Friday, March 29, 2024

Life goes on between the raindrops

Most of our summer consisted of hot, humid sunny days, great for kids and adults who were able to spend those days at a swimming pool.

Last Wednesday there were children with their adult supervisors at the Mantorville Dam fishing, playing on the rocks and there was actually water flowing over the dam. A week earlier only a trickle of water could be seen breeching the dam.

In the last week or so, we’ve received an abundance of rain in the county, even though some parts of the countryside have been gypped when storms go around certain parts of the region.

Just before the rain returned to our neck-of-the-woods, Emmett Kindschy, a grower of tomatoes on his 10 acres just off of Valley High Road, stopped into our office to share his excitement about having planted 210 tomato plants. That’s right 210, not 209 or 211, but 210.

He was gracious enough to invite us out to see this incredible harvest of green (soon to be red) and red ripened tomatoes.

He weighed each box of tomatoes as he harvested them from his garden area below his house. The total weight of all tomatoes hit 2,185 pounds. More than a ton of tomatoes, all organically grown, and made up of four varieties — Big Boy, Better Boy, Beef Steak and Early Girl.

This abundance of tomatoes took place right smack dab in the middle of corn, soybean, sweet corn and pea country.

Last Wednesday evening a fire alarm went out to the Kasson, Byron and Dodge Center fire departments to assist in fight a reported fire at a wood manufacturing facility that shared a building with an antique business just a block off of Mantorville Avenue. (A story about that fire appears in this issue of the Independent.)

Just to make a bit more drama, Kasson experienced a power outage mid afternoon, sending homes and businesses into darkness with heavy tropical-type rains pelting the area.

Ditches, ponds and area bodies of water were filling up as torrential rains hit the area last week. Our area went from moderate drought to abnormally dry conditions to no drought in a matter of seven days.

(Even the northern tier of counties in northern Minnesota received much needed rain as forest fires were inching closer to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.)

The age-old adage of Minnesota old-timers is true: if you don’t like the weather today, wait 24-hours and it’ll change.

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Dodge County Independent

Dodge County Independent
Dodge County ADvantage
301 S. Mantorville Ave.
Plaza 57 • Suite 200
Kasson, MN 55944

Dodge County Printing
301 S. Mantorville Ave.
Plaza 57 • Suite 200
Kasson, MN 55944

507-634-7503
 
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