Penance Playlist 2025 Mother Maybelle Carter. Nanci Griffith (everything she ever wrote and sang and recorded and performed). Sara Watkins. Lucinda Williams. Brandi Carlisle. Gillian Welch. Phoebe Snow. Carly Simon. Tanya Savory. Joni Mitchell. Patty Loveless. Katie Lee. Celeste Krenz. Lucy Kaplansky. Sarah Jarosz. Janis Ian. Tanya Tucker. Billie Holiday. Loretta Lynn. Tish Hinojosa. Iris DeMent. Shawn Colvin. Dolly Parton. …
Although the Grandma for whom I’m named was Norwegian, I love to make these Swedish meatballs. Swedish Meatballs Meatballs: Two large leeks (the white portion, grated) 2 teaspoons of butter (I use good butter, preferably Irish butter) ⅔ cup of milk 4 to 5 slices of bread, crusts removed (I use a grain bread when I have it on hand.) …
On Saurday, I went to a Bismarck grocery store to buy leeks. Nice man from India working in the produce section had not heard of leeks, so I described leeks, and he found leeks under the loose carrots. He asked me how I cook leeks and said he will try that. We both smiled. I found some Greek yogurt. Paid …
“Words are like shards of glass. By themselves they’re worthless, however, when placed together in just the right way, they can become great works of art.” ― Leigh M. Lane
“The Moon Comes Walking On with Me,” by Colonel Paul Southworth Bliss,December 21, 1931. Original woodcuts by Harold J. Matthews. From an inscribed copy of “The Arch of Spring.” And some Christmas memories of my own. While I watch the neighborhood kids sledding today in the sunshine, I was taken back to a thousand memories of sledding and skiing and …
The Journey of the Magi by T.S. Eliot A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.’ And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory, Lying down in the melting snow. There were times we regretted The …
My December 2024 Letter to the Editors of North Dakota newspapers Yes, the president can designate a national monument with the stroke of a pen, using the Antiquities Act. Thank you, Theodore Roosevelt, for creating that act. Famously, TR arrived on a train and lived and ranched in the North Dakota Badlands. (Later his wife, Edith, and his sister would …
Enter the North Dakota Librarian by Gary Gildner Paris Review Spring 2002 whose eyes are a fair, spiky green I only see on my hands and knees at spring’s initial offerings, how can she help me? I say I seek the bloom clarity achieves fending off confusion’s weedy waylays upon rich indirection, I hope I won’t be much trouble. Her lips forming …
“Winter Rainbow,” by Paul Southworth Bliss, from his book of poetry Cirrus From the West published in 1935. Out of the oakland, Out of the pineland, Near the time of sunset, I came to the un-treed plains. On the frost-struck air There lay two segments Of a mighty wheel, Sunk to the sun-hub In the glistening prairie. The inner ring …
On this date 44 years ago, I cast my first vote for president of the United States. I had eagerly awaited this date, having listened to discussions about civic duties within my own family and extended families, having read newspapers and Life magazines and more while growing up — I was an “early reader” — having listened to my elders …
After about sixty years of being curious about “Buffalo Alice North Dakota” (thanks L. Ray Wheeler), we wandered into Buffalo, North Dakota and then onto Old Highway Ten. Home with a load of new books to read and autumn chores to complete before snowfall. For further reading see Towns Named Buffalo.
I use either Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s recipe as a start but sometimes use my Marcella Hazan’s “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking” recipes from my hardcover copy purchased in 1999. The SECRET is good ingredients, fresh whenever possible, and patience. One must taste a little as one goes along. My SECRET ingredient is cloves (in an amount depending upon one using the patience …
TR Birthday Shenanigans: I Wander the Northern Badlands Solo
The autumn migration is on here in North Dakota. I also have migrated my writing hobby to another platform as I streamline my life.
During the heat of the Thursday afternoon, I unearthered my late Mother’s needles and embroidery thread and got creative.
Some people read. Some people talk about reading. Some people write books. Some people edit books. Some people buy books they never get around to reading. Some people talk about hair. Some people don’t care about hair. Some people get their hair cut now and then. Some people clean. Some people don’t. Some people empty the garbage. Some people recyle. …
I have written many essays about the Little Missouri River area, including The Crooked Little Missouri River and Its Headwaters. Today I have in mind current sources of information on this sweet river such as gage height and weather forecast. Marmarth https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/06335500 Medora https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/06336000/ Watford City https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/06337000 Also interesting and useful links from NOAA for forecasts & more Marmarth https://water.noaa.gov/gauges/mthn8 Medora https://water.noaa.gov/gauges/mdan8 …
Today I am reminded that I was raised by women who did not have the right to vote!
“… the certainty of countless miles of empty country and open sky and wind and night on every side of me. It’s the happiest feeling I ever have. And when I am most enjoying the loveliest things the world is full of, it’s then I am most homesick for just that emptiness and that untainted air.” — Willa Cather
Lillian and I have cut back on our Christmas mailing this year, so we’re using our blogs to send out our 2023 short Christmas letter. Dear Friends and Family, 2023 was a travel year for us. Including last December, when we were away from home the entire month, the states and provinces we’ve been to: Hawaii (2 new national parks). …
The vibe, the music, the food and the company was mighty fine. Home to harvest.
“Campaigning with Crook,” by Capt. Charles King, (excerpts), Harper and Brothers, 1890 “At 2 p.m. we bivouac again, and begin to growl at this will-o’-wisp business. The night, for August (1876), is bitter cold. Ice forms on the shallow pools … and the thermometer was zero at daybreak. “The grandest country in the world for Indian and buffalo now … …
I “Lean West,” as my friend Clay says. Although I’ve lived all over the world, including Asia, Slope County, North Dakota, is my home ground. West Fork Deep Creek Township. My family always leaned west. I am most content where there is short-grass prairie. In my bones, I know the flora and fauna of the short-grass prairie. Very small remnants …
Spent a lot of years in a classroom or office, sometimes with no window. Have attempted to spend as much of the Summer Solstice outdoors. Here’s to more trips around the sun!
Red-headed Woodpecker (nesting) in a dead cottonwood at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Unit group site. Bull snake spotted slithering down the tree, no doubt having made an attempt to eat eggs or fledglings. House Wren. Bobolink. Common Yellowthroat. Field Sparrow. Sprague’s Pipit. Prairie Falcon. Rock Wren. Spotted Towhee. Lazuli Bunting. Yellow-breasted Chat. Red-eyed Vireo. American Robin. Grasshopper Sparrow. …
Lark Buntings and Meadowlark everywhere. Scarcely a vehicle. Power River. Power River bridge
Snow. Snow since October or November. Blizzards. Drifts. Shoveling. Blowing. Ice dams. Water in my house. Snow melting now. Snow melting in Slope County. Snow melting in Stark County. Snow melting in Billings County. Snow melting in Burleigh County and Morton County. Snow melting on my husband’s garlic and strawberry and raspberry beds. Ice on our driveway. Rivulets. Walkers in …
Although I can no longer untangle when I decided to learn more about Ruth and Clell Goebel Gannon, I credit my friend, Ken Rogers of Mandan, N.D., for piquing my interest to the point at which I started collecting their books and admiring their prose and poetry. Ken and the inimitable Kevin Carvell of Mott, N.D., who quite possibly has …
“Some of the old shepherds or men in the villages carve ornate sheep or sheepdog heads … to decorate their crooks, thought the best of these are never used for work but are simply for show. I will wave my crook to get the tup’s attention in the sale ring, and tickle it gently under its nose to get it …
Again my Mother comes to me in a dream: My hair is long, down to my waist long. I wake up and my hair is long, but not down to my waist, which it has never been, which is silly. Hers as a young girl was. When I was a little girl, mine was thin and my older sister’s hair …
It took me almost 60 years to return to Hawaii, but I finally can say I have. Home from a 31-day trip to Hawaii, California, New Mexico and Arizona, we’ve spent the better part of two days unpacking and catching up on mail. After four states, 10 flights, four rental cars and a whole bunch of hotel rooms, I don’t …
On Tuesday, we visited Hubbell Trading Post in northern Arizona, an exceptional National Park Service historic site. They keep a demonstration herd of sheep and I had a quiet moment with them after the Navajo park ranger talked about Mother Earth and Father Sky. Last night I had a visitation in a dream from my mother, who in her childhood …
“The Badlands Call” By Clell Gannon Land of a thousand voices Beckoning unto me, Land of the zigzag valleys Shadowed in history. Land of a thousand coulees, Pastures without the bars, Land of a weird beauty Under a million stars. WildDakotaWoman will be on hiatus until sometime in 2023.
“The other morning, when the scorching sun had shot the mercury up to the hundred mark, we got to reminiscing with one of Minot’s real old-timers, and gleaned some interesting old-time stories that we will now pass on to our readers. We got to talking about ‘pigs’. Thirty or 40 years ago, Minot had a lot of pigs, but many …
When I was a kid in Slope County, North Dakota, the rattlesnakes on our place were abundant. The snakes slithered their way from the den on the rocky hills surrounding our place to Deep Creek, back and forth, on a route that frequently took them through our yard. My late mother could kill rattlesnakes with the best of them. Mother …
I don’t even need a map. Just point me west. It wasn’t until the next day, after I was home again, that I realized that — serendipitously — my retreat had taken place on President Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday. What I knew was that I needed to go. Go. Go. Go. Away to the Badlands. So I went. To the northern …
The following from “Prairie Mosaic: An Ethnic Atlas of Rural North Dakota,” William C. Sherman, 2nd edition: “A number of Jewish individuals, at least fifteen, filed on homestead lands about ten miles north of Flasher between 1902 and 1906. Assisted by a Jewish ‘back to the land’ organization, these early settlers located in DeVault Township in Morton County. … Within …
(Posted with the permission of my sister-in-law, Jill, a mostly Norwegian North Dakotan.) No recipe. Hutterite chicken first and foremost. Cook for hours to create chicken stock. Remove chicken. Add chopped celery, onion and carrots. I then add cubes of raw potatoes … then cream. Lots of it. After the potatoes have cooked. Mix knoephla noodle recipe as follows: 6 …
