Locally Grown

In last week’s Strib South: Dakota County hopes to bring kids to table: Kids who eat family meals have fewer risky behaviors.

The more often children eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink, use illegal drugs or have thoughts of suicide, Montagne said. “The research shows that children who eat five or more meals with their families are less likely to be involved in risky behaviors,” she said.

If you need help figuring out what to talk about with your kids at mealtime, see the May issue of the Northfield Healthy Community Initiative newsletter:

The Northfield Mayor’s Task Force (MTF) on Youth Alcohol & Drug Use, in collaboration with Project Sight, has created a ‘Talking Points’ program for parents looking for ways to jumpstart conversations with their children. The goal of Talking Points is to encourage open communication between adults and teenagers that supports efforts to raise healthy teens.

Look for these ‘Talking Points’ materials at these Northfield businesses which are participating in the program: Bittersweet Eatery, James Gang Coffeehouse, and the Hideaway Coffeehouse and Wine Bar. And see Nfld News publisher Sam Gett’s July 15 column.

In 1997, I moderated an NCO online forum titled Building Cohesive Families in a Hurried World in partnership with the Healthy Community Initiative (HCI), KYMN Radio, Northfield News, and NTV.

The forum was based on a recently published book titled, “The Intentional Family” by William J. Doherty. Doherty is a practicing family therapist and Director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at the University of Minnesota

For Doherty, “intentional” means deliberately using strategies in the typical rituals of family life — family meals, vacations, bedtimes, holidays, civic and religious activities, etc. With some planning and creativity, well-executed family rituals can strengthen and nourish our connections to one another that are easily eroded by the stresses and strains our culture places on families.

Doherty participated in panel discussions in the NCO Web Cafe, and was interviewed for an NTV special broadcast. Other participating panelists were:

• Mary Carlsen - Chair, Department of Social Work, St. Olaf College
• Kathy Galotti - Professor of Psychology, Carleton College
• Will Healy - Pastor, Emmaus Baptist Church
• Mary Loven - Parent Educator, Family Education Center
• Len Witt - Director, Minnesota Public Radio Civic Journalism Initiative; Family Strength Project

Bill Doherty and colleagues later launched Putting Family First.

Defeat of Jesse James Days (DJJD) event chairperson Sandy Vesledahl graciously invited the LoGroNo Triumvirate to last week’s DJJD Sponsorship Hog Roast at the rodeo grounds, even though we’re not sponsors. It was quite a shindig.

Bridgette Hallcock (right photo above), the official DJJD volunteer photographer, was there taking dozens of photos so I just relaxed, had a beer, and pigged out.

I love DJJD. No other event brings the entire cross-section of Northfielders together like DJJD does. I think the event keeps getting better, too.

So what do you like best about DJJD? And if you could change or add something, what would it be?

The City of Northfield has mounted two donor recognition signs to the interior of the Amerman Pavilion at the Spring Creek Park Soccer Complex on Jefferson Parkway. The signs list all the organizations, businesses, and individuals who contributed to the construction of both the complex and the pavilion.

Or more precisely, what were your forebearers doing before and after the U.S. Dakota War of 1862?

As I blogged back in May, there’s a dark side to Minnesota’s Sesquicentennial, especially here in southern Minnesota. Most people know about the mass-hanging of 38 Dakota warriors in Mankato. Few know about the conditions that led up to the war, nor the ethnic cleansing, concentration camps, and bounties on Dakota scalps afterwards.

Local author/historian John Koblas will give a slide presentation tonight on his trilogy of books titled Let them Eat Grass, 6:30 pm at the Northfield Historical Society. See Executive Director Hayes Scriven’s blog post for more.

The Dundas Dukes took both of their must-win section 1B playoff games last night at Memorial Park in Dundas, beating the Miesville Mudhens in 12 innings, 6-5 in the 5 pm game, and then winning 8-6 in the 7pm game.

The Dukes now play Chaska/Jordon in 1st Round of the Class B State Tournament next Saturday at 5pm.

I drove by the Grand this morning and noticed the marquee. And then I noticed the poster on the wall at the entrance to the GBM. And then when I checked my email, I got this from Union of Youth (NUY) Exec. Director Josh Hinnencamp:

Hey Griff, I just wanted to make sure you know about the mayoral speed candi-dating event at the Grand from 2:00-4:30pm today (Sunday).

See Josh’s Youth Platform blog post on the Union of Youth blog as well as his post about today’s event on Northfield.org.

ArtSwirl 08 kicks off tonight and runs through Sunday. See the PDF poster, Jessica Paxton’s blog post on N.org, and the NAG’s ArtSwirl web page.

See the 2007 ArtSwirl beach party photo album or this slideshow:

See the 2004 ArtSwirl photo album or this slideshow:

I ran into Bruce Riggs at the GBM yesterday. He’s one of the two America in Bloom (AIB) judges who visted Northfield this week. He was checking his email, getting ready to depart for the airport, so I showed him the photo album of the kidnapping I took on Tuesday, as well as the blog post of the breakfast on Monday. He sent me this email this aft:

Pat Bones and I want to thank everyone for all you did to make us feel so welcome in your community.  We learned so much and met so many positive people.  Everyone should be proud of the work that has been done.  We especially want to thank everyone on the America in Bloom Committee.  Their efforts (combined with a lot of others) have helped make the community even better.  We also want to express our thanks to everyone for taking so much time to be with us.  Our meetings, meals and tours were enlightening and enjoyable and hopefully those who attended benefited as well.

Bruce Riggs  AIB judge 2008

PS: the fishing was great!!  Special thanks to Pat, Sean & Dave Allen and Lee Lansing for arranging it for me.

Members of the James-Younger Gang ambushed the America in Bloom (AIB) judges while they were touring the Northfield Historical Society Bank Site and Museum yesterday. The Gang then hauled them off to their secret encampment along the Cannon River where they were force-fed beer and campfire-cooked grub while listening to geezers singing.

See the album of 26 photos or this slideshow:

Wait, let me rephrase that. Can someone fill in the details? Wait, let me rephrase that.

Help me out here, citizens of Northfield!

Today and tomorrow, judges for the American in Bloom (AIB) competition will be making the rounds. They were introduced to Northfield earlier this morning at a breakfast at the Northfield Golf Club.

Left: AIB judge Bruce Riggs
Center: AIB judge Patrick Bones

See all the details on the Northfield Garden Club’s Northfield in Bloom page.

When roaming around for Crazy Daze this morning, I picked up a couple of books at Monkey See, Monkey Read and noticed the very cool bike proprietor Jerry Bilek had on the sidewalk.

No, he’s not going into the bike business; he’s going into humanitarian aid.

In his blog entry about the bike and the concept, Jerry says,

For every two bikes I sell, Kona will donate one to a home health worker in Africa as part of the BikeTown Africa program. This video explains the program better than I can.

This particular bike is a single-speed utilitarian model with “thorn-proof tires”. A three-speed model is also available. Go to Jerry’s blog to get to the tech specs of the bike; I just liked the idea that you can shop local and support an important humanitarian cause at the same time. Jerry, like many of our independent retailers here in Northfield, has a lot of interesting ideas.

In Al Roder’s July 11 Friday memo:

The preconstruction conference was held this week for the Mill Towns Trail Bridge. The main topic discussed was schedule for the project. Due to the current unavailability of steel, the delivery of the steel to manufacture the bridge will not be until mid-November. The bridge delivery is anticipated early spring. The contractor will be submitting a revised schedule based on the discussions this week.

Last news update on the Mill Towns Trail website was January, 2007. Sigh. Most recent Nfld News article was May, 2008: Mill Towns Trail bridge will move forward.

Northfield Historical Society (NHS) Executive Director/blogger Hayes Scriven (left) has been deploying a Boss Godfrey look (center) lately. He then finds walking wounded (e.g., right photo, yours truly with Gloria Powell) and forces them to staff the NHS membership booth in hopes that sympathetic passersby will be more likely to become NHS members.

The roller hockey rink at Riverside Park has a new element of controversy: a soon-to-be-installed outhouse that will face the Village on the Cannon (VOC) condos. (See my original spoof-with-truth blog post for background.)

I gave the facility a test-run on Thursday morning. Reading material was absent but cell phone reception was quite good.

It seems to me that the three-walled shell could be be turned around so that the portable toilet, when it arrives, would face the rink.

In a related development, the lights surrounding the rink have been turned on recently for late-night roller hockey and soccer activity. That evidently violates the agreement between residents of VOC and the Park & Rec Advisory Board (PRAB).  A resident informed me yesterday that acting on a police request, city workers have bolted shut the lighting switch box.

Use the navigation below to find more recent Locally Grown content.