A large sign marks a Halloween display along Seventh Street Northwest in Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
A MILE FROM THE HALLOWEEN attraction Circus De Soulless in Faribault, a traveling carnival has set up temporary residence along a busy corridor in town. That would be CarnEVIL, intentionally misspelled and located at 406 Seventh Street Northwest.
The entrance to the CarnEVIL set up by Robb Morris. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
On a recent weekend, I noticed signage and eye-catching pops of red while passing by the home, did a swing around the block, stopped for a closer look and met ringmaster—my title, not his—Robb Morris.
CarnEVIL games are played by clown skeletons. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
It’s not difficult to imagine that’s blood on the canopy wall. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
The top of the high striker game. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Here Robb posed skeletons playing carnival games in a carnival/carnevil type setting complete with a red-and-white striped canopy entrance leading to his front door. Walk under that canopy and, if you look closely, you’ll notice blood-splattered walls. Well, not really, but red paint looks a lot like blood at Halloween.
This rat is appropriately eating popcorn at the CarnEVIL. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
I didn’t miss the popcorn-eating rat either, tipped on its side until righted by Robb. I really don’t like rodents or any animal that unexpectedly causes terror or fright. That includes an injured raccoon recently trapped in our garage and requiring a call to animal control.
Caged skeletons hang around the front entry. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
All of that aside, getting to the Morris front door to collect a Halloween treat requires a bit of bravery. Even once there, the frights continue with caged skeletons suspended above the entry on the stately brick house once owned by the Ochs family.
Throwing knives game, on display only as are all of the games. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
I commented to Robb that his is the “Ochs house,” something I bet he hears all the time. The Ochs family operated a well-known southern Minnesota department store based in Faribault. Eventually Verna Ochs, upon the death of her husband, Al, in 1969, headed the business. She was among only a handful of women in the country running a department store at the time. Locally, Verna’s signature hats distinguished her. Several of those came with the house, Robb noted, and will stay with the house.
Robb Morris built some of the sets from discarded wood. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
From Halloween to hats, I got sidetracked for a moment while chatting with Robb. We got back on subject when he mentioned that for the first time this year, he built some of his scenes with old pallets and scrap wood. He shops dollar stores for props. And he also trades Halloween goods with his daughter in Woodbury, who gets into Halloween decorating just like her dad.
Following the carnival theme, a clown throws a ball. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Just a little bit creepy, a hooded skull. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
A clown skeleton spins a macabre wheel in the yard. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
It’s good fun, this CarnEVIL created by a man who clearly loves Halloween enough to design a set that delights with detailed fun and frights.
The entrance to the Scare Grounds and Circus De Soulless. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
ANYONE LOOKING FOR HALLOWEEN fright and fun in Faribault need look no farther than the Cauldron County Scare Grounds, home to Coy and Kathy Lane.
A challenge on a tombstone upon which clowns rest. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Located at 234 First Avenue Southwest, the Lanes’ hilltop front and side yards and porch are transformed each autumn into a space for the community to celebrate Halloween. This marks the fifth year the couple has created a display locally.
Clowns push a hearse across the yard. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
And each year the theme changes with 2026 bringing a yard full of clowns to the Circus De Soulless. A wedding, class reunion and clown daycare were among past themes.
The largest of the clowns, made by the Lanes, blocks the driveway and serves as a photo backdrop. The clown’s eyes glow red in the dark. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
If clowns creep you or your kids or grandkids out, then be prepared. A whole lot of creepy clowns have crept into the Halloween yard, which is open from noon to 9 p.m. daily in October. That includes clowns drawn by Coy and painted by Kathy, one a menacing clown that serves as a photo op backdrop reaching to the second story.
One of the creepiest clowns. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
At seemingly every turn, clowns lurk, wait, threaten, their bright clothes no cover for the darkness within. But it’s all in good fun. The Lanes clearly love Halloween and sharing that love with others. It’s their “thing,” says Coy, who this year was sidelined a bit by knee surgery necessitating tapping into friends to help set up the display.
Next to a chained hand, a step on pad activates a display. These pads are located throughout the yard. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Macabre versions of familiar tales are showcased in the Scary Tales Tent. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
A towering, ghoulish character by the crypt. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
I’ve been to the circus, just up a steep hill from my house, thrice. Once for a quick check and chat. Then with my elementary-aged grandkids, who claimed not to be frightened although their body language showed otherwise. And finally, during the golden hour before sundown to take photos.
Probably the scariest part of the display. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Come here after sunset and the fear factor notches up because everything seems scarier in the dark. I’ve stuck with daylight. The back side yard, where towering animatronic characters surround a crypt, seems the most frightening.
This sign directs visitors to a tent filled with frightening characters, including a Flying Monkey seen here to the left. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
A Flying Monkey lurks at the Scary Tales Tent. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
In the “Beauty & the Beast” display. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
By far, my favorite section of the Halloween yard this October is the Twisted Big Top Scary Tales Tent. A chained “Wizard of Oz” Flying Monkey guards the tent entrance. Inside, ghoulish versions of well-known tales bring visual and auditory fright to the likes of “The Three Little Pigs,” “Beauty & the Beast,” “Alice in Wonderland” and more. And, yes, more than one creepy doll moves, blood dripping, eyes glowing.
The fortune teller talks, greeting visitors as they enter. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
This circus-themed Halloween display features lots of glowing eyes, including those of the ticket booth fortune teller. The ticket booth is just a themed prop. The Lanes don’t charge an entry fee, even though they’ve spent $1,100 on candy alone this October and endless more on other expenses.
This photo shows two of the games: the high striker and the skull toss, right. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Some of their spending goes toward small prizes for games. The couple makes their Halloween display interactive, adding an element of fun for kids with basketball, bean bag and skull tosses and a high striker. They’re always thinking of the kids.
Approaching the Lanes’ Halloween display at 234 First Avenue Southwest. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
And Coy tells me he’s already thinking ahead to Halloween 2027 with a theme chosen, and which I won’t divulge. Soon he’ll start building, creating, preparing for the next opening of the Cauldron County Scare Grounds just blocks from downtown Faribault high atop a hill.
A recent fall drive took us deep into the southern Minnesota countryside, where harvest is underway. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
A PLANNED FALL COLOR DRIVE evolved into more like a harvest drive as Randy and I traveled recently through parts of Rice, Steele, Waseca and LeSueur counties. While we saw some color in the trees, fall field work centered our observations.
Combining beans, a dusty, dirty job in dry conditions. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Area farmers were busy harvesting soybeans on the day we meandered through the countryside to the west of Faribault with no set destination.
A beautiful barn, fronted by a cornfield, somewhere west of Owatonna. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Given our farm backgrounds—Randy rooted in Morrison County in central Minnesota and me in Redwood County in southwestern Minnesota—we remain interested in farming, particularly in spring planting and fall harvest.
An overview of soybean harvesting with multiple combines and trucks in the field and on the road. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
On this unseasonably warm autumn day, farmers hustled to get the beans out, their mammoth combines enveloped in dust as the machines raked across the acres. A stretch of hot, dry days made for ideal harvest weather.
A farmer waits outside the grain elevator in Montgomery. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Grain trucks idled, awaiting loads of beans. Others brimmed with golden orbs. Gravity flow wagons pulled by tractors or pickup trucks also held the bounty of crops.
A red and white cooler sits inside the cab of this combine. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
I noticed the details, too, like a small cooler inside a combine cab, probably packed with lunch. My friend Virginia shared recently that she delivered lunch to her son harvesting in the Millersburg area. It’s likely not all that uncommon for family members to take meals to farmers in the field. Going up to the farmhouse for lunch takes too much time.
A grain truck barrels down a gravel road in a cloud of dust near Cannon City. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Time is the farmer’s constant companion during this season of harvest. As the days tick closer to winter, pressure mounts to get first the soybeans, then the corn, out.
Grain bins dominate a farm site near Blooming Grove United Methodist Church, rural Morristown. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
And then there’s the weather, always the weather. Unwanted rain can delay harvest, adding to an already stressful situation.
Farmers, whether in the field or on the road, are in a time crunch to finish the harvest. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
It takes a lot of mental fortitude to crop farm—to handle the stressors of time, weather, fluctuating prices and increasing operational expenses. But help is available 24/7 through a free and confidential state-funded Minnesota Farm & Rural Helpline at 833-600-2670. Trained counselors will listen, help and connect as needed. Other resources such as NAMI Minnesota and the Suicide Lifeline (call, text or chat to 988) are also available to assist.
A fire extinguisher hangs on the combine exterior as a farmer harvests soybeans. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Along with mental health are physical safety concerns. I was reminded of that when I noticed a fire extinguisher attached to the side of laddered steps leading into a combine. Occasionally fire erupts when crop debris meets hot machinery or parts get overheated or for other reasons.
Machinery parked in a farmyard, at the ready for harvest. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
I expect most farmers take safety seriously. Yet it’s easy, when you’re working long, exhausting days and late into the night on minimal sleep, for accidents to happen. Every harvest season across Minnesota there are stories of grain bin rescues, sometimes successful, sometimes not.
An Allis Chalmers corn chopper, like this one exhibited at the 2010 Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Show, claimed my father-in-law’s left hand and part of his forearm. Randy is standing next to the machine. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)
Thankfully safety shields on modern day machinery mostly protect from serious injuries, unlike when my father-in-law’s left hand was pulled into a corn chopper in 1967. The accident happened as he hand-fed corn into the chopper. The blades chopped off his fingers with a surgeon later amputating part of his forearm. Eleven-year-old Randy, in the field with his dad when the accident happened, turned off the power take-off and then ran to a neighbor’s farm for help.
With much of the soybean harvest now done, corn harvest is underway, here near Cannon City. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
As we drove through the southern Minnesota countryside, deep into harvest, I thought of that long ago farm accident involving the man who would become my father-in-law. And I considered all the farmers today who love the land and farming, but who work in one of the top 10 most dangerous occupations in the U.S.
A tractor pulling a gravity flow wagon, turns off old U.S. Highway 14 in Owatonna. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Farm life may, on the surface, appear a bucolic, simple life. But in reality, it isn’t. It’s hard work. I’m reminded of that as I travel through the countryside, documenting field work. This chosen life comes with rewards and risks, from planting to harvest.
Kids create at activity stations along Faribault’s Central Avenue during the Fall Festival. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
KIDS COSTUMED as Big Bird, Buzz Lightyear, a firefighter, cowboy, dinosaur, pig, even a cupcake, and many other characters descended on Central Avenue Saturday for the Faribault Fall Festival. What a delight to see the street crowded with costumed kids and with adults enjoying a beautiful, sunshine-drenched autumn day in our historic downtown.
Creating art for buttons at an activity offered by Friends of Buckham Memorial Library. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Kid-painted pumpkins line the curb to dry. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
One of the many art stations set up for kids to create. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
The event featured not only kids’ activities and trick-or-treating, but also the Studio ARTour, fire department open house, vendor market and chili sampling.
Serving up chili for Faribault Transportation. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Next to his wife serving chili for Faribault Transportation, this volunteer serves Christ Lutheran Church chili. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Randy and I arrived at noon specifically to sample chili made by non-profits, businesses, candidates for public office, a church and other cooks. For $5 each, we enjoyed a tasty lunch of chili samples. But it wasn’t all about the food. Moving among chili serving stations set up on sidewalks along several blocks, I met new people, talked with friends, dodged costumed kids, all the while feeling a strong sense of community connection.
Faribault City Council candidate Natalie Halverson serves turkey pumpkin chili (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Fest-goers answered a question posed by candidate Halverson. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
City council candidate Natalie Halverson scooped out pumpkin chili made with foods sourced in Faribault, including turkey and beans. But she also served up an opportunity for locals to jot down their answers to this question: “What are the most important qualities of an effective Faribault City Council?” That engagement impressed me.
Fest-goers sample chili and other food made by Nancy Greer. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Around the block, Nancy Greer served her beefy chili, cornbread, cheese and crackers with a pepper spread, and mini cupcakes on a festive table outside Our Place on 3rd. Like Halverson, she offered more. Greer shared mental health and suicide prevention information, handing me a flier about World Mental Health Day on October 10 and Recovery Road MN. The Recovery Road team is walking 1,776 miles to raise awareness about youth mental health and reduce the stigma.
A beautiful autumn-themed centerpiece crafted by Nancy Greer for her chili serving table. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Greer’s care, compassion, generosity and optimism—she wore a butterfly tee emblazoned with “BELIEVE in who you are”—left me feeling really good. I walked away with a business-sized card telling me “SOMETIMES YOU FORGET you’re AWESOME. SO THIS IS YOUR REMINDER.” The flip side of the card included validating words such as strength, bravery, smartness and love.
Launching stuffed animals. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
All around me I witnessed and felt the love. Families walking together. Grandparents, parents and volunteers leading, assisting or simply standing by as kids painted small pumpkins, colored cloth trick-or-treat bags, jumped in a bouncy house, launched stuffed animals toward a dinosaur, created sand and button art, and more.
Signage marks one of two Studio ARTour sites in downtown Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Creatives brought their homemade and handcrafted goods to sell in downtown Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Vendors selling everything from sweet treats to handcrafted items lined the center of Central Avenue.
Family activities set up in a block of Central Avenue. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
I didn’t hit every aspect of the Faribault Fall Festival. But I experienced enough to feel the strong sense of community created by this event. It’s good for the heart and soul of a community to come together, to have fun, to appreciate one another, and to recognize that this city we call home is worth celebrating.
I love to follow gravel roads into the countryside, here northeast of Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
FOR THOSE OF US raised on farms, autumn draws us into the countryside like moths navigating toward a porch light.
At the bottom of a steep hill, a grain truck sits beside cornfields, unharvested to the left, and with harvest in progess, right. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
It is the sights, sounds and smells of harvest that pull me into the land, deep into rural Minnesota this time of year. Here farmers labor to bring in the crops before winter settles in.
A farm site northeast of Faribault hugs fields. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
For me, this is a sensory experience that takes me back six decades to the southwestern Minnesota crop and dairy farm of my childhood. While farm equipment has changed and most farmers farm much more land than my dad ever did, harvest is still harvest.
Picking corn northeast of Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
A farmer steers his combine toward a grain truck to unload just harvested corn. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
Transferring corn from combine to grain truck. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
Dust flies as combines chomp across corn and soybean fields. Engines roar. Golden kernels of corn and orbs of soybeans flow from combines into trucks and grain wagons. The land smells of earth and drying fields, a familiar scent even now decades removed from farm life.
Corn flows from combine into grain truck. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
I can almost feel the pressure farmers experience while they race against Mother Nature to finish the harvest. Long days and nights in the field are all part of harvesting as farmers gather in a growing season of efforts. And then hope for good crop prices.
West of Montgomery a tractor pulls a grain wagon along a gravel road near Richter Woods County Park. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
There’s so much uncertainty in farming. So much hinging on weather, the economy, the market. So many decisions to make about when to sell, when to store, when to invest in new equipment and much more. I couldn’t handle the stress.
This time of year, parked grain trucks are a common site along fields and roads, this one by a cornfield in the Nerstrand area. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
Farming is not easy with its risks and challenges and uncertainties. Yet, there’s a certain reward for crop farmers in seeing seeds they’ve sown germinate and grow into thriving plants under the spring and summer sun. There’s a certain satisfaction in harvesting those mature crops each September and October.
Northeast of Faribault, a colorful tree line backdrops harvested fields. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
And for me, raised on the land and witness to many harvests, I feel memories rushing back as I watch combines move across farm fields deep in the southern Minnesota countryside. I feel reconnected to the land, the place that embraced and helped shape me as a person, writer, photographer and poet.
This towering maple on the campus of the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf in Faribault is by far the most vibrant orange tree I’ve seen this fall. I took this photo nearly two weeks ago. The leaves are no longer as brilliant and many have fallen. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
FROM CITY STREETS to gravel roads, Randy and I have traveled many miles in October to view the fall colors. Autumn rates, undeniably, as my favorite season except for the part of knowing what comes next—the cold and snow of a Minnesota winter.
A full view of that MSAD maple, photographed on October 12. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
We’ve stayed close to home, driving around our home county of Rice and also heading into portions of neighboring Le Sueur County, then Nicollet and Blue Earth counties. Admittedly, the lack of color has sometimes disappointed us. Blame the current drought, the too-warm weather or the hazy, dusty skies of windy days. Yet, the color is there, just not as abundant or brilliant as some years.
One of my favorite spots in rural Rice County is Valley Grove, two aged churches atop a hill near Nerstrand. Views and fall colors are beautiful here. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
A colorful tree line backdrops Valley Grove Cemetery. On this visit, skies were mostly cloudy and hazy. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
These beautiful trees hug the bluffs along the Straight River near downtown Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
Favorite area fall color spots include Valley Grove churches near Nerstrand Big Woods State Park, Dudley Lake in Rice County and right here in Faribault, along city streets, on the campus of the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf, along the Straight River bluffs and even in our own backyard.
Setting out to fish on Dudley Lake Sunday afternoon. This was photographed from the dock at the public boat landing. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
It’s not too late to catch some of the colors. But they are fading, morphing, with many trees now stripped of leaves.
The Nicollet County Trail Association is hosting a second weekend of the Haunted Hayride from 7-11 p.m. October 28-29 at Riverside Park-Mill Pond Municipal Campground in St. Peter. The ride will wind through woods. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
Every leaf is worth study and appreciation for its fall beauty. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
Fall is a popular time for church dinners, including this one advertised on a flyer taped to the checkout counter at the St. Peter Thrift Store, St. Peter. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
We hope to take one last fall color drive along the Mississippi River in southeastern Minnesota…if it’s not too late. Time is fleeting.
I photographed this bucolic rural scene along Canby Way just outside Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
Fall color drives are rooted within me. As a child, my parents, siblings and I piled into the Chevy each autumn for a Sunday afternoon meander along the Minnesota River Valley from the Granite Falls area to Morton. That annual outing imprinted upon me the seasonal beauty of September and October in Minnesota. I felt then, and still feel now, a close connection to the land during fall color drives.
More colorful trees, photographed October 12, on the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf campus. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
There weren’t a lot of colorful trees on the rural southwestern Minnesota prairie where I grew up. There weren’t even all that many trees. Maybe that’s why I appreciate the trees blazing orange, red and yellow into the landscape in this area of Minnesota.
Monday morning I stood in my backyard and aimed by camera lens upward to my neighbors’ trees with the fading moon in the backdrop sky. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
I love slowing down to view stunning tree lines or a single brilliant red leaf. The nuances of nature, of the countryside, of small towns this time of year are worth noticing. And appreciating. Soon winter will be upon us. Stark. Devoid of color.
The Horseshoe Lake cabin where we stay once or twice yearly. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
CLOSING UP THE CABIN (not ours) proved more than a work weekend. Beyond pulling in the dock, mowing, raking, trimming trees, gathering sticks, cleaning rain gutters, scrubbing rust stains from the shower, draining the water heater and more, this was about family.
September sunrise on Horseshoe Lake. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
A spirit of teamwork, of gratitude, of enjoying this place along Horseshoe Lake in Mission Township in the Brainerd lakes area, prevailed. And it was all because of family. I love the Helbling family, which I’ve been part of for 42 years by way of marrying into it.
Gnomes were recently hidden in Mission Park, which is located several miles from the cabin. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
Randy and I joined three of his sisters, their husbands, and a niece and her family last weekend on this property his youngest sister and husband so graciously share. What a gift this has been to us. I love spending time in the quiet northwoods, immersed in nature, creating memories not only with Randy, but also with our eldest daughter, her husband and our two grandchildren. Campfires with s’mores, always s’mores. Walks in Mission Park. Lakeside dining. Fishing and swimming. Ice cream from Lake Country Crafts & Cones. Pizza from Rafferty’s. Great beer and conversation at 14 Lakes Craft Brewing. Day trips into nearby small towns. Lounging on the beach reading a book. Lying in the hammock. Watching loons and eagles. Doing nothing.
This visit we stayed in the main house, a section of which is shown here. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
And now, on this first weekend in October, we trekked three hours north to the cabin for the sole purpose of preparing the property for winter. An added bonus came in time with family. We worked together. Ate together. Laughed. Shared stories and memories and updates. We also built memories.
On a September cabin stay, three deer crossed the driveway. And we discovered bear scat, as did Randy this visit. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
Homemade caramel rolls baked by Vivian reminded us of Mom Helbling, who died unexpectedly 31 years ago at the age of 59. Much too soon. Jon’s smash burgers reminded me of my mom, prompting me to share a story about the hamburgers she fried to hockey puck doneness, the reason I didn’t eat burgers up until several years ago. Jon’s were nothing like hers. He’s quite the cook, I discovered, as I enjoyed his stir fry, his scrambled eggs, his smash burgers.
September moonrise over Horseshoe Lake. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
I also enjoyed getting to know four of my great nieces and nephews. We played Hi Ho Cherry-O!, Go Fish and some panda bear game I never fully understood despite 8-year-old Emmett’s patience in explaining it to me. Autumn insisted I work on a princess puzzle with her, even though I insisted I do not do puzzles. I should note here that the Helbling family loves puzzles. Autumn insisted I help her, also insisting that I not quit. The first grader has a strong personality, a strength as I see it.
Squirrels were busy, too, as winter approaches. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
Three-year-old Quentin checked my heart several times as he did most family members after finding a stethoscope among the dress-up clothes. I also formed a firefighting crew, enlisting Emmett as acting fire chief when I had to step away to do some actual work. And sweet little redhead Annika, almost one and who looks a lot like a Who from Whoville, pretty much had her great aunt doing whatever she wished. That included jumping on my lap. My arms got quite the work-out.
Acorns, leaves and pine needles continued to fall as our crew headed home. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
And so these are the memories I gathered on this work weekend while squirrels scampered, acorns pelted roofs, the night wind howled, dust swirled, and pine needles and branches fell. Up north at the cabin is as much about place as it is about family and the memories we make there.
Individual leaves, like this maple, are works of art. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
TEMPS DIPPING INTO THE LOW 20s definitely feel more like winter than autumn here in southern Minnesota. I pulled on my parka, stocking cap and mittens earlier this week for my morning walk.
A still colorful treeline behind Pollard Hall. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
But the weekend, oh, the weekend, even if only in the 30s, was a wonderful one for final fall walks. I wanted one last glimpse of the foliage. Leaves have dropped from many trees, but some remain, like stubborn, defiant kids refusing to leave the playground.
A solitary oak set against the backdrop of Noyes Hall is simply stunning. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
Per our usual weekend walking route, Randy and I headed to the campus of the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf on Faribault’s east side. I love walking here. It’s quiet, secluded and just plain achingly beautiful. From aged limestone buildings to green space to a wooded area behind the buildings, there’s much to appreciate. Nature and old architecture always appeal to me as does a safe, unimpeded place to walk.
The woods I was drawn to explore. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
Typically we stick to following sidewalks or crossing parking lots. But this time we diverged into the wooded area behind Pollard Hall, a boarded up building and the HVAC and maintenance headquarters. I’d previously seen people with their dogs tracking across the grass near woods’ edge. But we’d never detoured to explore, mostly because in the summer and early autumn the woods appear a dense forest. Now with most leaves fallen, the space opened up, drawing me in.
We followed a leaf-strewn, narrow dirt path for a ways into the woods. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
Since I’m directionally challenged in a town that is not prairie grid straight, I wondered what lay beyond the woods, below the bluff. After a bit of crunching over leaves, dodging branches and skirting trees, I saw the answer. Below lay the river and train tracks and Straight River Apartments next to Fleckenstein Bluffs Park. Finally, I understood my geographical placement.
Woods, hills, fallen leaves and creek bed meld behind MSAD. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
Mostly I took in the topography of hills bumping into each other, a dry creekbed twisting between. Yellow leaves covered the hillsides as thick as shag carpeting, but much lovelier.
Oak leaves blanket the lawn. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
Once out of the woods, Randy alerted me to two deer near the HVAC building. A third had already run away upon spotting us. But the other two stood still as statues, fully aware of our presence. We mimicked them, opting to stand quietly and appreciate their unexpected appearance. As much as I dislike deer along roadways, I find them endearing in any other location. Finally the pair decided they’d had enough of this stare off. They white-tailed it across the grass, disappearing over a hill.
Sometimes you have to look up, directly up, to see the beauty, like this oak tree. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
And so we continued on, me pulling out my cellphone once again to snap photos of the remaining colorful trees. My mind understands that soon this landscape will be devoid of color, transformed to the black-and-white of winter. But on this weekend, I pushed those thoughts mostly aside, focusing instead on autumn’s lingering beauty.
Stunning fall colors along Farwell Avenue north of Warsaw. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
AUTUMN BECKONED US RECENTLY to forgo the yard work, the half-finished interior paint job, the anything that would keep us at home. Rather, we hit the backroads, taking in the glorious fall colors which finally exploded. I can’t recall leaves ever turning this late in the season here.
One of my favorite old barns in Rice County, located along Farwell Avenue north of Warsaw. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
This region of Minnesota seems vastly undiscovered as an autumn leaf-peeping destination. But I learned years ago that the Faribault area offers stunning fall foliage, especially along our many area lakes and in stands of trees among rural rolling hills.
This gravel road, Farwell Avenue, took us past beautiful fall foliage. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
I like nothing better than to follow gravel roads that twist through the countryside. The slower pace connects me to the land, to the lovely scenes unfolding before me. Dust clouds trail vehicles rumbling along sometimes washboard surfaces. Combines kick up dust, too, as farmers harvest corn and soybeans, grain trucks parked nearby to hold the bounty.
A rare find, a vintage corn crib packed with field corn in northwestern Rice County, in the Lonsdale area. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
Even inside our van, I can smell the scent of earth rising from freshly-tilled fields. Some acreage lies bare while others still hold endless rows of ripened crops awaiting harvest.
The Theis family has created a welcoming outdoor space for Apple Creek Orchard visitors to gather beside a fireplace against a wooded backdrop. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
At Apple Creek Orchard west of Faribault, families gathered on a sunny weekend afternoon to enjoy fun on-site activities like apple picking, bean bag toss, apple slinging, wagon rides, jump pad, corn maze and more. We wandered the grounds, admiring the improvements and expansions made by the Theis family to grow their orchard in to an agri-entertainment destination. They’ve also added an event center to host weddings and other gatherings.
Autumn-themed pillows are propped on the sitting area next to the outdoor fireplace at Apple Creek Orchard. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
As Randy paid for a half-peck of my favorite Minnesota-developed SweeTango pulled from a store cooler, I greeted Tami Theis, congratulated her on their upgrades. She inquired about my family. I got to know Tami and her daughter Amber sometime back while at the orchard. They are a delight— friendly, caring and, oh, so welcoming to everyone. Amber was running the concession stand on this busy afternoon and I gave her a hard time after learning the donut machine wasn’t working and I would get none of the mini donuts I craved.
Dudley Lake, one of my favorite places to see colorful lakeside treesin Rice County.(Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
No matter my disappointment in the lack of a sweet treat, nothing else about our afternoon outing disappointed. Onward Randy and I went. He turned the van left out of Apple Creek Orchard onto the paved roadway. Eventually we took gravel roads again, meandering past lakes and fields and farm sites, stopping occasionally so I could snap photos.
My next-door neighbor’s flaming maple. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
I love this time of year. The scent of decaying leaves. The sight of trees flaming red, yellow, orange. The muted fields that define the landscape. The apples and pumpkins and gourds. The bold blue sky. The bringing in of the harvest.
Looking up at our backyard maple, the wooded hillside and at our neighbor’s trees on a recent afternoon. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
Back home, the down side of autumn awaited us in outdoor chores—removing leaves from rain gutters, raking/mulching layers of maple leaves in the backyard, washing windows… To everything there is a season. And the season of autumn means taking time to view the colorful fall foliage when the trees are turning. The work can wait.
Minnesota is known for its beautiful fall colors, although 2023 colors were not as brilliant as previous autumns due to drought and temps. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2021)
DURING THESE FINAL DAYS of October, when the sun blazes warmth into crisp days and leaves fall and pumpkins lie exposed in fields, vines withered, there’s a rush to pack in final autumn fun. And I did just that Sunday afternoon at Larson’s Bridgewater Farm on the northwest edge of Northfield.
Pumpkins galore, not at Bridgewater farm, but at a southern Minnesota apple orchard. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo October 2021)
Here, on this working farm turned pumpkin patch destination, Randy and I joined our eldest and her family, among many multi-generational families focused on an experience that certainly beats picking pumpkins from a retail store display. This is all about connecting to each other and to the land. And this is all about building memories that remain long after the last pumpkin has gone into the compost pile.
A barrel train heads toward the pole shed, aside the corn maze at Bridgewater Farm. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
I observed so many smiles, so much joy, so much exuberance. I remember thinking, as I cozied next to my daughter Amber at the back of a flatbed wagon pulled by a John Deere tractor, that life doesn’t get much better than this. Here we were, strangers crammed onto wagon benches, bumping around the farm, past the cattle and pole sheds and cornfields under a clear, sunny October sky. It was as if nothing existed beyond this acreage. I felt overwhelming peace, a surge of serenity in the simplicity of the moment.
Randy and I pose next to the old John Deere tractor. (Photo credit: Amber Schmidt)
Perhaps my farm background factored into my personal reaction. The sight of dried cornfields, the scent of manure, the fenced beef cattle and calves (especially the calves), the stacked hay bales, the tread of tractor tires embedded in mud, the old John Deere tractor (a photo op backdrop), all proved nostalgically uplifting.
Among several fun photo cut-outs in Bridgewater Farm’s Photo Alley. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
I doubt my grandchildren noticed any of this, except perhaps the barnyard smell. Izzy, 7, and Isaac, 4, were too busy enjoying the many kid-based activities offered at Bridgewater Farm. Twice they rode the barrel train that looped through a machine shed holding hay, past the livestock and then back. They climbed weathered bales stacked high, slides zooming them back to ground level. They twisted through the kids’ corn maze with us, their parents later following the more challenging adult version, which the grandparents opted out of to oversee the kids as they climbed the haystacks once again and then moved on to the corn box.
The kids’ hands-down favorite seemed to be the corn pit, where they shoveled kernels, filled pails, covered themselves in corn. Again, memories rushed back. Not of playing in shelled corn. But of decades ago farm work, of pushing wheelbarrows full of ground corn down the barn aisle to feed the cows. My grandchildren will never know that rural life, only the stories I share with them of yesteryear, of when Grandma was growing up on the farm.
A goat on a family member’s farm, similar to one at Bridgewater Farm. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo 2018)
I enticed them to pet the silky ear of a goat before we headed away from the fenced goats and sheep to take posed photos at the seasonally-themed photo cut-outs. I didn’t take many photos during our afternoon outing, choosing to enjoy being in the moment without the distraction of photography. I left my 35mm camera at home. Intentionally. The daughter snapped plenty of images with her cellphone.
Izzy, especially tall for her age, and her brother check their height at Bridgewater Farm. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
When we pedaled kid-sized and adult-sized tricycles (yes, me and the other adults, too, except for the too-tall son-in-law) around the trike race track, I remembered a black-and-white photo taken of me as a teen riding my youngest brother’s trike on my childhood farm, long legs bent awkwardly to the side, broad smile across my face. I smiled just as wide at Bridgewater Farm, my long legs bent awkwardly as I raced after my granddaughter peddling with her long legs bent awkwardly.
A field of pumpkins photographed in southern Minnesota in 2022. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo September 2022)
Soon the grandkids were pulling a wagon to the pumpkin patch. And when they weren’t looking, Grandpa scooted on and the pulling halted and they turned to see us all laughing. Eventually we found just the right pumpkins hefted from the pumpkin patch, weighed and then loaded into the car.
What a fun-filled afternoon on the farm—one of nostalgia for me, but more importantly of experiencing simple joys with my family. And it all started with the kids wanting to go to a pumpkin patch.
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FYI: Pumpkin patch season is winding down in Minnesota. Bridgewater Farm is offering special MEA hours this Thursday and Friday from noon to 5 pm. Otherwise the farm is open only on weekends, October 28-29 being the final weekend with hours from 11 am – 6 pm. Admission to the pumpkin patch is free with a $10/person cost for all activities, excluding apple cannon shooting. That costs an additional fee. Pumpkins are sold both pick-your-own or pre-picked.
TELL ME: Do you have a favorite pumpkin patch in Minnesota or elsewhere. Let’s hear where and why it’s a favorite.
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