Mankato Magazine

GO GREEN! Locals help keep Earth clean

Also in this issue: Prepare for gardening season with GARDEN CHAT Meet the DINSMORES, Wine Cafe’s owners Trees, trees, TREES — region promotes diverse plantings

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APRIL 2021

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2 • APRIL 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

FEATURE S APRIL 2021 Volume 16, Issue 4

16

Sustainability in the Mankato and surrounding areas Local organizations, individuals and businesses seek to better our environment

22

26

Mentors of the future

‘Diversity is Good’

Adults mentoring youth during the pandemic help shape the next generation

Minnesota River Valley cities promote diverse plantings

ABOUT THE COVER Brian Gosewisch works on a bike’s derailleur at Key City Bike. Photo by Pat Christman

MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2021 • 3

DEPARTMENTS

9

6

From the Editor

8

This Day in History

9

Avant Guardians

Modernist by Training, Andrew Hellmund

10 Beyond the Margin

From razor wire to friendship fence

12 Familiar Faces

Wine Cafe, the Dinsmores

14 Day Trip Destinations Let’s go crazy!

Self-guided Prince tour

30 Let’s Eat!

The Big Dog Sports cafe

10

32 Community Draws Home improv

33 Beer

Dry spring finish

34 Ann’s Fashion Fortunes Merry, match, crepey

12

30

36 Lit Du Nord: Minnesota Books and Authors

Trisha and Stephen Shaskan

38 Garden Chat Spring Time

40 From This Valley

Actuarially speaking

Coming in May

32 4 • APRIL 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

36

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MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2021 • 5

FROM THE ASSOCIATE EDITOR

By Diana Rojo-Garcia APRIL 2021 • VOLUME 16, ISSUE 4 PUBLISHER Steve Jameson EDITOR Joe Spear ASSOCIATE Diana Rojo-Garcia EDITOR CONTRIBUTORS Bert Mattson Dan Greenwood Jean Lundquist Kat Baumann Leticia Gonzalez Ann Rosenquist Fee Pete Steiner Nell Musolf Dana Melius

PHOTOGRAPHERS Pat Christman PAGE DESIGNER Christina Sankey ADVERTISING Danny Creel SALES Jordan Greer-Friesz Josh Zimmerman Theresa Haefner Tim Keech ADVERTISING Barb Wass ASSISTANT ADVERTISING Christina Sankey DESIGNERS CIRCULATION Justin Niles DIRECTOR

Mankato Magazine is published by The Free Press Media monthly at 418 South Second St., Mankato MN 56001.

To subscribe, call 1-800-657-4662 or 507-625-4451. $35.40 for 12 issues.

For all editorial inquiries, call Diana Rojo-Garcia 507-344-6305, or email drojogarcia@mankatofreepress.com.

For advertising, call 344-6364, or e-mail advertising@mankatofreepress.com.

6 • APRIL 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Spring clean ‘The Earth is a fine place and worth fighting for’ — Ernest Hemingway

T

he temperature’s a crisp 20 degrees in early March as I write this. But I long for the days of spring, where the average temperature remains around 50 degrees — the perfect temperature as far as I’m concerned. I can do without the surprise snow dumps we have had in the last few years.

As temperatures become more comfortable, everything kind of comes to life.

Garden planning takes root and birds start to chirp to greet a new day — or to find that special someone to spend part of the day with anyway.

The best part of spring, however, is gaining an hour of daylight.

There is no longer the feeling of being trapped in the seemingly endless dark days. The sun wakes before we typically do and goes down at a reasonable time.

Spring’s great. But there’s one thing I can’t get over. The piles of snow from the season become an eyesore — big lumps of gray and brown. They seem to last until the first warm day of summer.

I’ve noticed, too, the piles of trash the snow hid during the past winter.

The beauty of spring — revitalization and new beginnings — becomes dampened by the pollution.

However, Minnesotans always come through with their can-do attitude and rise to the occasion of trying to do better. In 2019, the Clean City program in the metro had thousands of volunteers pick up trash after the snow melted.

A couple of trucks were filled up with the trash, the Star Tribune reported. In 2018, volunteers gathered 4,700 pounds of garbage. Good grief.

Despite the good residents in our state, the pollution problem remains.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reminds everyone to pick up trash left from ice fishing.

In its Facebook post reminder of the deadline to remove ice fishing houses, the DNR posted photographs showing trash — boxes, wrappers,

soda bottles — left on the ice.

Thankfully, there are those who try to right the wrong of whoever left trash such as a poster commenting how they’d picked up 30 cigarette butts in the middle of a lake.

Little actions, such as by this commenter, make all the difference in helping keep Earth clean and safe for the future.

This month we spoke with organizations, businesses and individuals that help our community become more sustainable — composting, recycling bikes and food, and protecting our waters. They remind us there is work to be done in becoming sustainable, but nothing that’s unattainable. Small steps and behavioral changes can go a long way.

Also in this issue: n Pick up today’s dinner from Big Dog Sports Cafe in North Mankato. Big Dog offers wings, pastas, burgers and salads. Or save your appetite for this weekend’s brunch and order their Red Eye Special. Read about the North Mankato staple in this month’s Let’s Eat! n April 30, the U.S. recognizes as Arbor Day — a day that encourages planting trees. Read about Minnesota River Valley’s cities that practice diverse planting in the area. n New to Mankato Magazine is author Nick Healy’s monthly feature “Lit du Nord.” Each month, Healy presents authors from the region. This month get to know children’s authors Trisha and Stephan Shaskan who recently collaborated on the series of graphic novels “Q & Ray.” Diana Rojo-Garcia is associate editor of Mankato Magazine.

Contact her at drojogarcia@ mankatofreepress.com

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MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2021 • 7

THIS DAY IN HISTORY Compiled by Jean Lundquist

Le Sueur, Henderson approve combining

April 4, 1991 It wasn’t even close. Le Sueur voters approved combining their school district with Henderson’s by a vote of 441-28. In Henderson, the tally was 239-42.

Already in a combination and cooperation agreement for a year, the vote was moved up a year to give the school boards more time to plan for the future. Le Sueur would put five people on the board while Henderson would get two members.

Already, Henderson students in grades 10-12 were being bused to Le Sueur, while seventh through ninth graders had the option to attend school in Henderson, which offered more extensive computer labs. All extracurricular activities were already co-sponsored.

Mini-bus for North Kato?

April 3, 1974 The cities of Mankato and North Mankato were continuing their “sibling rivalry” over an application Mankato had in place for a mini-bus to service senior citizens and disabled persons on a very limited basis.

North Mankato City Administrator Bob Ringhofer told his council that he had been led to believe the system would include two buses, but now found out that had been cut down to only one bus. The mini-bus system differed from the existing bus system in that it would take riders to where they wanted to go, as opposed to specific stops.

It would also cost more, said Ringhofer, after learning it would not stop at Koppen Gardens senior high-rise in North Mankato because it was already on a regular city bus route. Committee meetings were scheduled to determine the status of North Mankato’s interest in the project.

Water level expected to exceed 19’ Sunday

April 4, 1969 The Minnesota River at the Main Street bridge in Mankato had been receding and had dipped to just under 15 feet on Tuesday, allowing residents and officials to breathe a sigh of relief during spring flooding season.

But then, the river rose over a foot in 24 hours, and sighs of relief turned into preparation for a flood.

The National Weather Service in the Twin Cities told people to expect levels above 19 feet (flood stage) by Sunday and 21 feet by Monday.

As a predictor, the Cottonwood River in Springfield had risen 5 feet in the same 24 hours. Temperatures in the 60s and ice jams breaking up along the rivers had river watchers taking readings every hour in both cities, and preparations for flooded streets, roads and bridges were underway.

Amboy chosen as recycling pilot town

April 2, 1974 The 1973 state Legislature wanted to see recycling, environmental education and other environmental concerns happening in the state, and gave the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency $1.4 million.

The Region Nine Development Commission chose government entities and private enterprises to receive some of the money; Amboy and Fallenstein Refuse of Mankato had a winning bid.

Recognizing every community had differing strengths, interests and community groups interested in such a project, in Amboy the Presbyterian Youth Group agreed to collect magazines, newspapers and plastic items on the second Saturday of each month. The group would then sell the items to the Fallenstein firm.3

AVANT GUARDIANS

By Leticia Gonzales

Modernist by training Andrew Hellmund incorporates modern and abstract in his sculptures

A

s a child, Andrew Hellmund was mesmerized by the intricate creations of Alexander Calder, an American sculptor from Pennsylvania.

“It was his very animated wire circuses, his bright colors and the whimsy that drew me to him,” said the 29-year-old sculptor from St. Peter. “He made large and small sculptures, jewelry, carvings, and mobiles. I started off making my own wire figures, little wire men and never stopped making sculptures and structures.”

It didn’t take long for Hellmund to catch on.

“I grew up in a very artsy environment,” he said. “My parents encouraged us to draw, make, play music, and be creative and continued to encourage it.”

Hellmund said he had to get creative when it came to finding supplies for his projects.

“We grew up dumpster diving for building materials and going to the different recycling places to get discards for art.”

His skills soon transformed during his senior year of high school.

“I learned some of the basics of oxy-acetylene torch welding while making my first body of work,” Hellmund said. “It wasn’t until my first year of college that I realized you could make some extra money showing and selling art.”

Hellmund studied at the University of Alberta and received a master of fine arts in sculpture.

He went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in architectural studies and studio art from Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Although he is a modernist by training, Hellmund has transformed into an abstract metal sculptor who uses found, discarded and recycled metals such as steel, stainless, cast iron and bronze.

“I am fascinated by the natural

world: rock formations, tree roots, and natural formations and patterns,” he said. “Dance has always held a strong influence in my work. It is the gesture, flow, fluidity, silhouette, and passion of expression that really fascinates me — how to express that movement and energy in my work is a constant exploration.”

His latest project, “20 Acts of Separation,” combines his love of dance and movement, while sharing the emotions that resulted from 2020. Hellmund received funding for the project through a 2020 Prairie Lakes Regional Professional Mid-Career Artist award.

Several of his sculptures are also on display throughout the United States and Canada, including the Cherry Plaza in Mankato and Webster City, Iowa.

“My work, while being abstract, is open to interpretation from the viewer.”

Hellmund also aims to challenge viewers by offering them a new perspective.

“Industrial elements, old factory buildings, machines, and creativity out there in innovation are all things that drive my work and share new language that I can constitute into my sculptural langage.”

Hellmund attributes his growth to experimenting and adhering to simple ideas.

“Many of the lessons that I learned as a wiry teenager working on the family driveway with my oxy-acetylene torch, I continue to apply today in both techniques, but also form,” he said. “The exciting thing now is applying many of the lessons I have been learning in a fabrication shop, such as creating complex helical forms, new levels of refinement, new welding procedures and smarter work techniques to speed up the exploration process.”

MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2021 • 9

BEYOND THE MARGIN

By Joe Spear

From razor wire to the friendship fence T

he images are striking and sad.

The U.S. Capitol is now surrounded by razor wire. It’s a symbol more appropriate for countries that are under martial law or run by a dictator. It’s not an image one normally associates with the land of the free and home of the brave.

Razor wire or barbed wire was developed in response to the settling of the American West when President Abraham Lincoln gave anyone who wanted it 160 acres of land. Barbed wire helped keep the cattle in and the original landowners — Native Americans — out.

There’s a big market for razor wire these days. One can spend hours on the internet downloading business reports on the market for razor wire, the production estimates and projected sales foreign and domestic.

Fences reflect the people who live behind them and shape the lives of those who live outside of them. The current 7-foot barrier around the U.S. Capitol topped with razor wire was of our own doing.

They use razor wire up the road at the Minnesota Sex Offender Program and the Minnesota Security Hospital where the mentally ill and dangerous are cared for.

Given the latest “civil” strife, the razor wire might be keeping the mentally ill and dangerous safe from the rest of us. At least they’ve got an excuse.

In November 2018, U.S. troops were dispatched to the Mexican border outside of McAllen Texas to set razor wire along the border wall in anticipation of a caravan of women, children and families from Central America.

The 36th Engineering Brigade out of Fort Riley, Kansas, was part of Operation Faithful Patriot, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The bars were busy in McAllen, Texas according to the Journal.

According to thomasnet.com, a company that produces manufacturing directories, there are six razor wire suppliers in the United States. Two in New Jersey and one each in New York, Illinois, Florida and Texas.

At galwire.com you can find six varieties of razor wire including single coil, flat wrap coils, razor wire welded mesh, and my favorite, the “concertina razor coils” and “double concertina razor wire.” And yes, their spherical shape can be stretched to fit in and out like an accordion works. One wonders if it comes with a soundtrack.

In a finely worded sales pitch, the company explains the nature of razor wire and its efficacy.

“Razor wire is also known as barbed tape, which is a new type of protective screening with strong protection and isolation ability...

“Its sharp blades are chilling. Its blade is fitted with double wire buckle to form a shape of snake abdomen 10 • APRIL 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

so that it can play a deterrent.”

Then there’s this from the Hebei Jinshi Industrial Metal Co. Ltd. in China: “Razor wire...is easy to install and acts as a visual deterrent as well as a physical barrier, which is extremely difficult to climb.

“The razor tape is particularly difficult to crush or trample and is almost impossible to cut without specialized tools — and even then, it is a slow and dangerous job.”

And Askinglot.com agrees about the danger saying “don’t try to cross it unless you want to get hurt.”

Homeadviser.com notes you can buy a standard 1,320foot roll of razor wire for about $100.

At the end of February, Washington D.C., residents and some members of Congress asked the Capitol Police and others that if they couldn’t take down the 7-foot fence, could they at least remove the razor wire from atop of it.

“It’s kind of like working in a minimum-security prison right now,” Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) told acting Capitol Police chief Yogananda Pittman at a hearing before the House Appropriations Committee.

Prison indeed. Where the wardens make sure nothing gets done and the inmates feel happy about that.

The authorities couldn’t promise any removal of razor wire until after the first time President Joe Biden speaks to Congress. And then there’s still no guarantees.

Some 1,200 miles and 17 hours away from Washington, scarves, woolen hats and warm mittens hang on the black gated decorative fencing at the Lutheran Social Service building on Liberty Street in Mankato.

With a little help from their friends, the homeless or others in need can secure freedom from the cold and dark and pain of the Minnesota winter.

Mittens and scarves need no marketing. They’re warm and comforting and meant to be shared.

It’s an annual winter ritual where scarves and mittens are donated with the help of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church on Second Street, and where one can also find an outdoor “Blessings Box” filled with bread, canned soup and toilet paper.

The two fences represent the dichotomy that is America — the angry protesters using their flags as weapons and the charitable and kind using their generosity as shields.

Let us pray for an America where the razor wire will soon be gone, and the friendship fence will last forever.

Joe Spear is editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at jspear@mankatofreepress.com or 344-6382.

Follow on Twitter @jfspear.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2021 • 11

FAMILIAR FACES

The Wine Cats Wine Cafe owners remained busy during pandemic

M

Photos by Pat Christman

NAME:

Emily Dinsmore Green and Dan Dinsmore HOMETOWN: Both from Mankato

GOTTA ASK, GO-TO WINE?:

St. Supery Cabernet is our new favorite but we have a lot of faves!

FAVORITE NETFLIX BINGE SHOW:

“Bob’s Burgers” (or late-night adult cartoons)

TACOS OR WINGS? TACOS

12 • APRIL 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

usic. Wine. Beer. The iconic rooftop martini glass lighting Mankato’s skies. And, of course, wine.

The Wine Cafe Pub & Eatery, at 301 N. Riverfront Drive, has been the home away from home for many — a place to escape the 9-5 grind and enjoy a glass of wine, or a beer, for the last 18 years.

The Mankato staple had been previously owned by Diana and Mike Bauman, who had for years been catering to the downtown location. As regulars, the Dinsmores decided to purchase the Wine Cafe with new visions in mind, including an outdoor patio.

Emily and Dan Dinsmore bought the Wine Cafe in 2019.

And as many other small businesses across the world, the Wine Cafe came with its own set of challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Wine Cafe closed its doors temporarily midNovember: “We are making the difficult decision to close our doors temporarily. We value the safety of our staff and patrons (all of whom feel like family to us) above all else,” they stated on a Facebook post.

But as of late January, the Wine Cafe has again opened its doors, now featuring unique craft mixed drinks for Mankatoans to enjoy.

MANKATO MAGAZINE: Photography studio. The Capitol Room. Pottery studio. And finally a bar. What have been some of your favorite experiences of opening these businesses?

DINSMORES: Both of us have a major love of art, design and history. We have a big collection of kitschy retro items and antiques. All of our businesses have been a great outlet for these passions.

MM: Since taking ownership of the Wine Cafe, what would you say has been the most rewarding aspect of owning a Mankato staple?

D: The people! One of our best attributes is our staff.

Three of our bartenders have worked here for a combined 37 years. If you are here once, you are a regular. We have a wide variety of clientele. On any given night we will have professionals, farmers, cabinet makers, service industry workers, artists, musicians, etc. in the mix of the crowd. The Wine Cafe is truly a melting pot. The breadth of our demographic is a testament to this time-tested establishment. Dan and I both love to entertain.

MM: On the other hand … What have been some challenges you’ve encountered?

D: You either have enough time or money, but never both at the same time to do what you want. It’s always a major balancing act trying to get a big project done, especially when you have young kids. There are so many things to keep track of at once and that means some late nights and long hours.

MM: For a period, the Wine Cafe remained with closed doors during the ongoing pandemic. What are some things you guys are excited about to reopen the doors to the public?

D: We reopened (January) with limited menu items and operating hours. We are extremely excited to be back at full capacity with regular hours. Live music is in our DNA. We can’t wait to get back to our regular weekly live music routine. We will have a concert series this summer in cooperation with KMSU out on our new patio expansion. We are also working right now to add some great new food and drink options.

MM: Before owning the Wine Cafe, it was one of your hang-out spots.

What about the Wine Cafe was it that drew you to purchasing the establishment?

D:The Wine Cafe is a staple in Old Town Mankato. It has a relaxing,

come-as-you-are feel.

Coupled with our bar and restaurant, we have a small shop that offers offsale great wine, beer and liquor.

MM: Tell us about the Wine Cat. Where did the name come from and how has the renovation been going?

D: I was inspired while scrolling on Pinterest. I was saving funny wine memes for social media ideas and so many had cats. The name literally just popped into my head. We thought the shop remodel was years off, but the pandemic presented the perfect timing. It was one big silver lining to the closure. We are called the Wine Cat but we will have a great selection of beer, liquor as well as some hard-to-find bourbons. We have new paint, new floors, and a new brand. The cabinets and shelves are being installed and it should be done in a few weeks(we hope)!

MM: What are some things that people might not know about being a small business owner?

D: It’s hard, hard work. There is no such thing as clocking out. You have to think on your feet and be ready for anything (like a pandemic).

MM: Besides running some awesome local businesses, what are your hobbies?

D: There are too many to list. Live music for both of us. Dan loves to fish! We also love hiking, taking our two boys on adventures, bonfires and hosting game nights with music, food and drinks.

MM: Tell us something about yourselves that people would be surprised to find out.

D: I (Emily) was a history major and a hair stylist. I’m also an aspiring minimalist (previously an avid antique collector). Dan started his post-secondary education in animation and opened his own photo studio at 22. We have two pugs, a cat, a tortoise, a hedgehog and nine chickens.

MM: Anything else you’d like to add?

D: Thanks to everyone who has supported us through all of these endeavors. A very special thank you to our families. Can’t wait to see everyone on the other side of this! Please come buy stuff from us.

Please. (Haha).

Compiled by Diana Rojo-Garcia MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2021 • 13

DAY TRIP DESTINATIONS: CELEBRATION OF PRINCE Diana Rojo-Garcia

Prince’s former home Paisley Park in Chanhassen can be visited by ordering tickets. Wikipedia

Let’s go crazy Visit iconic locations in celebration of Prince

A

wave of mourning struck the world April 21, 2016, as media reported that legendary Minnesota musician Prince died at age 57.

Thousands of flowers and purple balloons, along with images of Prince spanning the years took over the places where he’d performed across the world.

More locally, hundreds gathered at Paisley Park in Chanhassen to pay respects to the late musician. First Ave in downtown Minneapolis hosted a block party, which drew thousands of fans to honor him. And Prince’s star on First Ave’s iconic wall was painted gold.

Five years later after his drug overdose and tragic death, Prince’s legacy continues. Many still recall the first time they heard “Little Red Corvette,” or seeing him perform at First Avenue years later, or his unforgettable performance at the 2007’s Super Bowl halftime show.

Celebrate one of Minnesota’s most prolific musicians and visit some of the landmarks in our state.

Album.” Since then and until his death, it remained Prince’s home, studio and production complex.

Paisley Park opened its doors to fans in October 2016. Tickets are available for purchase to go through three different experiences:

Paisley Park

First Avenue

Prince imagined a limitless space for creativity, surrounded with peace and love. That space was created in Chanhassen known as Paisley Park Studios, which opened in 1987.

The studio was inspired by Prince’s “Paisley Park” released in 1985 in “Around the World in a Day

14 • APRIL 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

n $45 for The Paisley Experience, which includes a tour of the main floor of the establishment and studios where Prince recorded some of his biggest hits. n $85 for the VIP Experience, which includes access to additional content, rooms and studio areas. n $160 for the Ultimate experience, which includes a private screening of exclusive video footage in Paisley Park’s Editing Suite and a look at other items not displayed in other tours.

Due to COVID, guests are required to answer a series of health questions when they arrive at Paisley Park.

Go to paisleypark.com/tickets for more information.

The former Greyhound Bus Depot in the heart of Minneapolis housed some of the biggest Minnesota powerhouses during the course of its life.

First Avenue served as a backdrop for the 1984 film “Purple Rain,” featuring, of course, Prince.

The popular and successful film won an Oscar for

Prince’s star was painted gold shortly after his death. Wikipedia

Thousands of fans showed respect for the late musician April 2016. Thousands more around the world mourned Prince’s passing. Wikipedia Best Original Song Score and additionally had one of the best soundtracks — the soundtrack has sold 25 million copies worldwide and certified platinum 13 times.

During the production, the venue closed its doors for 25 days.

And when it came out, it grossed over $72 million worldwide.

Prince also performed at the legendary venue, gracing the stages of First Ave since 1981 — then named Sam’s. “this sold-out show, featuring songs such as “Sister” and “Partyup” to This sold-out show featured songs such as “Sister” and “Partyup.”

If you’ve never been to First Avenue for a show, it’s a must-go, whenever things get back to normal. But for now, go visit the venue on a nice day to look at the stars painted upon the building — including Prince’s.

If not, no worries. Most of the filming for “Purple Rain” took place in Minneapolis. In fact, The Kid’s — Prince’s character — house can be viewed. It’s on the 3400 block of Snelling Avenue South. However, as many sources online state, it is a private residence, so be respectful.

The Electric Fetus in Minneapolis was one of Prince’s favorite record stores. Wikipedia

The Electric Fetus

This Minneapolis Record store was named one of the 10 best record stores in America by Rolling Stone in 2018. The Electric Fetus was also Prince’s favorite record shop.

According to a 2016 article written by Minnesota Public Radio, Prince had stopped in to the store to purchase CDs to support Record Store Day. Bob Fuchs, retail music manager of The Electric Fetus said Prince bought six albums . And Prince’s very last tweet was a link to The Electric Fetus.

The record store has been open for more than 50 years with

former monthly visits from the legend himself.

The record store remains open during COVID from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday and closed Mondays. The store has a limit of 15 people and masks are required at all times.

Visit the establishment to check out Prince’s favorite record store and pick up some records while you’re at it.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2021 • 15

Seth Yocum stands next to the green wall in the Hubbard Building. The green wall uses plants to keep air clean. Photo by Pat Christman

GO GREEN! Sustainability takes a team to achieve

By Diana Rojo-Garcia | Photos by Pat Christman

S

ustainability comes through networks and collaboration within a community to create a strong bond for a central mission: to save the Earth. And our community — through organizations, individuals and nonprofits — has shown up to try to do its part.

Mankato Zero Waste

Mankato Zero Waste keeps growing in numbers and passion.

The trio who spearheaded the composting collection sites — Betty Winkworth, Jane Dow and Katy Wortel — have long been environmentally minded.

Winkworth’s passion stems from girlhood as a Girl Scout, remembering the talks they’d have about the land. And Dow’s passion comes from always wanting to address climate change — realizing the threat becomes more and more alarming as time passes.

Wortel, formerly a familiar grower at the farmers’ market and outspoken environmental activist, also served as a county commissioner.

16 • APRIL 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

“The three of us, we wanted to decrease waste in the city and in our lives,” Winkworth said. “We looked around at what needed to be doing.”

Through much research, including taking field trips to Duluth’s compost site and checking out the Twin Cities’ efforts in sustainability, the trio knew composting was the right choice for the Mankato and nearby communities.

Compost, Dow said, is an important part of addressing climate change outside of oceans.

“Soil is the greatest carbon sink, second to oceans,” Dow said. “Anything that we can do to increase plant growth and composting and fertility of the soil — to have thicker plants and vegetation to absorb more carbon dioxide — I’m in on that.”

Full Circle had a composting facility in Good Thunder. The school district signed up with the facility to compost the leftover food from cafeterias.

“We were familiar with it, and we thought, ‘Gee, if the kids are doing this, this is a natural for us to try and get it residential,’” Dow said.

So in 2015, the trio began collecting compost — the pilot program — across the street from the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota. They began with carts for compost being available from 9 in the morning until noon. Armed with information at the compost center in Mankato, the three staffed the sites to fully explain composting, educate and answer questions.

“We had a great time through wind and rain and snow, but we were there for a year,” Winkworth laughed.

Then the trio went off to the city of Mankato to present the data they’d collected. The program started with 25 individuals, each charged $25 per household. The numbers then grew to 80 and were then presented as an option to the city to become a free service.

“They thought that would be worth doing,” Winkworth said.

And so did the residents participating in the program. The number of participants grew exponentially — the program now has 900 households composting in three cities: Mankato, North Mankato and Lake Crystal.

The widely accepted fact of climate change is mainly responsible for the growth in numbers. But more evidence over the years has come through.

“I think that once that starts happening when people realize we got a serious problem here, they are looking for any way that they as an individual can make any difference,” Winkworth said.

Education and awareness are the keys, she said. “Once you start it, you won’t be able to throw an orange peel again into the trash.”

During the pandemic, trash and refuse doubled as people work and learn from home. That includes more single-use items or plastics.

“The value of having compost (and) compostable products in your compost, that’s so much better than making all this plastic stuff which we’re trying to reduce,” Dow said. “(Plastic’s) contaminating our environment and killing our wildlife and causing health problems for us and polluting our atmosphere.”

Making as small of a change as buying products that use compostable packaging makes a big difference, they said.

Compostable items include foods, bones, paper egg cartons, pizza boxes, coffee grounds, paper plates

Betty (left) and Jane pull out an item that doesn’t belong in an organics recycling container in Sibley Park. The pair look through the containers weekly for plastics and other items that do not belong there. Photo by Pat Christman and cups, and more. (Check out the full list of compostables at mankatozerowaste.com and learn how to sign up at mankatozerowaste.com/sign-up.)

Not only does composting help the environment, but it helps your pocketbook, too. Putting all the compostables in, well, the compost, reduces waste sent to the landfill.

Less trash equals a smaller curbie.

Most importantly, composting helps humans become healthy by cleaning up the air, water and producing nutritious foods, Dow said.

“It’s just an important picture in our stewardship of the environment at this point,” Dow said. Little changes add up — everyone can do something, such as composting, to be a part of the change.

“Give yourself the opportunity to try it,” Winkworth said.

“If you do little things like that, like composting, that’s your one thing and it’s easy to do,” Dow said. “And maybe try not to use plastic.”

‘Scrap happens’

Key City Bike’s shop manager, Brian Gosewisch, first became aware of the organization through bike polo in the early 2010s.

The organization became a go-to to find parts for the bicycle and a place to work on it too.

“So I started coming around and seeing how things worked,” Gosewisch said. “Eventually, I worked and started volunteering at

the place.”

It was a place to try something different, he said. And throughout the years, Gosewisch learned bit by bit the mechanics of bicycles to then help others do the same.

The nonprofit prides itself on keeping bicycles out of landfills. It collects donated bikes, provides a workspace to fix them and expands the ever-growing bike culture found in Mankato.

Key City Bike in 2020 — when bikes were as hot of a commodity as toilet paper — reclaimed 382 bicycles. That means 382 bikes saved from landfills. “(The number of bikes) could have been sold, bikes earned through our Earn-a-Bike program, or it could have been bikes given away through either kid or adult donations,” Gosewisch said.

Mainly, he said, bikes are donated to underserved residents and they encourage anyone to go through the Earn-a-Bike program.

The program allows anyone to volunteer hours in exchange for credits to be used at Key City Bike to purchase a new or refurbished bike or parts. Volunteers earn those credits by “scrapping, sorting parts, cleaning, repairing bikes and other supportive activities.”

“The way we have the program set up, somebody can come in and literally put in 15 hours and earn a bike,” Gosewisch said.

Though not everyone finishes the program, it’s still an opportunity for those interested to learn about bicycle maintenance, repair and MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2021 • 17

Left: Andrew Westberg examines a tire innertube at Key City Bike. Middle: Owen Levitt works on a bicycle.

Right: Max Adams works on a boy’s bike. safety; save bikes from being trashed; encourages sustainable transportation; and provide bikes to those with “limited means for transportation, recreation and a healthy lifestyle.”

Expanding knowledge in learning how to fix a bike, rather than to throw it away, is key to sustainability in the community and it’s one of Key City Bike’s goals.

The shop includes walls of parts, refurbished bikes and three workstations with tools to use (during COVID to promote social distancing). Having a basic understanding of how to use basic tools is good, but Gosewisch says people can come in with no prior bike knowledge to work on their bikes with resources at hand.

“We’re trying to be more of a resource — a community space of sorts — where people can come in and work on their stuff and learn how to work on their own stuff,” Gosewisch said. “A lot of it has to be having that drive to learn and try.”

Key City Bike accepts any bike donations. Bikes then get worked on, and those that can’t be repaired get broken down.

“We have a saying, ‘Scrap happens,’ where we can’t save every bike but we try to get them back in the community as best as we can,” Gosewisch said.

Materials such as rubber get recycled, which Key City Bike pays to do, or scrap metal, which they get some payment for, hopefully offsetting the cost of the rubber recycling.

“That’s one of those things, that a lot of people will just throw away a bike,” he said. “We’ll actually take the effort to go through it and reuse what we can and then recycle what we can.”

Blue Earth Project

Did you know that Blue Earth County is the single greatest

18 • APRIL 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

contributor to the Gulf of Mexico dead zone? And did you know that in 2016, southern Minnesota lakes were considered “irreversibly un-swimmable”?

Needless to say, the state of the waters in our region faces massive problems. The Blue Earth Project sets out to become part of that change.

BEP, a nonprofit organization since 2019, founded by Paul Ebbenga, strives to localize solutions to a global problem by its “innovative programming, community activation and bold leadership.”

Its projects lead the Mankato area with programs such as Adopta-River; an Eco Market; energy consulting and street cleanups.

One of their projects includes its latest led by board members Bennett Coughlan in solar solutions and Seth Yocum in aqualogical solutions and owner of Aqualocial Resources. They have plans for a pontoon that uses an aquaponic system to clean water.

“It’s kind of like a flagship — prototype project — that we’re hoping to get a lot of really cool data to talk about what kind of effect these sorts of things could have,” Coughlan said. He hopes the project will perhaps encourage residents to add things such as dock gardens to help reduce the amount of farm runoff chemicals and fertilizers into lakes and waters in southern Minnesota. The pontoon, with the aquaponic system on top, takes water from dirty sources and then cleans the water with plants and returns it cleaner than it was. The system namely is a way to remove nitrogen in the form of nitrate, a water pollutant.

Nitrogen is occurring all around us, Yocum said, but rarely does it happen in nature — even though plants and vegetation require it.

“Nitrogen is actually 70% to 74%

of the atmosphere, but only 1% of that actually makes it into the ground and into our soil,” Yocum said.

Before 1918, the biggest creator of nitrogen was lighting until Fritz Haber, a chemist, invented the Haber method that creates ammoniacal nitrogen put into farmland.

“The plants have all this nitrogen available and as the rain falls through, well that nitrogen gets pulled out of the soil, into the tiles and down into the lakes, rivers and streams. So we use the plants to strip the nitrogen, same with phosphorus,” Yocum said.

The idea of the pontoon as a portable cleaner sprouted a few years ago, Yocum said. He has custom-designed ponds, aquariums, aquaponic and other aquatic systems since 1997. In aquariums or ponds, water needs to be changed, taken out and thrown away.

“I started to try to manage that water as a resource because it’s so full of this water-soluble nitrogen,” Yocum said. In a bag of fertilizer, you find the N-P-K ratio — nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. “That’s what you’re going for. Well, that nitrogen and phosphorus are this readily available nutrient that we have as wastewater in ponds and aquariums through natural accumulations.”

And a step further, Yocum said, is doing aquaponics.

“Which is where you grow either food, or, I do a lot of houseplants to figure out how plants clean the water,” Yocum said. “You can remove the nitrogen with the plants. Then it’s this closed-loop system — the fish produce nitrogen, the plants take the nitrogen, and nitrogen says low.”

So if he was using this for his business, why not lakes?

“Any water that has nitrogen and

phosphorus, if given the right system, either onshore or on the water, we’re going to be able to clean it just by growing plants,” Yocum said.

Currently, the duo acquired a portion of a pontoon donated to them by Kamp Dels and is waiting to be worked on during these months.

Coughlan’s job is to figure out how to power the pumps.

“That’s where the solar comes in because it’s not really super viable to run a big extension cord through the water out to this thing from the land,” Coughlan said. “We need to figure out how to power these things really anywhere you could plop this thing in — anywhere there’s a nutrient source and start cleaning the water.”

Solar and batteries become essential to the project.

Solar panels create energy through the energy of the sun, which provides good electricity, not to mention is sustainable. Solar energy sequesters carbon and CO2 entering the atmosphere.

“Solar is probably the biggest thing any homeowner can do at home to do something good for the environment,” Coughlan said. “It’s hundreds of tons of CO2 that doesn’t get released into the atmosphere depending on the size of someone’s electrical consumption — 150 trees’ worth.”

And it’s a 100% renewable energy source. Just imagine, Coughlan said, that if the 39,000 population in Mankato were taxed to use solar energy, it would keep $50 million a year in Mankato.

“Which is like 10 times the Vikings training camp numbers,” Coughlan said. “It’s this ridiculous amount of economic development that renewables could offer our area.”

The pontoon doesn’t have a determined area where it’ll be tested quite yet, but the two are ready for its construction, which shouldn’t take more than two weeks by their estimate.

“This is just a proof of concept in the natural environment, and also to create awareness and get all this information out there and get everyone on board,” Yocum said. “This is the kind of stuff that we should integrate into every home, every building, every river, every stream, every outlet from the tiles of the fields.”

Wooden Spoon

In late February, the Wooden Spoon received 135 boxes of green beans that were destined for the Walmart distribution center but didn’t make it — that’s 5,400 pounds’ worth of green beans, each box weighing in at 40 pounds saved from landfills. And all of went back into the community.

“The green beans really tested us because we’re a small operation and it’s our team that’s unloading it,” said Natasha Frost, president and owner of Wooden Spoon.

The team unloaded the boxes off the truck onto a pallet, then to their garage and up onto a platform. “We have been quite literally feeling it — I had to take a lot of Advil,” she said.

A Herculean effort — all in the name of saving food and reducing food insecurity in our community.

The small business in Old Town Mankato received a $75,000 grant from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The grant helps the South Central Minnesota Food Recovery Project to assist restaurants and businesses in donating excess food. The grant also allowed the establishment to purchase and add a

Green beans that Wooden Spoon received to donate back to the community. Courtesy Natasha Frost freezer and refrigerator to hold the excess food and develop an application by Foxio. The app is under the development stage gathering data to best serve the community.

“We had local restaurants talk about what they need and then nonprofits that serve low income, and BIPOC community members told us what they needed,” Frost said. “We’re able to use that data to help drive what the app is going to be.”

The project came to fruition two years ago in May. “It formed into a kind of formal coalition that came together and it’s under the grant,” Frost said. “Which goes to show that sometimes when you have grant opportunities, you can really firm up partnerships through that formal process.”

The community had been recovering and donating food before Wooden Spoon got involved, such as through ECHO Food Shelf, Feeding Our Community Parents, Minnesota State University’s Campus Kitchen and others. With the conversations between those organizations and Wooden Spoon, the plan was formed for SCMFRP. This year alone up to the end of February, SCMFRP received 1,480 pounds of bananas, 36 pounds of pears, 24 cases of apples, 52 boxes of pineapple; 5,400 pounds of green beans and 1,908 pounds of raw chicken.

Sustainability in the community comes down to the relationships built to work together for a better future.

And this community is ready for it, Frost said.

“This project could not have happened without everyone who’s involved. Wooden Spoon is the vessel that is like the receiver of the grant,” she said.

“The web of partners is the reason there’s even a project to work on in the first place. ... This is nothing without everyone that’s involved. This is not a Natasha project; it’s not a Wooden Spoon project. It is a community project. That’s the biggest piece.” MM

MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2021 • 19

REFLECTIONS

By Pat Christman

20 • APRIL 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

T

he songs of spring are in the air. The songs of cardinals, sparrows and woodpeckers ride the spring breezes as they emerge from a long winter. Those sounds are music to our ears as we emerge from a long winter to feel the warm sunshine and watch the snow melt away. MM

MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2021 • 21

YWCA’S Youth Programming Coordinator Lydia Jagodzinski. Jagodzinski began her new job at the dawn of COVID-19. Photo by Pat Christman

Mentors of the future Helping youth during a pandemic

T

By Nell Musolf

he Mankato area is fortunate to be home to several organizations that offer mentoring to its youth, such as the YWCA, the YMCA and MY Place (Mankato Youth Place).

As trusted advisers, mentors can help fill a gap for young people who benefit from interacting with caring adults and who might have missed out on some of the basic life lessons other youths take for granted.

22 • APRIL 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Traditionally, mentors and the youths they worked with met in person and played games, went on field trips and generally enjoyed getting to know each other.

As we all know, COVID-19 changed just about everything, including mentoring.

Here is how some local groups handled mentoring during the past year.

YWCA

At the YWCA, Youth Programming Coordinator Lydia Jagodzinski was still attending Minnesota State University when she began her new job at the beginning of March 2020.

“I had a week of normalcy and then everything changed,” Jagodzinski said.

In some ways, Jagodzinski believes starting just as COVID-19 hit the world might be something of an advantage because she was so new to the job that she was more easily able to roll with the punches.

Jagodzinski runs youth programs for girls in grades three through five. There are about 158 girls in the programs.

“The two main programs are Girls on the Run and Girls Inc. There are five coaches who each have a group of 15 to 20 girls. Our programs focus on self-esteem and empowerment,” Jagodzinski said.

“We want the girls we work with to feel like they can contribute to society and also take care of themselves.”

The YWCA includes STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) as a part of what they want girls to realize they can also do.

“With younger kids, we might ask them to draw a picture of a scientist,” Jagodzinski said. “Even today a lot of them might draw pictures of a male scientists and we’ll tell them, ‘You can be a scientist too.’ They need to hear that.”

For the mentors at the YWCA, being able to continue their programs was paramount as the youth they worked with transitioned from going to school to having school at home. To do that, they put safety guidelines into place so girls could continue to come to their center.

“When school was not in session on-site, we had kids from eight in the morning until five in the afternoon,” Jagodzinski said. “We follow the school guidelines for COVID-19 and make sure everyone wears masks and does social distancing.”

Over the summer months, the YWCA served about 160 girls.

“It was a different kind of summer since we couldn’t go on field trips, but it was still a good one,” Jagodzinski said.

MY Place’s Erin Simmons watches as Avianna Hayes works on a crochet project.

She thinks mentoring is more important than ever during such unusual and stressful times as the past year has been.

“Kids need a place to go where they feel comfortable and safe, and that is what we give them,” Jagodzinski said. “That’s what we do. I swear I have the best job in the world. I love coming to work.”

MY Place

Erin Simmons has been the executive director of MY Place since before it opened its doors in October 2018. When COVID-19 arrived, Simmons guided the program through the many changes necessary to keep it up and running.

“In a lot of ways, everything changed in a moment, but our mission remained the same: to empower all young people to reach their full potential,” Simmons said.

MY Place serves area youths in kindergarten through grade nine.

The center strives to be a safe place where kids can work with adults who care about them and help them build confidence while learning new skills.

After COVID-19 hit, MY Place remained open.

“We had some really fast pivots,” Simmons said. “We had to take care of a lot of things very quickly.”

By early April, the center transitioned from its previous hours of 2:30-7 p.m. to 12-5 p.m.

“With the earlier hours we can serve lunch and dinner to the kids, and the kids still have access to

their teachers while they are learning remotely,” Simmons said.

The students use a combination of computers and tablets while doing their schoolwork.

Keeping MY Place clean became even more important over the past year. One of the first tasks of the staff was removing anything with a soft surface that couldn’t be easily cleaned.

“We took it in stride and made the necessary changes. We also partnered with the city of Mankato who has staff who come in and clean at night,” Simmons said.

Mask wearing hasn’t been an issue for the children who frequent MY Place.

“The kids understand they need to wear their masks and they don’t oppose it,” Simmons said. “Like everything else, they’ve gotten used to it.

Not having to wear masks is one of the things Simmons is looking forward to in the post-pandemic world.

“I realized I’ve hired staff since the pandemic started and I don’t know what they really look like.”

Simmons also anticipates welcoming back the people who used to volunteer at the center.

“We used to have a lot of senior citizens who volunteered, but that had to stop. It will be nice when they can come back. That and field trips. It will be so nice to be able to go places again,” Simmons said.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2021 • 23

Charlie, left, and Cory enjoy a meal together during a YMCA get together. Courtesy Brother/Sister Mentoring Program

YMCA

Tom Schueneman began working at Mankato’s YMCA in January 2020 after completing a 32-year career with the Mankato Area Public Schools.

“I have been at the Y just over a year as the director of social responsibility, leading and collaborating with an experienced staff that is committed to building unique friendships between terrific kids and adult volunteers,” Schueneman said.

The program has been serving youth in the Mankato and North Mankato community for an impressive 52 years and is made up of three components. The Brother/

Sister Community Based Mentoring, Group Mentoring and a School-Based Mentoring Pen Pal Program.

Youth between the ages of 6 and 14 are matched with responsible, positive adult role models. The mentors go through an extensive screening and training process prior to being matched with a mentee.

The program now serves about 175 youths. In addition to the youths being actively served, the Y has a waiting list of about 90, many of whom are boys.

“It is important that we recognize that our community has 175 adult volunteers who are willing and committed to mentoring these

youth. For all the youth to be matched, we need about 90 more mentors, 60-plus would need to be men. There are many boys waiting!” Schueneman said.

The mentoring program at the Y relies on being responsive and innovative to maintain its program enrollment.

“It is also the nature of the programs that enrollment fluctuates. We do expect to see more volunteer mentor availability as restrictions and guidelines lift, which will provide for more mentor/mentee matches,” Schueneman said.

Prior to COVID-19, mentors and mentees typically got together once a week for a few hours to

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Jackson, left, and Andrew, adult mentor, saw a log during a YMCA event. Courtesy Brother/Sister Mentoring Program participate in community activities.

Activities range from playing a board game to going to a sporting event.

YMCA mentors also are encouraged to plan intentional activities that help their youth see a bright future, such as visiting a college campus or touring the mentor’s workplace. Monthly group activities hosted by the program is another way mentors and mentees get to know each other.

Since COVID-19’s arrival, mentoring has changed to a degree.

“The consequences of the pandemic and economic downturn has caused social, emotional and

financial hardships for many in our community,” Schueneman said.

“Program referrals and the needs of the youth are still great.”

Over the last year, the mentoring program at times paused programming, shifted guidance, made pivots and restarted — all in an effort to maintain the mentormentee relationship in the safest way.

“Mentors continued to be encouraged to be mindful about the importance of letting their mentees know they are there for them. Most importantly, mentors know that communicating even in the most challenging times is the key to healthy and supportive relationships.”

Schueneman is hopeful that when life return to normal, the Y will be able to match even more kids with a caring adult mentor.

“As always, an invitation exists to anyone who feels that being a mentor is something they can do,” Schueneman said.

To learn more about becoming a mentor, visit the YWCA’s website at ywcamankato.org/volunteeropportunities or call 507-345-4629; MY Place’s website at myplacemankato.org or call 507720-6898; and the YMCA’s website at mankatoymca.org/mentoringprograms or call 507-345-9815 MM

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Dan Griep, former forester for the Le Sueur Parks Department, spearheaded planting hundreds of trees on Le Sueur’s boulevards and public spaces. Photo by Pat Christman

‘Diversity is Good’

Minnesota River Valley cities promote diverse plantings

By Dana Melius

D

an Griep discovered a passion for trees during 30 years of service for the city of Le Sueur. It hasn’t stopped since retirement, with the growth of an apple orchard on his rural Cleveland property.

The former forester for the Le Sueur Parks Department, Griep has added some plum and pears trees too, and he’s developing a vineyard. But it was his work with Le Sueur-Henderson second graders, planting an Arbor Day tree in Legion Park, during which this passion blossomed.

“It’s funny how passions grow into something 26 • APRIL 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

more,” he said.

While serving in his parks department role, Griep also spearheaded the planting of hundreds of trees on Le Sueur’s boulevards and public spaces. Those trees are now part of his legacy.

“I see everyone of those trees and still get a smile on my face.”

But he credits Darla Frost of Le Sueur for getting the city’s Tree City USA certification started, now having grown for 30 years. And it was Frost, according to Griep, who also helped launch the community’s Arbor Day events.

At past Arbor Day events, Griep might send home a Black Hills spruce seedling with students, encouraging them to plant it at home or even at a grandparent’s place. If properly cared for, the evergreen tree might grow to as high as 60 feet with a width up to 25 feet.

Griep said the past Arbor Day events were held with little city investment. Instead, he and others would go door to door to raise some funds. He also credited Chuck and Judy Frauendienst of Modern Woodmen Insurance in Le Sueur for their cooperation and donations.

The pandemic halted last year’s Arbor Day festivities and likely will do so again this spring. But Judy Frauendienst has called the annual plantings a highlight for her and her husband. She called it “a reallife experience” of both giving back and sending the students off with a spruce seedling.

But for Griep and others who have played a role in maintaining and expanding tree plantings in public spaces, it was more than a passion.

“It takes a lifetime to grow a tree,” Griep says he’d tell those students.

■■ ■ ■ Justin Lundborg serves as the city of Mankato’s natural services specialist, overseeing the community’s tree planting and maintenance program. That amounts to some 16,000 trees on public spaces, he said, which includes boulevards, parks and other city properties.

Lundborg said the basic city strategy is to plant two trees for every one that dies, is cut down or removed. He adds that after past issues with too many similar trees — such as those hit by Dutch elm disease — arborists now advocate a variety of different species.

Dutch elm disease was first discovered in Minnesota in 1961 in St. Paul, according to University of Minnesota researchers. The disease, caused by fungi often spread by elm bark beetles, devastated the state’s elms during the 1960s and ‘70s.

“We stress diversity in the city,” Lundborg said. “Too much of any species can cause problems.

There’s probably 15 different species we’re planting.”

Justin Lundborg, city of Mankato’s Natural services specialist, said the city’s strategy is to plant two trees for every one that dies, is removed or cut down. File photo After the Dutch elm issues, and the more recent emerald ash borer tree damage, the city’s maintenance program and awareness have improved, Lundborg said. It’s also resulted in the planting of more maples, he added. Now one of Lundborg’s favorites is the Kentucky coffee tree.

“We’ve come a long way,” he said.

The city’s participation in Tree City USA also continues and “it kind of highlights what you’re doing in the city,” Lundborg said.

“But because of COVID, the Arbor Day events have really been impacted.”

Urban forestry is changing.

“Diversity is the biggest thing, even with climate change,” Lundborg said.

The warming temperatures mean more “Zone 5 trees” will likely be planted around Mankato in the coming years.

“We’re preparing for the climate change and planting a lot.”

He recommends the Rasmussen Woods nature area and Sibley Park for those enjoying the city’s diversity of trees.

■■■■ “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” — Scott Moeller, Linnaeus Arboretum director, quoting an old Chinese proverb.

The arboretum at Gustavus was established in 1973 “to be a unique arboretum that not only contained a collection of numerous tree species and horticultural gardens but includes examples of all three of Minnesota’s natural biomes: tallgrass prairie, deciduous woods and coniferous forest,” Moeller said in an email.

“I think that is what so many people enjoy about the arboretum, the combination of both ‘tame’ and ‘wild.’”

The 1998 tornado that struck St. Peter caused extensive damage to the Linnaeus Arboretum Interpretive Center building, but Moeller said young trees fared well. It was the larger, mature trees on the main Gustavus campus that sustained the worst damage.

“Maintaining our tree collection and our woodlands is a very important job that seems to be getting more and more challenging every year due to increased pressure from invasive species and diseases,” Moeller said. “Our Presidents’ Oak Grove was under attack a few years ago from the oak wilt fungus.”

Moeller said maintenance and restoration included removing the infected trees and severing the root connections to other trees, the main way the fungus spreads, then closely monitoring the health of the trees.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2021 • 27

The arboretum at Gustavus Adolphus College was established in 1973, The arboretum was created to have a collection of numerous tree specialist and horticultural gardens, in addition to all three of Minnesota’s natural biomes: tallgrass, prairie, deciduous woods and coniferous forest Scot Moeller

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“The most important thing with oak trees is to avoid pruning them when the oak wilt fungus is most likely to be in the air,” he said. “If people want to prune oaks, they should either do so in early spring (February through March) or late fall.”

Moeller said they are also dealing with the emerald ash borer and battling invasive tree and shrub species. With a diversity of trees, he believes the arboretum can keep ahead of widespread problems.

“The main lesson with most of our tree issues is ‘diversity is good.’ We are learning the best defense against a plant, fungus or insect is a diverse stand of trees and a diverse understory of plants.”

Moeller said Arbor and Earth Day observances are, as of now, up in the air because of COVID. He added that recent years have included a “Discover the Outdoors Day” at the arboretum during which Gustavus students would assist staff and St. Peter volunteers to “help share the importance of trees and other parts of nature.”

But on the positive side, the pandemic has brought more visitors to the arboretum, Moeller said.

“It has been so wonderful to see so many folks from the Mankato and surrounding area making use of the arboretum as a place of solace and refuge during the COVID pandemic,” Moeller said.

“It’s been great to have so many comments from people who appreciate that the space is here for them in these challenging times.”

MM

Growth of Tree City USA, Arbor Day “Trees provide the very necessities of life itself. They clean our air, protect our drinking water, create healthy communities, and feed the human soul.” — The Arbor Day Foundation The Tree City USA program originated in 1976. It followed the U.S. designation of Arbor Day by then President Richard Nixon in 1970.

To become a participating Tree City USA community, four standards must be met. A tree board or parks department must be designated to handle tree care decisions, delegating duties to a professional forester, arborist, city department or citizen-led board.

A public tree care ordinance then forms the foundation of a city’s ongoing program. For ongoing commitment, a community forestry program must include an annual budget of at least $2 per capita. And finally, an Arbor Day observance and proclamation must be planned.

There are now more than 3,400 Tree City USA communities, including 109 in Minnesota through 2020.

Regionally, the cities of Mankato (23 years), St. Peter (26), Le Sueur (30), New Ulm (17), Fairmont (29) and Sleepy Eye (38) are participants.

Arbor Day internationally was first noted in 1872, spearheaded by journalist Julius Sterling Morton, with the first celebration in his Nebraska City, Nebraska, hometown.

Morton later became President Grover Cleveland’s secretary of agriculture.

The Arbor Day Foundation, founded in 1972, has now steered away from Morton, “a vocal anti-abolitionist who held deeply flawed beliefs regarding race and slavery,” according to a June 2020 news release.

“In the past we have attributed the spirit of Arbor Day to Morton, but it truthfully belongs to the Nebraskans who have embraced the tree planting tradition for generations and people around the world who know that a greener world is healthier, more beautiful, and more equitable,” the Arbor Day Foundation release states.

“By shedding light on and learning from past mistakes, we aim to build a legacy that is proactively reflective of our values and inclusive of all those who have contributed to the tree planting movement.”

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MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2021 • 29

Food & Beer

LET'S EAT!

By Dan Greenwood

SOUTHERN MN STYLE Big Dog Sports Cafe’s Mel Bishop delivers lunch to a pair of customers.

THE BIG DOG Some staple recipes on the menu originate from owner’s grandmother Photos by Pat Christman

F

or regulars at Big Dog Sports Cafe, it’s not uncommon to have a favorite beer or any other beverage waiting for them as soon as they walk in the door.

“Our regulars are a lot more like family than customers,” said manager Isaac Becker. “It’s not just a customer or a dollar that’s coming in; it’s a person that we enjoy and get to know.”

Some of Becker’s happiest childhood memories come from when he was a kid hanging out at the Big Dog while his dad and 30 • APRIL 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

owner, Wade Becker, put in long hours running the sports bar and restaurant.

Some of the menu items come from homemade recipes Becker’s grandmother made.

“It’s always been a familyfriendly atmosphere,” Isaac Becker said, adding that staff turnover is rare – several employees have been here since the restaurant first opened. Many others have been working here for more than a decade.

The Big Dog Sports Cafe has been a staple of North Mankato

since 1994. Since then, most of the menu items have remained consistent, but that hasn’t stopped them from introducing a handful of new appetizers in recent months, such as fried green beans, pretzel bites and spring rolls.

“We were just looking for something different, especially when you’re ordering curbside,” Becker said. “It’s nice to switch it up, so spring rolls were a different option to diversify.”

The spring rolls also pair well with the peanut Thai or spicy

Left: Seafood pasta, a customer's favorite at Big Dog. Right: The Big Dog Sports Cafe remains a North Mankato staple to have food and drinks. chili Thai chicken wings, two of the 10 varieties on the menu, which range from Caribbean jerk and BBQ to teriyaki and honey mustard.

“You can always have barbecue wherever you go, so it’s something different,” Becker said. “We have wing specials on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday.”

And then there are the lunch specials every week, including chicken fettuccine on Tuesdays, southwest pasta on Wednesdays and the beef commercial on Thursdays, which is especially popular among customers.

“It’s two pieces of Texas toast with our homemade roast beef and then we pour mashed potatoes in between,” Becker said. “You cut the sandwich in half and smother it in gravy at the end. It’s a nice pick-me-up when you come in from the cold.”

For people on the go during a lunch break, Becker recommends

one of their wraps, which ranges from fajitas to buffalo chicken, or sandwiches, like the Cajun chicken sandwich.

“For dinner I usually get the wings or the Big Dog Burger,” Becker said. “That comes with American cheese, fried onions and bacon.”

There are nine different salads to choose from, and they make the homemade ranch dressing in house. It’s become so popular they began selling the dressing separately in 16-ounce containers for customers to take home with them.

The Big Dog is also known for its breakfasts.

“Our red-eye breakfast is probably one of the best deals in town,” Becker said. “It’s $8.29 for three eggs, three strips of bacon, hash browns, toast and a bloody Mary or screwdriver. It’s a very large meal for what you pay for and I honestly order it every single Sunday – it’s my go-to

meal.”

Becker said the customers and staff he gets to interact with every day are the best part of the job.

“I never come to work with a bad outlook because I know I’ll be able to see my regulars,” he said. “There are people that consistently come in that are here to see us, and we’re here to see them.”

What:

Big Dog Sports Café

Where:

1712 Commerce Drive, North Mankato.

What they’re known for:

Sandwiches, burgers, wings, salads and wraps served in a welcoming, family-friendly atmosphere

MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2021 • 31

COMMUNITY DRAWS

By Kat Baumann

32 • APRIL 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

BEER

By Bert Mattson

Dry Spring Finish A

s A p r i l s h o w e r s a re imminent, drier brews eclipse the viscous drams of winter. Like rich, slow-cooked meat and hearty vegetables, edges caramelized, heavy beer styles with residual sweetness have established themselves as the fare of deep winter. The alcoholic warmth, deep hues, and warm glow flickering in stemmed glassware are like a reflection of scenes around a glowing hearth.

But then, especially in the age of quarantine, cozy begins to fly close to stuffy. The subconscious steers away from heavy and sweet, as tendrils of green and warm rays creep onto the horizon.

The glassware elongates from snifter or goblet to a tulip, the better for framing effervescence, like the new shoots stretching and unfolding toward the spring sky.

In come new styles, crisp like cool mornings, grassy and earthy like flower beds — before the luscious bloom. But drier.

“Dryness” has nothing to do with water content in beer, but rather denotes the absence of sweetness … or that relative absence. The fermentation process breaks down sugars, rendering alcohol and carbon dioxide. Try putting a sprinkle of sugar on your tongue to find that the resulting salivation inspires a sensation

of wetness. On the other hand, alcohol can have a drying effect on the palate. Carbonation can clean the palate, curbing aftertastes prone to linger. “Finish” in beer refers to the perception and sense of a beer after it is swallowed.

Carbonic acid also imparts “bite,” which can play a role in refreshment.

So, straining under the lingering weight of winter’s sweet and viscous brew, find relief in something drier and more refreshing.

One such option that has found a comfy spot in my spring rotation is Saison. Saison is a family of beers as diverse as one might expect in a “farmhouse” beer.

Like any regional specialty — which tend to vary from stead to stead — these center on spectra of spice, effervescence and dryness.

Something just seems right about sipping farmhouse ale come spring.

Middle malt character keeps things interesting in a drier beer and sets up the finish. Just pure uniform dry tends to leave one with a sort of… sucky experience.

But carbonation in Saisons tends to be lively, akin to champagne in some cases. Some spice punctuates earthiness and malt in the middle.

Perhaps the most popular Saison in the state is Lift Bridge’s Farm Girl. A beer for those only dabbling toward dryness after winter, she’s moderately sweet and bubbly, with a subtle piquancy of black pepper.

Saison Dupont from Brasserie Dupont, the benchmark of the style, tends toward the effervescence of sparkling wine.

It’s grassy with some citrus and perceptual sweetness. Its earthy middle is punctuated by peppercorn. It finishes dry, crisp and refreshing.

Tank 7 from Boulevard Brewing Co. offers a balanced variant.

Mild citric sweetness on the nose is followed by faint tartness and a hint of apple. Sourdough, in the middle, is punctuated by cloves.

Sweeter than standard, this might be for those more interested in dipping a toe than plunging headfirst into the season.

Bert Mattson is a chef and writer based in St. Paul. He is the manager of the iconic Mickey’s Diner. bertsbackburner.com

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MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2021 • 33

ANN’S FASHION FORTUNES

By Ann Rosenquist Fee

MERRY, MATCHY, CREPEY Style dilemmas, solved

Lines. Swirls. Lines and swirls for days.

DEAR ANN: I'm wondering about fashion choices for the chunky middle-aged lesbian.

DEAR READER: Congratulations, because today’s fashion scene is the chunky middle-aged lesbian’s oyster! As per Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor”: Falstaff: I will not lend thee a penny.

Pistol: Why then the world's mine oyster, Which I with sword will open.

Falstaff: Not a penny.

Obviously that’s violent and obviously since then we’ve copped and blurred the phrase to mean that “the world is ours to enjoy.” And thanks to COVID, the world of fashion is now ruled by items that were previously pretty much the middle-aged lesbian’s domain! See: Coveralls. See also: Sweatpants.

All you need to add to your existing wardrobe is a swagger that says, “I was doing this first,” plus a touch of compassion that says, “You are all welcome to join me,” and boom. Why then. You’re the merriest, most fashion-forward icon in the land.

DEAR ANN: What are some ways to match your mask to your outfit without being matchy-matchy?

34 • APRIL 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

DEAR READER: I, too, was rattled about this until last summer during a socially distanced business meeting, where one participant was sporting a mask/tie combination that just owned the room.

All the rest of us were still in bandanas or some other makeshift thing, having not yet built our professionally crafted mask wardrobes.

But not this guy. His tailored blue/gold mask was covered in checks or chevrons or something like that, and his similarly-blue/gold-but-not-toomatchy tie was striped. It was the first time I truly personally understood the rules of menswear, specifically that thing of pairing two things that have wildly different patterns but share colors in common.

And you know what, it’s not that hard.

It’s easier than trying to “match” masks to outfits using the rules of women’s accessories, which basically allow you one piece of statement jewelry as your one pop of color, or one scarf as the only patterned thing on your person. Which, if you try wearing masks that way, all of a sudden you can’t wear any other accessories at all and then half your closet becomes irrelevant. Nobody needs that kind of uncertainty when we’re just barely beginning to feel hopeful and sure-footed.

Lay out all your masks. Lay out your scarves or T-shirts or whatever you generally wear from the mask down. Keep staring and rearranging and playing match-up until you’ve created combinations that work because you’ve decided, confidently and menswearishly, that they do.

DEAR ANN: I am concerned about summer because I love short sleeves but don’t love my arms.

I am 70. My arms are crepey. My situation might even be worse than that of my peers, because my own arms stayed taut past their expected crepe date. So here I am, freshly betrayed. Do I stick to wrist-length sun shirts this summer? Or what?

DEAR READER: In normal times, I’d say take it at your own pace, wear long sleeves until you’ve worked through all the vanity and mortality and sense-of-self issues that roar to the surface every time we notice a new crepe or sag.

However! This summer, we don’t have that kind of time. We simply can’t wait for you to process things at a normal pace, not if we’re to pack all the connectedness, humanity, and reassurance we need

into our few months of in-person warm-weather gatherings.

This is not to say anybody gets to touch your arms, or that you’re supposed to show more arm or anything else than you would’ve shown in past years.

It just means, the more self-love and acceptance you can model for the people around you just as soon as we can really be around each other, the more of that you’re going to soak up for yourself. And then the more of it you’ll give and the more you’ll receive. Your arms will still be there for you to grapple with, next summer.

But then again, if you spend a season wearing glad-to-be-alive as your main style motif, your arms might suddenly look just fine.

Got a question?

Submit it at annrosenquistfee.com (click on Ann’s Fashion Fortunes).

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LIT DU NORD: MINNESOTA BOOKS AND AUTHORS

By Nick Healy

Trisha and Stephen Shaskan with their latest books.

Dynamic duo

Trisha and Stephen Shaskan write and illustrate children’s books with their audience in mind

W

hen children’s authors Stephen Shaskan and Trisha Speed Shaskan met, they were working in an after-school program in Minneapolis.

He taught art, and she taught writing. Every day they had to find ways to engage their students, and every day they developed a better understanding of what amused the kids, what bored them, what moved them and what mattered to them.

Twenty-four years have passed since their time as coworkers, and in those years the Shaskans have gotten married (21 years ago) and built careers in children’s books — Trisha as an author and Stephen as an authorillustrator. They have worked hard and honed their craft through thousands of hours of study and practice. All along, they have stayed connected with kids and what they want or need from a story.

“The experience of working with kids — having a view 36 • APRIL 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

of how kids reacted to stories and getting in touch with kids’ emotions — was really helpful to me as a writer,” Trisha said. “The time I spent working with kids, which was at least 10 or 15 years, definitely influences my writing.”

Stephen concurs and adds, “Trisha and I always think about where the child is in our stories. That’s really important to both of us.”

In January 2020, the Shaskans visited St. James to lead a comics workshop — a hands-on session where kids learned how to write and illustrate their own comics.

The Shaskans were familiar faces in the Mankato region by then, having visited libraries in Waseca, Winnebago, Montgomery, Madelia and roughly 25 other nearby communities in recent years. The pandemic would soon put a halt to all events of the sort, but at the time, the Shaskans were busy riding a wave of success.

Trisha was coming off the 2019 publication of “The Itty-Bitty Witch,” a lovable underdog story that had been released by Two Lions, the children’s division of Amazon Publishing. Stephen was looking forward to the May 2020 release of his graphic chapter book “Pizza and Taco: Who’s the Best?” The book would be the first in a new series, and he was under contract with Random House Children’s Books for a second Pizza and Taco book in 2021.

The idea for the series could be traced back to library visits and workshops such as the one in St. James. The Shaskans often led kids through a character-creation exercise, and with participation from the group, they would conjure a character by making a list of his or her traits and behaviors.

“Every time we asked the kids, ‘What’s this character’s favorite food?’ It was always pizza or tacos,” Stephen said. “Always.”

The Shaskans got the message.

Stephen decided to create a story with two main characters — a taco and a slice of pizza, obviously — who are highly competitive but also best friends. In the first book, Pizza and Taco debate who is tops and decide to put the matter to a vote. They also

where she completed an MFA in creative writing. And Stephen talks about reading dozens and dozens of picture books during his years as a preschool teacher and paying attention to how authors and illustrators crafted the stories.

“I think a lot of people who get into this business read picture books and think, ‘Oh, I can write something better than that,’” Stephen said.

“When I got into the business, I was reading so many picture books, and I was thinking, ‘I’d like to write something as good as this.’ I really admired what they were doing in so many picture books.”

crack jokes, accidentally (or not) snub their classmate Hamburger, do a best-friends dance and more.

Releasing a book in the early days of the pandemic seemed dicey, but Random House stuck with the planned launch date. Soon “Who’s the Best?” had the look of a hit. By the holiday season, Pizza and Taco appeared alongside bestsellers such as “Dog Man” and “The Baby-Sitters Club” in weekly Target ads. By early this year, Random House had Stephen under contract for five more Pizza and Taco stories. The second book (“Pizza and Taco: Best Party Ever!”) came out in February, and the third will arrive in the fall.

It’s all good news, but when the Shaskans start talking about children’s books, they don’t talk about sales and contracts. They talk about the stories that have moved and inspired them, and they talk about how their love for children’s books began.

Trisha mentions her years as an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota and in graduate school here at Minnesota State University,

About the Shaskans

The Shaskans have been active in Minnesota’s thriving community of children’s writers for more than a decade, and they’ve built a long backlist. Trisha’s first book was published by Capstone in 2006, and she wrote many books for the Mankato-based company before shifting her focus to her own picture books and moving on to major publishers. Stephen’s 13 books include “A Dog Is a Dog,” “Toad Prairie River Home on the Road” and “Max Speed.”

He also illustrated Trisha’s Care ispicture now book “Punk Skunks,” and the couple ADARA collaborated on a series of graphic Home Health novels called “Q & Ray.”

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Call ADARA at 507-519-4016 Call ADARA at 507-519-4016 if you: • Are being discharged a hospital or rehab stay MANKATOafter MAGAZINE • APRIL 2021 • 37 • Are looking for additional support and services in

GARDEN CHAT

By Jean Lundquist

Spring time E

Cold-season veggies ready for the ground

verything I love about spring begins in April.

Unfortunately, the one thing I hate about April is also happening.

The sun is in the sky earlier in the day and later in the evening. Bird songs in the morning can be almost deafening. Colorful birds are seen again, including bluebirds who returned in March, and goldfinches that return to breeding plumage.

And the soil can be worked, so all those seed packages that direct us to plant as early in the spring as the soil can be worked are open, and seeds go in the ground.

Cold-season vegetables such as radishes, spinach, lettuces and onion sets can go in the ground now. Frost is still probable, so don’t go nuts, even on warm, sunny days. I have to remind myself to pace myself this time of year. It’s easy to get too exuberant when the weather warms up this much, and I want to start serious planting.

If you’re in the same boat, some things you can do now include dividing rhubarb and fertilizing it. Ideally, rhubarb should be divided every three years or so, if you believe the experts. However, I know people who have not divided rhubarb for some 30 years (like me), and it’s still going strong. It does like to be fertilized, however, since it’s known as “a heavy feeder.”

I’m not much for doing yard work any time of the year.

Remember, I’m married to a man who told me 40 years ago when I was buying flower seeds, “If you can’t eat it, why grow it?” But raking the leaves out of the hostas is a fun thing to do now. If you’re not like me, and like yard work, you also can rake your grass, but do it gently so you don’t pull it up by the roots and kill it.

This is also a good time to aerate your lawn if you want healthy grass to mow and worry about this summer.

Personally, I’d rip it all up and plant clover seeds, but I 38 • APRIL 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

really like the fella who comes out and mows grass for us.

If you can’t go outside and play because of the weather — April showers, you know — it’s not too late to start seeds indoors, but time’s a-wasting! If you let seedstarting go much past mid-April, you’ll be too late to get good, healthy seedlings of a size hardy enough to put out in your garden.

Like you, I’m chomping at the bit to get outside and growing. But the thing that I hate about April is a strong reminder for me. It’s the rain.

To understand, I have to take you back with me to the time I had four house dogs. Two were miniature dachshunds, one was a size-large German shepherd and one was my lovely 170-pound Great Dane. Count ‘em – that’s 16 feet of varying sizes. All of them had a penchant for loving April and running through all the mud they could find to celebrate spring.

That meant 16 muddy footprints all through the house, every April day. I don’t think there was a day all month they couldn’t find mud somewhere. The little ones were close enough to the ground that the hair on their bellies also dragged in some mud.

I loved those dogs, but I hated their muddiness.

Now, I have just one dog. I’m down to four feet instead of 16. But when I’m mopping up after him, I still remember why there is a part of April I really dread.

At least when I had 16 feet to clean up after, I could sweep it into a small pile and plant something in it. Wish I had thought of that at the time!

Jean Lundquist is a Master Gardener who lives near Good Thunder. gardenchatkato@gmail.com

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MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2021 • 39

FROM THIS VALLEY

By Pete Steiner

Actuarially speaking S

unblinded, gazing out my window at 20-below zero in mid-February, I sipped my coffee. Still confined by cold and COVID, yet technology made it possible for me to survive comfortably, able to contemplate nature from inside a heated porch. Birds, rabbits and squirrels that forage at the feeders I have filled are made to survive these conditions. Still, I imagine I can ease their struggle just a little.

I read that only about 50% of birds survive beyond their first year. By comparison, that means I am doing extraordinarily well, having been gifted so many decades to behold the beauties of God’s green (and blue) earth.

■■ ■ ■ I get the mail, file through it, and there it is. A card like this arrives three or four times a year from the Neptune Society or the National Cremation Society. It touts “Today’s sensible choice of a growing number of Americans.” That choice, of course, is cremation as opposed to traditional burial.

The mailers say they are simply “updating our files and want to make sure we have your correct information.” Right. The name and address are correct; why would I choose to send them more?

As I’ve said here before, boomers, of which I am one, are notorious for denying they are aging. If I fill out the postage-paid return card, I will be acknowledging the fact of my mortality. But if I do not respond, might they assume that my “correct information” is that ol’ Pete has kicked?

No, but I wonder, for how many years will they keep contacting me? After all, my dear, deceased mother is still receiving various solicitations and catalogs nearly three years after her death. (A notification 40 • APRIL 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

■■■■

bombarding us — point of purchase offers, robo-calls, two-minute ads on the cable news channels — they seem to be everywhere. In fact, it’s a $150 billion a year industry. Extended warranties for your car, your laptop, your new refrigerator, your vacuum cleaner.

So, how long until someone concocts a scam to offer an extended warranty for your body? Not talking here about health insurance for new knees or new hips or new kidneys.

No, call me a nut, but consider the scenario: The futurist Ray Kurzweil claims the Singularity will occur by mid-century.

The Singularity theoretically means a human consciousness could be merged with a durable computer to create a kind of immortality, what devotees call “a post-biological world.” The most famous bet on this so far is baseball great Ted Williams, whose son had the slugger’s head and body cryogenically frozen two decades ago.

While highly controversial, the practice of cryogenics — freezing a brain and body — holds out the prospect that preserved remains, pending theoretical future advances in science, will someday make a sort of resurrection possible.

It’s an expensive long shot, but plenty of never-say-die boomers have the cash for a roll of the dice. (It’s a whole new meaning for brain-freeze.)

But really, how long until promotional cards start arriving in the mail proclaiming, “You too could live forever! Call this 800-number now to learn more!”

I’d have to live to about 98 to become a candidate for Kurzweil’s singularity. The Cremation Society actuaries aren’t betting on that.

OK, let me go way out on a limb here. This speculation was prompted by the deluge of “extended warranty” offers

Longtime radio guy Pete Steiner is now a free lance writer in Mankato.

sent to one that “the recipient is Deceased,” brought a follow-up mailing to “Dear Deceased.”)

■■■■ Leaden-eyed actuaries unimpressed by my longevity are paid big bucks to go over their tables, information collected from credit card accounts or Facebook or — well, you know, our personal information is all over the place — and then to tell the Neptune Society: Hey, this guy is ready to exit stage left, better send him another mailer.

Practically speaking, they have a point: With about 4 billion devotees of burying religions in this world, where will they find room for them all? And I must say, I am a firm believer one should have things in order – funeral planned, readings selected, music picked.

(Someone else could choose that insipid song you always disliked that is sung at so many funerals.)

And have a will!

While certainly not in their category, I look at the messes created by Prince and Aretha for their loved ones when they died without a will. And it took Jimi Hendrix’s heirs 30 years to untangle his estate (he didn’t expect to die at 27, when few have written a will).

Picasso’s vastly under-valued estate — $250 million half a century ago, before individual works began going at auction for fully one-third of that total amount — left seven heirs to battle for six years over how to divide it, costing $30 million in lawyers’ fees. So it probably serves a motivational purpose when I get a mailed reminder about “the way of all flesh.”

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