rural life | Minnesota Prairie Roots

My enduring appreciation of barns January 6, 2014

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 6:00 AM
Tags: agriculture, barns, memories, Minnesota Highway 3, Northfield, rural life, rural Minnesota

OLD BARNS ALWAYS TURN my head, including this one along Minnesota Highway 3 between Faribault and Northfield.

Weathered wood, a strong roof line, the physical bulk of the barn, the work once done therein, the stories this agrarian building could tell all cause me to notice and ponder.

It is my own rural roots, my years of laboring in a barn—scooping manure, pushing wheelbarrows heaped with ground corn, shoveling scoops of smelly silage, lugging tall cans of frothy milk—which connect me to this anchor farm building.

Though decades have passed, those memories remain strong, unweathered by time or age.

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Bins, bars & beer December 4, 2013

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 6:00 AM
Tags: bars, Cobden, grain bins, Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway, Minnesota, Minnesota Tubby's Bar & Grill, Ridin' High Saloon, rural life, rural Minnesota, small towns, travel, U.S. Highway 14

THE LAST TIME I WAS in Cobden, I told my husband, I was photographing a burning building.

That was decades ago, when I worked as a newspaper reporter and photographer for The Sleepy Eye Herald-Dispatch. Thirty-plus years later, I can’t recall what burned, but I think a bar.

Apparently little has changed in Cobden since I raced, with camera and notebook, to this community of 36 residents just off U.S. Highway 14 between Sleepy Eye and Springfield. As I remember, I borrowed a pen (because mine ran out of ink and why didn’t I have a spare?) from a firefighter. Interesting how a detail like that sticks with me.

Downtown Cobden with Tubby’s to the left and Ridin’ High to the right and the grain bins a few blocks away.

Today, two bars and grain bins define this community in southwestern Minnesota, which boasts some of our state’s best farmland.

A few months ago while en route to Lamberton, my husband turned our van north off the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway to circle through Cobden, past the grain bins and then between the two bars—Minnesota Tubby’s Bar & Grill and Ridin’ High Saloon—which comprise the downtown.

Tubby’s, in the old bank building.

There was no time to stop and explore, only a quick roll down of the van window to shoot the building exteriors under grey and drizzly skies. I wished we had time to park and peek inside Tubby’s, housed in the stately 1915 corner brick State Bank building. I wished I could yank away the sheets of brown metal siding that cover the windows. I wished I could see the old bank interior.

Bikers get a hearty welcome at Ridin’ High Saloon.

Across the street, Ridin’ High Saloon, from the looks of the exterior signage, caters to bikers.

The Saloon connects to the Back Porch, right.

The outdoor Back Porch hang-out.

The machine shed style open air Back Porch gives that rough-and-tumble beer drinking impression, a great place to hang out with friends on a warm summer evening.

A close-up of Tubby’s signage.

Maybe next stop in Cobden will be the charm with no fire to cover, no schedule to keep. Just time for a beer.

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I’ve been Freshly Pressed again November 30, 2013

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 2:48 PM
Tags: Audrey Kletscher Helbling, barns, blogging, blogging award, childhood memories, Freshly Pressed, Minnesota Prairie Roots, photography, rural life, WordPress, writing

“I HOPE YOUR BLOG is ready to welcome some new readers…”

That’s my post, labeled “Barn Memories,” featured today on Freshly Pressed.

With those words, I recently learned that my November 25 blog post, “An essay of barn photos & memories,” earned Freshly Pressed status on WordPress.com. (Click here to read that post.)

In the WordPress blogging world, that’s akin to winning an Emmy or an Oscar or something similar, although you could perhaps argue that I am exaggerating. I think not, though, given the half a million plus WordPress bloggers world-wide. (Click here to reach the Freshly Pressed page on WordPress.)

That said, I’d like to thank you, my readers, for your faithful following of Minnesota Prairie Roots. Just over 600 of you now follow my blog via subscription and I am grateful for each of you.

I’d also like to thank my husband, who is very much a part of this blogging journey via his support and company.

The Freshly Pressed tweet about my barn post.

And, finally, I’d like to thank the editors at WordPress who daily hand-pick eight posts to feature on Freshly Pressed. My barn post is featured today on Freshly Pressed.

Here’s what WordPress editor Ben Huberman wrote in an email:

You struck such a delicate and moving balance in this piece between letting the photos you took speak for themselves, and sharing with your readers the memories and emotions they invoke in you. It’s a lovely, well-executed post that deserves a wider audience.

How sweet is that to get an editor’s comment on your work? It’s invaluable and uplifting and reaffirming.

An old-fashioned farm along Wisconsin Highway 21. This is one of the photos published in my winning post.

About the barn photos featured in my winning post… I shot all of them in mid-October while traveling through northeastern Wisconsin. And by traveling, I mean traveling. All six images were photographed from the passenger side of our family van while traveling down the highway at 55 mph. I had one, maybe two, opportunities to capture each photo I showcased. There was no stopping to compose a frame. Rather, I set my camera at a fast shutter speed, anticipated and clicked. That’s it. Either I got the photo or I didn’t. Clean windows help, too. Ask my husband about bottles of window cleaner and paper towels.

The words I paired with the six barn photos came from my heart, from my memories of laboring in my childhood dairy barn on the southwestern Minnesota prairie. Images and smells and textures and sound flowed from my memory onto the keyboard in a piece rich in imagery, heartfelt in emotions.

That combination of from-the-heart writing paired with just the right photos made this post stand out among the hundreds of thousands of others published on WordPress, apparently. For more information on how Freshly Pressed posts are selected, click here.

The homepage of WordPress.com, as photographed Thursday morning. My "In praise of preserving country churches" blog post is on the lower right.

The homepage of WordPress.com, as photographed in July 2010. My “In praise of preserving country churches” blog post is on the lower right. The story focuses on Moland Lutheran Church, rural Kenyon, Minnesota.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been featured on Freshly Pressed. My July 7, 2010, post, “In praise of preserving country churches,” (click here to read) was Freshly Pressed as was my June 11, 2012, post, “Testing the track during a Soap Box Derby trial run in Faribault” (click here to read).

A screen shot of the Tuesday, June 12, 2012, Freshly Pressed on the WordPress homepage. My post is featured in the bottom center.

To earn Freshly Pressed status three times rates as rewarding for a blogger like me, who is undeniably passionate about writing and photography. Thank you for joining me on this blogging journey.

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An essay of barn photos & memories November 25, 2013

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 6:00 AM
Tags: agriculture, barns, childhood memories, farming, photo essay, photography, rural life, travel, Wisconsin

Near Poy Sippi, Wisconsin.

MY FONDNESS FOR BARNS, for photographing them, never wanes.

Along Wisconsin State Highway 21.

When I fit my eye to the viewfinder, swing my camera lens toward a barn and click, it’s as if I’m clicking my heels together and flying into my past.

Also along Wisconsin Highway 21.

I am trudging down the barn aisle, leaning into the wheelbarrow heaped with ground corn. I am scooping that feed by the shovelful to top silage pitched from the silo and parceled before the Holsteins’ empty stanchions.

Near Poy Sippi, Wisconsin.

Later, as milk pulsates into milking machines and Dad has poured the milk into a tall thin pail, I am lugging the precious liquid to the milkhouse, handle biting into my chore-gloved hand.

Another farm near Poy Sippi.

Memories come into focus—the golden booming radio voices from ‘CCO, the slap of a cow’s tail, hot urine splattering into gutters, cats swarming around a battered hubcap, the stench of manure, taut twine snapped with my yellow jackknife and prickly alfalfa itching my exposed wrists.

An old-fashioned farm along Wisconsin Highway 21.

But, mostly, I see my farmer dad in those barns I photograph.

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Simple country joys November 12, 2013

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 6:00 AM
Tags: country churches, joy, life, Minnesota, rural life, rural Minnesota, thoughts, Trinity Lutheran Church North Morristown

IT’S 10:30 ON A SUNDAY MORNING and I am savoring a slice of yellow cake topped with vanilla pudding and a dollop of whipped cream.

Trinity’s basement, set up before the annual October fall dinner. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2011.

I really shouldn’t be eating cake; I don’t need it. But my husband and I have been personally invited by Jean into the basement of Trinity Lutheran Church, North Morristown, for the fellowship hour after worship services. We are visitors.

Beautiful Trinity Lutheran Church. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo.

Trinity Lutheran Church, a small country church west of Faribault in North Morristown. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2011.

I’m not about to pass on this opportunity to mingle with folks in this rural Rice County church. They are a friendly bunch. These congregants know us as we’ve attended church dinners and the annual North Morristown Fourth of July celebration many times.

I feel comfortable here, chit chatting with Jean about her granddaughter who attends college in South Dakota and is working as a waitress for $2.50/hour. Our discussion centers on whether such a wage is even legal. “How can it be?” we ask one another, incredulous.

But before we can resolve the pay issue, one of the pastor’s sons bolts into the basement clutching something in his hand. He unfurls his fingers to reveal an egg.

“Our first egg!” he exclaims as his older brother peers across the table at the precious brown egg and Dad enthuses about the first egg laid by the flock of 25 chickens. I learn then that the pastor’s boys sold futures on eggs—30 dozen at $6/dozen—during a recent fundraising auction for Cannon Valley Lutheran High School. Now that the hens are starting to lay, it will soon be time to deliver on those purchases.

As I witness this enthusiasm over an egg, I am reminded that sometimes it is the simplest things which give us the most joy. A brown egg in a boy’s hand in a country church basement on a Sunday morning. You can’t make this stuff up.

On bald eagle in this shot, or any I took, but simple joys in viewing this rural scene along Rice County Road 12 on the way to church in North Morristown.

No bald eagle in this shot, or any I took, but simple joy in viewing this rural scene along Rice County Road 12 on the way to church in North Morristown. There’s something about the big sky and the red barn…

Then, after we’ve left the church basement and the boy and his egg and wonder whether he might smash it between his fingers in his excitement, we are equally as excited to spot a bald eagle winging above farm fields. Simple joys. Like cradling a brown egg in your hand in a country church basement.

Horses in the pasture drew my camera, not a deer dangling from a tree.

Horses in the pasture, not a deer hung from a tree, drew my camera on the way home from church.

And then I glimpse a dead deer dangling from a tree, half-skinned, hunters clustered around the body. I am not overjoyed at the sight. But I expect these men are excited. Like cradling a brown egg in your hand in a country church basement.

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Small town Sunday snapshot: Millville, Minnesota November 3, 2013

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 9:57 AM
Tags: harvest, Millville, Minnesota, Minnesota Public Radio's "Fighting for an American Countryside", photo essay, rural life, small towns, Sunday afternoon drive, thoughts

A WEEK AGO, my husband and I drove into Millville, population 182, located along the Zumbro River in Wabasha County in southeastern Minnesota. We were on one of our Sunday afternoon drives. We choose a general direction in which to travel from our Faribault home. Then we just go, atlas in hand,

Whatever we discover, we discover. And, even if we do not find anything seemingly extraordinary, we celebrate the ordinary, the everyday, the small towns and farms that hold our hearts. For, although Randy and I have lived in Faribault, population around 24,000, for 29 years, we still long for the land, for small-town life, for Redwood and Morrison counties and the farms upon which we were raised.

Perhaps you, too, were raised on a farm, now live in town, and understand that longing, that forever rooted to the land connection.

That said, I highly recommend a Sunday afternoon drive.

And I also recommend viewing (click here) Minnesota Public Radio’s Ground Level project, “Fighting for an American Countryside,” which published awhile ago. I watched the first video clip on Friday and was moved to tears. The promo summary reads:

People in rural Minnesota are battling small-town decline with determination, resourceful thinking, and unwavering belief.

I wish that was true for all rural areas, but it is not. I’ve seen all too many shuttered buildings, empty Main Streets, neglected personal properties in too many small towns. Times are tough. Young folks are leaving; the population is aging. It’s difficult, sometimes, to survive the economic and other challenges unique to rural areas.

Some small towns can rise to these challenges like those featured in the MPR project. Others lack the resources, the leadership, the creativity to do so.

Yet, all of these small towns, whether in growth or decline, are to be valued. For they are home to someone. Or they were home to someone, like Randy and me, empty nesters who now take Sunday afternoon drives and end up in places like Millville.

When Randy pulled over in Millville to check the map, I hopped out and photographed a farmer leaning on his pick-up truck near a wagon brimming with corn. It’s a typical small-town scene this time of year.

Then I walked just up the road and snapped a picture of the gun shop signage before we aimed out of town, and then turned around a few miles out. Apparently we were on the wrong route.

We followed a tractor and wagon, winding at a snail’s pace down the hill back into Millville.

And then, as we drove by, I photographed a curb-appealing brick house I’d noticed earlier. I love the wrap around porch, the strong lines, the neighborly appeal of this home.

Past the grain bins, again, and the farmer waiting by his truck, we turned and found the “right road,” although there are really no “wrong roads” on a Sunday afternoon drive.

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On ARTour: Inside an old milkhouse October 23, 2013

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 6:00 AM
Tags: agriculture, art, artist, ceramics, dairy farming, Glynnis Lessing, memories, milkhouse, Minnesota, rural life, rural Northfield, South Central Minnesota Studio ArTour, studio art tour, The Milkhouse Studio

I FEEL COMFORTABLY AT HOME in the old milkhouse, Kittens underfoot. The smokey scent of a wood burning stove warming a kettle of apple cider. Pipelines, that once carried fresh milk, poking through the wall.

Some of Lessing's ceramics displayed outside The Milkhouse Studio.

Some of Glynnis Lessing’s ceramics displayed outside The Milkhouse Studio.

This is the studio of ceramics artist Glynnis Lessing. This weathered building forked off a circular farm drive along Minnesota Highway 3 just north of Northfield. This land the artist’s home since relocating from Chicago with her family about a year ago.

Tools of the trade on a milkhouse windowsill.

I have come here, to The Milkhouse Studio, on a Sunday afternoon for the South Central Minnesota Studio ARTour, a once-a-year opportunity to meet local artists where they create.

A sign advises visitors of chickens on the farm.

This rural setting reminds me of my childhood, growing up on a southwestern Minnesota dairy farm where I labored many hours in the milkhouse and barn.

Milking equipment remains in the milkhouse.

Milking equipment, right, remains in the milkhouse next to Lessing’s creations.

Although I never imagined a milkhouse as an artist’s studio, for Lessing it seems the perfect fit—creating in this place where her grandfather milked cows in the adjoining barn. Worked with his hands, just like her. In these aged buildings, on the land.

Love these nature-themed mugs.

Love these bowls, too.

And then I noticed the leaf that had settled inside the mug. So fitting.

I can see the influence of rural life in Lessing’s pieces. Branches and birds. Leaves and blades of grass. An earthy quality that appeals to me and causes me to reflect on my rural roots.

The Milkhouse Studio front door. Lots of history and memories here.

My memories: Felines circling around a battered hubcap to lap warm milk fresh from the cows. Frothy milk dumped, through a strainer, into the bulk tank. Sudsy water swished inside a milk bucket with a stiff brush. Yellow chore gloves drying atop an oil burning stove in the milkhouse…

Tucked into a corner of a milkhouse windowsill.

FYI: To learn more about the history of the old milkhouse, click here to read Lessing’s blog post on the subject.

And for more info about Lessing the artist, click here.

To read my first post about the South Central Minnesota Studio ARTour, click here. Please check back for more posts from artists’ studios.

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Harvesting photo ops in rural Minnesota and rural Wisconsin October 16, 2013

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 6:00 AM
Tags: agriculture, farming, harvest, photo editing tips, photo essay, photography, rural life, rural Minnesota, rural Wisconsin, travel

A rural scene along Minnesota State Highway 60 between Faribault and Zumbrota.

A cornfield awaits complete harvest along Minnesota State Highway 60 between Faribault and Zumbrota, Minnesota.

IT IS THE FORMER FARM GIRL that drives me to turn my camera toward the fields this time of year, to the harvest of corn and soybeans.

Harvest in progress near U.S. Highway 10 east of Appleton, Wisconsin.

Harvest in progress along U.S. Highway 10 east of Appleton, Wisconsin.

This past weekend provided the perfect opportunity to scope out the harvest on a 600-mile round trip through southeastern Minnesota across central Wisconsin to Appleton (just south of Green Bay) and back. Lots of windshield time with the husband. And lots of time to observe rural Wisconsin and rural Minnesota and capture those scenes with the quick click of my shutter button while passing by at highway speeds.

A cornfield awaits harvest along Interstate 90 in southeastern Minnesota.

In most areas, corn fields have faded from green to a golden hue. Soybean fields likewise are transforming to the muted browns of autumn.

A combine works the land along U.S. Highway 52 north of Rochester, Minnesota.

Combines kick up dust.

A vintage grain truck rolled out of storage and parked along side a southeastern Minnesota field.

A vintage grain truck parked along side a southeastern Minnesota field.

Grain trucks rumble out of storage.

Lots of pumpkins harvested also and for sale, these along Wisconsin State Highway 21.

Hurry hangs heavy.

Bringing in the crop along Wisconsin State Highway 21.

There’s that anticipation, that sense of urgency, that hustle to get the crop out. Before the snow flies.

FYI: Here are a few photo tips for all you on-the-road wannabe photographers out there: Clean your vehicle windows. Make sure you are the passenger and not the driver; safety first. Set your camera at a fast shutter speed. Anticipate. Watch the glare on your windows. Then shoot, shoot, shoot.

If results are not perfect, and they likely will not be due to bugs, sun, and a myriad of other issues, use photo editing tools. Crop. Change the contrast. Sharpen if necessary. Get creative as I did here with usage of the artistic “cartoonify” editing tool. And, if all else fails to produce a pleasing image with the impact you desire, hover and delete.

PLEASE CHECK BACK tomorrow, when I take you on a tour of a Tomah, Wisconsin, cranberry farm.

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Appreciating the Sunday afternoon drive June 29, 2013

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 6:30 AM
Tags: agriculture, Faribault, life, Owatonna, rural life, rural Minnesota, Steele County, thoughts, travel

Checking out the crops near Moland Lutheran Church in Steele County, Minnesota.

ONCE UPON A TIME, I thought Sunday afternoon drives were reserved for farmers checking out the crops or for old people with nothing more important to do.

In Merton Township, Steele County, Minnesota.

No longer do I think that. I now welcome these day trips into the country for the solace, the beauty, the discovery, the photo ops, the joy of whiling away an afternoon with no specific destination.

Along Rice County Road 21 south of Faribault.

I love wide skies and open fields. I love old barns and gravel roads and cows grazing and tidy rows of corn. I love country.

Making hay, along old U.S. Highway 14 west of Owatonna.

In this crazy fast-paced world of scheduled activities and rare free time, such impromptu rural jaunts are to be embraced.

Near Clinton Falls in Steele County, Minnesota.

If you have not discovered the Sunday afternoon drive, you are missing out on one of life’s simplest and most soul satisfying pleasures.

Northwest of Owatonna along Steele County Road 17.

On a farm site west of Owatonna.

A vineyard along Steele County Road 17.

Southwest of Faribault.

FYI: The edited photos featured here are from a recent Sunday afternoon drive south and east of Faribault and then west and north of Owatonna looping back to Faribault. All images were shot from the passenger seat of our van at highway speeds, or slightly under.

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In celebration of country churches June 26, 2013

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 6:48 AM
Tags: churches, country churches, faith, historic churches, history, Kenyon, Minnesota, Moland Lutheran Church, rural life, Steele County, travel

Fine craftsmanship defines the sanctuary.

STEP INSIDE AN AGED COUNTRY CHURCH anywhere and you will be drawn in by the history, the craftsmanship, the holiness of a house dedicated to God and the fellowship of the faithful.

A poster board with photos and well wishes stands in the church entry.

A poster board with photos and well wishes stands in the Moland Lutheran Church entry.

You need only pause and look, really look, to see the care, the love, the devotion, which fill such a sacred place.

Moland features architecture common in country churches.

Join me on a photographic tour of Moland Lutheran Church, 7618 Northeast 84th Avenue, rural Kenyon, Minnesota. The church, built by Norwegians in 1884, still holds Sunday morning worship services, currently led by the Rev. Nancy Edwardson.

Worship service is at 9 a.m. on Sunday. These photos were taken during the congregation’s June 23 strawberry festival.

From 25-30 worshipers fill the pews each week. And if that number seems too few to keep these doors open, do not underestimate the strength of a congregation rooted deep in this place, connected to this church building, this spot of land in rural Minnesota.