Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Wild Lands In North Dakota: A Red-letter Day In North Dakota History

Posted on by Lillian Crook ,Leave a Comment on LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Wild Lands In North Dakota: A Red-letter Day In North Dakota History

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 …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Wild Lands In North Dakota: A Red-letter Day In North Dakota History”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — ‘The Prairie Post Office’

Posted on by Lillian Crook ,Leave a Comment on LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — ‘The Prairie Post Office’

“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 …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — ‘The Prairie Post Office’”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Mother-Daughter Date To Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Posted on by Lillian Crook

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 …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Mother-Daughter Date To Theodore Roosevelt National Park”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — The Wonder Of Birds

Posted on by Lillian Crook

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 …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — The Wonder Of Birds”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — The Secret Ministry Of Frost

Posted on by Lillian Crook

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 …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — The Secret Ministry Of Frost”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — A Writing Retreat At Annunciation Monastery

Posted on by Lillian Crook

“Life’s pulse is gained in the hollows, the intervals between events … you must discern these spaces. This requires leisure, the chance to sit and contemplate, and the opportunity to respond to inner urgings. “If you can find a place to retreat, you can make a life where Tao will flood into you. Out in the woods, or in the …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — A Writing Retreat At Annunciation Monastery”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — A State Champion Tree — In Our Yard!

Posted on by Lillian Crook

Hello from Lillian AND Jim. We sat down this week and wrote about one of the coolest things that have happened to us in a long time, and we’re posting it on both our blogs — Wild Dakota Woman and View From The Prairie. We hope you enjoy reading this as much as we enjoyed writing it. On summer evenings …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — A State Champion Tree — In Our Yard!”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Father Sherman’s Magnum Opus: ‘Prairie Mosaic’

Posted on by Lillian Crook

With every turn of a page in “Prairie Mosaic,” the reader will delve into the rich ethnic history of North Dakota. The Rev. William C. Sherman labored for many years to reveal an astonishing level of detail, down to the township level, and to tell the story of the state’s inhabitants. “Prairie Mosaic: An Ethnic Atlas of Rural North Dakota,” …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Father Sherman’s Magnum Opus: ‘Prairie Mosaic’”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Jackie Morris And Robert Macfarlane

Posted on by Lillian Crook

I have two new British friends, thanks to the magic of books (and Twitter). One is the writer, Robert Macfarlane, and the other is the artist Jackie Morris. My friend, Ken, and I have a mutual appreciation of all of Macfarlane’s books. Macfarlane’s Twitter account is a delight as is his Word of the Day, from which I learn something daily, …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Jackie Morris And Robert Macfarlane”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Prairie Storyteller Extraordinaire

Posted on by Lillian Crook

Come away with me a few moments to the enchanting world of the late Paul Goble, artist and storyteller extraordinaire, my favorite children’s book author of all-time (admittedly there are many I love). Like most college students, I had courses that I preferred above all others. Mine, taught by some exceptional professors, included Myths & Legends, Shakespeare, and, the best, …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Prairie Storyteller Extraordinaire”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Owl Moon

Posted on by Lillian Crook

Last night, I was still awake at midnight and upon hearing the noise of fireworks, put down my book and looked out the windows. The luminous full moon on the white, almost blue, landscape brought to mind one of my favorite children’s books “Owl Moon,” by Jane Yolen. It is a wondrous story of a father taking his little girl out in …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Owl Moon”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Red Oak House Christmas Bird Count

Posted on by Lillian Crook

Fifteen below at noon New Year’s Eve 2017 with record lows in the night convinced me that this was a year to participate in the area Christmas bird count by making observations at the Red Oak House feeders. These are my tools for the day. The hyperborean dawn revealed that the kitchen window suet feeder had fallen to the ground. Red …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Red Oak House Christmas Bird Count”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Winter Interlude

Posted on by Lillian Crook

We went away over Christmas for a winter interlude with my sisters and their families and my mother, gathering in a large house in the woods of the Black Hills of South Dakota. Driving west across the Memorial Bridge, we could see chunks of ice in the Missouri River. We traversed familiar west Dakota roads, in the midst of the …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Winter Interlude”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — My Pal, Rick Watson

Posted on by Lillian Crook

He arrived in Rhame, N.D., when I was a senior in high school, this new, young pastor at First Lutheran Church, fresh out of Wartburg Seminary. Rick Watson and I got acquainted pretty quickly because I was the church organist and pianist, and I sang in the choir. Little did I know that this talented and brilliant young man from …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — My Pal, Rick Watson”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Fort Keogh Trail

Posted on by Lillian Crook

Another important historic trail in North Dakota that has been on my mind this past year is the Fort Keogh Trail. This trail passed nearby to where I grew up in Slope County. As shown on the map above, it ran from Fort Abraham Lincoln (near present-day Mandan, N.D.) to Fort Keogh, west of Miles City, Mont. Completed during the …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Fort Keogh Trail”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Krumkake Day

Posted on by Lillian Crook

Today, after a couple of weeks of Jim’s plea, “When are we going to?” we set aside the time to make krumkake, a Norwegian holiday tradition. I use my half-Norwegian mother’s tried and true recipe with a large amount of butter, sugar and eggs. My KitchenAid stand mixer makes this part so easy! I will never part with it. We …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Krumkake Day”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — ‘The Hour of Land’

Posted on by Lillian Crook

“The Hour of Land: a Personal Topography of America’s National Parks,” Terry Tempest Williams (Sarah Crichton Book, 2016). The National Park Service observed its centennial in 2016. During this year, writer Terry Tempest Williams published “The Hour of Land,” her personal journey and meditation on the national parks, essays written as she traveled the country visiting some of the iconic sites …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — ‘The Hour of Land’”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Yellowstone Trail Redux

Posted on by Lillian Crook

A few miles west of the ranch where I grew up, in Deep Creek Township in the vastness of North Dakota’s Slope County, stands an ornately fashioned wrought iron signpost. This is the signpost. According to Merle Clark of Marmarth, Slope County’s unofficial county historian, it was made by a blacksmith from Rhame, N.D. My mother says her earliest memory …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Yellowstone Trail Redux”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Early Dakota Trails

Posted on by Lillian Crook

When I am not out exploring trails in my car or with my feet, I do quite a bit of thinking about trails, particularly the old trails of Dakota Territory. As one can see from the graphic above, in the main, the earliest trails followed the rivers. Last winter, I spent quite a bit of time off the trail, looking …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Early Dakota Trails”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — ‘The New Wild West’ — A Book Review

Posted on by Lillian Crook

“The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown,” by Blaire Briody (St. Martin’s Press, 2017). Readers of the Bismarck Tribune will recognize several of the principal characters in this book in which Blaire Briody tells the story of the Bakken Oil boom in western North Dakota. Briody intersperses the stories of many individuals, including …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — ‘The New Wild West’ — A Book Review”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Christmastime At Red Oak House

Posted on by Lillian Crook

Much as I am saddened to see the autumn season come to an end, it makes my husband, Jim, delighted when I spend about 12 hours decorating Red Oak House for Christmas. He is just a big kid at heart. I’m stubborn about not taking down the autumn decorations until Thanksgiving has passed, even though I began seeing Christmas decor …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Christmastime At Red Oak House”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Slope County Lessons

Posted on by Lillian Crook

I am a daughter of Slope County, one of the many grandchildren of Andy and Lillian Silbernagel. Slope County is one of the least populated counties in the United States. I was named after Lillian Hovick, my maternal grandmother. I can see my daughter Rachel’s nose in her nose. My last memory of her is when she and I went picking …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Slope County Lessons”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — ‘Beyond the Bedroom Wall’

Posted on by Lillian Crook

The year I was a sophomore in college, one of my mentors, my Lutheran pastor, was reading a novel. He told me I should read it, and so I did. I remember exactly where we were and what the car in which we were riding looked like. I paid attention, as I greatly respected this man. The book was “Beyond …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — ‘Beyond the Bedroom Wall’”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Can She Bake A Cherry Pie?

Posted on by Lillian Crook

Jim requested that I bake a cherry pie. We found a jar of Door County Cherry Pie Filling at Seed Savers in Iowa and brought it home. I tucked it away for this special occasion. While pumpkin pie is traditional Thanksgiving fare, I set my mind to making the cherry pie for the holiday feast. I mixed up my pie …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Can She Bake A Cherry Pie?”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — The Elkhorn Ranch: A Love Letter

Posted on by Lillian Crook

In the last days of 2016, Jim and I sent a handwritten letter to President Barack Obama, a heartfelt plea to him to act in his last days to protect the Elkhorn Ranch. We were inspired to do this after a Christmas winter campout to that area. Here is a two-part series Jim wrote about that campout: Camping at the Elkhorn …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — The Elkhorn Ranch: A Love Letter”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Laura Ingalls Wilder Quest

Posted on by Lillian Crook

Friends and family know that I’m a fervent fan of the writings of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I’ve written about this before on my blog, including in this book review. There was a time in my life when I read her books over and over, but I eventually moved on to devouring the books about her, of which I have a …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Laura Ingalls Wilder Quest”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — As Kingfishers Catch Fire

Posted on by Lillian Crook

Some weeks ago, my dear friend, Ken, loaned me a gem of a book, one he had enjoyed and he knew that I would like it too, entitled “As Kingfishers Catch Fire: Books & Birds,” by Alex Preston and Neil Gower, an exploration of birds in literature. I started it very soon after that day, but then the library alerted me …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — As Kingfishers Catch Fire”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Willa Cather’s Red Cloud

Posted on by Lillian Crook

Although it is now more than 30 years ago, I remember very clearly the day when I was a graduate student at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University and Dr. Michael Rothacker gave his students the assignment of reading a novel of our choosing and writing a report on said novel. My friend, Pamela Jean, and I went right over to …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Willa Cather’s Red Cloud”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — An Enchanting Exhibit At BAGA

Posted on by Lillian Crook

Jim and I took in the most enchanting exhibit at the Bismarck Art Galleries Association this afternoon, one of the treasures of our city. The exhibit is “Northern Plains Native Americans: A Modern Wet Plate Perspective” by Shane Balkowitsch. I was particularly taken with many of the subject’s Native American names. Although there were dozens that deeply moved us, my …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — An Enchanting Exhibit At BAGA”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Taliesin, After The Anticipation Of Decades

Posted on by Lillian Crook

How do I write about a place I’ve waited four decades to see, with great anticipation? Only to say architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Wisconsin home, Taliesin (near the town of Spring Green), was worth the wait, and I find myself ttruly inspired anew. All of my life, I’ve been an admirer of Wright’s work. Long ago when I cataloged Stoxen …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Taliesin, After The Anticipation Of Decades”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Three-Skillet Supper

Posted on by Lillian Crook

It was a three-skillet supper day at Red Oak House on Monday. Walleye fresh from the Missouri River, fried red potatoes from our garden and creamed corn we put up in August. Just like my Mama Crook did, I cooked up this “mess of fish,” dredging the filets in self-rising cornmeal (mixed with salt and pepper) and frying these in …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Three-Skillet Supper”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Settling In For The Winter

Posted on by Lillian Crook

We are settling in here at Red Oak House for the winter, tweaking our list of indoor projects and savoring meals of turkey, pork roast and ham. Outside my kitchen office window, the chickadees and woodpeckers on busy on the suet feeder. Specifically, ours in North Dakota are black-capped chickadees, parus atricapillus. Parus is Latin for “titmouse” and atricapillus for “black-capped, formed …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Settling In For The Winter”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — My Father, My Hero

Posted on by Lillian Crook

The communities of Bowman County, North Dakota, hold a gathering at the Bowman High School every year celebrating Veterans Day. This year, they chose to honor my father, Garland Crook, who is now 93. We traveled there Thursday. Sadly, he was not feeling strong enough to attend. He would have seen many of his buddies there. In fact, one even …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — My Father, My Hero”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — An Indian Cooking Lesson

Posted on by Lillian Crook

I received a unique blessing Saturday morning: an Indian cooking lesson from Sister Mary Michael, one of the Carmelite nuns who serve our Spirit of Life Roman Catholic Church parish in Mandan, N.D. She is a cooking whirlwind and chopped the onions in a blaze. She does it all from years of experience, with nothing written down, and uses the …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — An Indian Cooking Lesson”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Red Oak House Winter Notes No. 1: And So It Begins

Posted on by Lillian Crook

When we opened the blinds last Friday morning, it was to a world of whiteness. The snow shovels are staged, and all that was left to do was rummage in the garage storage box for the windshield scraper and the runner rug for the slate front patio (which gets very slippery in the cold weather). I even dug out the …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Red Oak House Winter Notes No. 1: And So It Begins”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Red Oak House Garden Notes No. 33

Posted on by Lillian Crook

These past two days back home at Red Oak House found us back to fall chores, and Jim catching walleye on the Missouri River, supper tonight. Wednesday night, with the gorgeous tiger’s-eye beans we’d brought home from Seed Savers Exchange and grass-fed beef from the Striefels, I cooked up a huge pot of chili, making enough so that Jim and …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Red Oak House Garden Notes No. 33”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Two English Majors Take A (Mostly) Blue Highways Trip East

Posted on by Lillian Crook

Lizzie was sad Monday a week past. She saw those suitcases, and she became clingy, not sure whether she was going with us or not. For her, this time it was the kennel, as Chelsea is gone for schooling and thus her best pal not available for dog-sitting. Thus, it was that we two English majors made a road trip east, …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Two English Majors Take A (Mostly) Blue Highways Trip East”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Autumn Aspen On BCA Annual Meeting Day

Posted on by Lillian Crook

It has truly been a lovely autumn here in Bismarck. On Sunday, our small aspen grove rewarded us with golden glory. Three of the aspen trees were a gift from dear Sheila Schafer, as a tribute to Jim’s late mother. Sheila came over to watch Cashman Nursery plant the trees. She loved to see trees planted and frequently gave these …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Autumn Aspen On BCA Annual Meeting Day”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Thousands Of Tomatoes

Posted on by Lillian Crook

Well, on Thursday I said it to Jim. That statement that comes around every year: “I don’t want to see another tomato again for quite awhile.” By this point, we’ve converted thousands of tomatoes (Jim says over 1,700, plus my sister gave us some of hers) into salsa, juice, marinara — and Thursday, I canned 14 quarts of tomato basil …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Thousands Of Tomatoes”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Lucinda Rocks My World

Posted on by Lillian Crook

My close friends and husband know that the musician Lucinda Williams rocks my world. Has since I first listened to her decades ago. I have all of her recordings, and I’m currently listening to “Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone” in my car. She is the daughter of the late poet Miller Williams and a fierce songwriter. I’ve been …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Lucinda Rocks My World”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Red Oak House Garden Notes No. 32

Posted on by Lillian Crook

Tuesday morning, I worked in the cool autumn sunshine on yard chores, getting things done before the snow flies. First, I tackled the pile of limbs we had accumulated over the summer in our trailer, breaking and sawing up the branches to add to our kindling pile. Lizzie the springer spaniel happily nosed around in the fallen leaves and disappeared …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Red Oak House Garden Notes No. 32”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Long X Bridge: Hold Public Meetings In Central North Dakota

Posted on by Lillian Crook

Jim and I maintain a lifelong love affair with the Little Missouri River. It is one of the things that most deeply bond us together. We know every mile of this river intimately. What follows is my letter of last week to North Dakota Department of Transportation regarding the Long X Bridge project. The bridge is near to the North …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Long X Bridge: Hold Public Meetings In Central North Dakota”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — October Trails

Posted on by Lillian Crook

“But your solitude will be your home and haven even in the midst of very strange conditions, and from there you will discover all your paths.” — Ranier Maria Rilke My path this past week took me to North Dakota’s Roughrider Country. Our first stop was a meeting of the Little Missouri River Commission in Dickinson, where we bore witness …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — October Trails”
Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — ‘Finding Beauty In A Broken World’

Posted on by Lillian Crook

“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 …

Continue reading “LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — ‘Finding Beauty In A Broken World’”