A shot in the arm for Ellendale…

Could Ellendale, North Dakota become the next Silicon Valley?There’s a new and interesting development happening there that could completely transform the entire community and all of Dickey County. A Dallas company called Applied Digital is in the process of building a data center just south of Ellendale, near the South Dakota state line that is […]

“Spritz”ing Into Christmas-Easy To Make Holiday Favorites

I first want to start my column by admitting that “I am not a baker”. And to be truthful, I am not a very good assistant to my wife, Sue, when it comes to Christmas baking. I think she humors me and lets me think I am an important cog in the process of baking […]

Where do you put the lefse?

On Thanksgiving morning, I woke up with a burning question on my mind: Where does a lefse go in a Hotdish Land holiday buffet line?A couple months ago I made cookie salad for my first time, and documented the experience on Instagram. Nearly 100k views and hundreds comments and messages later, I had gotten many […]

Fargo’s population boom…

We all know that Fargo is the state’s largest city and has been most likely throughout the state’s history. But now, we’re beginning to see that Fargo is larger than we think. The most recent population estimate puts the city of Fargo at 133,000. When the 2020 census was taken, the population was round about […]

Holiday Traditions are Important

Let’s Start With Winter SportsThis past week I was able to touch base with the 3 ski areas in North Dakota, and although the cold weather has tested our resilience a bit, it has allowed all 3 areas, Huff Hills south of Bismarck, Bottineau Winter Park near Lake Metigoshe and Frost Fire near Cavalier, ND, […]

I have a lot to be thankful for again this year

Laughter, a positive attitude, and always looking for the opportunity…these words have helped guide my time as a public servant. It’s not that I want to “piggy back” on the term coined by Gov. Doug Burgum, but this is a time for gratitude. However…I will use “I am Thankful.” I AM THANKFUL for the residents […]

North Dakota’s film industry…

You probably know by now there’s a new movie coming out in late January called Trapped, that was filmed in North Dakota. It’s about sex trafficking and happened to be filmed in Linton. There have been several news reports about this movie and the director was recently interviewed on TV, but the segment didn’t specify […]

It’s More Than One Day

I had a journalism teacher in college who tasked us with writing an article about Thanksgiving. “As journalism students, I expect more from you than just something cliché like we have so much to be thankful for, blah…blah…blah.”The task at hand seemed fairly simple and somewhat well defined. However, it was not as easy as […]

Snowball Cookies: A sweet tradition to mark the start of winter

Many things change over the course of a year. But some things seem to withstand the pace of the world, politics, and everything else. One of the steadfast hallmarks of life in Hotdish Land is wondering when the first snow will come, making guesses about when it will happen, and bracing for it—knowing that the […]

What To Write About On A Blustery Tuesday Afternoon

Looking out the window I am sure that we all had the same view on Tuesday afternoon. We had been given fair warning, and sure enough the wind, snow and colder temperatures arrived almost on que. The National Weather service had waffled in the amount of snow we were going to receive, but when they […]