January 2023

Reluctant Editor's note: That blizzard and cold snap sure put a damper on the Great March for Community Newspapers. However, Wind Fire Lady has taken command as the new year dawns and the fire, a big fire, will commence soon.

Once a year the calendar swings around to January, marking another revolution of the Earth around the sun, a numerical change on our arbitrary measurement of years, and a psychological clearing of the deck for millions of people. It’s a time of resolutions and promises, changes and new starts— some made with sincere commitment, many half-hearted and poorly thought out, and most destined to fail. Each of us has made these resolutions to ourselves or shared them with others. Resolutions keep life interesting—especially if they are meant to enrich our lives by maintaining or improving our health, expose us to new experiences and opportunities, or make the world a better place in some way. I think a lot of people make resolutions to exercise more in the new year, lose weight, or drink less. I should drink less. Some resolutions are a commitment to finally take on some dreaded or time consuming project that’s been put off for years—like removing that old garbage dump from the back of your property, re-roofing the house, or going back to school to finish that degree. It might even be about making that reconnection with an old friend or family member who you had drifted away from after a falling out. I wish my dad would do that with his sister… Resolutions often fail because they often seem too difficult to fulfill. Losing a hundred pounds is a big commitment. So is painting an entire house or cleaning out a long-neglected basement. The only way to meet the challenge is to break it into smaller parts by making goals, and to take some satisfaction when each of these goals is met and completion of the final project is a little closer. When I put a metal roof on my house it took me the better part of two summers, working alone. I lost sleep worrying about the details of the project and what could go wrong, but when I finally got down to it, the steady work, careful planning, and realistic benchmarks allowed me to finish the project. I felt really good afterwards,

Resolve for the New Year This time of year, everyone’s talking about one thing: how much collective weight we put on in December. (I know I did my part.) On a not unrelated note, they’re also talking about New Year’s Resolutions or NYRs as no one calls them.

Today I had the pleasant experience of seeing a regular winter visitor for the first time at our bird feeder. Noticing there wasn’t the normal chickadee and woodpecker activity, I caught its gaze, a northern shrike. I like to think the same one returns each winter, and that very well might be. The oldest recorded northern shrike was an 8 year old female banded and recaptured in Wisconsin. I have seen them hunting here each winter for at least a decade, and others in our neighborhood have known them to be here too. Northern shrikes look as if they belong in the north, camouflaging well in our snow covered forests with their half gray faces and bodies and thin black eye masks. They are comparable in size to blue jays. They breed throughout northern Canada and Alaska and hold winter territories in the northern U.S. Both males and females sing all year long and are known to imitate other bird calls while doing so.

CRUSADER has sat uncovered since launch 83 years ago and it shows. The 35’fish tug had been abandoned by its owner at the Knife River Marina when, in 1983, the Lake County Historical Society rescued it, freshened it up, and placed it on Lighthouse Point in Two Harbors.

Hello to Aliaksandra, Yauhen, Halina Aleh and the dog Baikal . We met on New Years Day at the Lake County Demonstration Forest Trails.

Minestrone Soup Here's a good soup recipe to warm you on a cold winter day. Ingredients - 1 lb.