Columns
By Calla Jarvie, Rock County Library DirectorDecember 30, 2025Happy 2026! The Rock County Community Library wishes you the best year to come. Did any of you make a New Year’s resolution? Mine is to finally reach my Goodreads reading goal. I always start off really strong, dip a little in the spring, rebound in the summer and early fall and then just crash and burn. This year, my goal was to read 75 books. I made it to 70. Close, but no cigar. Whatever…
By Lori Sorenson, editorDecember 23, 2025I enjoy seeing the variety of Christmas trees this time of year as people’s personal tastes and holiday spirit are expressed in their choice of lights and ornaments on the branches. Many are truly beautiful, and I marvel at the creative investment in each of them. My tree is also beautiful, in its own homemade sort of way. When the kids were little, they made ornaments in Sunday school and…
By Rick Peterson, General ManagerDecember 23, 2025It’s not often that my column hits the stands and mailbox the day before Christmas. So, I thought I would take the opportunity to share a few of my Christmas memories from childhood to grandpa-hood. My earliest childhood memories of Christmas date back to the late 1960s and very early 1970s. The Peterson family Christmas schedule was the same year after year. There was the Christmas Eve church…
By Scott Rall, Outdoor ColumnistDecember 23, 2025So how many of you can say that you actually stored all the summer gear that has a battery in it properly? How many of you know the difference between a standard and AGM battery. Can you charge a lithium battery with a standard charger? Lots of good questions here. The answer for many folks is no to all of them. It really did not matter all that much when a boat battery cost about $65. It lasted…
By Scott Rall, Outdoor ColumnistDecember 17, 2025I received a call last week from a property owner whose rural residence is located near a public land parcel. The parcel in this example was a signed Wildlife Management Area (WMA). He had questions about what rules were in place regarding gun discharge within 500 feet of his homestead. He was certain that it was illegal. The facts of the matter are a little different. The Minnesota hunting…
By Brenda Winter, ColumnistDecember 09, 2025It was Christmas 1967, or maybe '68. My four-year-old eyes were wide with wonder as I cradled the new Christmas doll. Locks of beautiful synthetic chestnut hair curled around her angel-like face. Eyelids with long, thick lashes blinked for real when she reclined and sat up again. Awake or asleep, the tiniest hint of a smile remained on her perfectly formed red lips. But, oh, that hair. It…
By Rick Peterson, General ManagerDecember 09, 2025There are only about three weeks left in the 2025 pheasant hunting season, and due to some mobility issues, I haven’t hunted once this season. However, I have hunted vicariously through other hunters’ Facebook posts and watching YouTube videos. By all accounts from the locals, I am missing out on a banner year of available roosters. Jeff Haubrich had a recent Facebook post where he shared what…
By Scott Rall, Outdoors ColumnistDecember 09, 2025As soon as Thanksgiving has come and gone, it is the Christmas shuffle that creeps up on me. I do not wait until the last day or two, but I am never way ahead of time. I get a bad taste in my mouth when I must default to a gift certificate when all else fails or the procrastination overcomes me. I am a “consumable-product-gift” kind of guy. Buying a gift that sits on a shelf or hangs on a wall…
By Calla Jarvie, Rock County Library DirectorDecember 09, 2025Like it or not, the holidays are upon us. Are you a “Christmas tree-goes-up-on-Nov. 1” kind of person? Or are you a “Christmas-tree-goes-up-after-Thanksgiving” kind of person? I’m more of a “What Christmas tree?” kind of person, because I have cats. If you’re the first kind, you’re in luck, because we have all the Christmas books and movies out at the library. We have a very solid…
By Lori Sorenson, editorDecember 03, 2025This week’s Star Herald went to press without the trusty guidance of our proofreader, Esther Frakes, who retired after our Nov. 26 edition. We have smart and capable staff who are assuming Esther’s duties, but we are all nervous about carrying on without her. For 21 years, we’ve enjoyed the assurance of Esther’s eagle eyes on our final drafts before press time. Her job was to catch errors in…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterNovember 25, 2025Over the decades, Thanksgiving has become my favorite holiday. It’s a day where I’ve stayed home, and Bryan and I would prepare a Thanksgiving dinner. We grew to be partners in the kitchen, each of us preparing a portion of the meal. At first, the guest list included only grandparents, but it grew to include our four children and my sister’s family. We’ve served as many as 20 people in our…
By Rick Peterson, general managerNovember 25, 2025Last weekend The Blue Mounds State Park was closed to the public because of the annual youth deer hunt. Ten hunters between the ages of 12 and 15 spent the weekend trying to harvest a deer. Each of the hunters along with an adult mentor, generally a parent or grandparent, spent the time in pre-determined hunting zones. Only the youth hunters were allowed to harvest a deer. This will be the…
By Sgt. Troy Christianson, Minnesota State PatrolNovember 25, 2025Question: Can you explain what the lines on the highways and streets indicate? I feel like a lot of people can’t figure it out. Thanks. Answer: Pavement markings direct and regulate traffic. White lines separate lanes of traffic traveling in the same direction. •White dashes: You can change lanes where this marking is present. •Shorter and thicker white dashes: The lane is ending. •Solid…
By Brenda Winter, columnistNovember 19, 2025On an early November morning three years ago, Mom and I sat in the living room. She was holding a fluffy, blue and white blanket. Her shortness of breath made it clearer that her remaining time on earth was short. I didn't know the blanket’s ownership was in dispute between Mom and my nephew until she said quietly, “Kingston gets the blanket.” Apparently she and her 8-year-old grandson had a…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistNovember 19, 2025The news is always full of car crashes and other accidents. Some are farm- or work-related or others might be as simple as a guy falling off a ladder or crashing to earth from a tree stand. Almost all of these have one thing in common: The name of the person who died or was critically injured is a name I have never even heard of before. That changed on Nov. 8 when Luverne lost a community…
By Scott Rall, Outdoor ColumnistNovember 12, 2025So, what do four guys from California, Washington, D.C., Oregon and Minneapolis have in common with three guys from Toledo, Ohio? They all made it to southwest Minnesota in the past two weeks to go pheasant hunting on public lands. There could not have been a more diverse group of outdoors enthusiasts than this group. Two sold mortuary services, one was a crane operator, one a political lobbyist…
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