Happy Dancing Blog

Earth Day, while celebrated on April 22 every year, is an important day to remember, it's also a call to act in the service of our home every other day, as well. It's these little acts of service that add up to a healthy, wonderful, sustainable ecosystem that we can feel proud to leave our children (and their children!)

When a favorite color has a dark side...

Recently a small group of people gathered at Island Lake Farm on a cool fall evening to talk about Climate on the Farm. Sponsored by the Climate Land Leaders  and supported by Happy Dancing Turtle, the evening started with a history of the farm. We have been on our farm for thirty years and consider it to be a special place. With a half mile of shoreline on a natural wild rice lake and the headwaters for the Ripple River, we have kept conservation at the heart of our farm ope

Climate change is a hoax, or at least the notion that reducing carbon and other heat-trapping gasses in our atmosphere can stabilize our...

I grew up in the Central Valley of California during the start of the recycling revolution trend, but that doesn’t mean I understood it....

Jim Chamberlin, Happy Dancing Turtle’s Conservation Technician, with his wife, Audra, operates a 109-acre diversified farm and forestry...

For eight weeks, from late April to mid-June 2023, Happy Dancing Turtle was fortunate to host the We Are Water MN exhibit on the Hunt Utilities Group Resilient Living Campus. The experience of having a museum-quality exhibit on campus plus the events, collaborations, and conversations that arose during that time continues to inform Happy Dancing Turtle’s work to grow good stewards of the planet.

Understanding your watershed, and how water moves through it, can connect us to the landscape. Knowing what is upstream from you makes you realize the vulnerability and dependence you have on those upstream who care for the land. And knowing that your actions affect others downstream can create a shared responsibility to protect water resources on your property.

Groundwater supplies 75% of Minnesota’s drinking water and 90% of water used for agricultural irrigation. Among the key messages about groundwater are several that definitely apply to those who live in Minnesota:

I believe we as humans have an innate connection to fire. Anyone who’s warmed their hands by the campfire on a cold evening knows well the connection I speak of, the dance of the fire as if it is a living thing. Indigenous Americans understood this as well as any.