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Question:  How do you determine if your tires are unsafe for winter driving? Answer:  Over the years, I have investigated numerous crashes where worn tires were a contributing factor. Tires with inadequate tread depth may cause your vehicle to skid or slide out of control on a slippery or wet road surface. It is important to remember that unsafe tires can hydroplane on both wet and snow covered…

First Snow has arrived replacing the garden’s fading colors of fall with a twinkling coat of brilliance. It covers the brown, lost remnants of summer with a blanket of hope. First Snow gives mortals a hint of the new creation described by John in the book of Revelation. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, … And I heard a loud voice…

Thanksgiving is in the books for another year and Christmas is just weeks away … that is, for most of you. The Petersons are celebrating Christmas this coming weekend. Our kids and their families will be coming to Luverne from North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and, of course, Minnesota. With busy work, school and sports schedules, it seems getting together at Christmas just doesn’t work. This isn…

I have purchased a deer license every year for the past 37 years, and this year was the first year that I actually filled my tag. I purchased my deer license before Sept. 1, and this automatically enrolls me in the doe lottery. In Minnesota every hunter that buys a deer license can shoot a buck. You have to be successfully drawn from a special lottery, depending on where you live, in order to be…

Are we ever satisfied with the lives we’re living? Does there ever come a time when we don’t strive to earn more money, search for that perfect job, that perfect house and family and the perfect relationship? This striving often shows up in the social media posts we share with one another. Lately I find myself sharing less of myself on social media. Does this mean my striving in life has waned…

As you probably know, the season of fall is my favorite time of the year because fall means football and pheasant hunting. Unfortunately, it also means Old Man Winter is just around the corner. The cold weather of the past weeks reminds us it’s time to make the switch from lawn mower to snow blower. Rakes are replaced by snow shovels, and flip flops are kicked to the closet, with the snow boots…

There is just never a dull day in the field when you share it with four Labradors. I have a great start to the 2022 pheasant season. Bird numbers are far higher than last season and the only challenge has been the high temperatures. The first weekend of the season we hosted the Minnesota governor in Worthington. That was a pretty big undertaking. The second weekend of the season we hosted 17…

So, my dad has a worm farm. He’s currently runnin’ a few thousand head of red wigglers. It’s not 80 acres or anything like that. It’s just a galvanized stock tank in the farmhouse basement sitting under the old canning counter.  The purpose of the worms is to produce castings (worm poop) to amend the soil in my parents’ organic, raised-bed gardens. Dad uses an Instant Pot to cook home-grown…

I have never really been much of a deer hunter. I have purchased a Minnesota firearms deer license for the past 37 years and have never pulled the trigger on a Minnesota deer. I have participated and helped in the harvesting of many deer over that same time frame. A few years back I set a record of five youth, all ages 12-13, who all shot their very first deer out of my box stand in a single…

“Forever indebted” is how I’m feeling lately. We picked up the supper tab for my sister, Lisa, one day last week. “You didn’t have to do that,” she objected. It’s true we didn’t. But it seemed like a small thing considering all she’d done and been for us in the days following Carson’s passing. She contacted family, organized helpers and food, kept me on track when my brain short-circuited,…

The general election takes place in 12 days. On the ballot are candidates for federal, state and local offices. Sunday night I sat down with my mail-in ballot and read through the list of names. Many I recognize due to my job as a reporter. I attend a lot of meetings and meet quite a few people. The voting task brought up memories of a college class I took decades ago. We discussed presidential…

So, the 2022 pheasant opener was a few days back, and I had a very unusual one. Worthington was selected for the location to host the 2022 Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener.  We were selected late and only had about 100 days to put the weekend event together. It may seem like not a very big thing, but to have the governor out and about only three weeks before the election is a very big deal for…

I volunteer at Redeemed Remnants and you should, too. Redeemed Remnants is a thrift store ministry of ATLAS of Rock County. It’s located a block south of Main Street in the former Luverne Kawasaki building. I think volunteering to work the store’s back door is the most fun because opening each donation box is like opening a Christmas surprise. “What’s in this box?” Cars, vans, pickups – even …

The topic of a recent office conversation was the new Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max and the new Apple Watch. Personally, I am not a fan of the Apple Watch and all its bells and whistles. Have you seen the latest Apple Watch commercial on television? You know someone is wearing an Apple Watch because they more than likely told you how many steps they have taken on any given day. I don’t need a watch to…

Carson has been gone for a month. It’s been one of the hardest parts of grieving his loss — knowing that with each passing day he’s slipping farther into the past. There will be no new social media posts, no new Christmas card photos with his smiling face among our own, and no new milestones in his life to celebrate. What we have of Carson’s 21 years is the current sum of all we’ll get. But we’re…

This is the fourth installment of the do-it-yourself obedience training for your own dog. Prior columns have covered the basics of getting the sponge in the obedience bucket level of obedience outcome when training in your own dog. The steps covered in the first three articles should have taken about 4-5 weeks to get really ingrained in your dog to the point where their compliance to known…