Lifestyle

A new mural has been installed on the back of the National Independent Health Club Association (NIHCA) building in downtown Granite Falls. The idea came about when the NIHCA staff heard about the EDA’s announcement of the opportunity for businesses to beautify the town with their facade project. “We were excited to contribute to this effort,” says NIHCA Executive Director Holly Johnson.

OF THE WEEK Note from Myrna: This recipe comes from a collection of recipes from World War II. Sugar was rationed, and every family got tokens they needed to use to purchase sugar.

Is it hard for you to believe that the calendar is already showing mid-September? How in the world is this even possible? It seems like the summer flew by, then Labor Day passed and now we have reached the half way point of the month. It’s unbelievable how quickly time passes! With that said, the Montevideo Area Memory Loss Network (MAMLN) has been busy scurrying around putting the final touches on their upcoming Free Fall Movie Event.

Ellen Davis wrote about meeting the expectations of the land, she said, “… agrarians know the land, not as an inert object, but as a fellow creature that can justly expect something from us whose lives depend on it.” Important in more than my Hebrew class was the comparison between the Hebrew word for ground or earth (’adāmâ) and the Hebrew word for man (’ādām). Understanding the land from that part of country is important because as Davis puts it, “Both words are related to ’ādōm, ‘ruddy’; in the Levant, [eastern part of the Mediterranean area] brownish red is the skin tone of both the people and the earth.” In Genesis 2:15, the writer says that man is put into the garden to “till it and keep it.” Davis unpacks this by digging into the Hebrew language again saying the verb used could also mean “working for the garden soil, serving its needs.” This made a huge difference to me when I was reading; it reminded me that we have been created to serve the earth.

With the weather beginning to shift to a more autumn-like feel, and hints of leaves changing color more each day, local area residents may be looking for ways to experience all the season has to offer in the local area. One opportunity to celebrate the season exists just outside Montevideo, a couple of miles off Highway 212. Sam’s Pumpkin patch is owned by 17-year-old Montevideo High School student Sam Ripley and is open this year for its second season. Ripley, knowing that the local area doesn’t have a lot of nearby fall family activities available, started brainstorming ideas for the venture a few years ago. “I have actually had this kind of idea for the last three or four years, but I’ve never really gotten into it before now because I was young enough that I didn’t fully understand everything I needed to do to get started,” Ripley said in an interview last fall. Now in the second year of business, Ripley has learned a lot from last year’s success and has added even more opportunities for a family adventure to the property. New games this year include a gaga ball pit, a life-sized Foosball game, a gravity- wagon basketball game, a life-sized billiards game, disc golf, Spikeball, four square, and a life-sized game of Sorry. Ripley has also added a gem mining feature, with an underground tank that pumps water up through a man-made 22-foot-long river with a circulation pump that allows for kids purchasing mining kits from the gift shop to do their own gemstone mining.

“Glitch art is the punk rock music of art,” said Rob Sheridan, former graphic designer for the band Nine Inch Nails, during his zoom interview at the artists’ reception held at the K.K. Berge building on Friday, September 2nd for an installment named “Glitch Art is Dead”. With a plethora of outdated electronics set up for the exhibit, people were able to interact with some of the pieces of art, while the rest was to look at and take in for interpretation. It was a full house at the reception with artists from all over the world in attendance with their individual pieces contributed to the exhibit, which will be on display through September 10th, 2022.

The Meander Art Crawl returns this year September 30th through October 2nd. The annual event offers a variety of stops at artists studios and artist hosting locations along a route through the Upper Minnesota River Valley from Clinton to Granite Falls. The event is a self-guided tour of artists studios organized through the office of the Upper Minnesota Valley Regional Development Commission.