If you have an appetite for news, you know what’s on the menu this month: Nothing burgers. They’re sizzling hot this summer. Cooked up in the realm of casual excuses, the nothing burger has been on the lips of Republican apologists ever since journalists began salivating over tantalizing whiffs of the meatiest political scandal since Richard “I Am Not a …
Trails have been much on my mind this year, and I’ll be writing more about trails in upcoming blogs. This past weekend, I drove to the Black Hills to visit a friend who lives near Hill City, S.D., roughly following the Bismarck to Deadwood Stage Trail, although in my case in a Toyota. I had most of the day to …
A weekend boat ride and a hike opens up a world of life to Grand Forks photographer Michael Bogert.
On a peaceful, moonlit, October night in 1999, Bob the Remarkable Cat coiled around a gravely ill feral kitten. Bob was in little better shape. His long tail was a mysterious stub and a gash decorated his left side. Threads of gangrene had begun weaving through him. A dust of stars scattered when dawn broke on the outskirts of Detroit …
When I spotted that the Bismarck Tribune was looking for someone to review “Pioneer Girl Perspectives: Exploring Laura Ingalls Wilder” (Nancy Tystad Loupal, editor, South Dakota State Historical Press, 2017), I immediately contacted the editor. Our home library has an entire shelf of books by and about Wilder, the famous prairie writer, and I’ve read them all, more than once. I still …
Peak daylily time rewards me with new blooms each day. Here are today’s (Friday’s). Jim did a big-time bean harvest today (Friday) and has frozen a bunch for our winter enjoyment. We are triumphant over winning the battle with the rascally rabbits this year! Pesto/shrimp pizza with our broccoli and tomatoes for supper. And how about this glorious cloudburst? A horrific …
For the past 50 years or so, there have been just five places where you can drive your car across a bridge over the Little Missouri State Scenic River: in Marmarth on U.S. Highway 12, on Pacific Avenue in the city of Medora, on Interstate 94 just north of Medora (two bridges, one going each way), on U.S. Highway 85 south of …
Earlier this week, when Jim and I were in Medora, we made time to go to the Chateau de Mores Visitor Center, to see the new exhibit featuring the Civilian Conservation Corps. The Chateau de Mores is one of the premiere sites of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, and if you’ve not been there, I attest that it …
Gavin Petit Daylily opened this morning (Thursday) and it is, indeed, a showstopper. Out loud I say, “Wow!” each time I first see it. Others are reaching their peak bloom, too. Worthy of sharing. On a pass through the vegetable garden, a bonus was the discovery of the first shelling peas. I added the peas to the cold pasta salad waiting …
Of all the sleazy companies to show up in North Dakota’s oil patch in the nearly 10 years since the Bakken Boom began, the sleaziest of them all has to be Meridian Energy, the company proposing to build an oil refinery called the Davis Refinery just three miles from Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Here’s why I say that. Normally, when a …
One of the things about travel is that you really have to learn to “go with the flow,” and for me, some of those parts are easier than others. For example, a snafu with weather, a travel delay or an unexpected glitch in my plans usually doesn’t get under my skin. Being late for flights, however, not so much. Unfortunately, …
“I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” — Henry David Thoreau Today’s Writer’s Almanac pays homage to HDT. I love when Garrison Keillor’s voice comes out of my …
Smoked foods such as fish and meat make great appetizers. And when you do the smoking yourself, they seem even better. Recently, I smoked some salmon that was given to me by my brother-in-law, Dean Lutz, in my Masterbuilt electric smoker, which I purchased at Cabela’s about eight years ago. Over the years, I’ve smoked venison, pheasant, grouse and ducks as …
Dorette took this picture of me in St. Paul recently as we dined outdoors at Herbie’s on the Park. I decided to quaff a Hamm’s beer as I did long ago, including when I wasn’t old enough to do so legally. It’s been decades since I tasted the Hamm’s brand, established in 1865 in St. Paul and now owned by …
I’ve talked about my adventures with dogs, horses and spiders, but I forgot about one multilegged creature that provided a special moment of embarrassment. Years ago (too many to count), the Supreme Court honored me with an appointment to attend a judicial conference in Montreal, as a newly elected municipal judge. Although my father was a judge, I knew little …
Gentle reader, I’ve been writing about the past, but today, it is time to return to my garden notes as the daylilies are exploding in all their glory. Between my sister and I, we have 219 varieties of daylily. They are fairly easy to grow and hardy in our northern climate. I was first exposed to daylilies by my friend …
Poor little river of my heart, my Little Missouri River. In this year of drought, you are sadly diminished. Monday night’s storm was mostly lightning and thunder and just a trace of rain. This morning dawned another scorching day. Prairie fires continue in western North Dakota. The bison and horses and birds continue their wild lives here at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. …
“How did you find me?” hollers Orville, and grumbles, “You skinny, long-haired, libturd. You just can’t leave me in peace, can you?” Stanley looks around. “This was the only bar in town with a yacht in the parking lot, with plates that said BIG ORV on them. Stealthy. This joint is much nicer than your last haunt. I see they’ve …
Residents of the prairie for generations have lived in dread of prairie fires, and this is a year when we are all on tenderhooks. The news that there is a serious fire now in the Bad Lands, although not a surprise, is very disturbing. (Now more than 3500 acres.) I remember the dry summer and fall of 1976 and a …
When the Red River Valley Fair rolls around each year about this time in West Fargo, N.D., a rare moment of nostalgia sometimes comes over me. Sometimes. Allow me to paraphrase Marilyn Hagerty each (and every) Christmas Eve. Excuse me, please. But I must go back. If only for five minutes and only in my thoughts, I have to go back. When I think …
This hot July weather has me thinking about making hay on our Slope County ranch. This year’s drought has us all worried, and it is especially worrying for those rural folks who rely upon their hay crop to feed livestock. Haying, like so many of the farm/ranch chores, was a full-on family effort for us, with someone running the equipment …
I took this picture (below) a week ago today during a brief visit to my hometown of Harvey, N.D. Since I graduated 56 years ago (gasp!), this former high school has been converted into a junior high and a new structure built elsewhere in town for the “upper grades.” I’ve long realized the education I received as a Harvey Hornet was superior, …
Usually during Fourth of July week, there isn’t a lack of outdoor things to do in Grand Forks. Here are a couple of events — the Christopher Paul Stelling concert at the outside garden at North Dakota Museum of Art and the annual downtown fireworks display — that caught the eye of Grand Fork photographer Michael Bogert.
After a pleasant morning drinking coffee and reading the paper on the patio, it was time for some work around here. I weeded the asparagus, cut basil and mowed the lawn, while Jim peeled garlic for my later project, homemade pesto. He even had me shoot video of his method of peeling garlic. You can see it here. I use …
The Grand Fork Royals took two games from the Fargo Post 400 Trappers in North Dakota Class AA American Legion play Friday night at Kraft Field in Grand Forks. The Royals won the first game 5-0 and the second 7-3. The first game was the completion of a game started June 13 in Fargo that was halted in the second inning …
When we purchased Red Oak House, we were thrilled to have so many mature trees, however, we recognized how these should shape what we would do with our landscaping, especially in the smaller front yard. I’m no fan of mowing grass, and it grew in a rather insipid fashion under the shade of the red oak. Hence, I purchased these …
Leave it to a bunch of kids. Twenty-one of them from around the United States filed a “constitutional climate lawsuit” against the U.S. government in 2015. At the time, they ranged in age from 9 to 20. For the most part they were, and still are, people with next-to-zero voice in our formal political system. Even so, they’re out in …
A drought sky (above) here in North Dakota. Everyone who has half a brain is worried about the drought. July has turned hot, hot, hot. After a pleasant interlude at Crooked Lake with family for the July Fourth holiday, where we talked with our brother-in-law about how sparse few hay bales he’s been able to make this year, we returned …
There was a day when an afternoon of window-shopping sounded like fun. But the attraction of retail therapy has dimmed for me across the years — and what killed it dead was actually shopping for windows. Back when I marched with the “shop ’til you drop” brigade, prowling through stores to select choice wares was deemed to be a pleasure. …
You’re never too old to learn! I’m no history buff, but it came as a surprise to learn the significance of July 2, while we Americans celebrate the Fourth of July as a national holiday. Here’s either what I never knew, or had forgotten: During the American Revolution, the legal separation of the 13 colonies from Great Britain in 1776 actually occurred …
It’s said you can’t go home again. That was even the title of a book by Thomas Wolfe, and others — Proust and Hemingway among them — came to the same conclusion. I accept the premise logically, but not emotionally. So this past Sunday, I again found myself driving 442 miles from my current residence in Bloomington, Minn., to Harvey, …
This is for the history buffs out there. On our way back from our trip east of Billings, Mont., is this site where William Clark from the Lewis and Clark expedition carved his name into the stone on the bluff that has come to be know as Pompey’s Pillar National Monument. I have always wanted to see this, as I have read …
Island Lake, located in Mahnomen County near Lengby, Minn., is a popular destination for many in northwest Minnesota. The lake offers trophy-class walleye fishing, and and panfish are also plentiful. Island Lake also boasts diverse outdoor recreational opportunitiess such as miles of snowmobiling, four-wheeler and walking trails through the woods. Grand Forks photographer Russ Hons had the opportunity to visit Island Lake recently, and here …
I was out in western Montana helping my mother get her wee Thoreavian cabin ready for the summer. We had a couple of sweet days together. She is 85 years old, still strong and autonomous, but just beginning to exhibit signs of elderliness. It bothers me to see her in even modest decline. I’m sure it bothers her much more. …
We had the most delightful guests this week for supper. My mother, Marian Crook, and her sister, my godmother, Junette Henke, came for the afternoon. Fresh walleye was on the menu. While Jim pounded away on his keyboard in his office, we three women sat at my dining room table with stacks of papers and maps and books and went …
Grand Forks photographer Dave Bruner and his wife, Sheila, recently returned from a trip to the western United States, Wyoming in particular. Among the sights Dave and Sheila experienced was Grand Teton National Park in the northwest of the state of Wyoming. The park encompasses the Teton Mountain range, the 4,000-meter Grand Teton peak and the valley known as Jackson Hole. …
The latest issue of the New Yorker, dated July 3, includes one of the best essays about Ernest Hemingway I have ever read: “A New Man: Ernest Hemingway — revised and revisited,” written by Adam Gopnik. It is in part of a review of the new biography, Mary V. Dearborn’s 735-page “Ernest Hemingway.” That one is on my book shelf …
Many people take the breathtaking beauty of the Bad Lands for granted, going on with their lives and assuming it will always be as it has been for thousands of years. Well, gentle reader, it ain’t so! Stalwarts have been diligently working for decades to protect the remaining wild landscapes so future generations can enjoy the grandeur. The effort culminating …
In a major victory for conservationists, and for the North Dakota Bad Lands they work hard to protect, U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland of Bismarck ruled this week that the state of North Dakota and four western North Dakota counties have no right to go in and build roads in areas of the Little Missouri National Grasslands that have been inventoried …
Spring flowers have given way to the summer blossoms in our garden. We eat fresh greens every day and give away radishes. The garlic crop is pathetic, and it makes me sad to look at it as, the new bed Jim prepared last fall was too rich. Our purple-hulled pea crop is also a disappointment, as I fear we were …
The word “humanity” is often tossed around, but I wonder if the term is understood. Definitions abound. Here’s how Merriam-Webster explains it: A) the quality or state of being human; B) the quality or state of being kind to other people or to animals. Another word that also seems to be understood is “sanctions.” Again, the dictionary’s definition: A) a …
I was born certain I knew how to drive. All I really needed to do, I figured, was wait for my legs to grow long enough so I could reach the footfeet. I mean the gas pedal, children. “Footfeet” was what our parents called it, back when learning to drive was almost as basic a part of early childhood as …
I was married 25 years ago today. And I’m not sure how to think about it. My marriage ended 11 years ago, and Steve died seven years later. I was holding his hand as he took his last breath, providing a lasting legacy of grace for our children, a reminder of the power of love and the transformative nature of forgiveness. …
WARNING: In this article, I’m going to rip some North Dakota politicians a new one. This isn’t personal, and it isn’t partisan. They’ve got it coming because of malfeasance in office. I’m not going to pull any punches. They deserve it. I know I’ve been pretty critical of some of our state’s leaders lately. Sorry. But we’ve got some really …