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Articles by Donna Kallner
45 Degrees North: The Hiring Committee
Every two years, every seat in the U.S. House of Representatives is up for re-election. That’s right: It’s a limited term job, albeit one with enviable benefits. Candidates sometimes forget who’s on the selection committee for that employment. Incumbents sometimes forget who conducts the performance reviews that determine whether their employment is extended. Who decides? It isn’t the party or the pundits or the donors. It’s us, the voters.
45 Degrees North: Tick Tick Tick
Here at 45 degrees north, tick season is practically year round. Any time the ground isn’t frozen, ticks may be present and looking for a host to feed on. One found me in May. This is not unusual. Nor is it unusual to be faced with conflicting choices about what to do when that happens. But this time, I learned some things that may change my approach to tick bites in the future – just in time for the surge in tick activity we expect every autumn. The backstory.
Reasons to attend a farm show, even if you don’t farm
A farm show is not the same as a state fair. No midway rides. No demolition derby. No grandstand entertainment. So what’s the draw? My husband and I don’t farm. We don’t even raise backyard chickens. Still, in July we drove 160 miles round trip to attend Wisconsin’s 2026 Farm Technology Days. Here’s why. The water test. Farm Tech wasn’t even on my radar until I saw a social media post from Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources.
Articles by Donna Kallner, The Daily Yonder
In summer 2026, my husband and I drove 160 miles round trip to attend Wisconsin’s 2026 Farm Technology Days. Here’s why.
45 Degrees North: Why Go To A Farm Show?
A farm show is not the same as a state fair. No midway rides. No demolition derby. No grandstand entertainment. So what’s the draw? My husband and I don’t farm. We don’t even raise backyard chickens. Still, in July we drove 160 miles round trip to attend Wisconsin’s 2026 Farm Technology Days. Here’s why. The water test. Farm Tech wasn’t even on my radar until I saw a social media post from Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources.
45 Degrees North: The Vent Talk
You know this rural neighbor – the elderly widow who lives alone at the dead end of a road bypassed by the information superhighway. She doesn’t see Facebook, so doesn’t see public service reminders to keep furnace exhaust vents clear during a blizzard. And the specific scenario of blocked vents hasn’t come up in conversations with family members trying to get her to move. Whether she doesn’t know or can’t physically manage to keep vents clear doesn’t really matter.
45 Degrees North: Write-in Votes
The weekend before one April election, I got a text from a friend about the upcoming county board of supervisors race. Our district had one candidate on the ballot. A last-minute write-in campaign was starting for someone else – someone I would have voted for. Unfortunately, the deadline for filing as a “registered write-in candidate” was the day before the would-be candidate decided to stand for office.
45 Degrees North: Write-in Votes
The weekend before one April election, I got a text from a friend about the upcoming county board of supervisors race. Our district had one candidate on the ballot. A last-minute write-in campaign was starting for someone else – someone I would have voted for. Unfortunately, the deadline for filing as a “registered write-in candidate” was the day before the would-be candidate decided to stand for office.
45 Degrees North: Finding Balance
Recently, I found myself on the ground looking up at the sky and the outstretched hands of friends who tried to keep me from falling after a misstep. I wasn’t injured, thanks to a fortuitous distribution of padding on my backside and a thick skull. And if witnesses are to be believed (which I choose to do), my slow-motion fall was remarkably graceful. There was relieved laughter once it was clear I was okay. Except, I think, from the friend who broke her hip last year.
45 Degrees North: The Class of ‘76
Fifty years ago, my small rural high school’s yearbook committee made a bold choice: A yearbook cover printed in color was unusual back then. And this was vivid color. The image wrapping front-to-back featured a bald eagle clutching the Stars and Stripes and a stylized U.S. Constitution with its bold heading of We the People. We were now The People. We were eager to honor our nation’s past as we ventured forth to build its future. 1776 to 1976. Two hundred years.
45 Degrees North: Before You Need 911
I didn’t intend to call 911 recently. But while putting my phone in the pocket of pants that are a bit snug, I must have accidentally pressed the volume button “five times in rapid succession”. I was puzzled by the alert tone sounding from my posterior. By the time I got the phone fished out and understood what was happening, the screen giving me the option to cancel the 911 call was flashing off. And my phone was dialing 911.
Potholes, patches — and why the Persian Gulf war affects rural road repairs
Visitors to the Dairy State often admire our roads. Most, even county and township roads, are paved, so milk trucks have access to farms in most weather. It took 30-plus inches of snow in our March blizzard for me to hear a lament I recall from my Hoosier childhood – that a farmer had to dump milk because the milk truck couldn’t get through. And that was on a paved road. Wisconsin has more than 115,000 miles of paved roads. Ninety percent are local roads. Winters are hard on them.
45 Degrees North: Potholes, Patches, and Rural Road Repairs
Visitors to the Dairy State often admire our roads. Most, even county and township roads, are paved, so milk trucks have access to farms in most weather. It took 30-plus inches of snow in our March blizzard for me to hear a lament I recall from my Hoosier childhood – that a farmer had to dump milk because the milk truck couldn’t get through. And that was on a paved road. Wisconsin has more than 115,000 miles of paved roads. Ninety percent are local roads. Winters are hard on them.
45 Degrees North: Potholes, Patches, and Rural Road Repairs
Visitors to the Dairy State often admire our roads. Most, even county and township roads, are paved, so milk trucks have access to farms in most weather. It took 30-plus inches of snow in our March blizzard for me to hear a lament I recall from my Hoosier childhood – that a farmer had to dump milk because the milk truck couldn’t get through. And that was on a paved road. Wisconsin has more than 115,000 miles of paved roads. Ninety percent are local roads. Winters are hard on them.
45 Degrees North: Just Asking Questions
This year, my part of rural northern Wisconsin got hit with a March blizzard that dropped 30-plus inches of fresh snow. That’s a lot of weight on a roof. So as soon as the wind calmed down, we got out the roof rake – a long-handled tool used from ground level to scrape away snow on a roof. Removing even a portion of that snow to reduce the weight can help prevent a roof collapse. Wouldn’t it be great to have a similar way to scrape away some of the weight of worry we carry in these divided days?
45 Degrees North: 5 Big Tips About Rural Restaurants
Most of us know someone who can be found daily (or even multiple times a day) at a rural restaurant: Retired farmers and widowers who breakfast at the place the rest of us call The House Of Knowledge. The new moms who meet up for coffee and complete sentences and leave quickly when naptime comes. The old couple who will take their noon meal at the corner table as long as one of them can drive.
Celebrating spring's arrival through mud and maple syrup
Mud season is not something Chambers of Commerce feature. Even those of us who love winter have cabin fever by now. Spring is still a ways off. Getting there is a slog. But we made it through the dark days before the winter solstice, and survived that long stretch of sub-zero temperatures in January. For weeks, the world has felt as precarious as the trip down an icy driveway to the mailbox across the road. Mud season is almost as likely to find us tail over teakettle.
45 Degrees North: Mud Season
Mud season is not something Chambers of Commerce feature. Even those of us who love winter have cabin fever by now. Spring is still a ways off. Getting there is a slog. But we made it through the dark days before the winter solstice, and survived that long stretch of sub-zero temperatures in January. For weeks, the world has felt as precarious as the trip down an icy driveway to the mailbox across the road. Mud season is almost as likely to find us tail over teakettle.
45 Degrees North: Voting While Female
It’s been very, very cold here at 45 degrees north. Cold enough to freeze water pipes, and then some. Once those pipes are frozen, people don’t always make the best choices about how to thaw them. Sometimes their choices end up setting their home on fire. For those still trying to fathom why so many rural people voted for the current administration, try thinking of their situation like frozen pipes: They had problems. They wanted them fixed. They made choices. Their choices have consequences.
45 Degrees North: What A Mess
Last year, an ice storm in late March knocked down many trees in my area, including around the edges of two fields behind my house. A few weeks later, a work crew showed up to clear downed trees before planting those fields. My husband walked out to say hello to that crew. Nice young men, he said. They were from South Africa.
45 Degrees North: A Case for Rural Postmarks
By Donna Kallner Ever made a breakneck drive to a rural post office to get your tax return filed at the last minute? I bet you weren't thinking then about the official U.S. Postal Service definition of 'postmark'. Because we all assumed we knew what that meant. And we assumed wrong. Officially, USPS considers the postmark a tool with importance primarily in internal postal service operations - in particular, to "cancel" the value of postage applied to mail so it cannot be used again.
45 Degrees North: A Case for Rural Postmarks
Ever made a breakneck drive to a rural post office to get your tax return filed at the last minute? I bet you weren’t thinking then about the official U.S. Postal Service definition of ‘postmark’. Because we all assumed we knew what that meant. And we assumed wrong. Officially, USPS considers the postmark a tool with importance primarily in internal postal service operations – in particular, to “cancel” the value of postage applied to mail so it cannot be used again.
45 Degrees North: The Next 25 Years | The Daily Yonder
Usually, I file New Year’s resolutions under the heading “Hype With A Price Tag.” So I’m not here to sell an exercise program, a daily gratitude journal, or any practice or product that promises to make you thinner, happier and a little poorer before you flip the calendar again. But I am going to suggest that if you still rely on a calendar you flip each month, you might consider how well that works for other people in your orbit.
45 Degrees North: The Bitter Truth
On a recent visit to Washington Island, I did what I’ve been doing for the past 30-plus years: I went to Nelsen’s Hall for a shot of bitters. Despite its location on an island in Lake Michigan with a year-round population of about 783, Nelsen’s is the largest purveyor of Angostura Bitters in the world. It’s also the oldest continuously operating tavern in Wisconsin (founded in 1899).
45 Degrees North: Five Trees in the Big Picture
My husband and I live on 2.5 rural acres that he bought before we were married. For less than the present price of most new vehicles, he got land that included an old farmhouse and barn (both gone now) and a granary that still looks like it might collapse under the next heavy snow. The property had been a farmstead back when people valued trees for more than their ornamental contributions. Box elders shaded the farmhouse. Apple trees produced food to feed the family.
45 Degrees North: Debris Dilemmas
Winter is coming here at 45 degrees north. That means my township’s solid waste transfer station will be reducing its hours and removing the seasonal bins for large items. Through the winter, we will still be able to haul our regular household trash and recyclables there on Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings. But the window is closing for disposal of things like the worn-out, lumpy mattress and box springs we wanted gone.
45 Degrees North: Household Management | The Daily Yonder
For many rural families, including mine, this does not feel like a year to be cavalier about what we have put by for winter. Grocery prices have not gone down. Availability feels uncertain. I can feed my household better for less than the cost of the “cheap” processed and prepared foods that have become the norm for many families over the past 40 years. But that takes some effort. And the growing season is short here at 45 degrees north.
45 Degrees North: Don't Jinx The Road Work | The Daily Yonder
Summer isn’t over yet in rural northern Wisconsin, but soon it will be. And before snow flies, there’s lots of work to be done on many miles of local, county, state and federal roads. It feels ungrateful to complain about delays and inconvenience from repair and construction projects when we just spent months or years bemoaning the poor condition of those roads. But we don’t want to jinx progress. So here are some things to ponder while waiting for a flagger to wave you through.
45 Degrees North: Rethinking Where Stuff Goes
A neighbor recently asked me a question that’s been weighing on his mind since a friend’s house burned a couple of years back: Is the way I store ammunition safe if I have a fire? He was particularly concerned about the potential danger to people in the fire department. It’s a good question to ask, and not just about ammo and risks to firefighters. In many rural areas, there are fewer passersby who might notice smoke and call 911.
45 Degrees North: Parade Protocols | The Daily Yonder
Like many kids who grew up on farms, I remember decorating hay wagons with our 4-H club and riding those floats in parades that featured marching bands, convertibles, tractors, and politicians on foot. Those long-ago Hoosier parade organizers probably delighted in staging the politicians after the horses so they had to step lively over the “road apples”.
45 Degrees North: Walking On Rural Roads
Last winter our rural volunteer fire department was dispatched on a day where freezing fog seriously reduced visibility. As I pulled into the fire station, I saw someone who lives nearby out walking his dog. So when I pulled out again in a fire truck, I knew they were probably just beyond the crest of a hill on a narrow township road. When I caught up to them, the walker had his dog leashed and off to the side and I passed them safely.
45 Degrees North: Freezer Culture
My BS barometer redlined recently at a tone-deaf email that started with “help us understand” and ended by suggesting an amount I should donate to a group that admittedly has not grasped what I think or why. Being overly hot under the collar, I stuck my head in the freezer to cool off while pulling out something to thaw for supper the next day. That’s when it occurred to me: I’m not a demographic; I’m a rural Freezer Culture warrior.
45 Degrees North: The Ice Storm Election
April 1, 2025 (no joke) was the spring election in Wisconsin for non-partisan offices. You may have heard about our judicial race for a 10-year-term on the state supreme court. It made the national news and set records for both campaign spending and voter turnout. What you may not have heard about is the ice storm that hit northern parts of the state a few days earlier, causing extended power outages and uncertainty about restoration as icy branches kept coming down on power lines.
45 Degrees North: Weather Sense
Not taking weather into account is a great way to make bad decisions with lasting effects. Weather can and will disrupt everything from vacation plans to getting parts for car repairs. It affects agriculture and the food supply chain. Weather cuts us off from the power grid, shuts down air travel, forces school closings, challenges businesses, and determines whether a medical helicopter can fly to your aid after a crash on a rural road.
45 Degrees North: Getting Affairs in Order
I’m not much of a gambler, unless you count the occasional bar dice shake at a Wisconsin tavern or a lifetime of dodging deer on country roads. But I’m of an age now to see not having an up-to-date estate plan is a gamble I’m not willing to take. My husband and I had plenty of excuses for putting off a long-overdue overhaul of documents we executed 30 years ago. Finally last fall we resolved to get our affairs in order.
45 Degrees North: Prescribed Fire
In January, my husband and I flew to Las Vegas en route to our godson’s wedding near Parker, Arizona. We had daylight for most of the time we were driving through the desert country in Nevada and California, and saw enough of Arizona to appreciate the changing terrain as we traveled south along the east side of the Colorado River. But it was fully dark as we approached our destination on Lake Havasu, just south of the Bill Williams River.
45 Degrees North: Home Alone
One of my favorite jobs as a rural fire department volunteer is helping at a field day for third graders in the Latchkey program at school. The year-long program teaches safety lessons to kids approaching the age where families may begin to leave them home alone. During the field day, I work a station that teaches about fire extinguishers. We emphasize first getting everyone outside and calling 911. What the kids love best, though, is getting hands-on experience.
The Big Rural Problem We Don’t Talk About - Class 3 Obesity - What can be done about it?
Rural emergency medical services personnel in our communities deal with severely obese patients more often than you might think. It’s hard to even imagine these situations. We don’t talk about them for a variety of reasons, not least of which are HIPAA privacy rules. But rural municipalities need to better understand the challenges facing responders who have a duty to act, and the potential liability concerns that come from improvised solutions.
45 Degrees North: The Big Problem We Don't Talk About
Local government officials in rural areas are tasked with making decisions that impact our communities directly. In Wisconsin, people are collecting signatures or attending caucuses to get on the ballot for the April election. That’s when we have a chance – and a responsibility – to choose how we want to be represented. So now is the time to be asking questions about issues that matter where we live.
45 Degrees North: Making a Difference With Cookies and Gatorade | The Daily Yonder
Here’s the kind of math a rural volunteer fire chief might be doing in their head en route to a structure fire: One engine operator plus two on each hose line. A tender operator hauling water from a fill site. Minimum of two for an entry plus two on back-up, ideally more plus a Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) on standby.
45 Degrees North: Gleaning Or Stealing?
Recently I told a friend I was canning potatoes we gleaned. It took me by surprise when she asked, “What does gleaned mean?” My explanation failed to convey sufficient information about this time-honored rural tradition. I know because her response to it was, “Where I come from, that would be called stealing.” I’d like a do-over on that explanation. Gleaning may not be the most commonplace activity, even for many people who live in the country.
45 Degrees North: Fire Inspections In Rural Public Places
Fire Prevention Week is October 6-12 this year. The 4K teacher in my rural community will invite a volunteer firefighter into her classroom as she does each year so the kids get to see someone they probably know put on full PPE, including air tank, face shield and the breathing apparatus that makes them sound like Darth Vader. Kids who don’t know there’s a friend behind all that scary equipment sometimes hide from rescuers when there’s a fire, and that can be deadly.
45 Degrees North: Misunderstood Manners
In the hospitality business it’s common knowledge that doctors and lawyers, judges and business executives like to cut loose where their professional colleagues, customers and constituents are unlikely to notice. And rural places, whether they’re across the country or across the county, are just the ticket. My theory, for what it’s worth, is that people who’ve been trained to never take no for an answer in their day jobs forget that negotiation isn’t part of every interpersonal exchange.
45 Degrees North: The Rural Cancer Commute | The Daily Yonder
When my friend Lynn was instructed to produce a 24-hour urine collection for analysis, the materials were provided in a discreet tote bag with clear instructions about what to save (everything) and how to store it (chilled). What the instructions didn’t address was how to manage a collection, if necessary, at a highway rest stop or gas station during the 3-½ hour drive to where she was scheduled to undergo a battery of tests that required good hydration.
45 Degrees North: Can't You Just Burn That?
Affordable rural housing stock is almost as scarce as large animal veterinarians these days. We happen to know one of that rare breed (we call her the Cow Whisperer), and she recently found a house to buy. The price was reasonable for a starter home because it needs some work. It’s not a “Let’s restore a Victorian painted lady” fixer upper, but it needs more than a fresh coat of paint. She knows what to expect.
45 Degrees North: Many Hands, Rural Style
An old fashioned barn raising or threshing is something many of us know about from books and TV shows, not from personal experience. But in rural areas, it’s still pretty common for folks to turn a big job into a work party. It may just look like a handful of friends and relatives getting together on a weekend to put up a garage. But it’s also a way to build community. Work parties are pretty common where I live.
45 Degrees North: Voting, A Love Story
You may not expect rural convenience stores to stock fresh flowers but some do – at least during the second week of February. Think of it as a community service: Valentine’s Day can come with steep expectations and deep disappointment when those expectations are not met. This is all fed by the marketing geniuses who turned prom proposals into performative events that seem scripted for the Hallmark Channel.
45 Degrees North: Roadside Assistance Out Yonder
1 hour ago Rebuild? Regress? Hardly. Try restock, reload and continue chasing greatness. Green Bay traded away future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers in April, 2023, then fielded the NFL’s youngest roster a year ago. Most believed the Packers — who missed the postseason in 2022 — would take another step …
45 Degrees North: Roadside Assistance Out Yonder
Mechanical problems, out of gas, hit a deer, stuck in mud or snow, keys lost or locked in the car… There are lots of reasons why you might need roadside assistance in a rural area, and lots of rural areas where calling for help is not as simple as it sounds. So there are some things you should know before you need a tow or other help. The fine print.
45 Degrees North: Making Room In The Rural Housing Shortage | The Daily Yonder
Right now, there aren’t many properties for sale in my area. That’s true in many rural places, although here there may be a few more high-end listings — retirement dream homes built by people now needing to move nearer to family, health care providers and other services. With few comparables, those properties may sit on the market for a while. But there are few listings that might be affordable for a first-time buyer. And those get snapped up quickly – often by non-residents as second homes.
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