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A Supplement to the Star Shopper
Friday, April 20, 2018 • Edition 5
Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
Levin establishes artifacts museum By LAURA HINTZEN Staff Writer SPICER – At 7 years old, Larry Levin would walk the shores of Lake Minnetoga, hunting for pretty rocks, 10 miles south of Atwater where he grew up. “I’ve always just been fascinated by them,” Levin said. While living with his parents, one of his favorite jobs included trapping gophers for the neighbors. “That’s how I got into Indian artifacts,” he said. “I found my first arrowhead on a pocket gopher pile when I was 12 years old and that’s what started everything.” He found it a mile-and-a-half away, in the neighbor’s pasture. Levin wanted to learn more about his findings, so he did his own research. Now, 61, he has accumulated and read nearly 10,000 books on artifact hunting since his teens. He took his wealth of knowledge to Crookston College, pursuing a degree in natural resources. At the time, there were no jobs available in the field, so the students were advised to choose a different major. Levin switched gears, focusing on agriculture, which led him to his current profession of 20 plus years at Farm Service Elevator Company in Willmar. There, he works in a warehouse handling turkey and hog equipment. When Levin married Barbara in 2005, the couple purchased a home near Spicer. Knowing about his love for artifacts, Barb suggested he use a room in the PHOTO BY DIANE LEUKAM
George Bentfield holds a drone April 12 at G&B Sales and Service west of Sauk Centre. He uses the machine to check crops for area farmers.
PHOTO BY LAURA HINTZEN
Larry Levin stands in front of his butterfly wall April 7 at Raptor Ridge Museum in Spicer. The museum is his personal collection of artifacts, some bought or loaned, but many of them collected in area fields.
basement to put all of his findings that he has collected over the years. “I can’t fit anything in this room,” he said. “Maybe five or six showcases and it’s full. I just have too much stuff… but I love it.”
A year later, the couple built a 35- Joel Paffrath. by 45-foot shed, which was later named “I asked if he could come up with Raptor Ridge Museum. Finally, his col- some nice names for our museum. And lection had found a home. LEVIN The name, “Raptor Ridge Museum” continued on page 5 was created with the help of a neighbor,
Waiting on Mother Nature
Bentfield talks weather, spring planting By DIANE LEUKAM | Staff Writer SAUK CENTRE – It was a quiet Thursday afternoon, April 12, and George Bentfield was at his office desk at G&B Sales and Service. Just beyond, several warehouses were quiet, too, stacked high with many rows of what will one day become the corn, soybean and alfalfa crops of a good portion of Stearns County. Bags and crates of seed waited on Mother Nature; waited for spring to arrive. The 10-day forecast did not help much; a winter storm was scheduled for the weekend. Bentfield is concerned for his customers. “It’s putting a lot of stress on them. Typically, we shouldn’t be getting snowstorms anymore,” he said. “[Sometimes] we do, but normally we get some nice weather that people can do things like hauling manure, but they just haven’t been able to do anything.”
Bentfield has been selling seed for 32 years. There have been many years when farmers have gotten into the fields and late snows stopped them, or a late frost stunted crops. Other years, the planting was late due to wet weather. This year is different. They have not started at all due to winter refusing to give up its hold. “We finally have some 50-degree days in the forecast. But there’s still trucks driving on the lakes, and that also means it’s not melting away from shore yet,” Bentfield said. “The old farmers always said there’s no sense in going out in the field before the ice is off the lakes.” In the meantime, some seed is being delivered to local farmers, but not a lot. Normally at this time, 85-90 percent of the seed is delivered by now. This year, that number is 20 percent, partly because many farmers are taking a wait-and-see attitude. As the days go on, many of them will begin to think about exchanging some of their longer-day seed to earlier-variety hybrids. For instance, some silage corn that is 110 days may be switched to a hybrid that is 100 days, or even 90. “We don’t want to switch it twice,” Bentfield said. “Everybody knows we live in Minnesota and they’ll typically plant a package of stuff – some early, some mid-season and some long-season. So, what happens is,
BENTFIELD continued on page 7