Dustin Monke

liFeeling safer with medical helicopter around

Sanford St Joes — During my flight, I got to see sights like this, such as the under-construction Sanford Health Clinic, front, and St. Joseph’s Hospital, back.

Toward the end of August and into early September, I will take a few days off and spend what I can only presume will be some long days at my family’s farm helping my dad and brother harvest what we hope is an above-average spring wheat and durum crop.

As safe as farmers try to be at any time of year, harvest can get hectic and mishaps have been known to happen.

I remember one year where an accidental touch of a combine’s throttle nearly caused the machine to run over my brother, who was working underneath it. Yes, safety says we should have turned the combine off before working on it. As most farmers will attest, that is a safety rule that typically doesn’t get followed — especially when the crop is ready in the field and storm clouds loom on the horizon somewhere in Montana.

If an accident were to happen on the farm this harvest, I am confident the affected person will be just fine. That’s because I now know just how fast medical help can reach us.

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In retrospect, pogs were a bad decision

You know all that old stuff you have and still can’t believe you ever bought in the first place?Try to remember it was once new and you loved it.

Perhaps you have seen the lists floating around the Internet lately, recapping many of the ill-advised fashion or technology decisions many of us made in the ’80s and ’90s.

I’m not ashamed to say I once rocked a ’90s bowl cut parted down the middle, covered by a bucket hat while wearing a brightly colored Starter jacket over a No Fear T-shirt and an unbuttoned flannel.

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Holding on until harvest: Crop outlook in southwest ND good despite late harvest projections

Green durum — A field of durum south of New England, still almost completely green, is shown in early August.

The same fields that were being harvested on this day last year are lusher today in most parts of southwest North Dakota, and most are just barely showing signs of ripening.

Despite late planting and below-average July temperatures — including one overnight when southwest North Dakota neared frost-like conditions — grain crops in the area look good and have producers anxiously hoping the weather cooperates for another three to four weeks until it’s ready to harvest.

“It’s the old, ‘You never know until it’s in the bin,’” Scranton Equity grain manager Mike Wedwick said. “But things look good.”

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The keeping of the beekeepers: ND wants to keep a better eye on the industry

Doug Goehring, the agriculture commissioner of North Dakota, said there are concerns about the business of bees in the state. So much so that he has fielded late-night phone calls from landowners concerned about the placement of hives.

“‘Doug, I just want to let you know I’ve got bees right across from me,’” Goehring recalls one McKenzie farmer telling him over the phone at 10:30 p.m. on a recent Saturday.

Placement of beehives and the regulation of out-of-state beekeepers in North Dakota are among the concerns Goehring believes will have farmers, landowners and beekeepers buzzing at the first North Dakota Pollinator Summit, which is being held at 1 p.m. CDT today at the Kelly Inn in Bismarck.

“I think that the beekeepers are going to think I’m taking a shot at them. I’m not,” Goehring said. “I’m trying to address this issue because they are guests here.”

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Relay for Life a great summer experience

HOPE — The word “Hope” is spelled out in luminary bags at Dickinson’s Relay for Life.

One of my favorite summer events in Dickinson is the Stark County Relay For Life, which was held Friday night and Saturday morning at the Dickinson High School practice field.

Like so many people in our community, I have several family members and friends who have fought cancer. Most have survived but others — including my aunt and two of my greatest mentors in writing — succumbed to the disease.

I have been attending these fundraising events since my mom, Kitty, became involved.She has served as a team captain and is on the survivor committee, which she chaired for two years.

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