Sometimes it’s just too much. Mass shootings. Hurricanes. Nazis. Nukes. Juvenile name-calling by bullies in D.C. Eroding civil rights. Immigrant-bashing. Wildfires in wine country. And then Tom Petty dies, and the petunias freeze. It takes a strong stomach to keep up with the news these days. For the past — oh, 11 and a half months or so — I’ve been …
Brock Long, Trump’s FEMA administrator, wins first place as the most cold-blooded person this week. While emergency supplies have still not been distributed to the citizens of Puerto Rico, and while the people plead for food and clean water; die for lack of medical care because of lack of energy; and basically suffer through the aftermath of the hurricane — …
When I don’t know what else to do, I like to take walks. Or write. Yesterday, I did both. The walk had to come first, because I find it helps me think a bit more before attempting to just pound out random thoughts. That’s always a good thing. And the cool, cloudy conditions were definitely a factor in my brisker-than-normal …
Grand Forks Red River defeated crosstown rival Grand Forks Central 25-16, 25-10, 25-18 in girls high school volleyball Tuesday night on the Knights’ home court. The Roughriders were led by Maggie Steffen, who had 15 kills. Korri Gust, Bailey Jaeger and Jaylin Perrault had four kills each to lead the Knights. Red River upped its record to 6-9 in Eastern …
“A mosaic is a conversation between what is broken.” — “Finding Beauty in a Broken World,” a book by Terry Tempest Williams In what has been described by many as a “soul-crushing week” in the United States, I’m trying my damnest to focus on the blessings and gifts in my life. One of the finest gifts of friendship in my …
A late goal in the second half by Myah Merino gave the University of Idaho a 2-1 win over the University of North Dakota in Big Sky Conference women’s soccer Sunday afternoon at Bronson Field. Merino’s goal broke the tie after UND freshmen Mimi Eiden scored her second goal of the season just eight minutes earlier. Taylor Brust scored the other …
“That luminous part of you that exists beyond personality — your soul, if you will — is as bright and shining as any that has ever been. … Clear away everything that keeps you separate from this secret luminous place. Believe it exists, come to know it better, nurture it, share its fruits tirelessly.” — George Saunders My next door neighbor’s ash …
Twenty-seven years ago this past week (Oct. 3, 1990) is a date I won’t soon forget. It was the “reunification” of Germany. East met West or rather East reunified with the West. For the world, it was a huge celebration — The Wall Fell — it was a strike for freedom, it meant democracy for millions and yes, even the hope of …
One more time around for pheasants and Paul Southworth Bliss, in honor of Saturday’s 2017 Pheasant Season Opener. This will be my 59th pheasant season. Actually more because before I was 12 in 1959, when my dad bought me my first shotgun, I had tagged along since I was able to keep up with him in the field, probably starting …
Bloomington, Minn., photographer Dave Vorland recently returned home from a trip to California. Here are some of the view he and his traveling companions saw while in the Golden State.
Frost is in the forecast for Red Oak House. It was inevitable and is an integral part of the life cycle. On this chilly and breezy Tuesday morning, Jim and I harvested the last of the vegetables — that is everything but the Brussels sprouts, which are left out until they produce. We’ll see. Together we dug the parsnips, the leeks and …
Our blowhard-in-chief has outdone himself in his cold-blooded, uncaring and false statements relating to Puerto Rico. If you remember World War II, then you remember Gen. George Patton and his tank corps rambling across Europe to show the Nazis the power of right. You’ll also probably remember the Army Corps of Engineers who paved the way for his tanks and …
I want to tell you a story today about a really remarkable woman, a true North Dakotan, a real character and my favorite relative: my Aunt Deloris. Deloris Boehmer is my last living aunt. She’s the only remaining member of my parents’ generation in our family. She’s 88, and lives in Edmore, N.D., about 40 miles northeast of Devils Lake. …
On Saturday, I began a nine-week meditation on nonviolence. Monday morning, the anniversary of the birth of Gandhi, a leader who taught the world so much about nonviolence but died by an assassin’s bullet, I awoke to the horrible news of the carnage in Las Vegas. Although my grandparents saw great hardship in their long lives, I feel certain that …
Like millions of others, I’ve now watched all 10 episodes of the moving Ken Burns/Lynn Novick documentary, “The Vietnam War” on PBS. My thoughts are filled with the stories and images in this film and with my personal Vietnam War memories. After we’ve watched each compelling episode, my husband and I talked about his Vietnam War memories. He served in the …
Rob Port is hot, and not just because his defroster is stuck on high in the minivan, and certainly not due to any physical activity. The Forum Communications golden boy is moving on up to the east side of Minot, to the land of Oley, Roscoe and the stockyards. Or so I’ve heard. No one knows why. He’s a great …
Ludvig Hoff scored two goals and Grant Mishmash, Jordan Kawaguchi, Johnny Simonson and Christian Wolanin scored one goal each as the University of North Dakota men’s hockey team defeated the University of Manitoba 6-2 in an exhibition game Saturday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. Calvin Spencer and Remi Laurencelle scored goals for the Bison. UND goalie Cam Johnson stopped 10 of 12 …
Jim took a break Saturday from fishing and hunting in order to work on his garlic bed. He also cultivated an area in the vegetable garden for me. Now that we have a chicken-wire fence around the vegetable garden, I can plant tulips and the rascally rabbits won’t gnaw them down to nubs. I planted 80 bulbs — yellow and …
I am no longer tongue-tied. People who know me well most likely are stunned to hear I was ever tongue-tied. After all, my nickname as a child was “talk talk.” However, I have, until this week, been tongue-tied my entire life. I just didn’t find out I was until I was in my late 40s. I have a congenital, hereditary …
Senior Faith Dooley blocked 10 shots and added nine kills without an error and Sydney Griffin chipped in with her seventh double-double of the season (26 assists, 10 digs) as the University of North Dakota women’s volleyball team won its 19th match out of 21 with a sweep of Eastern Washington University on Saturday afternoon in Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. The …
Deciding that my knees are sufficiently recovered to again ride my bicycle, I hit the trail Friday. That is the trail along one of the most beautiful rivers in the world, the Missouri. It was a gorgeous autumn day, 63 degrees, with a zephyr breeze and blue sky. I loaded my bike into my car and headed for Steamboat Park. …
Autumn beauty continues to emerge in my yard, including peak hydrangea color, hinting at the frost that is nigh. Jim complains that he has about 500 green tomatoes still on the vine, and the folding table is back in the dining room in preparation for bringing those in for ripening, ending the cycle that began with the seedlings in that …
Apparently area senators have never heard of Dwight D. Eisenhower. He warned about an out-of-control military complex … and Sens. Heidi Heitkamp and John Hoeven of North Dakota and Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota just voted for that. The budget the Senate approved is a $700 billion defense policy bill. It’s only $37 billion more than the president …
Hey folks, it’s been awhile, and I sense my readers slacking off. Have you been paying attention to current events? The news has been particularly newsy as of late. Actually, I was holding off writing this since there were rumblings about the apocalypse happening Saturday. Bummer. Now, I have to write a column, and I suppose, pay my bills. OK, …
Cabbage is a pretty popular vegetable among gardeners. It’s also one that knows no ethnic boundaries. For example, Germans and Koreans love fermented cabbage. In Germany, it’s called sauerkraut. In Korea, it’s kimchi. The Irish have a favorite dish, colcannon, which traditional dish of mashed potatoes mixed with boiled cabbage or kale and either bacon or ham. And Cabbage rolls are …
First of all, wear a comfortable and supportive pair of shoes. It is the apple time of the year. We have only crab apple trees, and I had it in mind to make applesauce, so I put out a plea on social media begging for surplus apples. Jim and I picked a basketful at our friend Mylo’s house this weekend, …
The University of North Dakota football team suffered its third loss of the season Saturday, dropping a 49-21 Big Sky Conference game to Montana State University before 12,342 fans, the first sellout at the Alerus Center since the 2009 season opener vs. South Dakota. The 17th-ranked Fighting Hawks, who fell behind 21-0 in the first half, closed the gap to 28-13 in the third quarter …
The University of North Dakota women’s soccer team had to battle the elements as well as visiting Weber State University on Sunday afternoon at Bronson Field on its way to a soggy 1-0 Big Sky Conference win. Freshman forward Mimi Eiden scored the game’s only goal in the 48th minute of play to give the Fighting Hawks their first-ever win over …
The typhoons we experienced when we were living on Okinawa in the mid-1960s are much on my mind these days, what with all of the terrible Atlantic hurricanes in the news. I have some vivid childhood memories and my parents and siblings and I have talked about these, reliving those memories for decades. My most vivid memory is of the …
With the arrival of the autumnal equinox, my writing will begin to shift away from the garden returning to the topic of Dakota Trails, among other topics. My two favorite days on the calendar are the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, when the light of the world is equal, in complete harmony between day and night. Although autumn is my favorite …
Yes, advertising works. Ads work if we love them. They work if we hate them. If we ignore them — but still are exposed to them often enough in the background — they’re still working exactly as intended … drilling their way into the back of our minds. Don’t argue with me, please. A good share of my livelihood has been …
As children, most of us learned about Christopher Columbus discovering America, and the celebration continues today. The truth, however, was not shown in our history books when I was a child, and I don’t know if is being taught today. For those of you who were as uninformed as I was, here’s a little historical truth. Columbus Day was invented …
As I sit down to write this, I’m listening to thunder and hoping that regular rain will return to the northern Plains. Today I’m reflecting on the Theodore Roosevelt: the Naturalist in the Arena Symposium that Jim and I attended at nearby at Dickinson (N.D.) State University last week, the 12th annual. We attended the first and several others in the intervening …
This is a cautionary tale. It involves drug abuse on my part, no less. Even though it was inadvertent and one time only. The drug in question here is a popular one, the sedative sold as Ambien. After a surgery my doctor prescribed Ambien to help me sleep. I can attest that for me, it works like a charm. I …
A chilly Sunday morning gradually blossomed into a gorgeous, late summer afternoon. But being a golfer of marginal talent and fully aware that our local football team had an enticing matchup in Pittsburgh, I still wondered if I’d made the right choice. Our annual fraternity scramble was on tap at the University of Minnesota course, and I’d reluctantly agreed to …
Finally, it rained. A two-day soaker Friday and Saturday. We were in the Bad Lands for a four-day trip, an immersion in Theodore Roosevelt, where we attended the 12th annual TR Symposium at Dickinson (N.D.) State University. Jim and I have attended a number of these (including the first), and this year’s topic of TR the Naturalist was irresistible to …
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” We would chant this oath every morning in the first grade in 1962. I was happy to do it, not that I had a choice. Stand up, face the …
The 10th-ranked University of North Dakota football team was hoping to build on last weekend’s Potato Bowl victory against Missouri State, but the University of South Dakota (3-0) had a different idea as the Coyotes overwhelmed the Fighting Hawks 45-7 before almost 10,000 fans Saturday in the DakotaDome. USD quarterback Chris Streveler, who has won back-to-back Missouri Conference Offensive Player of …
Bloomington, Minn., photographer Dave Vorland recently spent some time in Chicago, the Windy City. Dave went to graduate school in Chicago at the Northwestern University in the mid-1960s. Here are some of the sights that caught his eye.
On Wednesday, I commandeered the canner from Jim so that I could make the season’s first batch of marinara at Red Oak House. He grows a variety of tomatoes, including paste type, starting these from seed in the basement in the early spring. As I’ve previously written, he has harvested more than a thousand tomatoes and cans many jars of …
A big wind made landfall last Wednesday in North Dakota, and when I woke up the next morning, North Dakota was great again. A KX News morning show anchor giddily recounted her excitement about President Trump’s visit and how she and her family had gone out to “show our love for the president.” I was a little surprised her objective …
“Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.” — Theodore Roosevelt Gentle reader, if you are looking for the perfect autumn getaway in North Dakota, I suggest the fifth annual Dakota Night Astronomy Festival, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in beautiful Medora, N.D. From the Theodore Roosevelt National Park press release: “People have been marveling at the …
Anyone who believes this country is — and always has been — great had their confidence reinforced by the climate-changing events that have destroyed so many lives and so much property in the past two weeks. It is not the death and destruction that makes us great, of course. It is the way this country responded to provide help and aid wherever …
Something is puzzling me this year in the garden. In the front yard, the impatiens are insipid, but in the backyard perennial beds, these bright shade annuals are robust. What could possibly be the explanation? My first instinct was the hot, dry weather and the lack of rain water, but this would be true both in front and back. Naturally, …