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Local Columns

Alcohol and the teen brain

The importance of the brain cannot be overstated. Without it, we would just be lumps of flesh. Damage it, and we malfunction. It determines everything we do, keeps us alive by monitoring and running our body, stores our memories, triggers our emotions, allows us to speak, determines how ...

Go lightly

The wonderful thing about the outdoors — and one that it took me a couple decades to learn — is that it can be taken as seriously or as light-heartedly as one wants to. You can spend 60 days in a treestand, watching the deer, checking trail camera photos, and tracking the movement of that ...

They are calling to you

Have you noticed them calling to you? It is such an enriching time of the year. There's new growth all around us. In the last week, plants are finding the courage to pop above ground. Soon the fields around us will be planted and we'll be surrounded by growing greenness. The trees are ...

Working on the waterworks

The word “plumbing” comes from “plumbum,” the Latin word for lead. That’s a load of hooey. “Plumbum” clearly denotes someone who has a bum crack that is precisely vertical. If you’re the type of person who enjoys perpetual torment, then repairing the plumbing in an old ...

Just another ‘left-wing farmer’ with Trump derangement

Last October, we were into soybean harvest, when I got a call from Fritz Busch. Fritz is a friend and a reporter for The Journal. Every so often he calls to see what’s going on with farmers. Right then, the destruction of our soybean market by the Trump administration was newsy. Fritz came ...

Volunteers help local non-profits fulfill their missions

Volunteers are seldom seen and rarely heard from, but they make an enormous difference for many local non-profit organizations. Any amount of time someone donates is helpful. Just an hour a week doing a simple task might help to create possibilities. It might lead to accomplishments that ...