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October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Alongside falling leaves of orange, red and yellow, pink is a familiar color during October, because it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women (aside from non-melanoma skin cancers), affecting one in eight women during their lifetime. Rarely, it can also affect men. We all know someone who has had breast cancer. And many women reading this today are breast cancer survivors. Breast cancer can be serious, yet it’s very treatable at its earliest stages. Thanks to advancements in therapies and technology, treatments are improving every day; ...

Learning about two ‘old-school’ football coaches

I met two “old-school” football coaches this past weekend. On Friday night, I covered my first Marshall Tigers football game. It happened to be the homecoming game and the Tigers defeated Delano 21-7. I never met Coach Terry Bahlmann before Friday’s matchup. Of course, through ...

Daily rooster movements

Throughout the pheasant hunting season, roosters can provide a bit of predictability for hunters seeking consistent upland action. Knowing the habitat and the daily movements these birds make can help with finding and intercepting these wily birds, and make connecting with them a more regular occurrence. Identifying the habitat types that roosters use on a given day, and how they move between them is an important piece to the upland hunting puzzle.
Typically, roosters will run on a normal schedule, not unlike hunters the other five days of the week. They move with the approach of dawn, ...

Anxiety over my PET scan

My finger hovered over the mouse button. Did I really want to read this report? No matter what it said, it would be life changing. The report contained the results of my latest PET scan. I tried to beg off the procedure, telling my medical team that I’d been thoroughly inspected by our dog, Bella, and our cat, Sparkles. The doctors replied that didn’t count. It all began in March of 2024 when I noticed an odd lump at the base of my jaw. Thinking it might be cat scratch fever (don’t play tag with a cat unless you’re faster than a cat), I was prescribed an antibiotic and ...

Near and far

Taking a break from coordinating plans for the upcoming pheasant opener, which in itself will be a shift from previous starts to the season and a return to my hometown of Valley City, I greeted my wife’s cousin and her husband at the door of our house. Not often fielding family from that ...

Road closed

Do you see a road closed sign as an opportunity or an annoyance? As we all know, it's that time of the year when needed road work causes numerous road closures. Yes it's annoying, but hopefully, the closure leads to an improved road. Of course, that closure also means a detour awaits us. The question then becomes what will that detour lead us to? Will it lead us to new discoveries or will it be just a some old/same old journey? Well, here's a recent experience with road closed sign. On our way to join family members for a luncheon reunion, we encountered three road closure signs. ...