thoughts | Minnesota Prairie Roots

In honor of spring planting season in southern Minnesota April 18, 2016

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: agriculture, memories, Rice County, rural Minnesota, spring planting, thoughts

A pause in field work along the Rice-Steele County line Sunday afternoon.

FARM IMPLEMENTS KICKED up dust Sunday afternoon under blue skies clumped with white clouds here in southeastern Minnesota.

Prepping the soil for planting along 270th Street East in southern Rice County.

It was the kind of balmy spring day that draws me to the land, to memories of spring planting.

This tractor and grain cart (typically used during harvest) sat unattended in southern Rice County Sunday afternoon.

While tractors and other equipment have changed since I left the farm of my roots at age 17, way too many years ago, one constant remains. This is the season of transition. An awakening. Black earth turned to warm sun. Seeding of the soil. The promise of a harvest.

Just outside Medford this farmer prepped the soil Sunday afternoon.

The farm girl in me still lingers, waiting for spring days like this, for a drive into the country, for an opportunity to honor the land via photos, via thoughts, via a deep emotional connection to the earth.

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Meet my beautiful granddaughter April 8, 2016

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 11:25 AM
Tags: baby, birth, faith, family, granddaughter, grandparenting, thoughts

My new granddaughter, Isabelle (“Izzy” for short) Karis, photographed when she was about 17 hours old.

SHE’S HERE. She’s beautiful. And she’s my first grandbaby, Isabelle Karis.

Born 19 days early late Wednesday afternoon, Isabelle weighed 6 lbs., 15 oz., and measured 20.5 inches. It is a joy to finally meet this little girl I’ve been loving since I learned in September of her forthcoming birth. I am thrilled to be part of what numerous well-wishers term The Grandparent Club.

Isabelle is named after her paternal great great grandmother, also her Oma’s middle name. Her middle name, Karis, is the Greek word for “grace.” So fitting. So lovely.

I felt that grace Thursday morning as my husband and I stood with our son-in-law at Amber’s bedside, baby Isabelle cradled in her arms, the hospital spiritual advisor also there. As Marc prayed a blessing upon his daughter, our hands hovering over her, tears leaked down my cheeks. It was a profound moment for me as I was overwhelmed by emotion. Relief. Thankfulness. Awed by the miracle of life. So in love with this little girl.

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He’s not arriving on a jet plane April 7, 2016

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: Boston, family, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Minnesota, thoughts, travel

I photographed this Frontier plane as it approached Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport early Saturday afternoon. Edited image.

SOMETIMES I AM SURPRISED by the nuances that impact me emotionally.

Recently it was the sight of jets flying into Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as my husband and I traveled along 35E in the south metro. My memory map directed me to the Cedar Avenue/Highway 77 exit, the route we take to the airport to pick up and drop off our son who attends Tufts University in the Boston metro.

I haven’t seen him now in three months, not since he returned to the East Coast following Christmas break. I miss him. Not with the kind of aching heart absence I felt when he first moved there three years ago. But with the sort of ache that slips below the surface and sometimes erupts into wanting to hug his lanky body and cook his favorite meal and tell him, in person, that I love him.

I felt the same at Easter. Instead of mailing him a chocolate bunny delivered by the U.S. Postal Service in three pieces, I would have preferred filling his Easter basket with too much candy and sugary PEEPS and hiding it in our Minnesota home for him to find. I don’t care that he’s 22. Everyone needs Easter candy.

I could imagine the loved ones awaiting the arrival of this Frontier jetliner.

I could imagine the loved ones awaiting the arrival of this Frontier plane.

I’ll admit to being envious of those moms who see their grown children on holidays, who can travel along a metro interstate, spot an aircraft and think nothing of it.

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Color away the stress April 5, 2016

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: adult coloring books, art, stress, therapy, thoughts

ONE EVENING LAST WEEK, I was seriously stressed.

When I’m deeply worried, time seems to pause and hover. I can’t focus enough to read a book or even a magazine. I can’t follow the storyline of a TV show. Any conversation seems rather meaningless and trivial.

But I had to manage. I needed something to busy my hands. Something to do while I waited for a text or phone call. The solution was only a couch cushion away. Inserted in my local daily newspaper was a 15-page coloring book for adults. That would do.

I headed upstairs to dig out a box of colored pencils. And then I settled onto the end of the couch, box splayed open next to my cell phone.

As I chose colors and began methodically coloring petals on a page imprinted with florals, I felt the tension ease. There’s something soothing about the rhythm of coloring. It’s effect is akin to watching flames dance in a campfire, listening to water gurgle or rocking back-and-forth in a chair. All are comforting. Repetitive.

Adult coloring books are all the rage right now as folks discover their calming value. But I wonder, if I remembered how to crochet, would the results be the same?

TELL ME, WHAT HANDS-ON activity works to calm you? And what are your thoughts on the adult coloring book phenomenon?

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Thoughts following a country drive west of Wanamingo March 30, 2016

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: Goodhue County, memories, rural Minnesota, thoughts, travel, Wanamingo

WE ALL HAVE OUR PLACE of comfort, the place that brings us peace and allows us to escape, if but for a minute or an hour or a day.

For me, that’s a drive in the country, along the less-traveled back roads of Minnesota.

I am of the land, of sky and fields and barns and silos and farmhouses. Rural Minnesota shaped me into the person I’ve become. A writer. A photographer. A poet. A keeper of rural life and of small towns.

Memories of farm life tuck away in my heart. Doing chores—feeding calves and cows and scooping silage and manure. Walking beans. Picking rock. Gathering around the supper table with my parents and siblings to eat that which we’d grown and raised. Playing in the grove. Racing across rock solid snowdrifts sculpted by the prairie wind.

Life on the farm wasn’t easy. But it was good. Good in the sort of way that comes from working hard and understanding that family and faith come first.

I grew up poor. There were no birthday gifts, except from an aunt, my godmother. A meal was sometimes comprised of a kettle of plain white rice. Clothes were sometimes stitched from feed sacks and most certainly handed down. There was no telephone or television or indoor bathroom in the early years of my life. I went to church and Sunday School every week.

I am grateful my parents were never wealthy in the monetary sense. I would not be the person I am today. It is not important to me to have the newest or latest or best. I am content with what I have. I consider myself grounded and honest and loyal. Down-to-earth. Rooted. I love the land and I love family.

These are the thoughts that surface when I journey through the Minnesota countryside, when I photograph barns and farmhouses and other rural scenes. I am capturing the essence of the place that shaped me. Land. Sky. Fields. Barns. Silos. Farmhouses. And, yes, my family and my faith.

FYI: These images were taken while traveling along Goodhue County Road 30 west of Wanamingo, Minnesota, and in Aspelund, a slight veer to the north. I did not grow up in this area. Rather, I was raised on a dairy and crop farm in Redwood County, on the southwestern Minnesota prairie. My childhood home was nothing like the houses pictured here. Ours was a tiny woodframe farmhouse heated by an oil burning stove in the living room. The kitchen had an interior trap door that led to a dirt cellar. It was cramped. But it was home.

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Part VI from Wanamingo: A symphony at Shingle Creek March 29, 2016

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: day trip, Minnesota, nature, outdoors, Shingle Creek, thoughts, travel, Wanamingo, water

Going fishing in the North Fork of the Zumbro River, Wanamingo.

This mom tipped us off to Shingle Creek. She and her son are heading to the river to fish.

IF NOT FOR THE LOCAL MOM we met at Riverside Park in Wanamingo, my husband and I would have missed out on exploring Shingle Creek. We would have driven right over the bridge spanning the creek along Goodhue County Road 30.

On the south side of this road, we followed a path along Shingle Creek.

But the mom, who was fishing with her son in the North Fork of the Zumbro River into which the creek feeds, told us about the loveliness of the waterway. She even offered to walk us there. But we declined and listened to her directions—cross the road, climb over the railing and follow the trail.

Lovely Shingle Creek.

The short route was not limestone covered as she described, but simply a trampled, uneven path through the woods. Decaying leaves, dead limbs sprouting mushrooms, hard earth beneath winter feet aching for this spring-like day in March.

Water rushes over limestone ledges.

Only a short distance from the paved county road, we stood on the bank of the creek and watched water spill over limestone shelves, rush along the creekbed, and then tumble and foam over rocks.

Further down, water churns below rocks.

Churning water mesmerizes me. It is poetry and song and art, a symphony of sights and sounds that carries me away from everyday life to a place of peace. I feel the same watching campfire flames dance in flickers of orange and yellow.

Fire and water. Water and fire.

On this Saturday afternoon in Wanamingo, I experienced the serenity of Shingle Creek. All because a local mom shared this community’s natural beauty with us, just a couple on a day trip 25 miles from home.

FYI: This concludes my six-part series of “from Wanamingo” posts. Thank you for joining me on this tour.

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Part I from Wanamingo, a classic small town in Minnesota March 21, 2016

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: main street, Midwest, Minnesota, small towns, thoughts, travel, Wanamingo

Driving into downtown Wanamingo along Minnesota State Highway 57 on a Saturday afternoon.

Driving into downtown Wanamingo along Minnesota State Highway 57 on a recent Saturday afternoon.

ON THE CITY WEBSITE, Wanamingo is described as a classic small Midwestern town in Southeastern Minnesota. That seems accurate.

What then is a classic small Midwestern town?

Visiting early Saturday afternoon in downtown Wanamingo.

Visiting early on a Saturday afternoon in downtown Wanamingo.

It is a place where, on a Saturday afternoon in March, two guys lean on the back of a pick-up truck and converse outside a bar and grill.

Posted at a local park. I edited the phone number from the photo.

It’s a place where a notice in the park information center requests help in finding Belle, a missing Siamese cat.

Walking the puppy downtown. Wanamingo still has an old style water tower.

It’s a place where a friendly young couple walks their curly-haired puppy, allows a visitor to pet him and then wishes the out-of-towner a good afternoon.

It’s a place with solid brick buildings in a downtown occupied by businesses like a meat market, a bar, a cafe, a garage, law and insurance offices, and grain bins banking the north end of Main Street.

I love the classic corner angled gas station.

Wanamingo has that small town rural feel, that sense of life moving at a slower pace. Traffic is minimal downtown, even though Minnesota State Highway 57 doubles as Main Street. And, yes, the main street is named Main Street.

In this classic small Midwestern town, kids drop bikes in yards.

Beautiful Trinity Lutheran Church. I'll take you on a tour of the church in an upcoming post.

I’ll take you inside Trinity Lutheran Church in an upcoming post.

A life-long resident tinkers with a light post outside Trinity Lutheran, a stalwart brick corner church that holds the histories of so many local families. Births, marriages, deaths.

Wanamingo, platted in 1904, is not Utopia. No place is. But it is a community of about 1,100 that seems, from outward appearances, to care, to want to look its best, to be the kind of place folks want to visit or call home. It is a classic small Midwestern town.

FYI: Check back tomorrow for the second post in my “from Wanamingo” series. I’ll take you inside the Area 57 Coffee Cafe.

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His humor March 15, 2016

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: art, baby, craft project, family, humor, nocturnal, painted onesie, thoughts

MY HUSBAND POSSESSES a distinct sense of humor. It’s not an I am funny, ha, ha, listen to me type of joke-telling humor. Rather, it’s understated, punching into conversation when least expected. Humor is one of the qualities I really appreciate in him.

Randy makes me laugh when I need laughter. He makes me smile when I need a smile. His humor balances my serious personality.

He reads the comics. I don’t. Sometimes he clips a comic from the paper and sticks it on the fridge, just for me. He doesn’t tell me. He waits for me to notice. And when I do, I laugh at the appropriateness of the joke. And then I smile because he was thoughtful enough to think of me while reading the funnies.

You gotta love a guy like this.

When it comes to greeting cards, he likes funny. I like poetic and romantic and serious. He chooses cards for the guys in the family. You know, cards about beer and growing old with a humorous twist. Sometimes I nix his choices or add a personal note, Randy chose this card.

When he was tasked to design a onesie for our soon-to-be-born granddaughter, he presented an idea. I had to reject it given our daughter would never put the shirt on her daughter. But then he came up with another idea and set to work stenciling an owl and printing accompanying words. His design is a perfect example of his humor:

Fitting for a newborn, wouldn’t you say?

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Photo memories of St. Mary’s of Melrose March 12, 2016

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 8:37 PM
Tags: Catholic, Church of St. Mary, churches, fire, Melrose, Minnesota, photo essay, thoughts

The Church of St. Mary rises above the land, defining Melrose. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2011.

The Church of St. Mary rises above Melrose. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2011.

TODAY, AS I PHOTOGRAPHED two rural Minnesota Lutheran Churches, I thought of another church I photographed nearly five years ago in Melrose. The Church of St. Mary. It’s a beautiful Catholic church. Opulent and splendid and filled with a spirit of holiness.

Friday afternoon that magnificent 1898 church 100 miles northwest of the Twin Cities caught fire. Damage is estimated at $1 million.

To current and former parishioners of St. Mary’s and to the Melrose community, I am deeply sorry.

A view from the back of St. Mary's Catholic Church looking toward the main altar.

A view from the back of St. Mary’s looking toward the main altar. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2011.

When I photograph a church, I do so because I appreciate the beauty, history, art, and faithfulness therein. I understand the significance of a house of worship in connecting and centering a church family and in building generations of memories and a tradition of faith.

Just look at this detailed side altar. I could have spent hours in St. Mary’s. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2011.

Today I understand even more, though, how important my work of visually preserving small town and country churches. If my St. Mary’s photos from 2011 comfort the folks of Melrose in the aftermath of this devastating fire, then I am blessed.

Click here to see my first photo essay, “Hail St. Mary’s of Melrose.”

Click here to see my second photo essay, “St. Mary’s of Melrose, Part II.”

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My, how baby care basics have changed March 11, 2016

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: babies, baby equipment, parenting, thoughts

One of the many baby items my daughter and son-in-law received.

AFTER WATCHING MY DAUGHTER and son-in-law open gifts at the baby shower I hosted for them recently, I’ve concluded it takes a lot to care for a baby now days. A lot of equipment, that is.

When my daughter told me she and her husband were getting a Jenny Lind crib for their baby girl, I reacted with enthusiasm. “That’s the kind of crib I wanted for you,” I said. My daughter was surprised that I knew about the Jenny Lind style, which has been around for decades. It was the dream crib I never had for any of my children. They slept in generic garage sale cribs.

When I delivered my three babies 30, 28 and 22 years ago, the essentials included a crib, changing table, diaper pail, high chair and car seat. Nearly all items were second-hand, purchased at yard/garage sales. The crib wouldn’t meet any safety standards today. I doubt the car seat would either. But we managed with what we could afford and what was available. It was better than nothing.

A niece slept in a dresser drawer as a newborn because her mom couldn’t afford a crib. I shopped garage sales to clothe my kids. I used cloth diapers not only to save money but also because I didn’t want a zillion diapers going into the landfill.

Another baby care essential which the parents-to-be received.

Times change. If they didn’t, we’d still be setting babies on the floor of the car, like I did my niece once. Now I shudder that I ever did that. How irresponsible.

If improvements hadn’t been made in cloth diapering methods, parents would still struggle with diaper pins, trying to avoid jabbing the baby. We’d still have bumper pads cushioning cribs and teddy bears stuffed in corners. We’re wiser than we once were about safety issues.

Yet, one care essential remains unchanged. It’s the most important. Babies still need love. Lots of love.

TELL ME, IF YOU’RE a parent or grandparent, what baby care product/products did you find especially valuable?

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Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

In honor of spring planting season in southern Minnesota April 18, 2016

Meet my beautiful granddaughter April 8, 2016

He’s not arriving on a jet plane April 7, 2016

Color away the stress April 5, 2016

Thoughts following a country drive west of Wanamingo March 30, 2016

Part VI from Wanamingo: A symphony at Shingle Creek March 29, 2016

Part I from Wanamingo, a classic small town in Minnesota March 21, 2016

His humor March 15, 2016

Photo memories of St. Mary’s of Melrose March 12, 2016

My, how baby care basics have changed March 11, 2016

Follow Minnesota Prairie Roots via Email

An essay of barn photos & memories; In praise of preserving country churches; & Testing the track during a Soap Box Derby trial run in Faribault

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