To make coffee in our kitchen on one foot and using a walker, you need to shuttle things to intermediary spots along the way. Between the sink and the coffee maker is a table and a cupboard. You shift the pot with water from one to the other to the other while hopping on your lone leg. You need ...
We often get asked how do I use your service? Where do you operate? Who can use Heartland Express? I am going to try to answer these questions plus many more. First of all we are fare free until Jan. 1 2021, and possibly longer depending on the wishes of the county board. The reason we are ...
What is your favorite Christmas song?
I’ve spent a lot of my time on Earth alone. Farming has meant many hours alone on a tractor or working in the yard. A part-time job in the summer has me walking fields, just me, the crops, and the fenceline. Going back, my older siblings were leaving home when I showed up. Close brother Dean ...
What did you do on Thanksgiving?
I was talking to Dale, a former farm kid. I was telling him how harvest was going. Dale tolerated me a while, and then said, “You corn and bean farmers. You’ve got about as much to do as me mowing my lawn. You get your machinery out a few times a year like I get my lawn mower out.” My ...
New Ulm Public Schools has over 2,500 staff and students spread out in four buildings every day, 7- 8 hours per day. Based on the numbers involved, we have been extremely fortunate with the lack of COVID transmission in our buildings. The issue we have experienced for the past month is one ...
How are you keeping entertained as pandemic shutdowns increase?
The Welcoming Communities Project of New Ulm, Sleepy Eye, and Springfield is continuing to meet via ZOOM. In our last article for The Journal, we discussed the definition of racism, types of racism, and how our understanding of racism affects community relationships and interactions. Now ...
For the most part, the 2020 General Election is history! Hats off to the voters in Brown County who came out overwhelmingly to vote on November 3rd either by absentee/mail or voting in person at the polls. We are pleased to say that 92.47% of the registered voters in Brown County cast a ...
What do you think of the COVID-19 restrictions?
I’ve spent a lot of days on a tractor. Most are forgotten. Those are ones where the biggest concerns were picking a radio station and trying not to eat my 3 o’clock snack at 1 o’clock. Days I remember are ones when I got stuck or broke down. Saturday was different. I was trying to ...
How are you taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather?
We have an old cat in our house. Our children have come and gone and come and gone. But Taffy the cat has been here most of two decades. Daughter Abby was always befriending farm cats and bringing them in the house for extended visits when she was young. Kittens born in a closet were a high ...
Welcoming students and staff back to New Ulm Middle School this fall was unlike any previous school year. After many months away from the school building, students and staff were anxious to return to school where they could reconnect with one another and resume teaching and learning in the ...
How will you spend Thanksgiving? (Question asked Saturday at Sportsman’s Park, Sleepy Eye)
Why it is important to locate property lines? Before performing any construction on your property, including building a fence, deck, gazebo, shed, garage or an addition to your house, it is necessary to establish where your lot lines are located. This provides evidence the building inspector ...
Next week at this time, the 2020 General Election Day will be over and it is anticipated that some key races will not yet be decided. All Minnesota election officials will be working diligently to ensure that all votes are counted. Because of the high volume of absentee ballots to be processed ...
What are you going as for Halloween? (Asked at the Courtland “Trunk or Treat” event Saturday)
I went to visit an old friend the other day. It was the beginning of the end. We go back as far as I can remember. You might think I’m getting to be a sentimental old cuss, but I’ve been a sentimental cuss my whole life. This one literally “hits home” with me. There are dozens of ...