ORANGE CITY, Iowa— Ashley Hellewell* and Amber Post, students at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, earned a spot on the Academic Dean’s List for the spring 2024 semester. The Dean’s List is comprised of students who have achieved a semester grade point average of 3.50 or above while carrying a minimum of 12 graded hours.

Iowa Lakes Community College is celebrating the students on the Spring 2024 Honors Lists, recognizing their outstanding academic achievements. This semester, 131 students have earned the prestigious President’s List honor, and 242 students have been named to the Dean’s List.

By Arnold Krusemark It is into June and we hope your garden (and yard) are coming along ok. Your plants (and grass) is growing well. But so are the weeds. and insects are arriving too. This column will discuss fertilizer and insecticide. When shopping there has been the well known adage: read the directions carefully and twice. Read the directions first in the store to see if using it will do the job for you. Then read the directions again just before using them to make sure you know how and when to apply. Applying Insecticide is important. Commercial sprayers (farm fields, for example) have the requirement that sprayers must have and wear a faces mask to keep from inhaling the spray. Remember insecticide is to kill insects. It can also kill the person spraying. Then there’s what to wear when spraying. At least recommended is a pair of disposable plastic coveralls (with gloves, boots, and hood). These can then be disposed of when the job is done. Also recommended is to wash off the plastic coveralls. And then the time to spray - not too much wind. Spray has been known to get into neighboring fields and other parts of the yard and garden. And we’ve already mentioned clean up after applying. Then watch to see how well it works. In years past our family bought a garden tractor to weed between the rows. It worked well for the part of the garden that did not have plants with long vines (cucumbers, squash, etc). That should keep you busy another week. Back inside the house be sure to water your house plants. Until next week.

Question: I have a question for you regarding onramps to the freeway. I thought I used to see yield signs when coming from the ramp.

Southwest Initiative Foundation (SWIF) has announced $1.2 million in grants for small businesses in southwest Minnesota through the PROMISE Act Grant Program. The PROMISE Act is funded by a one-time allocation from the State of Minnesota Legislature in partnership with the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).

Ridgewater College would like to acknowledge those students earning recognition on the Dean’s lists for Spring semester 2024. To be included on the Dean’s list, a student must maintain a grade point average of 3.5 or higher and be enrolled in at least nine credits and meet certain other criteria.

Murray County 4-H will host nine sessions on summer programming that will suit a wide variety of interests! The first day camp will be held on June 6 from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Hospice of Murray County appreciates donations given in May 2024 in memory of the following: Brenda Platt, Frances Postma, Linda McDonald, Nancy Froelke, Jim Lange, Gwen Olson, Charletta Bennett, DeLoss Pieske, LaVonne Priebe,Bob Klein, Mildred Strand, Judy Onken, Babe Bergman, Darrel Schipper, Dale Lange, Rose Wheeler, Bruce Larson, Karla Kepler, Jim Reese, Sharon Bakken, and Sylvia Onken Blessed be their memory.

By Kathy Schwartz, Murray County Master Gardener Mulch can include wood chips, pine needles, shredded leaves or other organic materials. When watering roses, avoid getting water on the leaves so you can prevent diseases.

The Slayton Community Band will be performing another glorious concert at Gullord Park on Thursday, June 13 at 7:00 PM. Remember to put your name in the box for a chance to win a Hub gift certificate! Our National Anthem will be sung by Blaine Braun. All concerts we play have a lot of variety. This one is no different! We are starting with a piece that was created for the NBC Broadcast of the 1988 Summer Olympics by John Williams. Then we will go on to play music from the 20’s, My Fair Lady, and Grease. The kids March this week is called “Barnum and Bailey’s Favorite” by Karl King. We hope to see you at the park! The Avoca American Legion Auxiliary will be serving Grilled Hotdogs, Chips, Ice Cream, Bottled Water, $8 for the full meal; extra hotdogs will be $3 each. They will be serving from 5-7 PM.