(woman) Welcome to... a patchwork of stories about the arts, culture, and history in our region.

[guitar, bass, and drums play in bright country rhythm] Hi, I'm Matt Olien.

And I'm Barb Gravel.

On this edition of Prairie Mosaic, we'll meet this year's Poetry Out Loud Champion, visit a regional museum, and meet a musician who expresses herself through song lyrics.

♪ My apartment only has one resident ♪ On shearing day, people come from far and wide to Joan Ellison's sheep farm to help skirt fleeces, trim hooves, and feed lambs.

After 40 years, Joan's passion can still be felt in the haiku she writes about daily life on a small Minnesota farm.

[banjo & bass play in bright folk rhythm] ♪ ♪ ♪ I'm Joanie Ellison, and we're at our farm in Pelican Rapids.

We raise sheep and good times.

[laughs] Today we're shearing sheep.

We have 36 sheep in the barn plus 6 lambs.

And we shear them in December, January, because we want the lambs to be able to get to their mom's udder and with 6 inches of fleece, it's really hard.

Every year when it's time to shear I send out an e-mail, and I say anybody want to have an adventure today?

we're going to shear sheep.

You can do all kinds of different jobs.

You can skirt fleeces, you can give shots, you can wrestle sheep, you can haul fleeces.

We've been doing this for 40 years.

I think people come to our farm for Fiber Days and for things like shearing because they really love making things, and they really love learning things, This is the place where they can come and learn about the sheep.

They can get ideas for projects to work on in the future.

They can share their enthusiasm with other people.

It's just a really fun, fun day.

People come from all over.

We've had people come from Western North Dakota, we've had people come from the Twin Cities, we've had people come just from all over the state.

We do this because-- my folks gave me a spinning wheel about 50 years ago, and I learned how to spin, and we moved to Pelican Rapids, and the store that I bought my wool from for spinning closed.

And we went oh, what are we going to do?

That was before the Internet.

I didn't know anyplace to get wool.

So when I was having my second daughter, I was in the hospital and Dave brought me 2 books instead of flowers or candy or something like that.

He brought me 2 books about raising sheep.

So we've been raising sheep ever since.

Our sheep are sort of Heinz 57 sheep.

My ewes are all different backgrounds.

But the rams I buy specifically for what they give me.

What the Cormo Rams give me is shorter sheep and really fine crimpy wool that'll be spun into something really nice.

When the shearer comes we trim their hooves.

We only do that a couple times a year, then we'll give them their vaccination.

We vaccinate them and shear them at this time of the year because their lambs will be here in a week or two, and their lambs will have those antibodies from their mom's vaccination.

So we can vaccinate the lambs right now, then 6 weeks after they're born we'll give them their second vaccination.

Our shearer is Tom Reinhardt, and he can shear a sheep in 3 minutes When Dave and I do it because we have to because sometimes sheep get injured and you have to sheer them, it takes us 3 hours.

so it makes great sense to pay somebody to come in and shear the sheep for you.

He also does a wonderful job.

The other people that are here are all volunteers.

Some have never worked with sheep at all before, and some of them have never given shots before, and some of them have never touched wool before.

But some of them are experts at it.

Then a couple of them just came for the ride.

The kids I think will learn a lot.

They will learn to feed sheep, learn to bottlefeed lambs, they will learn to skirt fleeces.

Probably 10 or 15 people work at skirting.

We spread the fleeces out on the table and then take out the pieces that have dirt in them, the pieces that have manure in them, the pieces that have hay-- all the dirty parts.

People buy wool from me, they buy fleeces-- that's what you call the wool just after it comes off the sheep.

Then we bag it up, and I take it into the house, and I skirt it again just to make sure it's really, really clean.

If I get through the whole year and I haven't sold those fleeces, I take them to the spinning and carding mill, and they turn them into yarn for me.

And I really love haiku.

Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry that has 17 syllables.

The first line is 5 syllables, the second line is 7 syllables, the third line is 5 syllables.

It's supposed to be about nature then about, sort of an ah-ha!

moment-- you set up a story than you solve it in those 17 syllables.

I decided that I was going to write one haiku a day.

And I started writing haikus about the farm.

I call that book "To Farm is to Hope" because it was part of a haiku.

The reason I said that is because every time you turn around at a farm something is going wrong.

So a lot of the stuff that I wrote in my book is about the hard parts of lambing, the things that make it hard to do, and the only way you can keep doing it year after year after year is if you can hope.

You hope for those days when the lambs are all healthy, you hope for those days when the fleeces are beautiful.

That's what I want to share with the people that come is these are wonderful things and why I called my last book "To Farm is to Hope."

Dave and I are 77, and everybody's saying when are you going to stop raising sheep?

But we somehow just keep doing it, and as long as we can hire kids to help us put up hay, and as long as we can do the work ourselves, I think we're just going to keep doing it, 'cause they're so damn cute!

[laughs] Poetry Out Loud is a high school program that encourages students to learn about poetry while they master public speaking skills and build self-confidence.

Leah Hochhalter, from Valley City High School, is the 2025 North Dakota Poetry Out Loud State Champion.

"We've always been out "Looking for answers "Telling stories about ourself Searching for connection."

I've always been involved in all of the arts.

I used to call myself the biggest nerd in the school.

All the arts activities I was in-- so Dance, Student Congress, Student Council, Band, Choir, Show Choir Jazz Band, Speech, Theater.

I have always been drawn to the art of performing.

Poetry Out Loud is a poetry competition where people memorize and then recite and interpret poetry from many different poets.

So we scour the source of Poetry Out Loud for poems that speak to us and then memorize them then recite them in front of an audience and in front of judges.

I had to do it my senior year for class, then I advanced my school competition, won that, advanced to the state competition, and now here I am.

The judges look for my understanding of the poem, so understanding the interpretation of the poem and how I understood the message and the meaning behind the author's words.

They also look for intonation, memorization, and truth to poet.

Then I also paid close attention to the placement of words and commas and punctuation and where the lines split because in poetry a line split is there intentionally.

Thinking about when to take a space for a pause.

The 3 poems I chose have a lot of chances where I could speak the line many different ways and each time I spoke it differently it could completely change the meaning.

I think my biggest strength is being able to recognize the line between theatrics and not, and so the ability to recognize-- that might be too theatrical-- bring it back, is a very strong one.

I've been in speech since I was in 7th grade.

I still get very nervous, but performing in front of people isn't what makes me nervous.

It's the art form and making sure I'm doing it to the best of my ability and to be truthful to the integrity of the art.

"The summer everyone left for the moon "even those yet to be born.

And the dead "who can't vacation here but met us all there by the veil between worlds."

I choose them from the Poetry Out Loud site, and the way I did it is probably unconventional, but it worked because I love the 3 poems that I did end up choosing.

I went to the random poem option where you can just click a button to get a random one.

I liked doing it because I could just click, read through it, see if I liked it or not and then click for a new one if I didn't.

(woman) Representing North Dakota Poetry Out Loud for 2025, the State Champion is Leah Hochhalter from Valley City High School.

[loud applause] (Leah) I'm very grateful, I'm shocked, but I'm very, very grateful for this opportunity and the chance to perform, and then not just perform but get to listen to all these other people from other schools that understand poetry and look at poems the way I do.

It's really cool to be in a room full of artists and poets.

"I shot an arrow into the air, "It fell to the earth, I knew not where; "For, so swiftly it flew, the sight "Could not follow it in its flight.

In everyday thinking we do math, we do English, we do science, but we sometimes don't think deeper, we just use the surface level at everything, but with Poetry Out Loud and then just poems in general, you can really unlock that part of your brain and think what does this mean?

And the beauty of poetry is that not every line, not every interpretation is going to be the same.

Everybody's interpretation of the meaning behind a poem could be slightly different, and that's really cool.

My 3rd poem was "Listening in Deep Space by Diane Thiel.

I just really got drawn to that because lately I've just been really drawn to the stars because I've lost friends, and when I look up there, I think of them.

It makes me feel nice to know that I have them with me.

It was the first reason that I got drawn to that.

Then just really looking at the lyrics and the stanzas, I love the way that Diane Thiel wrote the poem, the connection she made from humans to beyond the stars and talking about connecting with each other.

All the poems I choose, I really choose them because they have a deeper meaning than just the surface meaning, so I love being able to dig a little deeper.

"We've always been out looking for answers, "Telling stories about ourselves, "Searching for connection, choosing "To send out Stravinsky and whale song, "Which, in translation, might very well be "Our undoing instead of a welcome.

"We launch satellites, probes, telescopes "Unfolding like origami, navigating "Geomagnetic storms, major disruptions.

"Rovers with spirit and perseverance "Mapping the unknown.

We listen "Through large arrays adjusted eagerly "To hear the news That we are not alone."

"Considering the history at home, "In houses, across continents, oceans, "Even in quests armed with good intentions, What one seeker has done to another--" "What will we do When we find each other?"

Nestled on the western side of Minnesota, The Grant County Historical Museum and Veterans Memorial Hall is filled with artifacts and memories from the past that tell the story of the state's rich history.

(woman) Just because we're a small rural County doesn't mean important things don't happen here.

[fiddle, bass, & banjo play a polka dance beat] Grant County was formed in 1868.

It was pieced off from Stevens County at the time.

It was finally organized in 1873.

The towns in Grant County include Elbow Lake, the county seat, Herman which is the first community settled, Hoffman, Barrett, Wendell, Ashby, Norcross and Erdahl which is an unincorporated village.

The Historical Society started in 1938.

In the '40s the Historical Society received the bequeath of a farm and using income that they received from that farm, in 1958 they decided to build a museum.

In 1959 this plot of land was given to the Historical Society by the city of Elbow Lake.

The museum was built in 1959, and it wasn't until September of 1961 when it was actually open to the public.

The artifacts here cover prehistoric times to even with the more modern era with the uniforms and things from the most recent conflicts, Afghanistan, Iraq, and those conflicts.

But 1880s to 1940s are the predominant eras that we cover here.

The prehistoric includes mammoth bones, pre contact Indian artifacts.

The pioneer times-- pioneer household goods, transportation items, buggies, sleighs, wagons, old vehicles, and things like that, and farm machinery and tools.

The oxcart, of course, is one of our favorite artifacts that we have here.

The oxcart is the oldest and crudest oxcart known to exist in the state of Minnesota.

The one-room schoolhouse was brought over in 1971.

It was located between Elbow Lake and Ashby, and it gives us an example of what the one-room school houses were like that were scattered throughout the county.

I also really like the model of Fort Pomme de Terre that we have in the Veterans Hall showing what the Fort looked like back in the 1860s when it was there.

[trumpets play] The Veterans Hall was added in 2007, 2008.

We had military items kind of scattered here and there in different cases throughout the museum, but no one place for a good exhibit.

We decided to go to the Elbow Lake Legion to get some advice on how could we display this?

The Legion had some money stocked away, and they thought that a good investment would be adding on to our museum.

It's just been a great addition.

People are very impressed with it.

Veterans especially really like it.

People have gotten more curious as to where their ancestors came from.

Our museum was an early one recognizing genealogy and the popularity of it before it was even popular.

Back in the '70s and '80s they had volunteers going through the newspapers and making up card files with the obituaries and the marriages.

We have all the county newspapers, mostly the Grant County Herald, the Herman Review, the Hoffman Tribune.

We also have most of those on microfilm, so they get used a lot with people doing genealogy.

We have a number of photographs, boxes of photographs.

I get comments all the time that we have just a wonderful museum.

One of the things I hear a lot is they didn't realize how big it was when they first walked in because when you see it from the highway you just see the front of it.

It doesn't look like it would be that big, not realizing that it goes all the way down the whole block.

So they're impressed with the size of it and just what we have.

I hope people will come away with a sense of what the history is for Grant County and how people lived and how hard it was too a little bit for the people that lived during the early years.

It's important that people learn history so you can learn from history and realize that things aren't as easy as they were as they are now for them.

They're not growing up in a time where you didn't have electricity in the house or a bathroom in the house.

It's important that they learn it so they can appreciate what they have.

Nicole Jasperse is a singer, songwriter, originally from Moorhead, Minnesota who blends folk and rock music with a unique style of finger-picking.

Nicole writes songs that stem from her travels and life experiences, and she enjoys performing with fellow musicians who she's known since middle school.

[finger-picking softly in folk rhythm] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Someone asked me my biggest fear ♪ ♪ And I couldn't decide ♪ ♪ Between drowning and spiders ♪ ♪ And car accidents and heights ♪ ♪ ♪ But if I'm honest it's none of those ♪ ♪ It's something further inside ♪ ♪ A cavity in the depths of my chest ♪ ♪ So it took me a while to realize ♪ ♪ ♪ When I grow up I'm afraid I'll be ♪ ♪ An expert on taxidermy ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm really good at keeping ♪ ♪ Dead things next to me ♪ ♪ Someday will I have to lie ♪ ♪ To say I wanted my life ♪ ♪ To go this way ♪ ♪ And what if it's my own fault ♪ ♪ Just the way I am ♪ ♪ The way I am ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ What if I turn eighty years old ♪ ♪ With nothing to show for it ♪ ♪ No souvenirs on my shelves ♪ ♪ And an untouched bucket list ♪ ♪ ♪ My apartment only has one resident ♪ ♪ Still sleeping on a twin bed ♪ ♪ ♪ No visitors no light on the porch ♪ ♪ No reason to stay up past 10:00 ♪ ♪ So I'll flip through my empty scrapbooks ♪ ♪ Dust off my vacant picture frames ♪ ♪ ♪ It isn't dying that scares me at all oh no no ♪ ♪ It's dying alone ♪ ♪ ♪ When I grow up I'm afraid I'll be ♪ ♪ An expert on taxidermy ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm really good at keeping ♪ ♪ Dead things next to me ♪ ♪ Someday will I have to lie to say ♪ ♪ I wanted my life to go this way ♪ ♪ And what if it's my own fault ♪ ♪ Just the way I am ♪ ♪ The way I am ♪ ♪ ♪ I'm a taxidermist ♪ ♪ ♪ What if it's my own fault ♪ ♪ Just the way I am ♪ ♪ The way I am ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Mm-mm mm-mm ♪ [guitar solo] ♪ ♪ ♪ You could keep me from being alone forever ♪ ♪ ♪ You could be mine ♪ ♪ ♪ You could make me forget all the things ♪ ♪ I'm hung up on ♪ ♪ And bring me to life ♪ ♪ And bring me to life ♪ ♪ ♪ You could make sure I end up ♪ ♪ With more than pipe dreams ♪ ♪ Someday ay-ay ♪ ♪ Ay-ay ay-ay ay-ay-ay-ay ♪ ♪ Ay ay-ay ♪ ♪ ♪ Oh oh you could save me ♪ ♪ From being a taxidermist ♪ ♪ What do you say ay-ay ay-ay ay-ay ♪ ♪ Ay ay-ay-ay ay-ay ay-ay ♪ ♪ What do you say ♪ ♪ ♪ What do you say ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ What do you say ♪ If you know of an artist, a topic, or an organization in our region that you think would make for an interesting segment, please contact us at... (Matt) You can watch this and other episodes of "Prairie Mosaic" on Prairie Public's YouTube channel, and follow Prairie Public on social media as well.

I'm Matt Olien.

And I'm Barb Gravel.

Thank you for joining us for another edition of "Prairie Mosaic."

[guitar, bass, and drums play in bright country rhythm] (Barb) "Prairie Mosaic" is funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008, the North Dakota Council on the Arts and by the members of Prairie Public.