Roseau County is mostly flat thanks to the bulldozer effect of the glacier that moved across the land 12,000 years ago. As the glacier moved back to the North Pole it dropped billions of various sized boulders to plague farmers and their kids during the most recent geologic era. There are two rockpiles on the farm Teresa and her siblings grew up on. Over the years trees sprouted in the rockpiles and grew to maturity. Rockpiles make pretty pictures for passersby but farmers resent having to plant around them. The farm where Teresa grew up was sold in 2024. Teresa's brother Pete bought 40 acres of farmland and woods from the family farm before it was sold. He put up a shed, bought a tractor, and drives three hours from his home in Moorhead to his land many times a year. If it's not too cold he'll spend a night or two camping there. Pete recently contacted us that the farmer who bought the farm was planning to have the rockpi...
I took a stroll on a firebreak late one afternoon last week, paying attention to what was around me, similar to what Tallie Habstritt from Roseau does along roadsides, or my friend Arthur, in Sacramento, does carrying his Canon camera and huge telephoto lens, when I looked up and saw, what I thought, was an odd-looking Ruff Grouse ahead of me about fifteen feet. I took an picture of it with my cracked-face cellphone, then just stood still waiting to see what it would do next. The thing was, this wasn’t just any Ruff Grouse … And no, it wasn’t a Sharptail Grouse or a ringneck pheasant (C’mon, I know the difference.) So I just waited, not moving a muscle, just like I would do having the wind in my favor as I hunted deer. It’s happened several times that they walk straight toward me unsure what I am. This time, however, I was unsure what it was. On it slowly came, one literal inch at a time, holding its tensed body erect, its odd-colored ruff all fluffed out and...