Chris Hardie

The Hardies have reopened their Brambleberry Winery, implementing approrpiate social distancing and hygiene policies due to the pandemic.

There are a few magical weeks every May when Mother Nature’s perfume fills the air. She wears essence of lilac, an intoxicating and alluring fragrance. It permeates our souls, lifts old hearts and washes away her winter cruelty. It’s the smell of spring.

It’s a terrible incongruity to mention polar vortex in the same sentence as May. The Arctic air mass sent me grumbling back to the woodpile.

Northfield’s most famous resident is not a person but rather a goat — the “Northfield Goat.” Passersby on I-94 sometimes spot the goat along the cliffs near the 100-mile marker about 2 miles southeast of town.

One lesson that has been driven home during the global COVID-19 pandemic is how interdependent and global our economy is.

It was a mixture of relief and regret as I watched the cattle trailer pull out of our driveway — relief that I was able to find a good buyer for some of our last Scottish Highland cows but regret that we were essentially exiting the cow business.

We have shut our inn and winery business, making us one of the millions whose income or job has been lost. We don’t know how long it will take to recover. But we have each other. Like that rope I tied around the chimney, we’re holding on the best we can.

The ultimate harbinger of spring has appeared; I’m not happy. A woodchuck peeking out of my garage window is a sure sign of the changing seasons

The challenges of rural broadband access are becoming quite clear as students and employees shift to distance learning and working from home in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.