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Rotary essay contest leads to benefits for sixth graders

Last week I had a volunteer opportunity, one that was well suited to my work with the printed word. I helped to judge the local Rotary International essay contest for sixth graders from Marshall Middle School. I’ve judged it several times in the past five years, and each time I’ve been impressed with the writing skills of students. An eight member committee composed of Rotarians and high school seniors judged a total of 24 finalist essays this year. They were all good. Everybody would have gotten at least a B-plus if I’d have had to give letter grades. There would have been ...

Racing through the Dairy Expo

A dairy expo is the type of event where you can walk around all day and never go hungry thanks to all the free cheese and ice cream that are available. It’s a dairy aficionado’s dream. The Central Plains Dairy Expo is an event where one can view all of the latest and greatest advancements in dairy equipment. This includes such things as humongous mixer wagons that are the size of a house but have scales that are so sensitive that they can tell when a butterfly lands on them. Another interesting gizmo was a self-guided thingy that herds manure with a squeegee. It’s a dairy ...

City council decision making

As individuals, when it comes to making an important decision, we often do our own research either through the internet, printed material or we may also ask friends or family for their advice. With regard to a city council decision, sometimes it is hard for an individual to understand how a city council could make a particular decision, that to them should be a completely different decision. When a city council makes a decision, the guiding principle must always be what best serves the public’s interests, not the self-interest of a few. Thus, decisions are a collective decision ...

Lost in the mail: How Postal Service is failing Minnesotans

My mom was born in 1932 and grew up outside Bourbon, Indiana, a tiny town in the northern part of the state. Everyone knew everyone, and everyone read the local paper, the Bourbon News-Mirror, which they fondly nicknamed “The Bourbon Blab.” Throughout her life, no matter where she lived, from Ohio to Alaska, California, and New Mexico, she always made sure she got that local paper in the mail. These weren’t just headlines; they were the stories of her friends, their children and grandchildren, and the issues that connected them all. I believe every Minnesotan should be able to ...

Spring equinox: a time to celebrate light and rebirth

This week we observed one of the most under-rated occasions of the year. We celebrated the spring equinox, one of two points of the year when we have nearly 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness. It’s also the official dividing line between winter and spring. I like the spring equinox. It’s a time when warm, bright days are right around the corner. We can start to think about things like cleaning out the garage and planting a garden. It’s counterpart is the fall equinox that divides summer from fall. The shortest day of the year in December is the winter solstice. The ...

Weather prognostications

Farmers have a large number of sayings that are used to foretell the weather and other unpredictable phenomena such as their spouses. One aphorism that springs to mind is “Early Easter, early spring.” That maxim seems to be holding up this year. Clouds of snow geese were seen honking their way northward over our farm in the last week of February and I spotted my first robin during the first days of March. This can only be bad news for the robins, because another farmer proverb goes, “There has to be three snows on the robin’s back before it can be spring.” We are overdue ...