In Everything Comes To Light, Hank and Carl have a rather unpleasant encounter with a porcupine that falls out of a tree.  “Happens all the time,” Hank declares. And actually, it’s true! Porcupines, which are nocturnal, often sleep in trees, and they eat bark and leaves. As the delicacies of porcupine cuisine are tender buds…

No one who grew up in Minnesota has ever eaten a casserole. That would be ridiculous, as a casserole is a container that a hotdish comes in. There can be a few exceptions. For example, if a dish is made of tuna, noodles, peas, and soup, it might be called tuna noodle “casserole” by some….

When we were growing up, our Grandma Glady often took us out to pick blueberries on sunny summer days. Now, let me tell you, picking blueberries in Minnesota is pretty serious business. Our grandmother would start the event by equipping us with the necessary picking gear: a vessel to store the goods (usually a bucket, pitcher,…

We always had an outhouse at the cabin. And we still have an outhouse at the cabin. When we were kids, the outhouse at our river cabin was down a path that went just a little bit into the edge of the woods. It seemed like a long and chilly run to get to it…

Minnesota is known as the land of 10,000 lakes, but if you lived here you would probably agree it is the land of 10,000 fairs & festivals. The Minneapolis Aquatennial, the St. Paul Winter Carnival, and the Minnesota State Fair are three of the oldest and largest, but most small communities have celebrations of their…

When we were kids, it wasn’t scary to walk around in the neighborhood, even after dark. Unless you needed to go by that one house… Seems growing up almost everyone had a spooky house in their neighborhood. It was the house that was farther back on the lot or was surrounded by an iron fence….