(VIDEO) A ferris wheel view

Here's the link to the Stearns County Fair - https://stearnscountyfair.com.

You can watch a ferris wheel view of the fairway and more from Sauk Centre taken on July 30 (afternoon) by clicking over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website (short link) = https://bit.ly/3xhf5kc.

And now it's time to head back to the fair. The NorthFork Livewires 4-H group will man the food stand in the 4-H building tonight. They serve from 5 to 7 p.m. Come out and show your support!

(VIDEO) Lights and sounds of the fair

A clip recorded last night while exiting the Stearns County Fairgrounds...


The full Stearns County Fair schedule was published on the back page of this week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. I've got another video posted at The Voice newspaper website (short link) = https://bit.ly/2WEBTxW.

I finally uploaded and posted the Bonanza Valley Days grand parade video from July 11. It was about a one-gigabyte video and I have not had time to get it online until today. Better late than never!

Here's the link to the Stearns County Fair - https://stearnscountyfair.com.

How about that!

Good news! Good news! Let the good news continue...

Click over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website to see what I'm talking about (short link) = https://bit.ly/3j20KmP. Other news stories will be added there as well, including one about FarmFest and another about the upcoming Jake's Day youth event (this Saturday).

Now it's time to head to the Stearns County Fair!

(VIDEO) Elrosa Little Dipper vs. Spring Hill

Finally getting some follow-up on the baseball action over the last two weeks.

Here's video from the Elrosa vs. Spring Hill Little Dipper baseball game on July 18 at Chargers Stadium. This was from the top of the sixth inning.


Time to head over to Einer Jensen's funeral. "The world lost a great one."

More to come later tonight. An updated local COVID-19 report web link will be posted in a new blog post some time today.

It's been a long week...already

We're not done with Tuesday and it's already been a very long week. No time for blogging right now. On the upside: my cut finger is healing! And I can type at about 80 percent of full speed...which is great!

Click here to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website to view the latest help wanted listings: (short link) https://bit.ly/3l4t9uY. No shortage of job openings out there!

Two tough losses for Elrosa teams

Here's video from the Elrosa vs. Spring Hill amateur baseball game on Saturday:


Here's a video from the top of the 5th inning in that game, when Elrosa left two runners stranded:


The Elrosa Saints amateur baseball team saw their season come to a close with a 4-2 loss to Meire Grove this afternoon in Greenwald.

At Roscoe tonight, the No. 4-seeded Elrosa Saints Little Dipper baseball team lost 7-2 to the host and No. 2-seeded Rangers. These teams are comprised of players who just completed the 4th through 8th grades.

More to come.

GAME DAY! x2 with two huge games (updated)

Two huge baseball games on the schedule today! The first one is at 2:30 PM in Greenwald, when Elrosa faces Meire Grove in and amateur baseball playoff elimination game. The winner advances to the region tournament, while the loser's season is done.

At 5:30 p.m. today in Roscoe, the Elrosa Saints Little Dipper team faces the host Rangers in the Stearns County League championship game.

Update to follow.

**Update: in the top of the third inning, the Saints and Grovers are tied 2-2.

**In the bottom of the eighth inning, Meire Grove has a 4-2 lead.

Final score: Meire Grove 4, Elrosa 2. The Saints pack it up now for the offseason.

Now it's time to head to Roscoe!

Here's video from last Sunday in Spring Hill, in the top of the seventh:


In that video, the Saints scored another insurance run against the Chargers.

In the Stearns County League Little Dipper championship game tonight, Roscoe defeated Elrosa 7-2.

More to come in a new blog post.

Stearns County League baseball playoffs

Here's video from the Stearns County League Little Dipper playoffs on July 14 in Elrosa:


Here's video from the bottom of the 5th inning at Spring Hill last Wednesday night; the stakes were very high by this point in that game:


Early in that video, Elrosa fell behind 3-2.

Elrosa's Little Dipper baseball team plays in the Stearns County League championship at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow (Sunday) at Roscoe. The Rangers are the No. 2 seed, while the Saints are the No. 4 seed.

I cut my hand while gardening so what has been very sporadic sports blogging will only be worse in the next day. It's not easy typing with nine fingers!

GAME DAY! Saints vs. Chargers

Today is game day at Spring Hill! It's division playoff time for four teams in the Stearns County League North and four teams in the Stearns County League South divisions. Elrosa plays at Spring Hill at 11 a.m.

More to come. 

**Update: after five innings complete, Spring Hill has a 3-0 lead.

**After seven innings are complete, Spring Hill has a 5-2 lead.

Final: Spring Hill 6, Elrosa 4. The Saints played uphill the whole game and came up short. Their region hope stay alive with an elimination game on Sunday (tomorrow) at 2:30 p.m. in Greenwald.

*Update: the Saints face Meire Grove in Sunday's game at 2:30 p.m in Greenwald. The Grovers fell to an 11-hit attack by New Munich in today's other SCL-North division playoff game. The final score was 5-1. Spring Hill and New Munich, who both have qualified for the Region 15C tournament, square off at noon at Greenwald tomorrow for the No. 1 seed out of our division.

In the SCL-South playoffs...
Last night (Friday) at St. Martin, the Martins defeated Farming 10-5 to qualify for regions. Scott Lieser fired a whopping 18 strikeouts in the win.

Jaguar baseball update

On Thursday night, the B-B-E Jaguars 12-U baseball team defeated Cold Spring by 10-4 score. The game was the final home game of the season for the team. The Jaguars finish the regular season with road games at Paynesville next Monday and Thursday.

Here's a video clip recorded at the Bonanza Valley Days sand volleyball tournament on July 10:


I finally have three new sets of web articles posted to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website. Two are news articles and one is an opinion piece. The website link is: http://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com.

Coming up! Three area county fairs! I'll be heavily promoting three county fairs, and I started this week with the Stearns County Fair schedule in the July 22 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. Here's a link to the Pope County Fair website = https://www.popecountyfair.org. Here's the website for next week's Stearns County Fair: https://stearnscountyfair.com. That fair starts on Wednesday, July 28.

Stearns County League playoffs

In a nutshell...

The Stearns County League Little Dipper baseball championship game will be at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 25 at Roscoe.

The Elrosa Saints amateur baseball team begins the division playoffs on Saturday, July 24 at 11 a.m. at Spring Hill. The Stearns County League North division playoffs run Saturday and Sunday. Elrosa is the No. 4 seed, while Spring Hill is the No. 1 seed and regular season champion. If Elrosa wins, they play at noon on Sunday, July 25 at Greenwald. Their opponent of that game would be the winner of the game between No. 2-seeded New Munich and No. 3-seeded Meire Grove, who play at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday at New Munich at 1:30 p.m.

More to come.

Grinding away

All day Tuesday has been consumed by the steady grinding of all the work that's going into producing a 16-page Bonanza Valley Voice this week.

That's all...back to the grind stone!

Monday's school board meeting

The Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa school board will meet in regular session on Monday, July 19 at 7 p.m. at the Belgrade Co-op conference room at its headquarters located in the Belgrade Industrial Park.

Major work is happening this week with both the elementary and high school building projects. At some point I'll increase my coverage of that, but for now it's just photos and videos getting stored on my devices for future use.

Heading to the 'Ship!

It continues to be GO TIME! The Saints are heading to the 'Ship!

The Elrosa Saints Little Dipper baseball team is headed to the championship! They defeated No. 1-seeded Spring Hill 5-3 tonight in the Stearns County League semifinals. It was an incredible game to watch! Next: the No. 4-seeded Saints face No. 2-seeded Roscoe in the championship game (TBA).

Here's video from the bottom of the third inning and then the top of the fourth inning tonight at Chargers Stadium:


More to come later.

ANNOUNCEMENT: tomorrow's (Monday) school board meeting will be held at the Belgrade Co-op headquarters in the Belgrade Industrial Park. The meeting begins at 7 p.m.

#RocksAndCows

American Legion season closes out

The local Brooten/B-B-E Post No. 288 American Legion baseball season is over. They lost today to Glenwood-Lowry by a 4-1 score to finish with a 2-2 record in Sub-District play. On Sunday in the winner's bracket final, Glenwood-Lowry defeated Sauk Centre 4-2.

Post No. 288 stays alive

The Brooten/B-B-E American Legion baseball team won 5-4 over Long Prairie today, and then they ended Sauk Centre's season with an 11-1 win to advance to the championship series against Glenwood-Lowry.

NEXT: tomorrow (Sunday) they play at noon in Elrosa. If they win, they play Glenwood-Lowry in a second game at about 2:15 p.m. in a true championship game. If they lose either the first game or the potential second game, their season comes to a close.

More to come on Sunday. I'm blogging tonight from rural Walnut Grove! (Laura Ingalls Wilder pageant)

Below, here's a video clip from the beginning of the Bonanza Valley Days grand parade on July 11 in Brooten:


Shocking and mind blowing: in the United Kingdom on July 16, they reported new COVID-19 cases in the equivalent that is equal to 270,000+ cases being reported in the United States. The population of the U.K. is approximately 67 million. The population of the U.S. is approximately 4.95 times higher. The U.K.'s new case count added for July 16 was just under 55,000 new cases. That is a stunning, shocking number in the middle of summer. What on earth is the U.K. doing wrong? Well, to be fair, they're not necessarily doing anything wrong. Why? Because their death and hospitalization rate today has not skyrocketed like it did last winter.

First-round playoff loss

The Brooten/B-B-E American Legion Post No. 288 baseball team blew a late 5-3 lead in the last inning in an 8-6 loss to No. 3-seeded Sauk Centre tonight. They play in the elimination bracket tomorrow back in Elrosa. That game will be at approximately 2:15 p.m. against Long Prairie.

In tonight's other first-round game, No. 1-seeded Glenwood/Lowry beat Long Prairie 3-0. Tomorrow at noon, Sauk Centre and Glenwood/Lowry square off in a winner's bracket game.

Saturday's game will be aired on Smooth Magic 107 FM.

Jakes Day is coming! (Mark your calendars!)

Mark your calendars! The annual Jakes Day youth sporting event is Saturday, July 31 at the Belgrade Sportsmen’s Club. For all area children ages 3 to 17, featuring supervised use of small firearms (shot gun and hand guns) plus bow and arrows. The event is free! Just bring yourself and be ready to have a good time in an environment where safety comes first. Registration begins at 9 a.m. with shooting to start by 10 a.m. Lunch at noon followed by prizes for all participants. Sponsored by the National Wildlife Turkey Federation and the Bonanza Valley Royal Strutters.

More to come, including some archive video from past Jakes Day events.

And! Finally, here's the video from the Elrosa Baseball Hall of Fame ceremony last Friday. Click on the short link to watch it at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website = https://bit.ly/3illa9U.

American Legion baseball playoffs

The B-B-E (Brooten) American Legion Post No. 288 baseball team begins the playoffs tomorrow night (Friday) with a home game against Sauk Centre. First pitch is set for 7:30 p.m. at Saints Field. The Jaguars are seeded No. 2 in the West Central Sub-District East, while Sauk Centre is the No. 3 seed. Minnewaska Area is the top seed, while Long Prairie rounds out the teams at No. 4. Minnewaska and Long Prairie face each other at 5:30 p.m. in Elrosa.

Elrosa hosts the sub-district tournament across the next three days, with Sunday being set as championship day. I'll get more schedule information added here in the morning.

More to come.

And we jump back into the fast lane

With over three days of rest under my belt since Bonanza Valley Days 2021, my energy levels are back to being "sky high" as we reach the mid-point of Summer 2021. It's time to jump back in the fast lane!

Here's a piece of very good news worth sharing...click over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website to see what I'm talking about. (short link = https://bit.ly/3rjDLaz.) Remember: media conglomerates are incredibly skilled at peddling fear. They do so with extreme efficiency. They will always choose a fearful narrative over good news. The video that I embedded in that web article debunks part of the fear narrative that media conglomerates across the globe have been peddling since mid-March of 2020.

Remember! Anxiety is a fear-based disorder that we all battle at different points in our lives. Some days I battle it more than others. Anxiety is a horrible problem we all face. It can cripple the strongest and healthiest among us.

More updates and sports information to follow in a new blog post.

SCL Little Dipper playoffs: Elrosa wins opener (VIDEO)

The Elrosa Saints Little Dipper baseball team won 7-3 tonight over visiting Regal in the Stearns County League playoff quarterfinals.

Below is video taken at the last regular season game, last Wednesday on the home field against Spring Hill:


Next for Elrosa: the SCL Little Dipper playoff semifinals on Sunday, July 18 at Spring Hill. First pitch at Chargers Field is at 6 p.m. against the top-seeded Chargers. It's gonna be a heck of a game!

Let's play ball! Playoffs with first pitch at 6 p.m.

I'll get information here on tonight's Stearns County League Little Dipper baseball playoffs. The Elrosa Saints host Regal at 6 p.m. in a game between the No. 4 seed (Elrosa) and No. 5 seed.

Updates to follow later tonight.

Finally, here is video from the Bonanza Valley Days youth baseball tournament last Friday. This was recorded at the 10-U game against Minnewaska, which was held at the Brooten city park. It was the second game for the Jaguars that day.


Both of B-B-E's teams went 2-1 that day. I was very fortunate to be able to attend games for both the 10-U and 12-U teams. ##Grateful

Also...this weekend, the B-B-E Jaguars American Legion baseball team opens the playoffs with the Sub-District tournament in Elrosa. Details to come in a new blog post (along with tonight's results).

(VIDEO) Miss Brooten royalty

A member of the 2021 Minnewaska/B-B-E Blue Jackets girls' golf team has been crowned Miss Brooten for 2021-2022. Morgan Schwinghammer is the new Miss Brooten. Read more here at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website = https://bit.ly/3AS2Eyq.

(VIDEO) Concert in the Park

Members of the B-B-E high school band performed a special Concert in the Park as one of two events that formally kicked off the Bonanza Valley Days 2021 weekend in Brooten.

Below is video from the concert:


Still recovering from a great weekend in Brooten! It was incredible! 


And this is exciting! We have already decided that we will add more art for the BVD 2022 celebration. In the "off season" plans will be made for children's arts and crafts activities. It will definitely add to the fun that we are already looking forward to next summer.

I can't write enough about how wonderful the weekend was. I am so grateful we were able to kick it off with church and a concert! At some point this week, I will get the BVD Church in the Park video posted to the Bonanza Valley Voice website.

I haven't counted my photos taken since last Thursday, but it is easily past 500 pictures from all the events across four days of BVD 2021!

Monday afternoon update:

I finally got around to looking at MN Department of Health COVID weekly zip code reports from June and July. Since at least May 27, the Brooten zip code (56316) has had zero new COVID cases. I honestly expected maybe two or three on there in June. Nope, not the case! I have to go back in the data before May 27 to see when the last new case was reported to the MDH.

Lest ye forget, there's still COVID out there...but for whatever reason, it hasn't reared its ugly head in Brooten. I have other data from other towns, but that's gonna have to wait.

Elrosa Saints baseball wins two

Although Bonanza Valley Days all but shut down the Bonanza Valley Voice sports department over the weekend, we managed to take in 10-U and 12-U B-B-E Jaguars baseball at the BVD youth tournament on Friday. Then Friday night it was the Elrosa Saints baseball Hall of Fame induction. Beyond that we missed out on two big Stearns County League wins by the Saints.

On Friday against Roscoe, the Elrosa Saints amateur baseball team won a thriller by a 3-2 score in 10 innings.

Last night (Saturday) against Greenwald, the Saints won 8-3 to move to 5-7 in the SCL-North standings.

We just had an absolutely crazy, exciting and wide-open, full bore Bonanza Valley Days weekend in Brooten. It will take the better part of this next week to recover. I won't be moving so fast tomorrow (Monday) once all the adrenaline has worn off.

Bonanza Valley Days grand parade is TODAY (Sunday)

And here is the lineup and order = https://bit.ly/3yPpJQH.

Who else had a TON of fun on Saturday night? 

That's all...lots to do to prepare.

Here's a short video clip recorded in downtown Brooten last night on main street...it was in the tail end of the Bonanza Valley Days bean bag tournament. It was a marvelous tournament in spite of my disorganization on the front end of it. On the UP side, it was a clear example of how kind and understanding everyone at BVD is, whether you are from here or you were visiting.


One of the gentlemen in that video clip playing bean bags was Ryan Sorenson, a former B-B-E Jaguar student athlete who (I believe - don't quote me) was a 1993 graduate. I really appreciated the help he provided as the tournament played out. Thank you, Ryan!

Have a safe and wonderful day today!

Day II of BVD 2021 !

Day two of Bonanza Valley Days 2021 was off the hook fun! It was crazytown today in Brooten.

More to come. It's time to check the radar, because it looks like we could get some rain overnight and also tomorrow morning.

Bonanza Valley Days 2021! Information! (Knowledge, what a concept!)

Click here to read up the latest on Bonanza Valley Days sports offerings for this weekend (short link) = https://bit.ly/3wshM23.

Also! Here's a web article link for food offerings at BVD 2021 = https://bit.ly/2T19xMW. Please share these links as you are able to!

Here's the full summary article with BVD information = https://bit.ly/3hMWw1H. **This article will be updated as each day goes on. It will be updated through Sunday night.

Busy, busy, busy! It will just get crazier as the hours pass today and then tomorrow. Crazy, crazy, crazy! It is good to be busy and active.

Elrosa Little Dipper team picks up big win (VIDEO)

The Elrosa Saints Little Dipper team earned a convincing 5-1 win tonight over previously-undefeated Spring Hill. They led 2-0 after the first inning.

The Saints improved to 6-2 with the win in the Stearns County League standings to close out the regular season. Up next: the SCL playoff quarterfinals on Wednesday, July 14 at 6:30 p.m. in Elrosa. The Saints will host Regal.

Here's video from the top of the second inning tonight:


More to come.

And it rained again!

The Bonanza Valley Area received roughly one inch of rain on Tuesday this week. It took the better part of the day to get to that amount, as rainfall was slow and steady. While it was not enough to break the drought, it certainly gave the irrigators a reprieve and will go a long ways to helping second crops of alfalfa and other crops through the area. Many wetland areas continue to show signs of water shortages, but the outlook has more precipitation in it than what the daily forecasts showed in June.

Keep rain dancing!

To download the full BVD poster...(And Sports update!)

You can download your own copy of the Bonanza Valley Days 2021 poster by clicking here to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's editor blog (short link): https://bit.ly/3jLtRNo. I am not a tech wizard, so sometimes I just do what I know how to do without getting fancy. The upcoming BVD weekend is basically consuming all my time, focus and energy right now. It is stressful, but it is a good type of stress!

Here's a web article at the Bonanza Valley Voice website that outlines all the sports offerings over BVD weekend, including updates on the Co-Ed Sand Volleyball tournament. Click on this short link to read that = https://bit.ly/3xlpoEO. It includes a video from 2016 at the BVD Walk/Run. That was fun to watch!

Announcement:
My radio show on Smooth Magic 107 FM, Glenwood, dubbed The Voice on KMGK, will be broadcast live from downtown Brooten this Friday morning at 9:20 a.m. You can tune in on the radio at 107.1 FM or at their website via the audio player = https://www.kmgk1071.com. Tune in on the radio or anywhere with a phone or computer and internet access!

And there's this video:


Food for thought!

Here's the link to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's summer sports photo albums: https://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/Summer-2021-Sports. It's been updated with more events from the latter half of the month of June.

Skis win vs. Saints

The Sobieski Skis picked up a 6-1 win on Friday night against the Elrosa Saints amateur baseball team. The next game (on my schedule) for the Saints is Hall of Fame night on Friday, July 9 against Roscoe with first pitch at 7 p.m. The HOF induction ceremony will be held at approximately 6:40 p.m. that night.

In other news...the Bonanza Valley Days 2021 T-shirt sales have been incredible in the first two days! Officially, as of mid-afternoon today, Murphey's Printing of Brooten has sold 36 T-shirts. More are being printed. You can read all about it, including when you can purchase them, by clicking over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://bit.ly/3hDkEUG.

(VIDEO) BVD T-shirt sales underway

Bonanza Valley Days 2021 T-shirts were on sale on Friday afternoon, July 2 at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper office. This was announced on page one of this week's print edition of The Voice. (It pays to get the newspaper and read it!)

Click on this web link to watch a video featuring the T-shirts: https://bit.ly/3xe9gFj. That web article will be updated with additional information this weekend regarding when you can buy T-shirts. If you have questions, you can e-mail Murphey's Printing. That email address is included in that web article. The owner of Murphey's Printing, Jennifer Murphey, is the mom of two former Jaguar student-athletes. Morgan was a standout fastpitch player who graduated in 2010, and Dillon was a three-sport athlete for the Jaguars who was one of the top nose guards to ever suit up for B-B-E football. He graduated in 2012.

More to come. It's time to get my camera equipment ready for tonight's baseball game in Elrosa!

Friday night: Elrosa hosts Sobieski

On Friday night, July 2, the Elrosa Saints amateur baseball team hosts Sobieski in an exhibition game. First pitch is at 7:30 p.m.

More to come on Friday morning following my radio show on Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood. The show starts at 9:20 a.m. (107.1 FM)...you can listen by clicking on their website = https://www.kmgk1071.com. Set a reminder and tune in on Friday morning to The Voice on KMGK radio.  

**Remember! As announced on page one of the July 1 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper, Bonanza Valley Days T-shirt sales start at 12 p.m. noon on Friday! (July 2)...AT the Voice newspaper office in downtown Brooten. Please spread the word!

(VIDEO) Blast from the Past: Brooten Centennial

It's not video that I recorded, but the most incredible video was sent to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper office this past winter with highlight reels from July 1986 during the Brooten Centennial celebration.

Here's video of then-Mayor Kay Mohr kicking off the activities with a welcome speech on the west side of Brooten High School by the flag pole.


History is amazing.

And good news! The Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website is back online. Here's a short link to click on and read about the Thursday and Friday activities for the upcoming Bonanza Valley Days celebration in Brooten, which starts on Thursday, July 8. (Link) https://bit.ly/3xd9EUs.

I'm getting more catch-up work done. One task I chew on as often as I can is uploading photos to the Bonanza Valley Voice SmugMug gallery. A few albums are loaded in the Summer 2021 folder, including some amateur baseball action back in May. Here's that link = https://bit.ly/3qOaftq.

So much happening...where to begin?

I need to clone myself! Wow, what busy times we live in!

An individual has come forward confessing to the vandalism at the Brooten Pavilion (early morning hours of Wednesday, June 30). I have more of an update coming at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website. I'm happy to say that the system worked! (The police) They used a light touch to start out the investigation, and now a resolution can be made between the guilty party and the city of Brooten.

Here's a video that reviews information published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) as of June 30, 2021 (yesterday!) The video is only three minutes long, and in my opinion, it is in your best interest to watch it.


Also, my Bonanza Valley Voice website is down due to server/host issues. It's a technical issue, and it is being resolved today. Never a dull moment here!!!

More to come.