Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Honoring mothers, including mine, on Mother’s Day May 7, 2026

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A photo of me with my mom taken several years before her death in 2022. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo by Randy Helbling)

AS MY FIFTH MOTHER’S DAY without my mom approaches, I’m thinking of her, missing her, remembering her.

She lived a long life, living until nearly ninety, something none of us expected given her heart issues. Several times we were called to her hospital bedside to say goodbye. I remember one instance when Mom was not expected to make it through the night. The next morning she woke up much-improved and told us, “I guess God wasn’t ready for this stubborn old lady.”

I’ll never forget that. But I would argue that Mom was not stubborn. She was kind, caring, compassionate, loving and patient. With six children, she had to be patient. I raised three children and understand the patience required of mothers.

We all hold memories of our moms—positive, negative and otherwise. Moms, like all of us, are imperfect. But they try. They do their best.

Mom’s journals. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)

And sometimes they leave us a gift that offers glimpses into their lives. My mom left a stack of notebooks journaling her life from 1947-2014 with a few years missing. These are not diaries with personal feelings and thoughts expressed, but rather a documentation of daily life.

I treasure these notebooks filled with her handwritten observations and notes about life in rural southwestern Minnesota. Hard work filled her days. I pulled out her stenographer’s notebook dated 70 years ago to learn what she was doing in the 10 days before my birth.

Even into her senior years, Mom was still working, supervising a family horseradish-making event and then counting jars of the condiment. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo 2012)

There was the usual washing clothes in the Maytag wringer washer, mending, housecleaning, baking and preparing meals. But Mom also picked grapes with my dad, made grape juice the next day and the following day made 32 jars of grape jelly and 18½ quarts of tomato juice. And she was only days away from delivering me.

The day before I was born, Mom dusted floors, baked bread and cherry nut cake, took 13 dozen eggs into town and then celebrated her wedding anniversary with her in-laws. I’m tired simply reading that list of work she accomplished while nine months pregnant.

At 3 a.m. the next morning, Mom awoke in labor and arrived at the Redwood Falls hospital at 4:20 a.m., giving birth to 8 lb 12 oz. me 36 minutes later. That’s cutting it close, in my opinion. But when you go into labor in the early morning, need to get your one-year-old son to his grandparents’ house, and then travel 20 miles to the hospital, well, the time lapse seems reasonable.

The only photo I have of my parents, Elvern and Arlene, with me as a baby. My dad is holding my oldest brother, Doug. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo)

Six days after my birth, Mom returned home. I should note here that on her fifth day in the hospital, Mom wrote, “Days are plenty long.” I suppose for a woman used to being busy all the time, lying around proved difficult. But she should have enjoyed the respite from work while she could.

Shortly, Mom was back in full work mode, not only caring for a newborn and a one-year-old and doing other routine household chores, but also feeding a crew of men picking corn on the farm for several days running.

Oh, how I admire this generation of Minnesota farm women who fed and cared for their families and others without the modern conveniences of today. No automatic washer, dryer, dishwasher, microwave. No bathroom or phone in our old farmhouse. Food came mostly from the farm, not the grocery store. And that meant gardening and putting up produce.

A sample entry from Mom’s journals. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)

I’m thankful my mom found time to journal daily. Even if her entries were only several lines long, she apparently thought this documentation important. And I suppose in farming it was, allowing her and my dad to look back on the previous year’s weather, planting and harvesting progress, and such. But I think, too, writing in those spiral bound notebooks gave her a creative outlet and time for herself.

My mom saved everything, including this Mother’s Day card I made for her in elementary school. I cut a flower from a seed catalog to create the front of this card. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted image)

Mother’s Day offers a time to reflect on motherhood. Most give selflessly, love unconditionally, do the best they can. Mine did. And she left, too, her words chronicling everyday life as a mother and as a farm wife. As a writer I cherish this gift, not only on Mother’s Day, but always.

© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Kenyon up close, the details of community April 30, 2026

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A street scene in the heart of downtown Kenyon. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

TO WRITE A FICTIONAL BOOK, you begin with an idea, which births words. Words beget sentences, then paragraphs, then chapters. But the process is not quite that simple. Creating a work of fiction requires attention to detail from character development to dialogue to setting to plot. I’ve written short stories that have published, thus understand the craft.

I want to hone in on one word—details. They are a hallmark of a good story, of creative writing. And they are also the hallmark of small towns. Let me explain.

Just as you drive into Kenyon from the west, you’ll see this TARDIS in a residential yard. It’s the featured mode of transportation in the BBC sci-fi television show “Doctor Who.”

How many times have you driven through a community without really seeing it, without noticing the rich details that, like details in a story, make it unique, interesting?

I notice the little things. Perhaps it’s my journalism and photography background that draw me to look closer, beyond the surface. I seek out anything that is different, unusual, surprising. And I’m never disappointed.

Help wanted in Kenyon. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

Drive slowly around any small town or walk along Main Street with a focused perspective and you will soon see the details that integrate into the story line of a community. That includes Kenyon, a Goodhue County town of around 1,900 best known for its Boulevard of Roses.

Sign painter Mike Meyer, formerly of Mazeppa, painted the sign for the former Martin Fox Garage. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo 2026)

Minnesota State Highway 60, along which all those roses grow, runs right through the heart of Kenyon, intersecting with state highway 56. The intersection thrums with traffic. But I wonder how many motorists notice the bold Fox’s Garage Firestone Tires sign painted on the side of a stalwart brick building half a block away from that busy intersection? It’s an artsy nod to local history.

This memorial is located in the veterans park along Minnesota State Highway 56. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

Nearby, at the Kenyon Veterans Memorial Park, I discovered Jacob’s Tree and a plaque honoring Jacob Wetterling and all missing children. It was an unexpected memorial in a place focused on veterans. But it also seemed fitting to honor the 11-year-old Minnesota boy who was abducted by a stranger in 1989, his remains found 27 years later. Jacob was, after all, a small town boy grabbed while biking to a video store.

The video store is closed, but the sign remains. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

Kenyon once had a video store, now a tobacco and vape shop. The K-Town Video sign tells me that.

For a small town, Kenyon offers several downtown food options, including Che Che’s Lunchera at a former corner gas station. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

Likewise, remnants of fuel pricing signage still banner a former gas station where today Che Che’s Lunchera food truck serves up Mexican food under the station canopy.

Old, faded signage posted long ago for snowmobilers. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

Details like these point to a town’s history, to its evolution. Back at the vets park, a fading vintage sign once directed snowmobilers to gas and food along a designated trail route.

The newest sign at Kenyon Meats. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

I hold a fondness for signs and Kenyon offers plenty of homegrown signage. That includes clever and humorous messages posted outside Kenyon Meats along highway 60. I expect many motorists have noticed SMOKE MEAT NOT METH and DON’T FRY BACON NAKED. And now the newest—YOUR MOM LIKES OUR MEAT.

A tractor and a pick-up truck, rural hallmarks. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

But it takes a turn onto a side street and through an alley to see an old John Deere tractor parked next to a pick-up truck behind a building. This is a farming community rooted in rural.

A basketball hoop in an unexpected place. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

Along that same alley, next to the post office parking lot, I noticed a basketball hoop standing between dumpsters and a recycling bin. It seemed out of place until I realized there’s probably an apartment above the post office. The hoop hints at teens dribbling a basketball across the pavement on a hot summer evening, arms and legs flailing in a pick-up game, sweat beading their foreheads.

An honoring message on a door at the VFW. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

Across the street at the Kenyon VFW, I spotted the silhouette of a veteran on a side door with an honoring message of “WE SALUTE YOU.” More characters, more dialogue, more stories. On this visit to Kenyon, I looked for details that often go unnoticed. And when I looked, I saw community.

© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Into rural southern Minnesota during spring planting April 28, 2026

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Planting just off Gates Avenue along 230th St. E. east of Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo April 2026)

MY PHOTOGRAPHIC GOAL on a recent morning trip to and from neighboring Kenyon was simple enough: Photograph spring planting. But it wasn’t until Randy and I left this small Goodhue County town that I spotted field work underway.

On the drive over from Faribault, I saw a guy picking rock with a rock picker. He had uncovered an oversized rock, too big to move. That led to a brief conversation about our childhood rock picking experiences. Rock pickers were kids like us, not machines. They did not yet exist.

We assessed, as we headed east, that the absence of farmers in fields meant they’d either finished spring planting or had not yet begun due to no-tillage farming practices.

A winding road leads into Monkey Valley. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

Once we left Kenyon, heading southwest into Monkey Valley, a picturesque rural area of woods, rolling hills and valley, creek, the North Fork of the Zumbro River, farm sites and fields, a tractor came into view. I must pause here to explain that Monkey Valley, as local lore claims, was named after monkeys that long ago escaped from a traveling circus into the valley. True? I don’t know. But it’s a good story.

Leveling the field with a roller in Monkey Valley. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

I found that first farmer, pulling a roller across the land leveling the earth, just before the gravel road wound into the woods of Monkey Valley. I realized how much farming has changed in the decades since I left rural southwestern Minnesota. There’s more specialized equipment. Bigger implements to work more acres. Different methods of farming that are more environmentally-friendly.

The woods of Monkey Valley. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

As we followed the gravel road, our van kicking up dust on an especially windy morning, I admired the distant dense woods nestling a farm field under a semi-cloudy sky. Patches of blue peeked through the gray of building rain clouds.

The Old Stone Church and cemetery in Monkey Valley. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

Soon we happened upon the Hauge Old Stone Church built in the 1870s, a place we’ve previously toured during an annual open house. We stopped only long enough for a photo. No meandering among the graves this time as we are wont to do when coming across a country cemetery.

An old silo and barn ruins. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

Farm sites hug the road here in Monkey Valley. While many are well-kept, some show the marks of time, like an abandoned silo standing next to the walls of a collapsed barn. I always feel melancholy in the presence of barns gone, their ruins like rural gravestones.

Wild turkeys cross a rural road near Kenyon. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

Not far ahead, life teemed in a flock of wild turkeys. I exited the van, moved slowly toward them, hoping to sneak closer for a better photo. But, like all wildlife, they are tuned in to danger and quickly dashed across the road from one ditch to the other. Never mind me and my photographic wishes.

Signs on a tree advise motorists to drive slowly. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

Traveling on back gravel roads requires a slower pace. A sign posted on a roadside tree instructed: SLOW UR (sic) ROLL.

Cows at Donkers Farms. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

Continuing west toward Faribault, we slowed our roll for a herd of Holsteins fenced in the cow yard at Donkers Farm. I hold a special fondness for cows. I spent my formative years in the barn, scooping silage, pushing a wheelbarrow full of ground feed, feeding cows and calves, bedding straw, forking hay, shoveling manure, carrying milk pails and more. That imprinted upon me the value of hard work, of a farm family working together, of a rural way of life.

Tilling and applying anhydrous ammonia fertilizer in a field along 230th St. E. off Gates Avenue. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

All across southern Minnesota, farmers prep the land, apply fertilizer, sow corn and soybeans. They invest not only their time, efforts and finances in the land, but also their hopes. Hope for timely rains. Hope for good growing weather. Hope for an eventual bountiful harvest. And then hope for a good market with high commodity prices.

Another farmer in the field east of Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)

So much hinges on hope. I see that on this day, on this drive past the fields and farm sites of southern Minnesota.

© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Moon musings April 3, 2026

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The rising moon, photographed in the parking lot at St. John’s United Church of Christ, Wheeling Township, rural Faribault, on Palm Sunday. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo March 2026)

HEY, DIDDLE, DIDDLE, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon.

Goodnight room. Goodnight moon. Goodnight cow jumping over the moon.

Blue moon. Harvest moon. Full moon.

Moon, moon, moon. Whether in a nursery rhyme, a children’s picture book or in a weather report, the moon has always focused our attention.

MOON MEMORIES

As a child, I found myself drawn to the full moon of harvest season. On an October evening, when extended family gathered in a small farmhouse to celebrate my bachelor Uncle Mike’s birthday, the moon shone upon the farmyard and surrounding fields. In the shadows, my cousins and I played “Starlight, Moonlight,” a nocturnal hide-and-seek, until we were called back to the farmhouse for soda pop. There we gathered around a wooden crate of bottled pop while moths beat their wings against the screen door in a desperate attempt to reach a porch light.

Light. In the deep cold of a winter evening, moonlight guided me from barn to house on my childhood farm. My boots crunched against the packed snow, my breath haloing around me, my fingertips numb from doing chores. High above, the moon hovered.

MOON WALK

On July 20, 1969, the moon morphed well beyond a literary subject or a guiding light for me. I watched Neil Armstrong step onto and walk on the moon from the comfort of Martin and Hattie Schmidt’s living room in Posen Township on the southwestern Minnesota prairie. My family was visiting them for the evening as was customary back in those days.

MOON GO-AROUND

All these moon memories rushed back on Wednesday, April 1, when Artemis II launched into space for a go-around, not a landing, on the moon. This time I sat in the comfort of my living room, watching lift-off on my flat screen color television, not a black-and-white bulky TV.

While I didn’t experience the same thrill I felt as a child witnessing the moon walk, the blasting of a rocket into space still impressed me. Such power. Such an unimaginable concept that four astronauts (including a woman) could travel into deep space, thousands and thousands and thousands of miles to the far side of the moon.

And then home. To the moon of nursery rhymes, children’s picture books, seasons and memories.

TELL ME: What are your personal moon stories?

© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Musings during a multi-day southern Minnesota blizzard March 15, 2026

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My husband, Randy, blows snow from our driveway Sunday morning. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo March 2026)

WHILE I SAT IN THE RECLINER hand-stitching loosened seams in a cuff of Randy’s flannel shirt and listening to “Face the Nation,” my husband was outdoors firing up the snowblower.

We are in the middle of a major winter storm in much of Minnesota. Snow began falling here Saturday evening and continues with some nine-plus inches of accumulation thus far in Faribault. Winds are whipping the new-fallen snow into a blizzard with no travel advised, roads closed, and more cancellations than I could possibly list. That includes cancellation of church services.

Little Prairie United Methodist Church, rural Dundas. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)

Across town, while I was stitching, then dicing celery and onions for the Chicken Wild Rice Hotdish I’ll make for supper, my friend Marian was tucked inside her home watching Little Prairie United Methodist Church services online. Broadcast not from the rural Dundas church, but from Pastor Penny Bonsell’s living room in nearby Northfield.

“She (the pastor) was in her slippers with a cup of coffee and her puppy needing to be removed from front and center!” Marian shared with me. “A close neighbor trudged through the snow to play the piano and she and her husband have beautiful voices. The puppy didn’t sing!”

Marian invited me to watch the service. I did. After I finished the breakfast dishes, ate the brunch Randy made, washed dishes again, and video chatted with my second daughter and one-year-old grandson four hours away in southeastern Wisconsin. Only light snow is falling in Madison.

Randy had just finished clearing the driveway and sidewalk when the snowplow came by, filling in the ends of the drive and walk with a deep ridge of snow. Back to blowing. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo March 2026)

Snow is still piling up here, falling thick and heavy. But the Rev. Bonsell gave thanks for the new white snow, which “reminds us to be clean and make a new start in life.” I appreciated her positive perspective, which can be difficult to consider when you’re out shoveling and blowing away snow in fierce winds as Randy did for 1½ hours this morning.

But as I watched the Little Prairie UMC Church service, I felt such peace. Pastor Bonsell has a calming voice, graceful and poetic. As she led the service from her cozy living room, fire blazing in the fireplace, slippers on her feet, sipping coffee, rocking in a rocking chair, I felt the comfort of words offered in song, prayer and in her message, “Restores My Soul” (based on Psalm 23). Said the pastor, “You are never, ever alone.” She also talked about light and darkness, referencing Ephesians 5:8-14 and choosing to live in the light, to choose good.

I took this photo early Sunday morning as the wind-driven snow began to pile up against the garage door. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo March 2026)

I didn’t intend to watch a church service when I was shaping the idea of this blog post around our winter storm. I attended worship at my church last evening given this morning’s service was canceled. But then my friend Marian’s words about the puppy and the pastor in slippers drew me to the Little Prairie UMC YouTube video.

Once online, I immediately felt at home in the pastor’s living room. I noticed a pillow with the directive to “Be Kind” positioned on a child-sized rocking chair. The fire blazed. The puppy roamed. Pianist Peter Webb sat poised at the piano.

Just like the Rev. Bonsell, I advised Randy to be careful while clearing the heavy snow. Here he blows open the sidewalk with dried hydrangea in the foreground. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo March 2026)

And the Rev. Bonsell, in her welcome on this “snowstormy day” (her words), advised everyone to be careful when shoveling the heavy snow. Then, before beginning the worship service, she asked for more people to make pies and salads for a March 27 Fish Dinner. She announced the Holy Week schedule and a 90th birthday party open house for twins Doris and Doug, showed a video of a youth group bowling outing, and more.

And during a sharing of the peace, typically hand-shaking, the pastor and her husband, Tom, kissed. That sealed it. The snow may be falling at a rapid rate as I write. The wind may be creating chaos in the world outside. But in a small southern Minnesota living room, a pastor brought peace and love in the middle of a blizzard that won’t end until 7 a.m. Monday.

© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Through my camera lens: Rural Minnesota in March March 11, 2026

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I’m drawn to photograph barns, this one along Goodhue County Road 11 west of Pine Island. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo March 2026)

IN THIS GO-BETWEEN TIME of almost spring here in southern Minnesota, the landscape appears mostly winter drab, plain, devoid of many photo opportunities. That is until I look beyond the bare-branched trees, the barren land, the basic gray of March skies.

The brightest farm outbuilding I’ve ever seen is this one along Minnesota State Highway 60 between Faribault and Kenyon. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo March 2026)

Color, although not abundant, can still be found among the neutral hues.

Camera in hand, I watched for bright spots and more on a recent business road trip with my husband to Rochester. I kept an eye out for anything I thought would be photo-worthy. Or interesting. My definition of both may differ from yours.

Along Goodhue County Road 11 to the west of Pine Island, I found lots of well-kept red barns to photograph. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo March 2026)

But I enjoy on-the-road, literally, photography—taking photos from the passenger seat inside a moving vehicle. This requires awareness, anticipation and quick framing with the camera set at a fast shutter speed. Clean, or mostly clean, windows help as does a smooth road.

Sometimes I get the image I want. And sometimes I get an unfocused photo. It’s a bit of a crapshoot.

Fog shrouds bins and a grain drying complex along US Highway 14 west of Rochester. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo March 2026)

Regardless of photo outcomes, I’m content to scan my surroundings, appreciating the nuances of rural Minnesota. On this particular Thursday morning along US Highway 14 about 20 minutes west of Rochester, I was drawn first to fog enveloping a farm site. Gray on gray on gray on gray. Gray skies. Gray bins. Gray grain dryers. Long gray metal buildings.

The restored historic Ear of Corn Water Tower near Graham Park in Rochester on a recent gray morning. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo March 2026)

Once in Rochester, color popped at me from a roadside attraction, the 151-foot tall Ear of Corn Water Tower built in 1931 for Reid, Murdoch & Co. The food cannery used the 50,000 gallon water tower in its canning operation, which included canning corn. The business changed hands twice before the plant closed in 2018. But the water tower landmark remains. I found it definitely photo-worthy as we passed by.

An American flag as photographed along US Highway 52 in Rochester. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo March 2026)

But something as simple as as an over-sized American flag flapping in the morning breeze, a red barn flashing color, a sprawling white farmhouse, a row of power lines, a distant farm site can grab my visual attention, too.

I always wanted to live in a sprawling farmhouse similar to this one along Goodhue County Road 11. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo March 2026)

I’m drawn to photograph rural scenes because of my farm background. Deep in my soul, I long to live again in the countryside, away from close neighbors, near nature, cocooned by quiet. But reality is that will never happen.

And so I find ways to reconnect with the land. In my writing. In my photography. In every season.

A farm site west of Pine Island along Goodhue County Road 11. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo March 2026)

Every farm field holds the hope of a farmer. Every farm site holds memories and hard work. And dreams. I see this on the road, through my camera lens, as my focus shifts with every mile covered.

Kenyon-Wanamingo High School sporting accomplishments banner signs. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo March 2026)

I view an ever-changing rural winter landscape of red barns, aged farmhouses, towering silos, untilled fields and then, on the edge of Kenyon, signage boasting local high school sporting championships. Such signs are common in small Minnesota communities.

I zoomed in on this eagle flying high above the land outside Kenyon. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo March 2026)

Nearing the end of this quick road trip, an eagle leads us along Minnesota State Highway 60 west of Kenyon before veering to the right. When I see this majestic bird on this day, I feel as I always do about eagles—in awe of their size, their power, their speed. I snap three quick frames.

Massive power lines stretch seemingly into infinity along US Highway 14 somewhere between Owatonna and Rochester. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo March 2026)

Time passes. Miles pass. Rural southern Minnesota unfolds before me, captured through the lens of my camera on an almost-spring day in March.

© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

My top 12 (not 10) southern Minnesota people photos from 2025 December 31, 2025

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When I walked into Ron’s hodgepodge of a shop in downtown Waterville, I found him working on a puzzle. I asked to take his photo and he agreed. He loves puzzling and that shows. I really like this everyday slice-of-life-in-a-small-town portrait. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)

THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, I take thousands of photos, many of them at public events. At these gatherings, whether celebratory or somber, I am drawn to document moments of humanity. Perhaps it’s a look, a reaction, an interaction. I’ve been doing photography long enough to understand when something will make a good photo. And when I say “good,” I mean a well-composed image that tells a story and, hopefully, garners a reaction from anyone who sees it.

I come from a journalism background, earning a degree in mass communications, news-editorial emphasis, in 1978. I was required to take a few photography classes as part of that long ago degree. Those taught me the basics, which I carried with me to every newspaper reporting and freelance job I’ve ever held. I didn’t always have the luxury of a staff photographer. I was the reporter and the photographer.

In the decades since, from film to digital, I’ve gained confidence and skills in photography. And I continue to the love the craft. For me, photography centers on storytelling.

As I’ve been out and about in southern Minnesota during 2025, I’ve used my Canon EOS 60D, an older DSLR camera, to document what I’ve seen. Among the thousands of people photos I took this past year, I chose my top 12 to highlight in this end-of-year post. Only one image, the photo at the top of this post, was not photographed at a public gathering.

Enjoy! And feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.

I caught the moment a firefighter rang a bell outside the Faribault fire hall during a 9/11 commemoration. The morning light was perfect and everything fell into place to make this an especially moving photo. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo 2025)
A tender moment when a mom retied a ribbon on her daughter’s Czech costume during a dance at Montgomery’s Czech May Day celebration. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
Oktoberfest in Dundas provided plenty of photo ops, including this one where a young boy wanted to join the dancing adults. Or maybe he was just watching, happy to be on the sideline. Whatever, I like the photo a lot. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
In this inter-generational scene, a grandfather teaches marbles to his grandsons at the Valley Grove Country Social, rural Nerstrand. They were so intent on the game that they paid me no attention, just as I like it. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I found this scene humorous and likely relatable for every guy who has ever waited for their partner to finish shopping. I took the image outside RR Revival in Lonsdale during a craft show in that small town. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
If ever there was a photo that exudes love of country in rural Minnesota, it is this image of a wagonload of people heading to the Memorial Day program at the Cannon City Cemetery. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
In the context of everything happening in America, especially in Minnesota, this photo sends a strong message of American pride. These Somali-American children, U.S. flags in hand, watched the Memorial Day parade in downtown Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
As a cannon shot off during the Riverside Rendezvous & History Festival in Faribault, attendees were told to cover their ears for protection. I framed this scene to tell that story. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
There were no second chances to get this photo of two women greeting each other at a downtown Faribault Car Cruise Night. I love the joy I was able to photograph in one single shot. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 2025)
The Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Show tractor parade offers plenty of photo ops. I see total admiration on this young boy’s face and was delighted to photograph that sweet moment. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
I loved watching and documenting the younger and older generations shelling corn together at the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Show in a living rural history scene. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

© Copyright 2025 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

A Tale of Two Barn Sales September 30, 2025

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Autumn merch and nautical merch displayed against a small red shed at Nicole Maloney’s fall sale. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

THIS TIME OF YEAR in Minnesota, we not only usher in autumn but also the season of fall craft, collectible, vintage and antique sales. This past weekend, two women in the unincorporated hamlet of Cannon City just east of Faribault hosted two occasional seasonal sales.

Shoppers peruse goods inside and outside Debbie Glende’s barn as smoke wafts from a campfire. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

Both were marketed as barn sales—Nicole Maloney’s Mini Flea at the Red Barn and Debbie Glende’s The Barn Sale.

Halloween goods galore at the Mini Flea at the Red Barn. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

I shopped at both, located across the road from one another along Rice County Road 20/Cannon City Boulevard. I’ve been to Glende’s several times, but never Maloney’s although she’s sold goods in her yard and a small shed for some 10 years. Somehow I missed her market.

The red barn in need of shingles. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

But you can’t miss the massive weathered red barn which rises above her rural property. It was the first building I noticed upon pulling into the yard. And it is the reason, says Maloney, she opens her place once a year to sell her finds. Monies raised from the sale are going toward reshingling the barn. I expressed my gratitude to her for saving her barn when so many others are falling into heaps of rotting wood.

Inside Maloney’s shed, the display that tipped me off to a design degree. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

I also complimented Maloney on her artful displays of merchandise. I could see she has an eye for design. I was not surprised that she holds an interior design degree, although she doesn’t work in the field. The annual sale allows her to use her design skills to create inviting displays.

An outdoorsy and cabin themed merchandise display created by Maloney. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
This small shed centered the sale in Maloney’s yard. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
One side of Maloney’s shed featured all Halloween merchandise. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

As I wandered about the yard, I saw separate groupings of items themed to rustic cabin/farmhouse, Halloween, Christmas, nautical and more. And sometimes I observed simply a hodge podge of goods, including furniture. All of it, though, seemed deliberately staged to appeal to shoppers.

A vintage truck surrounded by fall decorations serves as a photo prop for shoppers at The Barn Sale. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Seasonal appropriate signage for sale at The Barn. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I saw a lot of these cute cats, in assorted Halloween colors, inside Glende’s barn. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

Across the road at Glende’s sale in her small (compared to Maloney’s) red barn, shoppers circled inside the building to view an eclectic array of merchandise cramming shelves and tables, hanging from walls, sitting on the floor. From my non-merchandising perspective, it looks like a lot of work to artfully arrange and showcase all those goods.

The steak sign, left, caught my eye. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

Like her neighbor, Glende’s merchandise was heavy on Halloween and autumn themes. As it should be for a sale held the last weekend in September. She also holds sales in December and again in the spring. But my eye was drawn to a large vintage sign promoting beef sirloin steak for $1.50. I don’t know if that was per steak or per pound, but a bargain either way.

Shoppers could poke through miscellaneous items scattered around Glende’s yard. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

Outside the small red barn, shoppers found plenty of piles of stuff. Junk to some. Treasures to others.

My husband, Randy, has a little fun with antlers he found at Glende’s sale. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

Sales like these appeal to me also because the sellers are attempting to extend the lives of whatever rather than tossing something into the garbage to end up in a landfill. It’s a win-win for everyone.

The vintage lamp I really liked, but didn’t buy. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

I seldom buy anything at these sales because, at this age in my life, I don’t need more stuff. Even if I see a lot of items that I would really really like to have. Such as a vintage lamp in Glende’s yard. And a small round side table in Maloney’s.

Before leaving Glende’s sale, I photographed these friendly donkeys behind a shed per an invitation to do so. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

Instead, I settled for photographing these two barn sales, which attract many, bring back memories and prove a delightful way to spend a bit of time on a stunning autumn day in southern Minnesota.

© Copyright 2025 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

About photography & more Rice County farm show images September 5, 2025

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Wagons heaped with harvested oats provide an interesting backdrop for the approaching horse-drawn wagon at the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Fall Show. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

PHOTOS TELL STORIES, record moments in time, preserve memories, prompt emotional reactions, convey messages and more.

The first picture I took at the farm show, just outside the entry gate. I love the creativity and humor in this scene. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

My venture into photography began when I studied journalism in college with a photography class as part of the degree requirement. This was back in the day of film and darkrooms. Chemicals, water baths and contact sheets were part of a long process to get from photo snapped to photo printed.

I love capturing moments like this of someone so focused on a task that they are unaware of my presence. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

During my twenties working as a small town newspaper reporter, I honed the craft of photography. I juggled interviews and note taking with shooting photos. Today’s reporters do the same unless they are employed by a metro newspaper with a staff photographer.

I opted to zoom in on this mammoth steam engine, focusing on the steam and wheels, emphasizing the power of this long ago agricultural work horse. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

After a while, I got comfortable with the camera, confident in my abilities to shoot images to accompany hard news, features and other stories. Practice may not make perfect, but it certainly builds skills.

I was sitting on the ground underneath a tree eating lunch when I aimed my camera lens up and took this photo of a guy driving this 1955 Oliver Super 66. The perspective makes this photo. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

I’ve grown to love photography through the years, especially after acquiring a digital camera while freelancing for a Minnesota magazine. Digital unleashed the photo creative in me. I no longer had to worry about the cost of film or running out of film. So I took a lot more photos, tried new perspectives, began to see the world through an artistic lens. More often than not, I find myself thinking, oh, that would make a good photo.

I didn’t even realize I’d captured this joyful moment until I uploaded my photos to the computer. I’d been firing off shots of the kids’ pedal tractor pull and this one, among all, is my favorite. It shows a moment of pure happiness. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

But vision issues are now affecting and limiting my photography. My eyes are misaligned, meaning my brain works hard (even with prism-heavy prescription eyeglasses) to see. It’s exhausting. I do my best. Yet it’s challenging sometimes to tell if an image is sharp. I can feel the strain on my eyes when I use my camera for an extended time and when I process images on my computer.

I stood in the doorway of the dining room to photograph these women visiting in the kitchen of the 1912 farmhouse where homemade cookies awaited guests. I like how the doorframe frames this photo, as if the viewer is eavesdropping on a private conversation. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

Still, I persist. Until I either have another bilateral strabismus eye surgery or try a different (and expensive) prescription, this is the way it is. At least I can see. I manage. I can still create with my 35mm Canon EOS 60D.

During the tractor parade, I noticed these sweet kids riding in a wagon behind an old corn picker mounted on a John Deere tractor. I like the perspective and that part of the corn picker shows in the upper left corner of this photo. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

Last Saturday I did the longest photo shoot I’ve done in several years. I took hundreds of images during six hours at the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Fall Show. It’s a fun event to document with so much happening and so many people attending. I don’t want to stop doing what I love.

This close-up image of corn shelling shows exactly what I had hoped: the dust. I sometimes zoom in to focus on a smaller part of the broader picture. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

My biggest challenges in covering the event came in dodging golf carts that swarmed the grounds and in avoiding dust from some of the farming demonstrations. Cameras and dirt are not friends. I also always had to be cognizant of unintentional photo bombing by people and those pesky (but necessary for some to get around) golf carts.

This photo shows off not only tractors, but human connection as the driver waves to the crowd during the tractor parade. I love this moment of humanity when nothing else matters. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

I’ve already shared many show photos with you in an overall post about the event and in a second focusing on art. Today I bring you a hodge-podge of more favorites, with an explanation in the captions of why I like the images. Enjoy!

© Copyright 2025 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

The art of a southern Minnesota farm show & rural flea market September 4, 2025

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Vintage posters displayed from the early years of the current Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Fall Show, before the name and location changed. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

ART EXISTS EVERYWHERE, even at a farm-themed event. My photos from the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Fall Show last Saturday in rural Dundas prove that. As a creative, I view life through an artistic lens. So I’m naturally drawn to photograph items that others may not necessarily see as art.

I see tractor emblems, including this one on a vintage Ford, as works of art. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

In this photo essay, you’ll view a sampling of the “art” I discovered. I found art on vintage tractors, on clothing, at the flea market, especially at the flea market, and beyond.

Two brass sculptures offered by a vendor. They are not solid brass, so not as heavy as they appear. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

Let’s start there, among market vendors selling a variety of goods ranging from toy tractors to glassware to home décor and everything in between. The art that drew my deepest interest—two massive brass sculptures of African men—sat on a flatbed trailer. They were nothing short of spectacular. Such grace. Such power in their muscular arms and legs. Truly, truly stunning. Seller Daniel Bell of Faribault, who calls himself a picker, found the matching pair in Iowa. The sculptures once supported tabletops, now missing. He’s priced each at $575. I can connect you with Dan if you’re interested.

Vintage tray art from the 1950s. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

Almost as interesting, and certainly thought-provoking in 2025, is a 1950s image of children dressed in western attire and brandishing pistols. When I reflect on that scene printed on a tray, I remember how I, too, owned a toy cap gun and played “Cowboys and Indians.” That all seems so terribly wrong now when viewing this as an adult in a world riddled by gun violence. I’m thankful for changed attitudes and perspectives about our Indigenous Peoples and about toy guns.

A Jolly Green Giant themed plastic mug. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

I spotted art on a plastic coffee mug from Minnesota Valley Canning Company featuring the Green Giant brand of GREAT BIG TENDER PEAS. The back side of the mug is imprinted with the story of the Jolly Green Giant. I should have purchased the cup, which belonged to the father of the flea market vendor. He worked at the canning company in Le Sueur until its 1995 closure. This mug is more than a mug. It’s a collectible piece of regional literary and visual art.

The artsy cover of the 1984 Northfield Arts Guild commemorative cookbook. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

And then I found art on the cover and inside the Northfield Arts Guild’s 25th anniversary cookbook from 1984. Not unexpected, it features the art of rural Northfielder Fred Somers, whose work I admire.

A damaged work of art. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

At another vendor, I spotted a bullet-riddled cow weather vane, a form of functional rural art. And apparently a shooting target, too. I saw a horse weather vane inside a showgrounds building.

Pop art in my eyes. The vendor saw the lips as otherwise, as a bill holder. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

And then there were the duck decoys, the red plastic lips and the jar full of colored plastic clothespins, all viewed as art by me.

The leather goods vendor paints while manning his stand. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

I even saw a vendor painting, freshening up the words “C’MON MAN!” on his van. He was selling mostly leather belts, an inventory purchased when a leather goods shop closed.

Show buttons on a straw hat and even a keychain are forms of art. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
Creative arts of yesteryear shown inside the old farmhouse. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

Elsewhere around the showgrounds, art exists also. I discovered it on commemorative buttons, stickers and signs. Inside the 1912 farmhouse a vintage sewing machine and fabric scraps highlighted the creative arts.

Brand loyalty in fashion. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

I even found fashion art—in a John Deere/Hawaiian shirt worn by a John Deere tractor owner.

Among the art displayed inside the old Waterford School and then community center. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

Art (prints and photos) graces a wall of the Waterford Community Center, once a one-room school, moved onto the Steam & Gas Engines showgrounds and opened to the public this year.

The culinary arts in pies crafted by the Amish. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

And then there are the culinary arts as perfected by an Amish family selling handheld fruit pastries and pies plus homemade ice cream crafted on-site as attendees watched. They are new-to-the-show vendors. The peach pastry and ice cream, oh, my, so delicious. They sold out of pies and handhelds.

I see this collage of farm show stickers as art. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)

This may be a show themed to farming of yesteryear. But, as I discovered, art also abounds. Sometimes you just have to look through an artistic lens to see it.

© Copyright 2025 Audrey Kletscher Helbling