Jim Chamberlin
- 1 day ago
- 3 min
Long Game of Soil Health Reduces Drought Impact
Well into the drought this summer, I drove by a corn field east of Brainerd and was surprised how healthy the corn looked. Just a mile or...
Jenny Hill
- Sep 15
- 4 min
Air Quality: The What and What You Can Do
There has been no shortage of examples lately on why you might be thinking about air quality. The summer of 2023 saw a record number of...
Jenny Hill
- Aug 25
- 4 min
Rs for Resilient Living: Back to School
I was a school-loving nerd, so all the late August back-to-school rituals were memorable and fun for me. Until college, when I started to...
Jim Chamberlin
- Aug 7
- 2 min
Digging Into the Lives of Dung Beetles
Dung beetles came late in my soil health journey. More than three decades after becoming an “organic” farming advocate, the dung beetle...
Jim Chamberlin
- Jul 26
- 3 min
Grassland 2.0 Update
Grassland 2.0 is a social project involving grass, water, cows, and people. On a recent Saturday, a group of around 30 people gathered at...
Jenny Hill
- Jul 3
- 3 min
Adventures in Sustainability: Food Waste and Some Great Alternatives
The numbers are sobering: According to the Environmental Defense Fund, 160 billion pounds of food goes uneaten every year in the United...
HDT Team
- Jun 15
- 3 min
Garden Tips: Recipes with Nettles and Chive Blossoms
“Use what you've got" is a phrase that is a building block for sustainable living. In this post we share two recent examples of seasonal...
HDT Team
- Jun 2
- 4 min
Watersheds 101
Minnesota sits atop a triple, continental-scale water divide. As one of the exhibit pieces in We Are Water MN describes it: “This means...
Jim Chamberlin
- May 5
- 3 min
Keyline Design Works with Water
Happy Dancing Turtle recently hosted journalist and National Geographic Explorer, Erica Gies, to discuss Water Always Wins, a book in...
Jim Chamberlin
- Apr 14
- 3 min
Grazing Update for the Pine River Watershed
Jim Chamberlin is a long-time member of the Pine River Watershed Alliance. Below is his most recent update on grazing initiatives. The...
Jenny Hill
- Apr 7
- 4 min
Laundry Tips: Dos, Don’ts and Maybes
I recently bought a new-to-me pair of Levis at one of my favorite consignment stores. When checking out the instruction tag (one of...
Jenny Hill
- Mar 9
- 3 min
Food Security is Key to Sustainable Living
One of the basic human needs is food. Food insecurity can completely obliterate the opportunity for sustainable, healthy living....
Jim Chamberlin
- Mar 3
- 4 min
Bringing It All Together for Soil Health
The Change Exchange discussion group the last couple of months have focused on the life under our feet. This month we bring it all...
Jenny Hill
- Feb 17
- 5 min
Garden Tips
As we watch the snow melt, then rain come and go, and then the snow start all over again, many of us have fallen for the siren call of...
Jim Chamberlin
- Feb 3
- 4 min
Soil Health: The Challenge of Our Time
Soil health is defined as the ability of soil to function as a vital living ecosystem. The soil's ability to function, to cycle water and...
Jim Chamberlin
- Dec 28, 2022
- 3 min
The Forest Below Our Feet
I have a distinct memory from years ago of a portage we took on a canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. I believe the...
Jenny Hill
- Dec 16, 2022
- 2 min
Reconsider Gift Cards
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the end-of-the-year holidays–busy schedules, parties and family gatherings, expectations to perform...
Jenny Hill
- Dec 9, 2022
- 4 min
Clothes-minded: What Is the True Cost?
Do you find yourself spending both more money and less money on clothing today? It seems like some basics, like jeans, cost more. But...
Jim Chamberlin
- Dec 2, 2022
- 4 min
Celebrate World Soil Day
World Soil Day is December 5th and is dedicated to focus attention on the importance of healthy soil and to advocate for the sustainable...
Jenny Hill
- Nov 23, 2022
- 3 min
Tips for Treading Lightly Through the Holidays
The holiday season is here! For some, it can feel like the season of overwhelm. After Thanksgiving, does time actually accelerate towards...