By Becker County  Master Gardeners Holiday cacti require short days and cool night temperatures to initiate flower buds. Keep these plants in a brightly lit, cool location (55-65º F at night, 60-70º in the day). They require 12 hours of complete darkness at night to prompt bud formation. Too much water and not enough light can stress… Read More

By Pastor Ryan Stockstrom Harvest Church There are times in life when God calls us to step out of our comfort zone. He might nudge us toward a new direction, ask us to take a stand, or invite us to pick up our cross and follow Him. And while others may not always understand or join… Read More

By Tyler Trieglaff Notes from the Chief Notes from the Farm…Pigs in a blanket. That was my Halloween costume. Always good when one can make fun of themselves.   Deer hunting came and went this year on the farm. We had six of us hunting and only got one deer. Opening weekend was my weekend off so I… Read More

The Prairie Spy Alan “Lindy” Linda Writing last week about my grandmother brought back some more memories, one of which has to do with the general state of plumbing back when Grandma was growing up, in the early 1900’s. Plumbing wise, there were outdoor toilets, labelled for some reason “outhouses,” perhaps to avoid calling them something that actually… Read More

Publisher’s Perspective Chad Koenen Every once in a while I have a person ask me how I got into the newspaper industry. One would think I could come up with an aha moment in which the clouds opened up, the stars all aligned and inspiration struck to lead me into the journalism profession. Unfortunately, no such… Read More

Garver’s Movie Review Bob Garver It was all the way back in 2013 that audiences were first introduced to the Four Horsemen of Magic – J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), and Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher). The quartet blurred the line between “magic tricks” and “heists,” in that they… Read More

By Pastor Ryan Stockstrom Harvest Church Fall in Minnesota brings cool mornings, changing leaves, and—if you know me—plenty of hunting and archery metaphors. There’s something about aiming, focus, and patience that parallels the life of faith. An archer improves accuracy not by shooting closer targets but by practicing farther ones. If you want to hit a target… Read More

By Tyler Trieglaff Notes from the Chief Notes from the Farm…Quite a lot of work done on the farm the last week. The calves were given their second round of vaccinations, weighed and the weaning tags were put in their noses. The calves were turned back with their mothers, but they won’t be able to nurse.   Research… Read More

The the Editor, We find ourselves in the midst of governing and economic chaos clearly showing the governing strategies of both political parties. Republicans have traditionally based their emphasis on money issues like balancing the budget or trying to. History shows that even when they have control they run up more debt than Democrats. Democrats have emphasized… Read More

The Prairie Spy Alan “Lindy” Linda I remember being eleven or twelve years old, staying overnight with grandma and grandpa in town. Staying overnight with grandma–who always had candy–was a big deal. But it was a smaller deal because I and my brother and sister took piano lessons from her. She had taught piano her whole life. Staying… Read More