Trick-or-treaters, football, volleyball, gale winds and wine tasting. What a busy week to kick off the new month.

Even though the paradise of Munich is one of the most desirable places to live, the lack of restaurants, sports bars, and unique foods sometimes makes it hard to really enjoy all the area has to offer. That is, unless you know the ins and outs of where to get the best food at the best times. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t know what we would do without a Langdon Dairy Queen stop once a week, but if you want to sit down and have some adult beverages to wash away the current weather situation in which we are in, you need to know how to navigate the system.

As Executive Director of FirstLink, North Dakota’s 211 Helpline and 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, I see every day how financial stress impacts emotional health. With the federal government shutdown and SNAP benefits having ended, many families across our state are now facing impossible choices about food, rent, and utilities. When basic needs go unmet, distress increases, and so does hopelessness. These struggles are not isolated; they ripple through entire communities. We must respond with compassion and connection.

“This is huge, it’s taller than the garage!” The plant in question was a sunflower. And it was, in fact, taller than the garage.

People often talk about having a “gut feeling” or are told to “listen to their gut” when making a decision. Do you know what your gut is trying to tell you? There are multiple things that your digestive system can do to get your attention. Do you know what your body is trying to tell you? Here are some of the things your gut could be trying to say.

It comes as no surprise that the constitutionality of North Dakota’s Beef Commission Act has landed in court. Ranchers who choose not to pay dues to the Stockmen’s Association have been advising the legislature for a decade or more about their dissatisfaction with the law’s preferential treatment of certain select groups, yet the legislature has ignored them. It would have been so easy to amend and correct the century code, yet here we are, to no one’s surprise.

Happy Halloween everyone! Friday was a perfect day for school kids to indulge in a bucket full of sugar and stay home with their parents the next day! My kids may be grown and gone, but I’ve experienced the sugar rush many times, and it’s not pretty. Feed them well before they go out trick or treating they say, then they’ll be too full to over indulge.

Have you ever transplanted peonies? I hadn’t but knew that fall was the season to do so. I utilized our mild weekend to dig out some that Grandpa Ole was ready to get rid of, and my goodness were they a pain in the butt to get out of the ground! I’m ashamed to admit I’m physically sore from my battle with the 50-year-old peony bushes.

By Bob Simmons, CEO, Simmons Multimedia New Zealand is anal retentive about tourists bringing in anything that could screw up their country’s ecosystem. One question dealt with footwear in my luggage that may contain soil or dirt on the soles. I explained I was a runner and brought along running shoes that may or may not contain dirt in the treads. The NZ Ministry of Agriculture Inspector’s curiosity was piqued upon learning I was from North Dakota farm country and examined my pair of Brooks Ghost running shoes for the presence of any seeds, pests or organic matter that might destroy their beautiful country.

Oh, October! It’s always trying so hard to be creepy and mysterious. The rainy, wet weather is making everything dark and dreary, including the mood of a lot of farmers. Uff da! I know there’s still some crop out there, so hopefully this is the last of the wet weather for a while.