This year’s Rural Life Day on September 18 was, unlike much of the harvest season that has preceded it, a day of perfect weather: pleasant temperatures, just a touch of rain that passed over the area, and otherwise blue skies.
Day: September 27, 2012
Beauty and the Mass
A reverent silence is difficult for anyone to achieve, but with more than 3,000 students from middle school and high school filling the seats and stands in the vast Alliant Energy Center’s Exhibition Hall in Madison, it was something extraordinary.
Rachel’s Vineyard Retreats
MADISON — Anne was a sophomore in college. Naïve about sex, she thought she was in love. But when she learned she was pregnant, there was no talk of a future together. Instead, her boyfriend coerced her into having an abortion and Anne went along with a “choice” that seemed largely out of her control.
A challenging harvest: Helping farmers face the effects of the drought
This is the time of year when we usually see farmers out in the fields harvesting their crops. It’s usually a time of plenty, with pumpkins, squash, and other produce filling the roadside markets.
However, this year many farmers in Wisconsin and elsewhere in the Midwest are facing tough times due to the effects of the drought. University of Wisconsin Extension officials reported that the corn crop was hit the hardest, while alfalfa is down from an average of five tons a year to just one to two tons an acre. Soybeans seem to have survived better, thanks to August rains.