Under Minnesota Skies is a lively telling of stories from several generations and a memoir of three daughters growing up on a farm near Owatonna, Minnesota in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Inspired by their father's love for the 394-acre farm that has been in the family for more than a century, the authors search for their immigrant ancestors to gain greater understanding of their own family traditions, foods and work ethic. Are they Czech or German? Who influenced the family to change from dairy to beef cattle? Does their father really need boys to help run the farm? Answers emerge as the family goes from farming with horses to using tractor power and new laborsaving machinery. The determined daughters tackle jobs mostly reserved for boys: loading hay and straw bales, feeding cattle and pigs and side-raking hay. As they build fences, pull weeds, paste Green Stamps and take Sunday drives, the daughters reveal the dust and sweat endured along with the lessons learned and deep bonds achieved in a close-knit family working together to make a living from the land. Even if you don't have farm roots, this book's easy-to-read and thoughtful approach could be the spark that motivates you to write your own family stories.
About the Author: Bernadette Thomasy has taught high school in Michigan, then earned a Master's degree in journalism at the University of Michigan. She worked as a newspaper reporter at The Blade in Toledo, Ohio, for nine years, met her husband Ken Thomasy and raised two daughters in the Toledo area. She continued working in the journalism/marketing/public relations field for more than twenty-five years. A few years after retiring, she and her husband moved to California and have lived there since 2009. Colleen Gengler worked for thirty-eight years with University of Minnesota Extension which is an outreach arm in the state land grant university system. In the early years she focused primarily on home economics and 4-H Youth Development on the county level. Colleen married Don Gengler, a dairy farmer, and they raised their two daughters on a farm near Iona, Minnesota. Colleen continued with Extension work, eventually having statewide responsibilities in family relations. She retired in 2012 but still coordinates professional development workshops in southwest Minnesota.