It's spring break this week and I am writing from location.

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After more than a decade of service, we sold our minivan this week. So, some unlucky human has now inherited eleven years of snack debris. I try to soothe my guilt over this infraction by framing their misfortune as a surprise win – like the extra french fry you find the bottom of the bag. A…

Minnesota may be the land of ten thousand lakes, but it is also the land of ten million wetlands. These oft misunderstood features are sometimes wet, sometimes dry, but always important to people and wildlife.

Amongst other things, my father is a singer and growing up he was frequently asked to perform at weddings and theme parties. Neil Diamond was his go-to and I remember a white pantsuit that made everyone equally festive and uncomfortable.

“Backswimmer, scud, dragonfly nymph, water boatman, another water boatman…” My son had just woken up from a nap and stumbled bleary-eyed to a clearing near the Mississippi River where our group was peering intently at a bucket-full of river water. Within seconds, he was rattling off the name…

“Mom, what does ‘weather pending’ mean?” asks my nine-year-old daughter with a nonchalant glance at the computer screen.

Approximately sixteen years ago, with shaking hands, we buckled our moon-faced newborn into an infant car seat, and instantaneously questioned the integrity of plastic molding. Was it supposed to make that “click?” Do you hold in both buttons at the same time to adjust the handle? Is the str…

In 2008, Minnesota voters passed the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment to protect and support clean water, healthy habitat, vibrant arts and culture, and beloved parks and trails. Over the past ten years, a sales tax increase of 0.375 percent has generated more than $2.5 billion, $860 m…

Tickets for the following events are available online at stillwaterzephyrtheatre.org or at the door. Unless noted, all events are at The Zephyr Theatre, 601 Main St. N. in Stillwater. For more information, call 651-342-1542.

A story of redemption

Water softeners are a surprising part of the problem

As it spins through the galaxy in trajectory around the sun, the Earth leans on its axis, 23.5-degrees. That slightest lean means all the difference between warm summer days, sun on the back and toes in the soft, brown dirt – that and the cold bite of winter, frozen breathe before your face …

They say that trees can speak to each other in a language we humans are too busy to hear and too self-absorbed to understand. Peter Wohlleben, a German forester who wrote the now famous book, The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate, has learned that trees in a forest a…

There are four boxes of “Chicken in a Biskit” crackers individually wrapped under our Christmas Tree. Our cockapoo, Millie, lies in an exasperated heap below the branches, nose to the box, tail to the fireplace, desperate for the nod of approval needed to devour the gifts promising a roasted…

On Dec. 7, Robert T. Sherman, Jr. was inducted into the Youth Intervention Hall of Fame. Nominated for the Friends of Youth Leadership Award, Sherman was chosen because he stood out as a leader in their field with a tireless commitment to youth.

Annually the high schools put on events or plays and invite fellow classmates and the public to come and enjoy their hard work. This has been a tradition that goes back more than a century, to a time when the junior class would put on an event for the seniors.

It’s holiday concert week, also known as “flood preparation week” at our home. From the depths of the closet, a pair of black polyester waders emerge for the big show. Despite months of friendly reminders, we wait until performance day, because, well, we appreciate the drama of a last-minute…

Like most suburban communities, the City of Hugo uses nearly half of its municipal water supply to provide some form of irrigation. Unlike most communities, the city is telling residents in some neighborhoods to go ahead and keep the sprinklers running.

This is a story about trout. It’s also a story about local history, changing landscapes, and people trying to do the right thing.

I come from a crooked line of believers and skeptics.

Washington Conservation District recognizes Pam Arnold and Laurie Schneider for conservation efforts

Grief sat in an empty chair this Thanksgiving.

In the early days Stillwater was the starting point of pretty much everything in the area. When Minnesota became a territory in 1849, Stillwater had the second highest population and Minneapolis wasn’t even on the map.

Thanksgiving traditions stretch far and wide in our family. But, mostly, wide.

How the dental community is combatting the opioid crisis

There is a glaring similarity between the 2018 campaign commercials and the heated conversations I have shared with my kids this month: name calling, finger pointing, and unbalanced budgets. There was some actual mud-slinging in early October which explains the absence of curtains in my mud …

If you sit very quietly in the middle of a tamarack fen and close your eyes, you can hear a goose honking in the distance, a red-winged blackbird trilling from the cattails, and 24 little kids, desperately trying to be still.

Having taught civics, government and politics classes for more than 30 years at the K-12 and postsecondary levels, I’ve seen the value of talking with young people about election results.

“You snooze, you lose.” That phrase, in some respects, summarizes the legal doctrine known as the Statute of Limitations. It holds that if you wait too long to begin your lawsuit, you lose the right to do so - even if you had the best legal claim that ever existed. Why would this be?

Because of its location along the St. Croix River, May Township has a history going back to the earliest recorded times in Minnesota. This important waterway was a highway for Indians, explorers and fur traders passing from Lake Superior to the Mississippi River. It later became the focus of…

We buy doughnuts on Election Day. You could call this bribery, but I prefer the word “celebratory.” Either way, some of us are more patient than others at 6:30 a.m.

In 1871, Elof and Eva Modig migrated to the United States from Sweden, purchased land near a small lake in southern Chisago County (at $1.25 an acre) and settled down to build a house and begin farming wheat. Over the next three decades, the couple had children and changed their last name fr…