The Smith Hughes Act was passed on Feb. 23, 1917, by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Woodrow Wilson. This act provided hands-on courses to be offered in high schools in the areas of …
If you’re a film fan, there’s a good chance you’ve seen, or at least heard of the 2015 movie “The Martian.” What I find most fascinating about “The Martian” is not the plot, but the …
The first settlers arrived in the area that would become Coomer in the late 1870s. About a hundred years later, in March 1964, an article in the Milwaukee Journal declared, “Coomer is dead.” …
I’ve always known I was lucky when it came to family. I saw classmates who had impossible siblings, and I knew my curly-headed younger sister was a catch. I knew people who really hated …
The first question this week comes from Mary in Balsam Lake: “There is a girl in our friend group who talks way too much, and it's mostly about herself. It's exhausting. What can I say?”
A cacophony of sweet bird calls added brightness to the sunny morning as my family pulled up to a yard full of bird feeders in Sax-Zim Bog Important Bird Area about an hour northwest of Duluth, …
Finland and Scandinavia share a land border and the Baltic Sea, yet fewer Finlanders immigrated to Wisconsin and Burnett County than people from the Scandinavian countries of Norway and Sweden. …
Sometimes it is easier to tell our friends and neighbors what they need to do to help their household run more smoothly. When it comes to our own families, it seems more difficult to dissect the …
My skis chattered over rough snow on the Valhalla Ski Trails that are perched on the spine of the Bayfield Peninsula. Several loops zoom from dark stands of pines through the lacy twigs of hardwood …
My husband, Peter, and I have landed in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and already the strange seems familiar again. One of the things that impresses me every time I am here is the attention …
Harley Prill, from the Bloomer FFA, is proudly serving as a Wisconsin FFA state vice president representing Northwest Wisconsin’s Section 1. With over 27,000 members statewide, the Wisconsin FFA …
Career and Technical Education classes are a great way for youth to explore career possibilities with hands-on experience. At the Luck School District, their CTE programs include agriculture …
They say that some plants “thrive on neglect,” and I never really believed it until now. I have tried for years—decades really—to get things to grow, indoors and out, and I have pretty …
I have lived in my lake house on Big Lake in Eureka Township for two years now. Coming from the Chicago and Milwaukee areas, I have had to adjust somewhat to country living. I appreciate many of the …
This week’s questions are centered on deciding if and how to speak up in challenging situations. The first comes from Karen in Siren: My husband got fired for harassing a co-worker and he …
Burnett County averages about 50 inches of snowfall annually. With more and more households owning four-wheel drive vehicles, getting around in the snow is less of a problem than it used to be, even …
I stared open-mouthed in disbelief at the cat crossing the neighborhood street in front of my new house in Silver Bay, Minnesota (I’ll be moving up full time in 2027). Trotting purposefully on long …
Our children are our most precious resource. They come to us with one request: “During our short 18 years with you, please teach us the truth about life and prepare us to be responsible adults when …
There’s a reason I don’t write about current events. The news flies at me faster than I can absorb. I cannot make sense of it all, and it feels as if I should always be doing something more, …
With Valentine’s Day only days away, I thought it would be fitting to write about the romance genre this month. When I was studying English Literature in college, there was a day in one of my …