I have a small (115 acre) farm and raise sheep and chickens. We had 51 lambs born this spring – they are a cross of Finn, Ramboulliet, and Dorset breeds. I try to market the wool and lambs privately and sell eggs. I spin wool and sell to spinners.

The tillable is all on shares with my neighbor so that I don’t have to own any equipment except a sprayer for the pastures, and a wagon to remove manure. I grow most of our food with a huge garden, small orchard, and eating a lot of lamb and chicken. I miss the pork and beef, but don’t have the fence to fatten one, although I keep thinking about it with calves selling for $15 around here.

Farms have consolidated around here in the last 20 years, just like they did around Northfield when we were finishing HS. But these are more hilly, more appropriate for dairy or sheep, and less suitable for grain and big equipment. As a result, my neighborhood has gone from 40 or more dairies down to less than 5 over the 23 years I’ve been here – but one milks 600. However in the last 3 years, these small farms are being bought up by the Amish and revitalized, often as dairies.

By Jean-Margret Merrell-Beech

Posted by Norm Larsen

At noon on Monday, June 21, the Camp Winnebago Wagon Trail stopped at Wasioja & our Kasson-Mantorville Lions Club served the group brats for their noon meal. The wagon train had started out from Austin on Friday & now were heading up to West Concord, Nerstrand & will stay overnight in Northfield at the rodeo grounds I believe on Wednesday night & will wind up the event in Goodhue, MN on Friday. There were about 125 people with the caravan with approximately 35 wagons & buggies drawn by horses & mules plus a large group of outriders on horses. Herman Transberg has been going along with this ride for several years but said he was driving the school bus this year for the train. It is a annual fund raiser for Camp Winnebago near Caledonia, MN, for handicapped youth & sponsored by Lion clubs in South East Minnesota.

Story by Mary Auge

FARIBAULT — A castle made of mirrors, metal and glass is ready for the imaginations of those who view it at the Paradise Center for the Arts gallery this month.

And, the artist who created it is just as ready as anyone to walk around it and watch how light glints off its mirrored surfaces and shadows and light play off the walls.

Jennifer Wolcott, a rural Northfield artist, works Thursday to assemble a castle she created out of mirrors, metal and glass.

“I had a concept for the castle, but wasn’t sure how it would turn out,” said Northfield artist Jennifer Wolcott, as she walked around the assembled work in the Paradise gallery.

“Isn’t it fun?” she said.

A lace-edge table cloth is cut from steel, windows formed with pictures of windows, mirrored walls and layers of images are sandblasted on glass walls trimmed in metal.

Wolcott hopes both young and old who come and see her gallery show, “Black and White: Multiples and Variation,” find it as much fun to view as she had creating it.

Besides the castle, there are bungee jumping birds, book-head dancers and black and white party hats.

“There’s going to be sheets of paper and instructions so kids, or even adults, can make their own party hats,” Wolcott said.

Her hope is that gallery-goers who opt to make a party hat at home, bring them back and put them at the base of her party hat display for more “variation” on black and white.

Wolcott spent 25 years working for Sheldahl Inc. of Northfield as a process engineer before being laid off. She qualified for displaced worker assistance, so she went back to college at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, graduating with honors in 2003.

Since her graduation, she has created sculptures in her rural Northfield studio.

“I am driven by curiosity,” she said. “I respond to the colors and forms of the world and try to figure out how to use them and why they have the effect they do.”

Torches, hammers and kilns are her tools.

A reception at which people can meet Wolcott and view her work will run from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 7 in the Paradise gallery.

Posted by Norm Larsen and Pat Nelson

Party time at the L&M bar.

first row: Pat B, Mary, & Edith

Second row: Pat N, Cheryl, Diane, Cookie, Sharon & Joyce

A fun little get-together at the L&M on August 11 when Linda came to town!
Joyce Gilomen, Mary Weidner, Linda Pond, Mary Auge, Cheryl Nesseth & Ginerva Henrickson

Photos by Mary Auge

Posted by Norm Larsen