Maple Sugaring Day
A horse drawn wagon, flannel shirts, floppy eared caps, smiling faces, the smell of fresh pancakes, and sweet maple syrup.Vermont?Nope. Fort Stevenson State Park a few miles south of Garrison. Standing under one of the park’s most reliable box elder trees, Park Manager Chad Trautman, was talking to park visitors.“I know. We’re crazy,” said Trautman. […]
Part II: North Dakota, more diverse than you think…
When looking at farm and ranch statistics from the USDA Census of Agriculture, a person could take all day picking apart the various numbers, crops, livestock and even ag processing. There are farms themselves, which in 2017 totaled 26,374 that included 39.3 million acres. The average size of a North Dakota farm was 1,492 acres […]
PCS & Personal Property Prep
A major stressor during a PCS is what to do and how to schedule the moving of your personal property. Personal property resources are available at https://www.militaryonesource.mil under the “Moving & PCS” section. Online tools include the Defense Personal Property Program (DPS), https://dps.move.mil/, where you can upload your orders, ship household goods, manage unaccompanied baggage, […]
A View From Our Side: Right On Time!
It was Easter Monday, April 10th. It was a really nice day…we were in Bismarck in the afternoon, and it was 60 degrees. On the drive back we were commenting on how there were open fields loaded with geese. A week ago, this wasn’t true. We seemed to miss the majority of the April snowstorm, […]
Slice of Life: The Silence of the Owl
Sometimes a person needs to listen to the silence. Our world is filled with sounds of all sorts, so much so that most of us don’t even realize it. There’s cheering and chatter, the closing of car doors, noise of traffic, televisions, ring tones of cell phones — even our own footsteps. It seems there’s […]
Upside Down Under: North Dakota, more diverse than you think…
It seems that every time we see information about North Dakota agriculture, it’s about the 11 crops that the Ag Department maintains as No. 1 in the nation. In one sense it paints a good picture for us, but in another it’s deceiving because anyone who farms or knows someone who farms, knows North Dakota […]
She’s Not From Around Here: The Best Part of Spring
At this point in the year, it would be easy to bemoan the seemingly endless chilly days. I could fill this week’s column with witty comments about how I’m getting tired of hearing about flurries in the forecast. Or maybe I could come up with a cheeky way to reminisce about the Easter blizzard we […]
A View From Our Side: Looking For That First Robin
Here it is, the first week in April, and this weekend is Easter Sunday. Looking out my back window, there is very little bare grass, and if the weather forecast is correct, we will have had yet another spring snowstorm, or even stronger than that, they are saying blizzard! Not talking a trip to the […]
Upside Down Under: There’s value in vacant buildings…
Last week’s article was about a unique recycling of wood from grain elevators. This week it’s closer to home, maybe even in your own back yard. There are vacant buildings in all 53 counties in North Dakota. Just drive around sometime and see it for yourself. Some of those buildings are in such bad shape, […]
Slice of Life: Some Things Fishy
I can’t remember the first time I went fishing, or the first fish I caught. I’m thinking I was about six years old or so and do know that I’ve been an avid fisherman to this day. Every fisherman has a few tales to tell. Many have much better recollection than I. Mostly I have […]