A few years ago, I was helping with my son’s baseball team. One day, for a routine practice, my role was to hit fly balls for the boys to catch. While I was confident at hitting fly balls, to make things easier for me, I was handed a racquet that, with a fairly easy swing, would launch the baseballs out to the boys. However, after 20 minutes, my elbow was getting sore. More groups of boys needed to rotate through and catch fly balls, so I kept at it. I swung the racquet and the baseballs flew to the outfield over and over. In the end, after less than an hour, my elbow was shot.

If your joints ache after sitting too long or make crackling sounds when you get up, you’re not alone. More than half of older adults in the U.S. report having at least one arthritic joint, and while our understanding has improved over the past two decades, old myths still create confusion about how best to manage it.

Working with gardeners, I get to have a lot of different conversations about gardening trends. Some of my favorites are with people about the obscure and strange trends that float around social media or topics from old wives’ tales. So, I asked a fellow gardener what their thoughts were on some of these topics.

“Are you sure?” I asked the checker at the grocery store. I couldn’t believe the cost of two small bags of groceries was over $100.

The leaves are changing, Mother Nature can’t seem to make up her mind, and footballs are flying under the Friday Night Lights. The only thing missing from games in our neck of the woods is a good old-fashioned marching band.

BISMARCK, ND - Gov. Kelly Armstrong recently proclaimed September as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in N.D. Parents Lead has released a new Suicide Prevention and Response Toolkit for Schools, developed in collaboration with North Dakota Health and Human Services (HHS) suicide prevention and school behavioral health experts. The toolkit provides educators, staff and administrators with practical guidance, resources and strategies to identify students in need, respond safely and strengthen support for families.

By Tammy Olson, Director Hi, everyone. Glad to be back. We will be starting Story Hour on Tuesday, Sept. 30. It will be held from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. every Tuesday. We will be having different readers and lots of fun activities. Hope to see everyone here.

Fargo, N.D. — Congratulations to the North Dakota State University students who received one of 257 degrees awarded in summer 2025.

Fargo, N.D. — A student from our coverage area earned a place on the North Dakota State University summer 2025 Dean’s list.

“Are there any apples on our tree this year?” my older daughter recently asked. “There are lots of ripe apples high in the tree,” my husband responded.