Articles written by Mary Honrud
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Snow, Seeds And Social Distancing
Living well beyond the Middle of Nowhere has some advantages over living in town, especially these days. Keeping your distance socially is much easier when your nearest neighbor is almost a mile...
Nature Gone Nuts
The time interval between snows and storms up here seems to be getting shorter. Last week our Monday snow arrived on Sunday; this week it arrived on Saturday. Mother Nature has taken this jumping ahead on the time to an insane level. She’s out of...
Changing Times?
Can we all agree we hate the biannual time changes? “Losing” that hour each spring seems harder than “gaining” it back in the fall. In reality, all we are accomplishing is messing up everyone’s time schedules. It’s an arbitrary insult to...
Weathery Wind And Wordy Wind
Depending upon how you view reading my musings, you’re either in luck, or doomed. There was no major snowstorm on this Monday morning, March 2, just wind. And that wind was more of a breeze than the major gale we experienced Sunday. It had been...
Starting To Hate Mother Nature
It seems as though on Monday mornings (the time I take to write this column since it is due by noon, after all) Mother Nature decides to frown on us and deliver another helping of unwanted snow. It’s almost enough to make me want to discontinue...
Disrupted Plans
We had planned to head to the Outpost Cafe in Opheim on Valentine’s Day for their steak and shrimp special. Mother Nature intervened, disrupting our plans with a short but intense snowstorm. Our home is only about 50 yards from the highway, but in...
Creating Pleasing Combinations In The Kitchen
I’d copied a recipe from a magazine quite some time ago. It was held by a magnet on the exhaust fan cover above my stove top, where I saw it daily for months. I’d put it there so I’d be sure to try it. But there were ingredients I knew Dennis...
Meatballs and Alternative Slaw
I feel as though I don’t have much to talk about this week, but, being a woman, talk I will. We aren’t still in Florida, so there aren’t comparisons to be made between Montana and Florida flora. It’s a long time until spring returns, no...
Snowbirds? Us?
While shopping for fresh fruits and veggies last Thursday, I was greeted by a friend in the grocers. He accused me of being the cause of coming bad weather. (We did get snow flurries, a bit of rain, more heavy snow, and strong winds Saturday,...
Beaches, Landscapes and Palms
We are winding down our Florida sojourn. I am not looking forward to returning from this green semi-tropical paradise to our frozen white tundra. The grandsons had a weekend off from hockey, so we too...
O-Pine-Inated Report On Trees
We're still vacationing in Florida, and watching lots of hockey. We did throw in a real circus last weekend. The contrast of the heat under the big top to the chill of ice arenas was similar to walkin...
Parasitic vs Epiphytic Plants
We are in sunny Florida, visiting our middle daughter and her family. Don't be jealous. While it's sunny (for the most part - we did see lots of rain Saturday) and green, we're still experiencing...
Frost, Feasts and Power Failures As Well As Reflections of 2019
Mother Nature gets a huge F for how it's treated us the past two holidays. I think we're all hoping the frost issues and power outages are over for good. I know the linemen (our heroes) hope the...
Christmas, Casseroles, Cooking
Merry Christmas! Due to the holiday falling on “going to press” day, this column is being written very shortly after last week’s piece. I’m sure next week’s will be due early, as well. Strange thing about New Years always following Christma...
Plants, Cats and Cooking
Just yesterday my husband noticed one of my older amaryllis bulbs is sending up a flowerbud. I have seven older ones sitting in their original pots in the south-facing dining room windows. I really...
Another Week and Another Thanksgiving Passes By
Another week has come and gone. Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. The weather was not nice at all, so we stayed home, thankful for warmth, a well-stocked freezer, and each other. (We're also...
Indoor Gardening
Let me offer up apologies for those of you who may have missed a column from me last week. I did write one, but it was all recipes for the holidays. So the Courier rightly put it into the holiday...
Indoor Gardening and Cooking
Editor's Note: This column was written on Nov. 4. Due to space, we had to hold the column over to this week's issue. We've had yet more rain and some snow. Most of the earlier snow has melted away,...
Zombie Harvest Might Be Beheaded?
We managed to knock off another 1,000 acres of wheat, with some help from a neighbor. The remaining 1,000 acres will not get done. It’s all basically feed wheat now anyway. What’s left is mostly on the ground, where it will remain. We have a...
Resurrection Of Harvest
So when I wrote that harvest had been killed, I was wrong. It had merely been wounded, severely, but not dead. The resurrection has us back in the field, harvesting what's still standing tall enough...
Life Beyond Harvest
Editor's Note: This column was written on Oct. 7. Due to space, it was held over to this week's issue. We are done with worrying about our wheat crop. The snow and strong winds combined to finish it...
Harvest Has Been Killed
Now that this year's formerly promising crop has probably been ruined (the strong winds and heavy snow looked to be crushing it to the ground) we're regrouping and trying to think of a plan B...or...
Finally, Some Harvesting is Done!
We might have 25 percent of this year's crop in the bins now. Harvest is going to be a long, drawn-out affair. Dennis was born Sept. 25, 1950, and his mom tells us she and Dad were only half finished...
Another Week Of No Wheat Harvested
Another week had passed without any wheat being harvested. Unfortunately, there’s still more rain in the forecast. Granted, only small amounts are forecast, but it’s just enough to keep things from drying enough to go after our wheat. The...
Deja Vu?
I was tempted to use last week’s report again this week. The rain is a bit of deja vu, although we were able to get some of the wheat crop in and binned. I’ve spent a few hours this last week out in the tractor hauling the grain cart between the...
