bergen. We also took passenger ferry cruises far into a couple of deep fjords that were as beautiful as any landscape we had ever seen. Norway has about 200,000 fewer people than Minnesota and seems to have a knack for preserving the old, while embracing the new. We visited the nearly 1,000-year-old stave church in Heddal, in Telemark, where one of my great grandmothers was baptized. The old church has been through a few restorations but retains a distinctively medieval look and is still in use from May through September. In fact, as we arrived there, folks were coming out from a confirmation service, the women all dressed in colorful traditional Norwegian bunads. It was quite a sight.
When fall turns the corner in Granite Falls, everything picks up in tempo. The combines are running, skimming the ground like the lowest guard on a razor. Trucks are hauling, smoothly shifting through turns onto the load scales. Kids follow their folks into the grocery store on tired legs in their practice gear. Four wheelers and pickups send billows of dust up behind them as they cruise down dirt roads.
Clarkfield American Legion & Auxiliary will meet at 10 am on Wednesday, October 12th at the City Hall. Clarkfield News My condolences to Kris Swanson at the passing away of her brother Charlie Chuck Swanson.
I’m extremely excited to be sending a letter to the editor about something I really care about, and that is the United Way of Southwest Minnesota (UWSWMN). My wife Shana and I moved to Marshall in 1994 and raised two great kids Sadie Zahrbock Schaeffer and Simon Zahrbock, and we are proud to call this area HOME. I believe that I have a good grasp and understand the needs of my neighbors and I want to continue to help where I can. I, like many of you, want to help make this a better place to live today and into the future, so please join me in supporting UWSWMN in any way you can. Your support can change lives of neighbors, friends and our communities. UWSWMN continues to support local programs and activities that focus on health, education, financial stability, hunger, and safety/well-being of its community members.
I had long considered myself what would be described today as an “old school” South Dakota Moderate Democrat with my maternal side of the family especially having deep roots in the state party with volunteering and also being devout Roman Catholics. Many of us including myself were educated in Catholic schools taught by priests along with Presentation and Benedictine nuns who to me epitomized service to others.
Each year, the newspaper publishes a cook book just in time for the holidays, and this year will be no exception. Of course, leading up to this, we discussed the publication and how we would collect the recipes. In the past, lots of recipes were sent in, and that’s what created the foundation of the cookbook. This year, we haven’t received that many.
Friends have asked why I haven’t written about my four-year-old daughter. Some know me as a doting dad and conjectured that I was too deeply in love to make fun of her. Incorrect. I only make fun of people I love. And golfers and pickle-ballers. Okay, I make fun of a lot of people. But that very much includes the ones I love. It’s how I show love. I admit it’s immature and there are better ways to show love. And yet… here we are. Thus, I will take down my four-year-old. I will take her down because I love her. Once someone asked if I was raising a princess. I recoiled; I laughed. Have you seen how this world treats girls? In America they don’t have autonomy over their own bodies and earn 84 cents on the dollar relative to their male counterparts. In other countries they can’t vote or drive or choose what to wear. No, I am not raising a princess. I’m doing my best to raise someone tough enough for this world with tough love. Now for the tough love part.
The funeral service for Howard Mohr, 83, of Cottonwood will take place at 3 p.m. on Friday, October 7, 2022, at Christ Lutheran Church in Cottonwood.
Marlys Christenson, 72, of Cottonwood passed away on Monday, October 3, 2022, at her residence. Funeral arrangements are pending with the Wing-Bain Funeral Home.