Going...going...gone

Good Shepherd Church- Artichoke, MN
I have only lived here three years and the loss of farmsteads, churches, historic mainstreet anchor buildings in our little area is a heartache. I can only imagine what is like if you've lived here your whole life and even have generational memories.

Change. Loss. No rational hope for rebuilding.
Take a look at that picture of the Good Shepherd Church-- about 10 miles out my backdoor. A lovely country church--with a congregation that endured for over 125 years. This month the church was picked up and moved away to a more populated area. Many people are happy that the building will be saved and used-- and not collapse over the years from the lack of people/use that keeps buildings alive. But it leaves another gap in the landscape. A gap where a beautiful and inspiring landmark stood as a testament to what, in my opinion, is a hallmark of our culture. That we can work together to build and sustain a place to nurture the human spirit.

Likewise, we once built monuments to business and industry. Businessmen invested in the permanence of a brick building on mainstreet. You have to believe in the future to build a brick building. I'm sorry to say that we may not even have the skilled labor, the noble stonemasons, who could even build those same buildings today. And so the two buildings that burnt to the ground on mainstreet Ortonville this month represent a loss that will never be replaced. Maybe a pole barn would go up in their place-- but the resources, skill, and belief in the future that it takes to build a landmark are not there.

Once these buildings are gone, they are gone forever.
There is a building in Clinton- a tall, two-story yellow brick building- that lives in my dreams. It lives as a completely restored dry goods, gardening, book store, coffee shop. Upstairs is a sunlit, elegant, comfortable living area -- our winter home so that the kids can go to school through the blizzards that isolate us on the prairie. I buy lottery tickets because they are my only hopes to achieving that dream. This venture is not a money maker, but a labor of love. Love and hope.
But the hope that I'll win the lottery before the building is razed is running low. The front page of Thursday's Northern Star newspaper included the city council's recommendation to raze the building because the bricks are beginning to fall and are a hazard. A race against time- will Kathy get enough money for a roof and a brick repair before the building collapses or is razed?
Last Monday, my program at the U co-hosted a talk with Nicole Foss, of Automatic Earth fame. I spent time with her following the seminar's gloomy description of what faces us in the future (economic, energy, and resource collapse). She whispered to me "You're in the right place. It will come back. It will be the soul and center of what is good, right and whole in the future." Ok- she didn't say that, but she did.
If we can just keep it together until the collapse. Until the pendulum swings back. Hope clings eternal.



Historic buildings lost Oct. 2010 in Ortonville, MN

Loyalty--Thy Name is Sunny

It's been a year now since we found Sunny and her little pup Lucky starving and nearly dead at an abandoned farmstead near our place. Lucky didn't make it through the winter- even with all the love and attention of three doting children and the vet care we could give him. Poor little pup just couldn't recover from whatever journey had brought them to our home.

Sunny responded to Mike with the most fawning, obsessive love I've ever seen in any living creature. Mike was the one who found and rescued them and one cannot underestimate the gratitude of a mother towards those who offer care to their young in need. She shadows every footstep that Mike makes and when he drives the tractor she maddeningly stays as close as possible to the tractor door- looking up at Mike even as he drives up and down long fields. Makes for a worn out dog some days. Yesterday, Sunny braved flying logs as we built up the wood pile for winter. "Move ya dumb dog!" But that might mean not being as close as possible to Mike. Loyalty- thy name is Sunny.

Pheasant season opened at 9 am yesterday- the first hunting season we've had with Sunny. She's everything a good yellow lab could be- ahead flushing out birds, obedient, and eager- so I hear.

She is also a great daily lesson in remembering that really good things sometimes come to us unexpectedly. I would say that Sunny came to us unbidden- but I realize that in our hearts we wanted and were waiting for her. A happy one-year anniversary to celebrate.

The Botany of Desire

What did corn do to merit so much care, attention, and expansion to so many acres of farmland around the world? One could say that corn has us by the short hairs. You, we, I (are) am servants to corn.

What if we are really like the bees- what if plants manipulate us to work for them the way flowers get bees to due their work for them (pollinating)? This is not my idea, but rather Michael Pollen's from his book The Botany of Desire. I remember the first time I heard this idea- then bought and read the book. I was pregnant with one of my four babes and jumped into this theory like a deep pool of crystal clear water. I completely take on new ideas- no barriers, no filters- to see how they fit and feel. If it's not want I want after a bit, I step up out of the water and dry myself off and wait for the next exhilarating feeling of being immersed in another paradigm breaking concept.

So play with me here. What if corn seduced us to put all this care, concern, effort, and time into propagating it around the world? Corn caught us the way a flower "catches" a bee. We are just a tool of corn to keep it going generation after generation.

Think about it. Men gather to advance corn's agenda - local chapters of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association are meeting somewhere tonight. Imagine organizing around a plant, meeting and figuring out how to keep your plant at the top of the heap. Who's the real winner? Well if you are in the corn family, I guess that would be the corn plant.

I've figured out how to grind corn in my flour mill. Corn bread for dinner tonight folks. We'll take that corn right in- no middle man like a corn fed feedlot steer or the ethanol in my tank to go to town for groceries. Grown, ground, consumed- in the quiet privacy of my home--mmmmm.
All hail King Corn.

My Hero

Earnest catches a mouse

I've been composing an entry about "Life Among Animals" which is all heart warming about brown and black cows lying in clover and multicolored chickens chasing bugs across the green grass, but there's the others side- especially this time of year. The mice are looking for a warm winter home and our 100 year old farm house seems to be an easy target.

What luck that Earnest is nonplussed at picking up mice. He earned a solid 5 Battle Bug points for that one. Last night he was emptying out a cupboard (like a dog digging a hole) in search of the stinky dead mouse that we can't find in the kitchen. I know, I know... this is supposed to be a recruitment blog to get people to leave the city and move to rural places- like Big Stone County- so I shouldn't be talking about mouse invasions and the search for their rotting corpses. Truth in advertising.

Next entry: The Flies.

One Can't. Two Won't.

We had a bonfire and backyard campout over the weekend. I found myself missing my Dad- not that we ever camped, but he could build a good fire. He always repeated this line about building a fire:

One can't. Two won't. Three might. Four will.
Dad's point- You need four logs to start a fire. So I was telling the boys the same line- and one of the little fellers yells to Alma, "get over here- we need one more person to start this fire. We need four of us." Guess I could have been a little clearer.

Then the four of us (Mike knew better) and the big yellow lab- crowded into the two-man tent to sleep. Originally, I thought we could pack out into the prairie a ways. But frankly, I was glad we were close to home as the coyotes started yipping and howling to the south and to the east of our yard. I'm not afraid of coyotes- but it is chilling to be outside with my little kids and be the grown-up/protector.

It reminded me of a camping trip I took with Val just a few weeks after we graduated from William Kelly HS in Silver Bay. First we got lost in the North Woods, then she had brought Pudding Pops for food (uhhhh... they melt!), then we FROZE overnight, and the Timber Wolves- serious wolves- were howling all around us. Through the night it sounded like they were circling us. We packed out the next day if I remember right.

The kids and I had a great campout. It was surprisingly comfortable, plenty warm, and dog barely smells of skunk anymore.

More than this?

The Milky Way. Photo Credit: NASA

Local nonprofit, Clean up our River Environment (CURE), auctioned the talents of their board chair, Joe Hauger, to provide a first class astronomy "show" on our farm. Hey Joe- you put yourself up on the auction block next year and we'll bid you back to Big Stone County.

We are blessed with good neighbors and friends and the yard was filled with dozens of kids -- ages 3-13. Sloppy joes, bars, chips, kids, mosquitos, lawn chairs, blankets, and a night sky to enflame any heart.

Stargazing was off to a DRAMATIC start as the space station passed over us at 8:17- still twilight. It looked like a hugely bright star and passed over us in 3 minutes. I simply can't believe I've never seen this before. It was such a startling and huge night sky object.

The next space station siting for Big Stone County is September 30th at 6:41 pm to 6:46pm. Believe me, if you look up, you won't miss it. Click here to find out when the space station can be seen above you.

Then we looked through Joe's high powered telescope for a close up view of craters on the orange moon as it set in the west. Venus set in the West with the moon- how's that for love. And Jupiter rose bright in the east- boom! it was there. We could see the rings through the scope.

Then the stars began coming out by the thousands... Perfectly clear, crisp September night on the northern high plains. Believe you me... there is no light pollution on our little square of the prairie. No other yards lights and nighttime dark as dark as it gets.

The Milky Way emerge in the night sky and the kids asked what that was... it's our galaxy - the one we live in. A wide strip of cloudy looking stars that span across the night sky. The Milky Way seemed to be coming straight out of our silos and across the sky. No wonder it's so easy to feel like the center of the universe (or not).

Lay on a blanket- your child's head in your lap...Good people around you...The brightest stars ever seen in the sky. People for thousands of year have been laying on this prairie looking up at the night sky in awe. We joined their ranks. Even Joe was impressed with the stars in the sky on Saturday night and said as far as a dark night sky, our farm is "as good as it gets." Ain't it though?

Back to Big Stone County

Glacier mountain meadow flower. Photo credit: Alma

We're back from our first family vacation since the boys were born- 6 years ago. It was the best vacation of my life.

Train to Glacier; drive/ferry to Holden Village high in the Cascade Mts in Washington; Seattle for Twin Game, zoo, and Ivers Fish bar; then, Washington's Pacific coast and back home. Two kids lost baby teeth. 4000 miles driven. Kids playing in the Best Western pool until they pile into the hotel room and faint in a pile like tired puppies- smelling of chlorine. Rinse and repeat.

I'm on a haiku kick- so here are a few vacation haikus starting in Holden:

Moutain breezes sing
Full moon setting over peaks
My soul longs for rest

Through the grass I see
My offspring play in the surf
Stomach on warm sand

Little boys like wild
Creatures. Stand close and still to
Hear their beach call/song