Why is it that everything ends up happening on the same day or days?  I have a possible wedding, a retirement party for a great friend, and a decoy show all happening on the same weekend.  I want to be at all three events, but we all know you can’t be two places or even three places at the same time. In the end, it is the first commitment I made that is going to win this tug of war.
Twenty-four years ago, a very small group of decoy carvers started the National Fish Decoy Association. I attended for my first time last year, and it is being held April 14-16 in Perham, Minnesota, for 2023.
The National Fish Decoy Association is not necessarily a title that would make thousands of people flock to Perham on this weekend, but if folks knew what was to be seen and experienced there, it would change a lot of minds.
Most of the activity centers around hand-carved decoys used to lure northern pike into your spear hole so you can use the ago-old method of hand-throwing a spear, with the intention of hitting the fish right behind the head.
I started spearing pike and whitefish about 10 years ago because of a friend, Kirk Schnitker, who took me the first time. He was and still is an amazing decoy carver although he does not do it as often as he did in years past.
I use the decoys that he has given me over the years with good success. Not every decoy made works as intended. Kirk’s decoys all swim great.
What does a great working decoy swim like? They hang from a stick, called a jigging stick from a string. An upward pull on the jigging stick brings the decoy up in the water column and then it gently swims in a big circle until it eventually comes to rest again.
These decoys are carved normally from wood, but others cast them from epoxy reigns. They are painted by hand into about 300,000 different patterns.
Some are painted to look like an actual fish a northern pike would want to eat for a meal, and others are painted to be bright and flashy. All are designed to bring a pike in for a closer look.
It is when the fish comes in to check out this foreign object in their underwater world that the spear fisherman or woman gets a chance to throw the spear.
The decoys are weighted to float level in the water and swim naturally. Less experienced carvers make decoys that look great but don’t actually swim in a manner that looks natural. If the decoy is “off,” a pike will know something odd is in the works and will not come into the hole for a closer look.
Spear holes are cut in the ice and are about 4 feet long and 3 feet wide. When in a dark house, a structure with all the outside light blocked out, you can see every underwater creature that swims by. This can be pike, panfish, frogs, turtles, crayfish and many others.
This assumes the water is clear enough to see. Not many lakes in southwest Minnesota are clear enough to accomplish this, so most of the spearing done in our state is done on clearer water lakes further north.
The decoy show highlights the craftsmanship of the hundreds of carvers that come from all over the United States to compete at this show. There are 26 different classes you can compete in, and all have different judging criteria. I have served as a decoy judge in 13 of those classes and will be doing so again this year.
Decoy carvers and their submissions represent some of the greatest craftsmanship I have ever seen. The cool part of this age-old tradition is how the old-timer experts help out the newer carvers in order for them to produce better and better entries.
This show also offers you the opportunity to see and experience the spearing traditions dating back many generations. I am sure spearing fish dates back to the time when man was still trying to kill wooly mammoths.
The website for this show is www.nfdadecoys.org  There are a few videos you can watch to get a feel for this event.
I don’t care if you give a hoot about fish decoys, if you appreciate seeing the results of great craftsmen and women in an area of art you can see no place else, this show would be a day or two well spent. So when the tax deadline comes around this year, you can find an entertaining way to take your mind off of that by attending the National Fish Decoy Association show in Perham. If you take me up on this outdoor advice, I might just see you there.
 
 
Scott Rall, Worthington, is a habitat conservationist, avid hunting and fishing enthusiast and is president of Nobles County Pheasants Forever. He can be reached at scottarall@gmail.com. or on Twitter @habitat champion.
 

The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group that began in the January 7, 1943, issue of the Rock County Star Herald. Members of this group consist of persons of age 75 and older.
The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on July 15, 1943.
This article is continued from last week’s edition of the Star Herald about Mrs. S.D. Reynolds of Hardwick.
 
Hauled Supplies
Mrs. Reynolds also had the experience as serving as a “freighter” for her father. In order to keep the store in supplies, her brother and herself operated a transportation system on a shuttle system. Her brother would bring a load from Sioux Falls to Pumpkin Center, and she would meet him there with an empty wagon. They’d spend the night there, and the following morning, Mrs. Reynolds would start for Salem with the full load, while her brother would return to Sioux Falls with the empty wagon. Both used oxen to pull the wagons.
Not only did Mrs. Reynolds do that type of work but she helped with the farming. Her father obtained a team of mules, but even then, the mules would be used to draw one plow or drag, and she or her brother would follow behind with another plow pulled by oxen.
For entertainment, the young people went to dances. On many occasions, she recalls, she and two brothers would get on one horse and go to a dance some place.
Married in 1881
On November 24, 1881, she married S. D. Reynolds at Salem. Mr. Reynolds was one of the railroad workers, and she met him at her father’s boarding house. They moved to Sibley, Mr. Reynolds’ home, and there their first furniture consisted of a bed, a large store box for a table, and two chunks of wood for chairs. Mr. Reynolds was a mason, and would be gone for a week at a time. To be a bride in a strange community was far from being pleasant, Mrs. Reynolds states.
Four years later, they moved back to Salem where Mr. Reynolds operated a dray line. After another four years, he began farming near Salem. Stock raising was done on a share basis. They milked 15 cows, and their share was one third of the calves born. Crops were poor and they “dried out” two years in succession.
Being a housewife and mother on those days was no snap, according to Mrs. Reynolds. She would sit up nights and knit stockings for the children to wear to school. All her washing and sewing was done by hand because she had neither a washing machine or sewing machine. The family lived in a two room house, one room upstairs and one down. When she wanted to go to town, she’d take down her clothesline and use it for reins ono her horse, and when she came back, she’d tie it up again and use it for a clothesline.
Prices Low
Prices were exceedingly low for what they would sell. She recalls they sold a two-year-old heifer for $8.00 and received $2.50 for a 300-pound hog. Eggs were sold for five cents per dozen. “By the time I bought a few groceries and tobacco for my husband, I’d usually be owing the storekeeper,” Mrs. Reynolds states.
Hearing an opportunity to get work on the new railroad they were building northwest out of Worthington, Minn., Mr. Reynolds went there and obtained employment while Mrs. Reynolds stayed at home with the children.
When the road was completed as far as Hardwick, Mr. Reynolds sent for his family, and they moved to Hardwick to live. There he obtained employment as a section hand in 1900. At that time, Henry La Due was the section foreman. After living there one year, they moved to Kenneth, where Mr. Reynolds was section foreman. Later, he was transferred to Harris, Iowa, for one year, and he then returned to Kenneth where they lived for 11 years.
For seven years, Mrs. Reynolds performed the mid-wife duties for that community. In addition to that, she kept boarders, and for one whole summer fed the crew that was building the trestle over the Rock river.
Delivered Many Children
How many babies she helped bring into the world, Mrs. Reynolds doesn’t know, but there were a lot of them, she says. Many times, she had the child delivered, washed and sleeping in a basket by the time the doctor arrived. She assisted one mother who gave birth to seven children without a physician’s ever entering the home.
She was also called in whenever there was a serious illness. On one occasion, Joe Smith, age eight, the son of the depot agent at Kenneth, became gravely ill, and it developed that he had appendicitis. It was not learned until later that the appendix had been ruptured, but even then, the attending physician felt he could save the boy’s life by surgery.
The child was taken to the Luverne hospital in a surrey, drawn by a team of horses, and he made the whole trip lying across the lap of his mother Mrs. Reynolds who were sitting in the back seat. One of the surgeons was Dr. C. O. Wright, of Luverne, and he and the other surgeon, Dr. Spaulding, urged Mrs. Reynolds to watch the operation. Although she did not want to, she finally did consent.
Although the boy’s case was serious, he lived, and was released from the hospital after about three weeks.
To Church on Hand Car
The church she and her husband attended while living at Kenneth was a Catholic church in the country between Kenneth and Lismore. They usually went to church on the railroad handcar. The trip to the church was not bad, because the track was down hill, but pumping the car home up an incline was a different story, Mrs. Reynolds relates.
In 1913, Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds moved to Hardwick. There Mr. Reynolds lived until his death in 1932, and Mrs. Reynolds still lives there, making her home in her own little cottage at the west edge of the village.
Speaking of her children, Mrs. Reynolds states jovially, “If we never raised anything else while we were at Salem, we certainly did get a good crop of children. All except one of the eight was born there.   
            Has 20
Grandchildren
Seven of the eight are living at the present time. They include: E.M. Reynolds, Sioux Falls; Anton Reynolds, Luverne; Peter Reynolds, Nielsville, Wis., Mrs. Eli (Lena) Milbrath, Okabena, Minn.; Mrs. Martin (Emma) Oldre, Pipestone; Mrs. Roy (Clara) Henderson, Pipestone; and Ben M. Reynolds, Luverne. A daughter, Bertha, died at the age of one and one half years. In addition to her children, direct descendants of Mrs. Reynolds include 20 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.
Of a family of 10, Mrs. Reynolds is one of five brothers and sisters still living. Her sisters are Mrs. J. V. Jessen, and Mrs. Mamie Beck, both of Pomona, Calif.; and the brothers are Adam Glaser, Riverside, Calif.; and Martin Glaser, Herrick, S.D.
Mrs. Reynolds attributes her long life to being cheerful, and states that a preacher who once boarded with them was responsible partly for her cheerful outlook on life. “He had a little placard on which on which was imprinted the words, ‘KEEP SMILING’, Mrs. Reynolds states, “and somehow when things aren’t going quite right, I think of that. It really helps.”
 
         Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, 312 E. Main Street, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

LSS meals at Generations
 
Monday, Jan. 9: Egg bake with ham, carrots, applesauce, coffee cake.
Tuesday, Jan. 10: Meatloaf, baked potato with sour cream, pears, bread, bar.
Wednesday, Jan. 11: Spaghetti, romaine lettuce with dressing, pineapple chunks, bread stick, dessert.
 Thursday, Jan. 12: Roast turkey with gravy, mashed potatoes, California Normandy vegetables, bread, cookie.
Friday, Jan. 13: Baked ham with sauce, scalloped potatoes, peas and carrots, dinner roll, pudding.
Half-Price Day sponsored by American Reformed Church.
LSS Dining offers well-balanced and affordable meals in a community atmosphere.
Call Pam Franken at 283-9846, extension 11 to reserve one day prior, to arrange to pick up a dinner or for home-delivered meals.
Gift certificates are available at the meal site or online at www.lssmn.org/nutrition.

10 years ago (2013)
•Rock County Commissioners approved $100,000 for the purchase of pictography services from Pictometry International Corp.
The New York-based company provides high-resolution aerial photography from images taken at a 40-degree angle from low-flying airplanes.
The photographs show buildings, infrastructure and land parcels from all sides at a resolution more than three times higher than a standard photograph.
The company’s customers include state and local governments who use the images for planning and development, property assessment and emergency response.
The detailed aerial photographs are also used commercially by insurance companies, real estate interests, utilities and others.
 
25 years ago (1998)
•Luverne Police Chief Keith Aanenson’s retirement marks the end of an era in Luverne. With joint law enforcement, he will go down in history as the last police chief to serve the city of Luverne.
According to national statistics, the average professional will change jobs seven times in the course of a career. Luverne’s Keith Aanenson is not one of those statistics.
Born and raised in Rock County, Aanenson has worked for the Luverne Police Department for nearly 31 years — 18 years as police chief. Through his length of service, Aanenson has become a local legend: the man in uniform behind the wheel of the blue and white Chevy Blazer.
As Aanenson rings in the new year, he’ll hand over his badge, uniform, firearm and the keys to the department’s new Ford Explorer. At age 55, he’ll retire from police work to join the ranks of plain-clothes civilians.
 
50 years ago (1973)
•Dedication services for the new Bernhard Tuff Memorial Chapel in Hills will be held this Sunday, Jan. 7, at 2:30 p.m. at the Tuff Home, according to administrator James D. Iverson.
The chapel is the result of a gift made early in 1972 by Mrs. Alfrieda Tuff of Hills. The gift was to be used for the construction of a permanent chapel to be dedicated to the memory of her late husband, Bernhard Tuff. Mr. Tuff was a brother to the founder of the home, Gilbert Tuff.
 
75 years ago (1948)
•Kenneth Beelmann, farmer living south of Luverne, who plans to move to Luverne soon, was granted permission to erect a motel on South Kniss avenue. The motel will be comprised of seven cabins, built of brick and tile. It will be directly across the street from the present motel, owned and operated by Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Winkler.
 
100 years ago (1923)
•A total of two hundred four carloads of livestock, consisting of 184 carloads of hogs, and 20 carloads of cattle, were shipped to markets during the year 1922 by the Luverne Cooperative shipping association, for which $291,719.70 was received, according to the reports of the past year’s business submitted by Manager Fred Luitgens, at the annual meeting of the members of this association held Wednesday afternoon at the court house.
On this volume of business the manager received a commission of 7 cents per cwt., making an average of $11.07 per carload, or a salary for the year of $2,360.66, while the sinking fund of 1½ cents per hundred amounted to $2.86 per carload, which amounted to $589.94. This made the total local expense for handling the 204 carloads $2,950.60, leaving a balance of $288,769.10 for the producers of the livestock.

The Minnesota Energy Assistance Program has raised the maximum amount that eligible Minnesota households can receive to pay for emergency fuel deliveries this winter by 150 percent. The Energy Assistance Program, administered by the Minnesota Department of Commerce, increased the maximum crisis benefit from $600 to $1,500, allowing eligible homeowners and renters to avoid the anxiety of a nearly empty fuel tank.
Funding for the benefit increase is part of a $1 billion federal resolution passed in September. The total budget for the program in Minnesota is nearly $129 million this heating season.
“We understand that many Minnesotans are concerned about the cost of heating their homes,” said Michael Schmitz, director of the Minnesota Energy Assistance Program.
“Commerce’s goal is to help Minnesotans stay safe and warm in their homes by reducing their energy burden – especially for families struggling to pay their energy bills. More than doubling the maximum crisis benefit is another way to meet that goal.”
In the past few years, the annual cost of heating an average Minnesota home with heating oil has risen to nearly $3,000 and to $1,900 for propane-heated homes.
Since the current Energy Assistance Program year began Oct. 1, nearly 36,000 households have received an average of $561 in Energy Assistance Program benefits.
Minnesotans who are eligible to receive assistance are also eligible to request additional crisis benefits to avoid running out of fuel or to prevent utility disconnections. In the program year that ended Sept. 30, more than 58,000 households received crisis benefits.
Schmitz said, “The increase in crisis benefits is especially important for households that heat their homes with delivered fuels or that are paying too large a share of their incomes to stay warm this winter.”
Before the pandemic, the maximum crisis benefit was $600 per household. In March 2022, Commerce temporarily increased that amount to $3,000 after receiving an additional $167 million in onetime funds under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP). With ARP funds exhausted, Minnesota’s available funding allows the Energy Assistance Program to provide a maximum of $1,500 per household this program year.
 
About Minnesota’s Energy Assistance Program
The Energy Assistance Program helps Minnesotans who own or rent their homes to pay for electricity, natural gas, oil, biofuel and propane, and repair or replace homeowners’ broken heating systems. Commerce administers the program through a network of local community service providers.
To request an Energy Assistance Program application or to find your local service provider, visit
mn.gov/energyassistance
or call 800-657-3710, option 1.

Elaine Hansen is the 2022 winner of $5,000 through the Bayer Fund’s “America’s Farmers Grow Communities,” which partners with farmers “to make a positive impact in farm communities by supporting local nonprofit organizations.” 
Hansen applied for and received the grant, naming the Luverne Area Community Foundation as the eligible charity to receive the funds.
The grant must be used by the eligible charity “to improve science, health and nutrition in communities and organizations within the county where the winning farmer farms or resides.”
Bayer shared information about Hansen when she was announced as the winner earlier this month.
“Elaine and her husband Ray have a passion for their faith and making sure no one in their community would be in a state of food shortage,” the company wrote. 
“A good steward of these two passions, Elaine opened an endowment fund called Feeding the 5000, a fund to be used to offer gifts to the local food shelf and BackPack Program and potentially any other food or hunger-based program. The fund is open for others to contribute to as well and will have long-lasting fruitful gifts to those in need.”
 Since the program began in 2010, Bayer has directed more than $63 million to organizations across rural America.

Charlotte Rae Twito, 87, Luverne, died Friday, Dec. 30, 2022, at the Sanford Hospice Cottage in Luverne.
Visitation will be from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 5, at First Presbyterian Church in Luverne. A funeral service will be at 10:30 a.m. at the church. Burial will follow at Maplewood Cemetery in Luverne.
Arrangements are provided by Hartquist Funeral Home of Luverne, hartquistfuneral.com.
(0105 DN)

Maria Korthals, 51, Luverne, died unexpectedly on Saturday, Dec. 31, 2022, at her home.
Arrangements are pending with Hartquist Funeral Home of Luverne, hartquistfuneral.com.
(0105 DN)

Nelson becomes ordained Lutheran pastor
David John Nelson was ordained into the ministry of Word and Sacrament Dec. 10 at Grace Lutheran Church in Luverne.
The ordination was performed by Bishop Dee Pederson of the Southwestern Minnesota Synod. Nelson will serve Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Atwater and United Lutheran Church in Lake Lillian.
He is the son of Dale and Patti Nelson of Luverne.