EDITOR’S COLUMN

With Timber Lake and Isabel celebration weekends coming up we will no doubt hear visitors talking about our (their) small towns. Sometimes they have questions, suggestions, critiques, or appreciation. I for one love to listen.

Stray Thoughts: Heat

As South Dakotans, we understand heat as many in our country do not, because we are subjected to it directly and until recently could do absolutely nothing to avoid it.

Science or Magic?

Examples of accelerating scientific progress abound in human history. Mendel’s experiments with plants demonstrated inheritance in the mid-1800s.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

This summer has been hot and dry. The seeds I planted in the spring had a hard time germinating because the soil temperature went from cold to very hot so abruptly. Their struggles continued as sunny day after sunny day sucked moisture from the prairie soil until it cracked.

Stray Thoughts: Nests

As I sit in my backyard, surrounded by bird feeders, I am wondering more and more about what birds think.

What does love mean?

The question was posed to 4 to 8-year-olds. Here are some of their answers: “When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore... So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.

Why send our dollars to other states?

Like many of you, my wife Penny and I are conservative when it comes to spending. We’ve lived in our home for more than 50 years, and we don’t drive the newest cars.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

Last winter we bought a small, unfinished shed to use as a rustic bunkhouse for guests. “And I can use it sometimes for writing and recording,” I told my husband, thinking how nice it would be to work in the quiet every once in a while.

Our Antiviral Founding Father

When the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, the American colonies still needed to win the Revolutionary War to truly gain their independence from the British Empire. The war continued another seven years until September 3, 1783.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

Our patio is a cement slab that was laid in the 1970s. The cement is circled by a chokecherry tree, several stooped elms, and a lilac bush, making the space a cool, green cove most hours of the day.