Grand Forks photographer Michael Bogert has braved the recent spate of cold weather to capture these wildlife and landscape in rural Grand Forks County.
For as long as the Art Shanty Projects have been around, a few years now, I’ve vowed to go — yet have never made it — until Sunday. Of course, 16-degree temperatures were no deterrent. After all, the sun was shinning. Plus, I have a warm hooded coat, terrific fur-lined boots and toasty leather gloves. Armed with my sharp metal-pointed German …
The University of North Dakota men’s hockey team gained a weekend split with Colorado College with a 5-1 National Collegiate Hockey Conference win Saturday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. The Tigers won 4-2 Friday night. The win put UND in a tie for third place in the NCHC with Western Michigan University and snapped a six-game winless streak. The Fighting …
I’ve been hearing northern Cardinals but had not seen one close up until Saturday. They don’t migrate — one of the handful of species that live in Minnesota all year. I photographed this female (above) under one of our feeders in Bloomington. We’ll soon be hearing more of them. Both the males and females sing in earnest in March and …
This might be the shortest blog post I’ve ever written. Or will ever write. But it’s an important one, so if you are concerned about the possibility of an oil refinery being built next to Theodore Roosevelt National Park as I am, please take just one minute to read it. I had a chance encounter with Gov. Doug Burgum this …
Despite spectacular goals by defensemen Christian Wolanin and Colton Poolman, the University of North Dakota men’s hockey team dropped a 4-2 National Collegiate Hockey Conference decision to Colorado College on Friday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. The win for the Tigers (12-11-4 overall, 6-8-3 NCHC) left them just one point behind the Fighting Hawks (12-9-8 overall, 6-7-4 NCHC) in the …
Many of the healthiest diets that are being touted these days include fish. And there is good reason. Several kinds of fish and seafood contain omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential to human health. But why are they essential? According to the Harvard School of Public Health and the Mayo Clinic, among others, omega-3 fats are special because they have been shown …
I’m about to break two rules. Never argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel. Never get in a pissing match with a skunk. This one’s a two’fer because it’s the skunk that buys ink by the barrel. The skunk is The Bismarck Tribune, which has just pulled off the slickest “bait-and-switch” gambit I’ve seen in a long, long …
The University of North Dakota women’s basketball team upended Big Sky Conference leader Weber State University 80-67 on Thursday night in Betty Engelstad Sioux Center, giving coach Travis Brewster his 100th career win. The Fighting Hawks (11-12 overall, 4-8 BSC) were led by Jill Morton, who had a career-best 25 points. Lex Klabo also scored 20 points and had nine rebounds, …
I think Lady Liberty would be crying right now if she were human. Given the events of recent days, echoing the worst days from our history, I cannot fathom what it would be like to be an immigrant, a nonwhite person or a dreamer. The executive and legislative branches of government right now are treating humans like cattle in their …
Places I’d like to visit again? Monet’s Garden. Claude Monet, one of the giants of Impressionism, is among Dorette’s and my favorite artists. We’ve seldom missed an opportunity to see his work. We’ve also twice visited his estate near Meudon, France, a short train trip from Paris. Traveling with us last year was Avery Dusterhoft, Dorette’s granddaughter, who brought along …
Are you reading this on Thursday, Feb. 8? Then you’re perched at the pinnacle of year-round efforts to persuade you to step up with support for North Dakota charities’ good works. For 24 magical hours, three Fargo-based funders — the Impact, Dakota Medical and Alex Stern Family Foundations — are together matching every donation of $10 or more made to …
Well, the groundhog saw his shadow, so six more months of Mueller. The president might have basked for a while in the glow of his triumphant State of the Union address, of which a whopping 43 percent of Democrats and 109 percent of Republicans approved. Instead, he released The Memo, which instantly changed the tune from Kumbaya at a campfire …
I’m gaga over the Winter Olympics. My family and friends know this. I have been for decades. I like the Summer Olympics, too, but the Winter Olympics, for me, are the pinnacle. Perhaps it is because I live in the north country and have dabbled in many of the sports, downhill and cross-country skiing as well as ice skating and …
Note: I am reprinting (reposting?) below a story I first ran three years ago this week. It’s about tomatoes. I was thinking about it because today I am preparing my basement “greenhouse” for spring. I’m getting ready to plant peppers, which need to be started indoors really early because they take a long time to ripen on the bush. We …
One thing about the Super Bowl is that if you’re not disappointed by the outcome of the game, you can be disappointed by the halftime show. This year it was Justin Timberlake’s turn to disappoint. Part of the problem is that we’ve set the bar for the game’s show unreasonably high. Also, everybody is a critic, myself included. To begin, …
T. S. Elliot wrote that April is the cruelest month, but I’d argue that. It comes in the winter. Winter is more than a metaphor for the twilight of a life, the final whirl of child’s windup toy as the coiled spring inside releases the last of its energy and it freezes in suspended animation, a monument to a life …
I just read on The Forum’s website that Gov. Doug Burgum is taking free tickets to the Super Bowl. “Burgum and first lady, Kathryn Helgaas Burgum, will be attending the game at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis as guests of Xcel Energy, which leases a suite at the venue, Burgum spokesman Mike Nowatzki said.” “’So they are not paying for …
Today was a red-letter today in North Dakota history, specifically N.D. conservation history. This morning, at the Bismarck Public Library, the film “Keeping All the Pieces” was released by the Badlands Conservation Alliance and the North Dakota Wildlife Federation. Presented by Jan Swenson, BCA executive director, and Mike McEnroe, of the North Dakota Wildlife Federation, this 15-minute film dramatically captures …
Lent is just around the corner, so that means meatless meals for some people. In a lot of cases, that means fish or seafood. Here’s a tasty dish that fits the bill from True North Seafood (truenorthseafood.com), which for six generations has been fishing the waters of the Bay of Fundy, located between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. …
With all of the news relating to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, some terms have been loosely thrown around. A number of talking heads have been referring to the investigation of the Russian matter as “treason.” That is not correct. Treason is defined as “the practice of spying or using spies, typically by governments to obtain political and military information.” …
The last major threat to the visual integrity of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, at least that I can recall — though there have been many skirmishes with the oil industry — was in 1989, when the Western Area Power Administration came really close to putting a huge transmission line along the east boundary of the South Unit of the Park. …
I don’t like to brag, but I’m not a white supremacist. I’m a pale pinkish beige, touch of gray, slight kale-green hue supremacist. Gray geese, they call the two of us in the press, although, honestly, they don’t pay any attention. Effing chromos, otherwise. Me, or I, except after c, and the other bloke in the mookie genus, Roy, are …
“The Prairie Post Office: Enlarging the Common Life in Rural North Dakota.” K. Amy Phillips and Steven R. Bolduc, history by Kevin Carvell. North Dakota State University Press, 2017, 102 pages, color photographs, maps and other illustrations. Box 172, Rhame, N.D. That was my childhood address in Slope County. Our school bus driver was also our rural mail carrier, driving …
In retrospect, this picture captured what was one of the most important days of my life: June 6, 1965. Gasp! That’s more than half a century ago. I’m not certain who snapped the shutter, although I think it was my sister, Susan Vorland Hanson. It was graduation day at the University of North Dakota. I’m with my parents Kermit and …
Last summer, I wrote an article about a North Dakota Bad Lands rancher who built himself a big bridge across the Little Missouri State Scenic River on federal land without getting permission. I wrote then, last July, “The folks at the BLM office don’t seem to know anything about the bridge or the road or the water pits, but they …
The University of North Dakota track team racked up more than 20 personal records at this past weekend’s UND Indoor. Among those was pole vaulter Kyley Foster, who broke her school record vault with a clear of 13 feet, 1.50 inches, and Josh Pillath, who broke the school record in the heptathlon with a score of 4,778 points. The Fighting Hawks will enjoy …
They call them “gawker slowdowns.” Delays caused by curious spectators unable to resist checking out a major accident. While we may shake our heads and feel bad for the victims, there’s often a bit of relief, maybe even some sadistic satisfaction it wasn’t us involved in that car wreck. I grew up in the Twin Cities, earned my degree from …
Christian Wolanin scored for the University of North Dakota and Kohen Olischefski tallied for Denver University as the Fighting Hawks and the Pioneers skated to a 1-1 overtime tie in National Collegiate Hockey Conference play Saturday night in Ralph Engelstad University. Denver (14-6-6 overall, 8-4-4-3 NCHC) picked up the extra point as Ian Mitchell scored on 3-on-3 hockey after a …
Visitors to this blog may recall that I like to scam scammers. You know, the ones who steal a Facebook friend’s identity and use FB messaging to try to get you to send them some of your hard-earned money. I like to fight back in my own little way by writing back. Wasting as much of their time as possible. …
The official comment period has passed on that sleazy company Meridian Energy’s request for an Air Pollution Permit for an oil refinery beside Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I’m guessing the State Health Department got an earful. Friday, on the last day of comments, my friend,Sarah Vogel, our former state agriculture commissioner and one of the state’s best attorneys, sent me …
Does it seem that we’ve been fighting floods forever? Pretty close. Residents along the Red River have been wrangling Mother Nature every 10 or 15 years since settlement began. Inevitably, Mother seems to have the upper hand. In between flood emergencies, we generally turn on each other. Fargo-Moorhead and its neighbors have been sharing vastly divergent opinions of the F-M …
The University of North Dakota men’s hockey team skated to a 3-3 overtime tie with No. 4-ranked Denver University in a National Collegiate Hockey Conference game Friday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. The Fighting Hawks (12-8-7 overall, 6-6-3-2 NCHC) led 2-0 after the first period on goals by Cole Smith and Shane Gersich, but the Pioneers (14-6-5 overall, 8-4-3 NCHC) …
My daughter and I had a Theodore Roosevelt National Park getaway Thursday. She hadn’t been out there since Labor Day, and she described the day as “rejuvenating.” She loves the Bad Lands as much as I, and she is particularly in love with the wild horses that inhabit the South Unit of TRNP. She is a photographer and a member …
It’s been a couple of interesting weeks when it comes to what women can and can’t do in North Dakota. In Wahpeton, there’s a communitywide debate about the Oasis Bar’s request to permit lap dancing. Meanwhile, at Chick-fil-A in Fargo, a woman was kicked out for breastfeeding her baby. Let’s start there. This is a place that makes a living …
Lexi Klabo scored 26 points and added seven rebounds to lead the University of North Dakota women’s basketball team to a 81-79 Big Sky Conferene win over Eastern Washington University on Thursday evening in Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Fallyn Freije added 15 points, while Melissa Dailey and Jill Morton chipped in 10 points each for the Fighting Hawks (10-9 overall, 3-5 BSC). Delaney Hodgins …
I wonder how many people are aware of the unseen heroics among our fellow neighbors. The extreme cold, accompanied by recent blizzard-like conditions often blocking visibility, placed too many of our fellow humans in unnecessary situations. City, county and state police officers are on duty 24/7, 365 days a year. When unsafe driving conditions develop but drivers throw caution to …
Thank goodness for winter, a time here at Red Oak House for us to catch up on reading. About a year ago, I bought myself the book “The Wonder of Birds: What They Tell Us About Ourselves, the World, and a Better Future,” by Jim Robbins (Spiegel & Grau, c2017). I tucked it away, waiting for an opportune time to …
Meryl Streep just picked up another Academy Award nomination this week, her 89th. Something like that. This time it’s for her role as Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham in The Post. Tom Hanks, who plays the Post’s editor, Ben Bradlee, was snubbed, as they say. The story revolves around the newspaper’s publication of the Pentagon papers, classified documents detailing U.S. …
Steve died five years ago today. I decided to take some time this morning to reflect and pray. So I headed out to what I thought was a dog park, with the hopes that there wouldn’t be many people there on a dreary crisp morning. As luck would have it, the place that Google told me was a dog park …
Although this is a time of fallow in the yard, there is beauty everywhere, for those who pause to look. The hoary white bits coat everything and the air is still. It makes me think of this poem, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Here are the first and last few lines. “Frost at Midnight” The Frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped …
The University of North Dakota blew a 2-0 first-period lead and gave up five straight goals over the next two periods to drop a 5-2 National Collegiate Hockey Conference decision to the University of Minnesota-Duluth on Saturday night in AmsOil Arena in Duluth. Shane Gersich and Austin Poganski scored in the opening period for the Fighting Hawks (12-8-6 overall, 6-6-2-2 …
The University of Minnesota-Duluth continued its recent mastery over the University of North Dakota with a 5-3 National Collegiate Hockey Conference win Friday night in AmsOil Arena in Duluth. The Bulldogs (12-9-3 overall, 6-7 NCHC), who have beaten the Fighting Hawks seven straight games, received goals from five different players — Joey Anderson, Peter Krieger, Parker Mackay, Karson Kuhlman and …
Debyn Johnson scored a game-high 25 points and added 12 rebounds and four assists to lead Grand Forks Central boys basketball team to a 56-51 win over cross-town rival Grand Forks Red River on Thursday night in Central High gym. The win snapped an eight-game losing streak for the Knights against the Roughriders. Chris Demuth chipped in 14 points for …