Wishes we can hold onto

They came from Sweden, California, Maine and North Dakota. They came from the neighbors up the road. The ones from Sweden were of thin, white air mail paper. Tiny red and blue stripes lined the envelope’s edges.

Stray Thoughts: The Box

There is that space in which we all live, somewhere between joy and sorrow and between loss and expectation.Between the tragedy of unrealized potential and the right plans that went the wrong way.The pain centered as much in what we did as in what we consistently fail to do.

Home Country

Dewey’s a community project. He’s our resident accident-prone guy who managed to get his dad’s pickup stuck in the county’s only mud hole during a six-year drought, release 300 steers from the feedlot onto the interstate, and create about a ton of tossed salad with hot oil dressing on the on ramp.

Compliments on producing such a great publication

Dear Editor and Staff, Enclosed please find a check for $50 to renew the subscription for Jim Stephens to the Timber Lake Topic for another year.I would compliment the entire staff for such a great publication.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

The following is an excerpt from my book, “Accidental Rancher,” and documents my introduction to a western Dakota tradition: Lefse making… Roll the pale dough out slowly, without pushing too hard, or the dough will cling to the rolling pin and pull apart.

Stray Thoughts: What kind of year will 2026 be for you?

If you are an “average” American adult, in one year you are likely to: Spend $77,000 on household expenses Speak 5.

EDITORIAL The most famous editorial ever written

In September of 1897, a letter arrived in the newsroom of The Sun, one of New York’s great newspapers of the time. The author was a child whose “little friends” had been questioning something quite close to her heart: Santa Claus.Virginia O’Hanlon’s letter landed on the desk of Francis P.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

Dear Editor,I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say that there is no Santa Claus. Papa says “If you see it in the Sun, it is so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus? – Virginia O’Hanlon Virginia,Your little friends are wrong.

Stray Thoughts: Missing stocking

Christmas is a magical time for families.Everyone gathers from miles around to be present for the event with those they love.Long flights from far-flung cities, long drives from hundreds of miles away, cars packed with people and with gifts to be shared.

All that glitters

Just one more to go! Green vinyl branches hook nicely into a circle anchored at the center. They fan out at the bottom, leaning into a large metal ring. Once assembled, the branches, the tree top and the pole become the lovely sixfoot pine that I now assemble every year.