Saturday, March 19, 2022 | Country Acres • Page 1
ountry C
Saturday, March 19, 2022
cres A
Volume 9, Edition 38
Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
On Schumers’
pond
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Family, friends and neighbors often gather on Sunday afternoons to skate and to slide down the hills surrounding the pond at the Jim and Marilyn Schumer farm near St. Stephen.
Hockey rink provides winter fun for farm family, friends
S
BY SARAH COLBURN | STAFF WRITER
T. STEPHEN – There’s a low-lying spot in the pasture on the Jim and Marilyn Schumer family farm in St. Stephen; it is sheltered from the whipping winds of winter and has become a hangout spot for some of the Schumer kids and their friends. Additionally, dozens of other people, young and old, might show up on a Sunday afternoon to slide down the steep hills surrounding the pond that lies at the bottom. They also come to skate. Growing up, the Schumer kids (including Melinda, Luke, Paul, John and Peter) played ice hockey on the spot, between the farm house and their grandmother’s. The low-lying area naturally collected water and it froze for winter. The boys would brush it off and play with their cousins or siblings and eventually, as they grew older, inviting friends from school to come play. As time went on, the family removed some soil from around the pond, creating enough space for a
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Publications bli ti The newspaper of today is the history of tomorrow.
hockey rink. John and Peter Schumer and the other guys who play these days have all played amateur baseball – three of them still do – and use the space to gather with their friends, staying in shape in the off-season. They play for the St. Wendell Saints, for Pearl Lake Lakers and the Sartell Muskies. “There’s nothing better than being out on the pond skating in the winter, getting together with the guys and being able to get outside,” John said. The guys gather on the ice for two hours a night during the week and once on the weekend. Most of them have never played organized hockey, except for one who played professionally overseas. Most of the guys are in their early 20s to late 30s, though they have had some who are almost 60 out there, as well as the local priest a few times. They usually try to play three games, scoring up to 7 points each. A simple group text message alerts everyone it is time to play. There is a
Schumer page 2
This month in the
COUNTRY: Watch for the next edition of Country Acres on April 2, 2022
PHOTO BY DIANE LEUKAM
Peter (left) and John Schumer pause for a photo on their hockey rink March 3 on the Schumer farm near St. Stephen. The rink is on a pond in the pasture, and skating there has been a family tradition.
4
A multi-crop focus Brooten
10 A snowshoe workout Nancy Leasman column
7
A respite from the chaos Diane Leukam column
12 Nature Enthusiast Holdingford
7
What ‘s this ?
17 Two million trees Browerville
22 Farmer wins car, finds sweetheart Benson Township 25 Country cooking Watkins 28 Staying the course Motley
Page 2 • Country Acres | Saturday March 19, 2022
Country Acres
Published by Star Publications Copyright 2014 522 Sinclair Lewis Ave. Sauk Centre, MN 56378 Phone: 320-352-6577 Fax: 320-352-5647 NEWS STAFF
Diane Leukam, Editor diane@saukherald.com Ben Sonnek, Writer ben.s@saukherald.com Herman Lensing, Writer herman@melrosebeacon.com Jennifer Coyne, Writer jenn@dairystar.com Evan Michealson, Writer evan.m@star-pub.com Carol Moorman, Writer carol@melrosebeacon.com Natasha Barber, Writer natasha@saukherald.com Sarah Colburn Staff Writer Grace Jeurissen Staff Writer Christine Behnen Freelance Writer
Story ideas send to: diane@saukherald.com SALES STAFF
Kayla Hunstiger, 320-247-2728 kayla@saukherald.com Missy Traeger, 320-291-9899 missy@saukherald.com Tim Vos, 320-845-2700 tim@albanyenterprise.com Mike Schafer, 320-894-7825 mike.s@dairystar.com Warren Stone, 320-249-9182 warren@star-pub.com Jaime Ostendorf, 320-309-1988 Jaime@star-pub.com Bob Leukam, 320-260-1248 bob.l@star-pub.com
PRODUCTION STAFF Pat Turner Amanda Thooft Nancy Powell Maddy Peterson Cheyenne Carlson
Schumer from front regular group of 10 to 12 who are on the text chain and usually they play 3-on-3 or 4-on-4. It is a group effort to keep the rink going. Schumer’s father, Jim, and his brother, Peter, are volunteer firefighters and they will flood the rink a couple times a year, when needed, as part of a training exercise. When it comes to working on the pond and ice rink, John does the lion’s share of it. In the beginning of the season, he sets the boards and lights up, and keeps the snow pushed off the majority of the time. Oftentimes over the years, John and Peter have worked together shoveling the rink by hand, though with a big snowfall and when the ice was thick enough, they would bring out a skid steer to clean it off. This year, John got a four-wheeler with a plow on the front to take over the job. The ice rink has had lights on it since the guys started playing on it regularly in the winter of 2017. Their brother, Paul, got LED lights and poles and now the lights go up each fall and remain in place on the sides of the rink until spring. Peter lives on the farm where he and his parents operate the 75-cow dairy herd and grow crops to feed the cattle. Peter remembers the days when the boards around the rink were made of old wooden pallets from one of their dad’s friends. Fifty-gallon barrels tipped on their sides serve as
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Cassandra Schumer, married to John, holds 3-month-old baby Grace as family and friends gather to enjoy a winter day on the Schumer farm near St. Stephen.
the goals and a few years ago John brought home damaged garage doors panels, destined for refuse at his work, to replace the pallets. Occasionally, a player gets sent over the boards, but they avoid it if possible. The guys, clad in sweatshirts, hats, gloves and sweatpants, throw their sticks in the middle of the rink to divide up the teams for the night.
The sounds of skates slashing across the ice are broken up by laughter and the loud bang of a puck hitting the back of the steel barrels. “It’s fun,” Peter said. “You can’t really beat getting together with all your friends and hanging out together. We’re all pretty competitive, so it’s a good thing to do.” The guys play for bragging rights and the subject of
the night-time hockey games often comes up during the baseball season. As the winter ice season comes to an end, the Schumers will enjoy another cycle on the farm before the weather once again turns cold enough to revive their family tradition.
Schumer page 3
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Country Acres will be published the first Fridays of April, May, June, September, October and November, and the third Friday of every month. Deadline for news and advertising is the Thursday before publication.
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Publications bli ti “Committed to being the eyes and ears of our communities.” PHOTO BY DIANE LEUKAM
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The Schumers’ pond and hockey rink light up the night March 3 near St. Stephen. The pond, located in the pasture on the farm, has long been a gathering spot for winter fun.
Saturday, March 19, 2022 | Country Acres • Page 3
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PHOTOS BY DIANE LEUKAM
(Above) Fifty-gallon barrels serve as goals, while the boards (upper left) are constructed of damaged garage door panels at the ice rink at the Schumers’ property near St. Stephen. CAMar19_1B_JO
(Right) John (left) and Peter Schumer race for the puck while playing hockey March 3 on their family farm near St. Stephen.
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Page 4 • Country Acres | Saturday March 19, 2022
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Matt and Britney Segaar pose with their children, Everlee, 2, (front left) and Braxton, 5, along with their cow/calf herd on their farm near Brooten.
A multi-crop Segaars find joy raising kids on diverse operation BY SARAH COLBURN STAFF WRITER
BROOTEN – Life is busy on the Segaar farm, where Matt and Britney Segaar run 4,000 acres of corn, soybeans, peas, sweet corn, kidney beans, hay and millet. They are the third generation on the farm and often get two crops
off a field in one year and then additionally, do 2,000 acres of custom work. The operation, though large, is lean. Matt’s father, Stan, works on the farm from spring to fall as does his uncle, Carl Segaar, and a full-time employee. Outside of that, they have seasonal help in the spring and fall and their little
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ones, Braxton, 5 and Everlee, 2, help out with the animals. They have 60 cows that are part of their cow/calf operation as well as horses just for fun and, occasionally, moving cows. Each year it is a dance for the Segaars to get the crops on and off the fields in just the right order and timeframe. The peas are grown on the land and harvested by a vegetable processor that cans them or freezes them.
focus “They’re a little fussier on how much water they get for rot reasons,” Matt said. “The weather is really hard on them; if they’re blooming in highheat they don’t do so good.” The peas are a short crop so the fields that are harvested early are planted with a second crop of soybeans. The later fields that are harvested get a crop of millet. Kidney beans take a little more work to harvest. Those go to a bean plant in Wiscon-
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sin; Matt and his team harvest them and haul them out of there. The kidney beans have to be windrowed at night when there is dew on them so the pods do not crack open. As they drive along, the whole plant comes out of the ground into a windrow and then the next day when they are dried out, they go by with a kidney bean combine. “They’re not as fussy as
Segaars page 5
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Segaars from page 4 peas but they’re more prone to disease; there’s more fungicide and insecticide,” Matt said. “They’re a little more labor-intensive.” Kidney beans are harvested late August through the beginning of September and then the fields are cover cropped with oats or rye for the winter. If there is enough time, they will fence it in and graze it. The sweet corn gets picked by the vegetable processing company and saves the Segaars harvest time, crop time and labor. The soybeans they grow mostly for a seed company. The Segaars also rent out their land for rotation purposes, for red beets, carrots and potatoes. Beets are harvested beginning in July and then the Segaars do a cover crop after that if time allows. In 2021, they grazed 300 cattle for a farmer out of South Dakota on the land. Behind the farmhouse last season, Matt had kidney beans so he planted oats, turnips and radishes, and the 60 cows that are part of their cow/calf op-
eration grazed there until it snowed. The cows also winter there. The Segaars map out the entire planting and growing season each winter. Creating a spreadsheet, they know exactly what will go where and they estimate when the crops need to be harvested and planted. They know what rotations are coming up in subsequent years and they have spreadsheets dating back to 2010. They track everything electronically including seed, inputs, mapping of each field, the number of chemical applications and the variety of every product. “I punch in the field name, pull it up on my phone and get a breakdown of what variety we did, which field was best, how many fields, what the moisture was, how many bushels came off each one,” Matt said. While the technology is helpful, he said it is another thing that can break down – and the technology is constantly changing, forcing him to learn new
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Matt and Britney Segaar take time away from the family farm to ride horses to Mt. Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
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Saturday, March 19, 2022 | Country Acres • Page 9
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The kids will ride along in the tractor for five or six hours at a time, he said. While Matt usually tends to the morning chores, Britney helps the kids in the house and, around mid-afternoon, she and the kids help with anything else that needs to be done. “Every day looks different, depending on what breaks in the morning,” Britney said. Matt does most of his own repair work and the goal with the kids is that by the time they are teenagers, they will be regularly helping with chores and farm operations. Right now, they ask a lot of questions, they learn by watching as cows go through the chute. They close the doors and their parents push them up. “It’s the most fun there is when all four of us are working cows,” Matt said. “The kids love it. They like seeing the animals and climbing on the gates.”
As the family sits around the table at night, they discusss the foods. A frozen bag of peas leads to discussion of how those could have come from their very own farm. Their 5-year-old wears an “Eat Moree Beef” shirt to school ol once a week. The kids ids know what they are eating and exactly where ere the food comes from. “It’s pretty fun,” n” Matt said. Matt started on the family farm early and by the time he was a teenager, he chose to drive the tractor rather than play sports. Britney grew up on a hobby farm by Spring Hill, and helped on her uncle’s dairy farm, but said she never experienced farming of this magnitude until she was a part of it. The family does make time for fun in addition to the work. In the summer, they go to the Black Hills and ride horse for a week and in the winter time,
“It’s the freedom of being able to raise our kids here, teach them as they grow, teach them about where the food comes from. We get to pass (these lessons) on to our kids, it’s kind of heartwarming to watch it all unfold.”
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- Britney Segaar they do quite a bit of ice fishing. Matt also gets out on the snowmobile. The kids have a bunny that lives in the shop and they spend a lot of their days riding around trikes and scooters and stealing their parents’ snacks. They also help Britney tend to the horses on the property. In the summer months, they visit in the field often. For Britney, the farm is a blessing and the kids not only get to understand the importance of where food comes from, but how to care for and
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treat animals, and how to be good stewards of the land. “It’s the freedom of being able to raise our kids here, teach them as they grow, teach them about where the food comes from,” she said. “We get to pass (these lessons) on to our kids, it’s kind of heartwarming to watch it all unfold.”
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Segaars from page 6
Seed bean harvesting is underway at Matt and Britney Segaar’s farm near Brooten.
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I strapped on some snowshoes and trekked through the woods this morning because the snow depth was a little too much for woods work. It was zero degrees with a light north wind. The snowshoes have hung in an out-building for years, left behind by one of the kids who, as it turns out, despises snowshoeing. I haven’t been on snowshoes since chaperoning one of the kids’ winter conservation camp trips about 30 years ago. I wasn’t even sure how to put them on. It felt a little like my struggles with my boots a year ago when I went out to work in the winter woods for the first time. But, I got them on and
found that, though walking with them was an effort, it was easier than what it would have been with just my boots and a foot of fluffy snow. I broke trail through the woods. It would have been even more difficult had I not cleared the fallen trees and branches over the last year. There were lots of open spaces between the trees. The wild animal trails were everywhere, mostly deer and squirrels. If the tracks in the snow go from tree to tree, it’s a squirrel. If the tracks go from the base of a tree to an excavation in the snow, it’s a squirrel. Why plow through the snow when you can travel from tree branch to tree branch? If the tracks go into
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and around brush piles, it’s probably from a rabbit. Larger trails are either deer or coyote. If the snow had been less fluffy, the tracks would have more clearly shown details and would have been easier to identify. It was difficult to see toe or hoof prints. One mysterious trail was of small prints, larger than a mouse but definitely smaller than squirrels or rabbits. It wound its way between the trees for quite a distance so I don’t think it was a bird. Maybe a weasel? It was so light it
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hadn’t gone very deeply into even this ash-light snow. Maybe a flying squirrel? I’ve never seen one in the wild but know that they are creatures of the night. Going downhill toward the area where I last worked, it felt like I should be able to glide. Snowshoes definitely do not glide, but the feeling came from the times I cross-country skied and the appliances on my feet felt similar, until I looked down. I checked out the area where I might be able to work in the next few days. There’s lots of snow but I should be able to cut where some downed trees’ upper branches don’t hold as much snow. I may need to put the chainsaws on a sled. Snowshoeing or walking through deep snow carrying a chainsaw is a lot of effort, and a great workout. But sometimes, it is just too much.
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Page 10 • Country Acres | Saturday March 19, 2022
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Page 12 • Country Acres | Saturday March 19, 2022
Nature enthusiast Mastey known for love of outdoors
BY DIANE LEUKAM STAFF WRITER
HOLDINGFORD – When Gregory Mastey was a young boy on the farm north of Gilman, his very favorite TV shows were “Grizzly Adams” and “The Waltons.” They just fit his personality. Throughout his youth and even later, he was always out in nature. One day in his 20s – whether he was fashioning an adventure after Grizzly Adams or not is undisclosed – he disappeared. When he finally returned home, his mom asked where he was. “In the woods,” he replied. She asked, “For six hours all by yourself?” In his youthful enthusiasm, he said, “Yeah, it was great!” These days, Mastey is not quite as young anymore, but his full-throttle enthusiasm is still there. So is his love of the outdoors and his conviction that nature is just what he – and everyone else – needs. Looking back, his years growing up on the farm shaped his path in life. With
PHOTO SUBMITTED
A Sunday afternoon in late February is filled with fun, as Fr. Gregory Mastey brings his snowmobiles out to the Ryan and Jennifer Burggraff family farm west of Royalton. Jennifer is Mastey’s cousin.
four brothers and one sister, he spent most of his time outdoors. With both parents, John and Betty Mastey, working off the farm, the kids handled much of the work for the diversified live-
stock including dairy goats, sheep, pigs, dairy cows, beef cows, ducks and geese. He and his brothers also worked milking cows for neighbors. Then, there was fun. “Elk River goes through
our farm and actually starts on our farm; we have the headwaters of the river,” he said. “We grew up in the outdoors hunting and fishing. We also grew up riding horse. We all had a horse and
Dad would take us riding on Sunday afternoons. Living on the river, I was a trapper growing up.”
Mastey page 13
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James Pyka (from left), Fr. Gregory Mastey and Rose Pyka (James’ daughter-in-law) show off their successful mushroom hunt of Sheepshead and Chicken of the Woods. Mastey has also been hired by the Stearns County Horticulture Society to teach mushroom hunting to the general public.
Mastey from page 12 At his home in Holdingford in early February, he went through a basket of furs as he talked about hunting, fishing and trapping. As a young man wanting to be a game warden and armed with degrees in environmental biology and taxidermy, he spent his summers during college working for the Minnesota DNR and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He worked for the DNR as a trapper and taxidermist, mounting animals for the Bell Museum in Minneapolis, a natural history museum with the University of Minnesota. His work on the Minnesota Biological Survey involved trapping and creating museum mounts of rodents and small animals. “They were trying to do studies throughout Minnesota to say what kind of animals in what areas match up with what kind of plants,” he said. “So, they would send in a team of people who knew all the plants and
Stop at
they would set up a grid and identify all the plants, and they would send a team in to trap everything. Not everything was killed; some of them were live traps and we would have all this data and some that we did kill we would mount for museum mounts. Those are the ones you find in drawers where you get different specimens.” He also did taxidermy on smaller animals for St. Mary’s University’s science department. While studying at St. Mary’s, his undergrad thesis was a two-year study of a chemical spill, where sanitizing tablets of calcium hypochlorite had been accidently been flushed into a stream. “Three little tablets killed the stream, the trout, within a mile and I did a study on all the macroinvertebrates,” he said. “If it killed the trout, what did it do to the macroinvertebrates and the food they eat?” All of this was going to be his life. He had his foot in the door working for U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the DNR.
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Mastey page 14
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Mastey from page 13
“In my mind, I was planning on putting my time in the seminary, God would forget about me and I would
have my degrees ready and go on and do what I want, right?” he said. “I could have done any of those jobs for money,
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but something clicked in at some point that everything isn’t about money.” That’s right. He is a Roman Catholic priest who has a great love for his rural congregations. Throughout his vocation, his enthusiasm and energy for the outdoors hasn’t waned; it has only enhanced his mission to connect people and show them the joy he sees in life. “The real joy in life is serving and realizing that I can do all of that and reach people where they’re at through the ministries of different things like hunting and fishing,” Fr. Gregory Mastey said. Throughout his ministry, he has been a public figure in many ways, probably because
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PHOTOS SUBMITTED
Jared Budin (from left), Fr. Gregory Mastey, Jeff and Dawn Mastey, Betty Mastey and Maddie Budin are pictured on a Friday afternoon in October 2020, when they took a boat ride on the St. Croix River from Hudson to Stillwater and back.
he is very comfortable and happy with lots of people around. Relationship is everything for him. “Community life is very important to me,” he said. “There are so many things I have done and I have a zest for life. I don’t think that I’m doing it intentionally, it’s just that I like to do everything. This is just a good fit.” There’s always something going on.
Things one might not expect. “The Stearns County Horticulture Society hired me to teach wild mushroom classes for the general public,” Mastey said. “I don’t know of anyone who picks wild mushrooms more than I do, but I tell you, it’s great to get in people’s woods and go for walks with families and identify stuff. So, I am always using those kinds of things to find
ways to connect with people. When you’re at a party or you’re at someone’s house, they don’t want to sit around and talk theology usually – it’s not a good ice-breaker.” Some of the parties are at his own home as throughout the year, he will invite about 25 people over at a time to cook wild game for
Mastey page 16
on have a combined s a J d rd an of OVER 90 YEARS! a w , Ho xperience l r K a w o rk e
“FARM DRAINAG E SPECIALISTS” In the fall of 2021, a hunting party (Fr. Gregory Mastey is back left) shows their rewards of grouse and timberdoodle.
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Page 16 • Country Acres | Saturday March 19, 2022
Mastey from page 14
them. Sunday afternoons in the fall are for pheasant hunting with fellow hunters, and anyone else who wants to go along. Anything relational for groups of people is fair game. As a dance instructor at the Pelican Lake Ballroom, he gives dance lessons, teaching the dances often used at wedding receptions, such as polkas, waltzes, the Cotton-Eyed Joe, the Cupid Shuffle and two-steps. “For a long time, I went to dances and I would say to young people, ‘why do you just jump around out there’ and they all tell
me, ‘Because we don’t know how to do anything else!’ I said, ‘If I would teach you, would you like to learn,” Mastey said. “It’s not unusual for me to host a dance class on a Saturday night from 9-11 p.m. and get 75-100 high school and college-age kids who show up.” For Mastey, being a rural pastor is living the dream. As a people person, he is forever reaching out, whether it is a weekly half-hour rural life show with Glen Lewerenz on KYES Relevant Radio, now in its 10th year, saying the Rosary on KASM, his Facebook Live
PHOTOS SUBMITTED
A four-wheeling party of family and friends gather in the woods near Pine Center in the fall of 2020. Fr. Gregory Mastey is on the front right.
night prayer that averages 120-150 households from all around the U.S. tuning in, or
saying outdoor Easter Sunday Mass at 6:30 a.m. in the countryside at Arban. What is in his future? Whatever it is, the outdoors will loom large. “Yesterday, I went snowshoeing in the woods,” he said. “The
woods are a place of peace for me. I, like many people, am living in a world that’s running so fast that the world needs to slow down. You need to have places to get away. That connects with people whether they are religious or not. Your body gets out of rhythm in
this fast-paced, concrete, noisy world. Studies have shown to get back in that rhythm, you have to get back into nature.” And, for Fr. Mastey, the woods is one of the places, outside of church, to be in total rhythm with God.
This tiny retreat house in the woods provides a space for Fr. Gregory Mastey to be alone and connect with nature and with God on his day away from the office.
The inside of a small retreat house is kept warm with a wood stove, and holds only a few necessities.
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Saturday, March 19, 2022 | Country Acres • Page 17
Two million trees
Browerville couple spent lives in forestry
B
BY SARAH COLBURN STAFF WRITER
pa
tz
ROWERVILLE – Marcia Rapatz and Greg Nolan have spent decades walking fields, splitting the earth with a hoedad thrown to the ground with the flick of a single hand. As the metal blade juts through the soil, they drop in a seedling and continue walking, planting 1,000 trees in a six- or seven-hour day. Since the 1970s, the couple has planted more than 2 million trees. “Humanity is growing, we keep needing new houses and we use up resources; forestry is a rea newable resource,” said Marcia, who Marcia R founded Snowy Pines Reforestation with her husband. “If the forestry is done right, the logging is done right, you actually improve your forest.” The couple has a long history of improving the PHOTOS SUBMITTED earth, dating back to before they met each other on a Marcia Rapatz and Greg Nolan spent a lot of time in a base camp like this, preparing to plant thousands of seedlings a day. tree-thinning crew in Oregon in 1977. The tools of their trade have been simple through the years: a pickup truck, a chainsaw, a brush-cutting saw, a tree-planting bag, the hoedad and the strength of their bodies. Up until 12 years ago, they planted every single tree by hand, adding a machine-powered tree planter in the mid 2000s. Not only have they planted trees, they’ve helped remove them to better the health of the forests and Custom Exhaust | Engines | Driveability | Light Truck Diesel Repair landscapes. They’ve marked trees to be selectively A/C Work | Drive Train | Tires | Tire Siping | Accessories | Alignments logged, harvested blow-down trees, cut down brush around trees to increase tree growth, thinned trees for forest health, protected young trees from deer and helped farmers remove trees that got in the way of crop efficiencies. The tree removals weren’t done with haste. Each time they entered someone else’s property to cut trees, they studied the forestry plan behind the project. “There had to be a reason,” Marcia said. “We care about what’s left behind as much or more than what we take out.” In their work boots and heavy leather gloves, Marcia and Greg have made a living out of managing the trees of the earth. Though they were paid for most jobs, occasionally clients would want to barter. “People would say ‘You plant trees for us and we’ll give you some logs’ or, ‘you plant trees for us and we’ll give you some beef,’” she said. They’ve always lived simply, packing their lunches and water for work each day. They’ve relished the physical action of the work through the years and they both like being outdoors. Marcia grew up in Wisconsin and didn’t know
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Forestry page 19
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Forestry from page 17 what to do after high school. She studied forestry in college for a year or two and then just up and left for Oregon. She lived in a house with some roommates and got work in the Santa Fe National Forest looking at plots and providing data to the forestry service. She worked at a Christmas tree farm and when spring came, she heard about tree planting. Greg, a free spirit of his own, grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona, had hitchhiked to Oregon and was on a pick-up crew fighting fires for a couple years before they met. They did some contract cutting work together and Greg became a smoke jumper, fighting fires for six seasons. They camped out in a tent or a tipi out west and had no rent so they saved their money. When winter came, they had a baby and decided to move to Minnesota in 1980 to be closer to family. They built a 24- by 24-foot house, again out of lumber they crafted themselves. The house didn’t have indoor plumbing but they were happy. They continued to venture to Oregon to
PHOTOS SUBMITTED
Marcia Rapatz swings a hoedad overhead, opening the ground to create a hole for planting a seedling.
pick up work planting, thinning and doing inventory work and then, in 1984, they planted their first trees in Minnesota. For a while they had their own tree planting company, complete with a crew of employees. In 1987, they bought a sawmill to process the wood from blowdowns and planned harvesting jobs. They took on thinning, brush cutting and tree-planting jobs. And, eventually, they began creating their own siding, trim and hardwood flooring out of the logs they harvested. As their family grew,
Greg Nolan stands by a wall of sustainably harvested wood.
they went on to expand their house in 1996, doing all the work themselves, logging the wood, making the lumber and adding a root cellar and a second story with bedrooms. They’ve dabbled in other things through the years, making a little money off of farming. They rotationally graze beef cattle; they own four head of beef and harvest them. In the summer they take on 12 to 20 of a friend’s animals for grazing and the friend takes theirs in the winter. They
Forestry page 20
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Forestry from page 19 tap trees for syrup. Through the years, neither has been motivated by money but took on jobs to keep the family going. “We’ve never been rich,” she said. “I have so much gratitude that I was guided on this path and that materialistic goods aren’t the chief. I had to make a living, but money wasn’t the foundation.” Marcia and Greg remain in the same house today and now they focus on the lumber part of their business, crafting and installing hardwood flooring and construction materials from wood materials that were gathered sustainably from well-managed forests. “I think it’s beautiful; the light comes in and I see all the grains in the wood,” Marcia said. “Occasionally, we need
to do a re-sanding quick, and a finish on the top of that. They’re a 100-year floor.” As the couple grows older – she’s 67 and he’s 65 – they’re phasing out of the tree-planting part of the business and they’re grateful they’ve been able to do the physical work through the years, gathering endorphins each time they set out for the day. “Now I only scratch my head on it,” she said. “How did we have the energy for all of that?” Today, they can’t help but continue to take on small jobs for the love of the trees. They hope someone will fill the gap as they exit the industry. They trained one young man to do the job but he didn’t move forward with it. Marcia said she’d love to train in someone with a
Marcia Rapatz bends down to plant a seedling in the ground, tree bag slung over her shoulder.
passion for trees and sustainability. In the “olden days,” as they refer to them, they would have done 15 jobs a spring, planting 30,000 trees each in a six-week period. As they phase out of the business, they’re planning to plant 13,000 trees this year for people they have developed relationships with and just couldn’t say “no” to. However, they said it’s their last year of planting. “There’s work out there if you’re ingenuitive and hard-working,” Marcia said. They’ve worked with landowners who wanted to enjoy their own woods or hunt on their property. They’ve planted trees along a creek to reduce runoff and protect the natural resources. They’ve created windbreaks for landowners and planted shrubs, hardwoods and conifers to create a home for wildlife. They’ve thinned forests to create room for healthy trees to grow and receive light. They’ve taken on government-paid projects to protect the trees from wildlife. Today, they live on 80 acres and their property includes three acres of white pine that’s more than a century old. When they first arrived on the land the trees were 9 to 10 inches in diameter at breast height, a standard measurement for trees. Today, 42 years later, they’re topping out at 2 to 3 feet in diameter at breast height. They’ve managed their own forest through the years and the lumber has gone to create their own buildings. They use some of the wood in their own wood-burning cook stove. They snowshoe and ski on their property which also houses an orchard, a garden and the
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PHOTOS SUBMITTED
Greg Nolan leans over to plant a tree in the ground.
grazing space for cattle. Marcia and Greg have served the land and the land has, in return, served them well. Their children and grandchildren now enjoy the property. The grandkids can be found climbing trees, playing in the woods, hunting for mushrooms, tapping trees for syrup and practicing surviving off the land. “I feel like I’ve given my grandkids and my children a foundation of taking care of the earth, living close to the earth,” she said. “They get this land when I’m gone and I’m happy I was guided on this path of taking care of the Earth mother.
Marcia Rapatz and Greg Nolan, together, have planted more than 2 million trees.
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Pederson from page 22 Township in Pope County, going farm to farm. In the course of his travels, he met the Lien family. The father of the family bought a few subscriptions and they took a liking to Edward. Mr. Lien exacted a promise that Edward must return to give them a ride, should he win the car. Win he did. Edward rode a train to the Twin Cities where he was awarded the car, which accompanied him in his return on the train. It was the first car in Benson Township. He returned to the Lien farm as promised. There he found his bride, Inga. He won the car, but, even better than that, he won Inga Lien’s heart. The car itself lasted about 10 years, which was not unusual. All that is left of the 1911 Hudson now is a photo and the radiator badge mounted on the wooden photo frame. What did last was the family that Edward and Inga started. The Great Depression hit, and by 1932 or 1933 the lake beds dried up, leaving exposed buffalo skulls, lost shotguns, and other unexpected finds. Times were very hard, and attempts were made to farm potatoes
PHOTOS SUBMITTED
(Above) Edward Pederson (Edward Pederson’s grandfather) won this 1911 Hudson car, and found his wife, Inga, in the process. (Right) All that remains of the 1911 Hudson is a decal, and a story.
and other crops in the lake beds. The cattle ate thistle. In a wooded area of the property along Lake Moore, wood was clear-cut and sold or used for heating. The swathe cut through the woods over time would begin to function as a pass, which was utilized by ducks to travel between the lakes. In the midst of those difficult years, Inga died of a ruptured appendix in 1934. The youngest of their 10 children was only 5 months old. When the children were suddenly left without a mother, Edward’s older sister came to raise them. She stayed for approaching 15 years after the loss of Inga and was much beloved. Today, in present
times, Pederson has created a fitting tribute to the family’s beloved Grandma Inga – Inga’s Pass. Through the 25 wooded acres along Lake Moore runs about 2 miles of walking and hiking trails. Inga, herself, had had an interest in art, and every year, until her family grew, she would create wood carvings, some of which hang on the wall to this day. Inspired by Inga’s life and her own interest in art, Pederson has created a number of art installations along the way. By his hand, the pass that was formed in the Great Depression, around the time of Inga’s death, is now an idyllic natural park. The shape of a trunk
or other natural formation might catch Pederson’s eye, leading to a new artwork. While walking in the woods, he might notice, for example, a tree which had naturally rotted into an interesting shape. Following his inspiration, he shaped it into birds curving around a heart. Marbled eyes give them a flash of color and shine against the wood. “It was there,” explained Pederson. “So, I
A decaying tree was augmented into a piece, forming birds’ heads with marble eyes and a heart.
just used a chainsaw to be creative, which I enjoy.” Pederson hopes to permanently offer the park for public access, and imagines securing a supportive private or public partnership to that end. He has kept the forest natural and yet maintained, and there are
plans for more trails and more art exhibits where they are fitting. There are hopes for both family and the community to enjoy the park, as well as collaborate. Currently, per-
Pederson page 24
A branch became a bird, which might pass unperceived if not alert.
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Page 24 • Country Acres | Saturday March 19, 2022
Pederson from page 23 mission for entry is given only privately on an individual basis. “It’s just a great place to get some ex-
ercise, observe nature, wildlife and some art,” Pederson said. “It’s 25 acres of hardwoods, with trails through it, and with
lake all around it, so you have all of these different views. I enjoy doing this. I’d like to share it. “ Walking through the woods, encountering the art, and the natural atmosphere of the woods along the lake, is not unlike the walk through the memories and the stories of generations past. There are stories and experiences at every turn. Around a corner in the woods is a lacquered photo of Inga mounted upon a tree. Around another corner, in the house, is a photo of a car that is also the story of how a couple met in 1911 and formed a life together. Upon another wall, a photo begins the story of a father welcoming his sons back whole and alive from the war. New stories of old, now told anew, are everywhere for the looking. By entering a century-old barn or a house, or by strolling along a lake or Inga’s Pass, interested listeners may encounter such tales. At Inga’s Pass and Oak Lawn Farm, the landscape of the Pederson history is within reach of the eyes, the ears and the feet of today’s visitors.
PHOTOS SUBMITTED
An inviting path leads through the woods.
The 1927 barn offers an experience of grandeur with its high and open loft. The barn is one of many historical treasures Edward Pederson cares for on his farm in Benson Township.
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Saturday, March 19, 2022 | Country Acres • Page 25
COUNTRY COOKING RECIPES SUBMITTED BY PAM BRUTGER | Watkins, Meeker County Want your favorite recipes to be featured in Country Acres? Contact Diane at diane@saukherald.com
Pudding Delight • 3-1/2 cups flour • 1 cup nuts plus a little extra to sprinkle on top • 1 cup melted butter • 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese • 1 cup powdered sugar
Pizza Burgers • 1 large instant chocolate pudding • 1 large instant vanilla pudding • 5 cups of milk • 1 small container Cool Whip
• • • •
Serbus Dessert • 1 package (12-ounce) chunky chocolate chips • 2 eggs, separated
• • • • • • •
For frosting: 1 cup milk 3 Tbsp. flour 1/2 cup butter 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup shortening 1 tsp. vanilla Cocoa for color
To make cake, add flour, sugar, baking soda, a touch of vanilla, oil, water, vinegar and cocoa. Add all ingredients together. Bake in a 9x13 pan at 350 degrees for 40 minutes until done. Top with Cool Whip or frosting. For the Mock Whipped Cream Frosting, add 3 Tbsp. flour to milk and stir constantly over heat until thickened. Cool. Mix together butter, sugar, shortening and vanilla with cocoa added for color. Add to milk mixture and mix together. Spread on cake.
• 1 angel food cake • 1/4 cup sugar • 4 cups Cool Whip
Melt chocolate chips and two egg yolks in the top of a double boiler. The substance will get rock hard; take off and cool. Prepare the angel food cake and let it cool. When ready to assemble, whip together egg whites until stiff then add sugar, and then add the Cool Whip. Break up chocolate mixture into little chunks with a spoon or spatula. Add chocolate and mix. The end result should be light and fluffy. Tear apart angel food cake into pieces and layer half of it in a 9 by 13 pan. Top with a layer of the chocolate fluff. Add another layer of the angel food cake pieces and top with fluff. Refrigerate overnight. While delicious, this recipe may require some practice to get just right.
Chocolate Cake with Mock Whipped Cream Frosting 3 cups flour 2 cups sugar 2 tsp baking soda Vanilla 1 cup oil 2 cups water 1 Tbsp. vinegar 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1/4 tsp. garlic salt • 1/2 pound grated sharp Cheddar cheese • 1 can tomato soup
Brown hamburger and onion. Mix together remaining ingredients and put on half of hamburger buns under broiler for five minutes or until brown.
Mix together flour, nuts and butter and press into a 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes until light brown. Cool well. Mix together cream cheese and powdered sugar and spread over cooled crust. Mix together one package of chocolate pudding with half the milk, mix together vanilla pudding with the other half of the milk. Layer chocolate pudding and then vanilla pudding on top of the cream cheese mixture in the crust. Top with Cool Whip and sprinkle with crushed nuts. Refrigerate overnight.
• • • • • • • •
1 pound ground beef 1 onion 1/4 cup mayonnaise 1/4 tsp. oregano
Banana Cream Pie • • • • •
1 frozen pie crust 2 egg yolks 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup flour Salt
• • • • •
1/4 cup milk PLUS 1-3/4 cups milk Dash of vanilla Bananas Cool Whip
Bake pie crust as directed and cool. Beat egg yolks, and add sugar, flour, salt and milk; mix together. In a separate pan, heat 1-3/4 cups milk and slowly add in the above mixture. Stir continuously until thick or it will burn. Once thickened to pudding consistency, remove from heat and add a dash of vanilla for flavor. Cut up bananas and place in crust until 3/4 full. Pour mixture over the top of the bananas. Cool in refrigerator until set. Top with Cool Whip and serve.
Vegetable Dip • 1 package Knorr vegetable soup • 16 ounces sour cream
• 3 heaping Tbsp. Miracle Whip
Crush vegetable soup mix with a rolling pin. Mix together with sour cream and Miracle Whip; refrigerate and serve with vegetables.
More recipes page 26
We want your recipes! Send us some of your favorite recipes to be featured in our country cooking. Just e-mail Diane at diane@saukherald.com
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Saturday, March 19, 2022 | Country Acres • Page 27
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MOTLEY – Mitch Barthel was born into the auctioneering business. After his father, Jerry, and his uncle bought a sale barn in Wadena in 1973, they would run auctions together. By 11 years old, Barthel was working as a ringman and setting up auctions. Now, Barthel owns a sale barn in Perham and recently bought the 125acre Tri-County Stockyards location in Motley where he worked as a teen. He runs two weekly auctions and a packed schedule of others, with over 110,000 head of cattle sold last year. “Just a little farm kid that grew up three miles east of New York Mills and wanted to be a livestock auctioneer because of his dad,” recounted Barthel. Becoming an auctioneer was not as automatic as just watching and then doing. At 17 years old, a junior in high school, Barthel attended
the World Wide College of Auctioneering in Mason City, Iowa, just as his father had done. The Saturday of returning home he sold his first farm sale – and he hasn’t stopped since then.
“To overcome your fears and be in front of a crowd, you’ve got to keep doing it,” said Barthel. “It’s tough to get over that stage fright.” Years of working with his father and oth-
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PHOTOS SUBMITTED
Mitch Barthels has been working in the auctioneering industry since he was 11 years old. He owns Tri-County Stockyards and last year sold 110,000 head of cattle.
er auctioneers served as an apprenticeship. When Barthel bought his first yard in Perham in 1998, he continued another intense period where over about 10 years he established his business. Building a customer base, establishing relationships and a reputation, and learning how to run a business to the benefit of buyers and sellers, took perseverance and determination. “I was 23 years old,” Barthel recalled. “Not everybody is going to give you $100,000 of cattle to sell. I sold cattle for 10 years and probably didn’t make any money. I’d go to Thief River Falls if I thought I could get a goat to auction off. It’s like performing brain surgery. They’re not going to let you fresh out of school to be a brain surgeon. It’s a tough business to get into.” Barthel learned to know cattle and the market ups and downs through years of selling and watching sales, day in and out. And, it is not just the livestock coming through the yard that Barthel needs to understand, but also the buyers and
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Page 28 • Country Acres | Saturday March 19, 2022
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You breathed into existence The sun, stars, sea and sand. You gave us night and day and life, And rich and fertile land.
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Saturday, March 19, 2022 | Country Acres • Page 29
Barthel
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PHOTOS SUBMITTED
(above) Hogs are ushered toward the ring. For hours on end, the action is nonstop, (left) Young beef cattle are moved toward the auction ring. The auction runs smoothly with a team of skilled employees.
common in the farming community. “Everybody in the cattle world knows everybody,” elaborated Barthel. “It’s a small world. Try to be nice and do business the right way.” While people skills and the ability to stay calm are crucial, the actual performance of auctioneering is a marathon-long adrenaline rush. For eight to 10 hours straight it is nonstop, leaving no time even for breaks. After 20 years, Barthel has become conditioned to the intensity of auction days. “It’s like a dog on a chain,” explained Bar-
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Barthel page 30
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the sellers themselves. Buyers come looking for a weight class, age, sex and other specifics. Before any auction is even held, Barthel is communicating with sellers, facilitating logistics and pre-selling to potential buyers. The website, the paper and radio are all utilized to create the conditions for a good sale. Behind the scenes, developing relationships is crucial. “People are paying me to represent them to get the most for their items or their animals,” said Barthel. Many who frequent Barthel’s auctions have been doing business there for 40 years. A testament to the integrity of the community is that the large financial risk held by Barthel is balanced by the overwhelming honesty found in the participating farmers. “It’s all done on trust and a handshake,” explained Barthel. “The sale of cattle is conducted, the customer can then pick up their check and go directly to the bank. It’s our team’s job to make sure everyone is paid and everyone is collected.” A big advantage of auction sales is the financial security offered to sellers, as Barthel is the man who takes responsibility for ensuring checks are good. Barthel shared that problems are, overall, rare and many of the relationships he builds exhibit the generosity and goodwill that is
Page 30 • Country Acres | Saturday March 19, 2022
Barthel from page 29
Cattle are run through alleyways while headed for auction.
world seven times, and was 2012 Quarter Final Champion in Dickinson, North Dakota. Auctioneers are scored 25% on their answers during interview and 75% on the auctioneering itself. The majority of livestock markets are members of the Livestock Marketing Association, which offers significant support beyond the competitions. Insurance products and assistance with infrastructure like buyer registration forms are a great support to member businesses. One man cannot do it alone. Between the two yards, a team of office managers and employees runs a fast-paced and tight ship. Everyone has their role, but the degree of responsibility held by Barthel himself is formidable. On the afternoon of this interview alone, he revealed 53 remaining reminders and 276 pending beyond that. Responsibility is shared, but never disregarded. “It’s like being a professional baseball player in this job,” Barthel asserted. “I eat it, breathe it, live it. You have to keep practicing, and
PHOTOS SUBMITTED
Mitch Barthels (back, middle) calls an auction as a handler watches the crowd for bids.
work harder than everybody else. It doesn’t just come to you. You have to go out and get it.” Staying the course has been a quality handed down to Barthel from his father through their time working together. Following Jerry’s death in September 2019, Barthel has continued what was started and shared by his father. Between them, they have sold the East Ottertail County 4-H Auction for 48 consecutive years, and the East Ottertail County Ducks Unlimited for 48 years. Barthel recalled an auction held for his wife’s great uncle, who was an avid auction-goer. Years of auction buys went on display for one memorable auction. “We spent 70 to 80
hours on the skid-steer and 240 man hours to set up the sale,” recounted Barthel. “Everyone knew him. Over 800 people were in attendance.” A buyer can tomorrow become a seller. The market changes and fluctuates whether in agriculture, just like in his own business, one cannot give up. “When the stock market goes up or down, it doesn’t matter to us,” Barthel remarked. “We still have to feed that cow, make that hay, plant that corn. Market trends change. You’ve got to take it over time. You’ve got to be mentally tough. Just keep going. If you love doing your job, it isn’t about the money. I’m happy doing what I’m doing.”
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Saturday, March 19, 2022 | Country Acres • Page 31
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