The precut tree lot at Hinkemeyer tree farm is shown here in Rice. Families can choose and cut their own trees, or choose a precut tree from the lot to take home.
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Sauk Rapids Herald | Saturday, December 5, 2020
The labor of
Thiele carries on family tradition at tree farm
love
BY KAYLA ALBERS STAFF WRITER
PHOTOS SUBMITTED
The Thiele family – London (front, from left), 12, and Olivia, 8; (back, from left) Cheryl, Jaden, 14, and Randy – are the owners of Hinkemeyer Tree Farm in rural Rice. Cheryl purchased the farm from Cheryl’s parents, Floyd and Jan Hinkemeyer, eight years ago.
Because growing Christmas trees was trending at the time, Floyd decided it was what he wanted to do. He continued to plant trees until seven years later when he had his first customers, and the tree farm grew from there. Thiele and her husband,
Randy, took over the Christmas tree farm from her parents eight years ago. They now run the farm with their three kids – Jaden, 14, London, 12, and Olivia, 8. Thiele’s sister and her family are also involved with the farm during selling season. Next year, the family will
be celebrating the farm’s 50th anniversary. “It is really cool to carry on the tradition from my parents,” Thiele said. “It really brings the family together each year.” The tree farm offers a variety of Christmas trees both choose and cut and precut like
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RICE – With the holidays right around the corner, seasonal businesses are in full swing and those business owners are hopeful the communities will embrace the Christmas spirit despite all this year has brought with canceled events and COVID-19 cases rising. “Someone told me in the floral industry that they can’t cancel Christmas,” Cheryl Thiele said. “If anything, people are going to want to celebrate Christmas more, so we are expecting a busier Christmas tree season this year.” Thiele is the owner of Hinkemeyer Tree Farm in Rice. The 40-acre choose and cut tree farm opened for the season Nov. 15. Hinkemeyer Tree Farm was started in 1971 by Thiele’s parents, Floyd and Jan Hinkemeyer. Her dad had a farming background and bought 40 acres of land.
Fraser fir, Canaan fir, Balsam fir, white spruce, blue spruce, white pine, Scotch pine and Norway pine. Christmas trees grow about one foot every year, meaning growers invest years before harvest. An 8-foot tree may take over eight years for the Hinkemeyer family to grow, care for and nurture into a healthy full-grown Christmas tree. “When our product finally gets to become a Christmas tree for your family, it is realizing its destiny to bring the holiday spirit into your home,” Thiele said. “After the season, the birds and nature get to enjoy the tree while it composts back to earth. Next spring, we will plant three to four seedlings in place of each tree that is cut the season before.” A lot of work goes into growing Christmas trees for Thiele’s customers to enjoy. Not only is the family busy during the winter season when the plants are cut and sold, but also throughout the year. In the spring, they fertilize their trees and clean up last season’s crop. Then come June, they trim the trees to give them more of the typical Christmas tree shape. The year is spent maintaining the fields between the trees. “It is a labor of love,” Thiele said.
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Page 2B | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2020 | SAUK RAPIDS HERALD
Thieles from front
Thiele and her family spend time working on the tree farm year-round, but the busiest season is their selling season from November to December. In addition to trees, the farm business sells unique handcrafted greenery that Thiele and her family create in New Prague. “We work really hard at making beautiful products that are fresh so we can make them available for our customers,” Thiele said. “It is really a form of art to work with evergreen branches and make them look how you want them to.” They offer a variety of greenery such as wreaths and seasonal planters, and they have a gift shop
PHOTOS SUBMITTED
A campfire burns at Hinkemeyer Tree Farm for families to warm up after hunting for their perfect tree. The farm offers choose and cut and precut trees.
filled with seasonal décor for added holiday cheer. Due to the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, Hinkemeyer Tree Farm has added a delivery service option where customers can choose a tree and have it delivered, or they can have their tree chosen for them and delivered.
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The Hinkemeyer Tree Farm sign welcomes families onto the choose and cut Christmas
The intentions of this tree farm in rural Rice. The Thiele family grows Fraser fir, Canaan fir, Balsam fir, white way of business is to spruce, blue spruce, white pine, Scotch pine and Norway pine. encourage customers to take in the holiday season without the added risk of contracting the virus. With the holiday season underway, Thiele looks forward to connecting with her customers again. She wants the tree farm to be a place where her customers can come feel joy and escape for a sense of normalcy. “This is why we work all year growing trees,” Thiele said. “Because we get to see our customers again and be together as a family.”
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A gift shop is filled with holiday décor at Hinkemeyer Tree Farm in Rice. The merchandise complements the holiday greenery retail customers purchase at the farm.
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Suicide in farm country: How to help those who grieve
Expert says how we respond can prevent more deaths BY ELLARRY PRENTICE STAFF WRITER
bankers and store clerks – feels the loss, whether it had been 20 minutes Why? or 20 years since they It is a question that last spoke to that person, lingers in the minds of according to Reidenberg, those who were close who is the executive to someone who took director of Suicide their own life; a question Awareness Voices of rooted in guilt and Education, or SAVE, a denial, fear and anger, nonprofit resource for shame and stigma. And those affected by suicide. it is a question people “Lots and lots of have had to ask in central people are either directly Minnesota, where or indirectly affected deaths by suicide have by someone lost to shaken small, tight-knit suicide,” Reidenberg communities. said. “Suicide R u r a l survivors residents are all of us, have a higher and they’re likelihood everywhere.” of dying by While suicide than many people FILE PHOTO people in share the Farmers are among those most likely to take their own lives, according to a study by the Centers of Disease Control urban areas, h e a r t a c h e , and Prevention in January 2019. Dr. Dan Reidenberg said it is important for rural communities to understand the according to they do not grief associated with suicide in order to prevent additional deaths. the Minnesota deal with it Depa rt m e n t how people respond to “Everybody knows Reidenberg said as time the home is where most the same. o f “Suicide it, Reidenberg said. Such you,” Reidenberg said. goes on, community people die by suicide, Agriculture, affects all is the case for people “They all know what members are unsure if according to Reidenberg. bereavement w h i c h Suicide in rural communities, happened.” they should bring the “On a farm, your of us very presenter, sponsored an Dr. Dan Reidenberg differently,” where anonymity is Yet despite the topic up. home is your business,” online session After a loved one he said. “You can’t get R e i d e n b e rg impossible, access to in- widespread knowledge Dec. 1 about person support groups is of the event, support dies by suicide, survivors away from it.” said. suicide bereavement Physical distance in Geography not only lacking and people are can be intermittent in a in rural communities also in agricultural plays a role in how a talking about it all over small town, especially find it difficult to escape rural areas can intensify communities. months down the road. the trauma. In or near grief, Reidenberg said. suicide is grieved, but town. F a r m e r s , “It may hurt more specifically, are among on a farm because you the most likely to take are more isolated and their own life, compared less connected,” he said. with other occupations, “There’s this sense of Suicide grief often manifests itself in the form of guilt, denial, fear and anger. Dan found a January study by isolation that, who can Reidenberg, a Minnesota-based suicide prevention expert explains these emotions and how the Centers for Disease you talk to that will be they are different from universal stages of grief. Control and Prevention. able to understand you?” More than 450 During his hourGuilt Fear farmers died by suicide long presentation, Guilt is a predominant outcome of suicide. Survivors tend to fear they may also die by across nine Midwestern Reidenberg talked about “Survivors are left behind to try to make sense suicide or they will lose other family members to states from 2014 to 2018, how grieving in the of this,” Reidenberg said. “Our brains are wired to suicide. according to presenter wake of suicide differs try to understand it and fit what happened. But, “If a spouse loses a partner to suicide, they Dan Reidenberg, a from other types of in fact, most of the time, we can’t.” worry their child might die,” Reidenberg said. Minnesota-based suicide grief. He suggested eight Suicide loss survivors, he said, often feel “If they lose one child, and they have two other prevention expert. ways people from rural guilty for missing the warning signs or for not children left, they oftentimes become helicopter Meanwhile, calls to the communities can support knowing them. Some feel guilty the first time parents because they’re so worried about losing Farm Aid Crisis Hotline people who have lost they laugh after a death or for moving forward another child.” and National Suicide someone to suicide: without that person. Another fear, which can contribute to Prevention Lifeline are – Give people Parents of suicide victims sometimes hold panic and anxiety attacks, is what people in soaring. permission to grieve. themselves responsible and feel they were not a the community may think of them – will others Faced with mounting – Do not make good parent, Reidenberg said. Children of suicide question if they did something wrong or missed debt, falling prices and statements such as victims may also feel the death is their fault. something? an uncertain future, “You’re young, you will farmers are experiencing remarry” or “They are Denial Anger severe stress, especially better off now.” Denial exists in the grieving of all types of A death by suicide can cause survivors to feel those who feel pressured – Know the facts death, but it is different with suicide, Reidenberg anger toward the person who died. to keep the farm in about suicide. said. “Having a sense of anger at the person who the family for future – Be OK with There is denial before a suicide. (They would passed is not common for other types of death,” generations. complex grieving never do that. They’d never leave their kids. Reidenberg said. For some, the burden processes. They’d never leave their parents.) He said people do not get mad at others for is too heavy to bear. – Listen and be there. There is also denial afterward. (I can’t believe dying of cancer or heart disease or diabetes, but In the country, where – Do not judge, do that they did this to us. I knew he was depressed, because the person took their own life, anger can everybody knows each not blame. but I didn’t know he was that depressed. It be a prominent emotion. Spouses and parents other, news travels fast. – Know about couldn’t be suicide. He wasn’t really struggling may also have anger due to lost dreams and all Personal connections community supports, that much.) the milestones the person who died is going to to those who have died groups, therapists and Following a suicide, some families try to miss, he said. span communities and other resources that can cover up the true cause of death, Reidenberg That anger, in turn, leads to blaming oneself generations. Everyone – help. said, because they are so in denial about what and others, according to Reidenberg. from spouses, children took place. Grief page 5B and siblings to neighbors,
Emotions associated with suicide grief
BENTON AG
Grief
from page 4B – Help them, and you, be OK with not knowing why. How people respond to a suicide can actually prevent additional deaths, according to Reidenberg, who explained that survivors of people who die by suicide are prone to their own suicidal behavior and other mental health issues often triggered by feelings of guilt and shame. “Taking care of people that have been impacted and affected by suicide is a difference as to whether or not other mental health issues come about and whether or not other suicides occur,” he said. People other than family can help suicide loss survivors. For survivors of a farmer, for instance, that support system could include an ag lender or person working at a diner or gas station or local feed mill, Reidenberg said. “We need to find ways to stay connected to those people in rural communities,” he said. Time does not heal these wounds, and there is no closure, Reidenberg said. But when surrounded by people who allow them to grieve, in their own time, and who listen, without judgement or blame, suicide loss survivors can put their lives back together and carry on. “We know that it’s possible to survive a loss,” he said. “It’s messy, it’s hard, it seems to take forever, but it can be done.” Suicide grief is different No two people grieve the same way, with the same intensity or for the same amount of time. That is especially true of survivors of people who die by suicide compared with other manners of death, Reidenberg said. Depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and other mental health disorders can affect anyone grieving a death, no matter the cause. Survivors of suicide, however, are subjected to higher levels of rejection, shame, blame and stigma, and they sometimes feel a need to conceal the cause of death, according to the presentation. Suicide is different from other manners of death in that most people who die are physically well.
That, coupled with the condition in which they are found deceased, is difficult for survivors to process, Reidenberg said. Most suicides occur in or near the person’s home, and most are discovered by family members. “This is incredibly traumatic,” he said. Flashbacks occur frequently, especially for family members who continue living where the suicide occurred. Physical reactions to grief may include panic attacks, sleep and eating disturbances, memory and concentration problems, dreams about the person being alive or being rescued, and moments of forgetting they are gone. How close a survivor was to the person who died can impact the severity of these reactions. Conversely, if the survivor had a strained relationship with the person at the time of their death, they may take the loss hard. The role a person who died by suicide played in a survivor’s life also impacts grief. “We may not have seen somebody in 20 years, but they had a big impact on us, and if we learn they died by suicide, it’s very, very traumatic for us,” Reidenberg said. “We might have seen them as a mentor early on in our life and could never imagine this is how they would have died.” Another reason people grieve differently is because the circumstances by which someone died are different, Reidenberg said. “Once people learn it was a suicide death, there’s almost this immediate question of how? What did they do to die by suicide?” The curiosity that is human nature can have consequences on our emotions. “They search for these answers, and if they find them, it can be very traumatic to think that somebody you cared about or you knew or looked up to died in that manner,” he said. Past experiences dealing with death, previous mental health history, family background and past and current support systems are other factors that contribute to why suicide loss survivors grieve differently. “A lot depends on support systems,” Reidenberg said. “In rural communities, that’s harder in many ways than urban cities because we
SAUK RAPIDS HERALD | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2020 | Page 5B
Minnesota Farm & Rural Helpline 833-600-2670 Farm Aid Crisis Hotline 1-800-FARM-AID (1-800-327-6243) National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255) Crisis Text Line Text “MN” to 741741 Central Minnesota Crisis Response Team – Serving Benton County Crisis services: 320-253-5555 Mental Health Crisis Response Line: 800-635-8008 don’t connect as much, and we’re physically distant from people.” The intensity of grief changes over time, ebbs and flows, according to Reidenberg. Some suicide survivors grieve hard immediately following the death, while for others, the anguish comes later, on an anniversary or missed event such as a graduation ceremony if it was a young person. Some suicide loss survivors have said they received an outpouring of support immediately following the death, but then it went away. Sometimes, survivors need the most support later on, after the sympathy cards have been opened and the services are over. “The grief continues long beyond (the initial shock), when nobody else is showing up, being available,” Reidenberg said. How to help survivors of suicide loss Suicide survivors live with unanswered questions, which may prolong their grief. They need supportive people who will give them permission to grieve without a time limit. Studies have shown, Reidenberg said, suicides are the hardest to cope with the second
and third year after the loss occurs. Acknowledge their guilt, but assure them the death is not their fault, Reidenberg said. “Help them understand that we know that if they could have done something, they would’ve,” he said. “Reminding them of that makes a big difference in their guilt.” It is not our job to look forward for them, so be mindful of your language around suicide loss survivors, Reidenberg said. If someone of childbearing age loses a child to suicide, do not tell them they can have more children. “That’s very hard to hear if you’ve just lost someone to suicide,” Reidenberg said. And do not tell someone who has lost a spouse that they can remarry, he said. Instead, say, “I’m sorry for your loss,” “I’m hurting for you,” and “How can I help you?” People should also avoid saying someone “committed suicide,” as it implies the act was a crime. Instead, say “died by suicide.” Know the facts about suicide and have a general understanding of the science behind it, Reidenberg said.
“We know that people that are doing well in life are not dying by suicide,” he said. “Something is going on that is leading to this, so know something about that. Being able to talk about that with someone going through a loss gives them a comfort but also educates them in a time that is overwhelming for them.” Reidenberg said the most important thing a person can do for someone grieving the loss of a suicide is listen. Oftentimes, this is better than trying to offer an explanation, justification or messages of hope. “We tend to want to try to fix when somebody is hurting,” Reidenberg said. “Sometimes the best way to help someone who is hurting is to just be there.” If you want to help a suicide survivor, do not judge or blame them, Reidenberg said. “It’s not their fault,” he said. “There shouldn’t be this sense of guilt they have. They feel it, and we need to validate that for them but help them understand that it wasn’t their fault.” People do not die by suicide to hurt anyone, Reidenberg acknowledged. “Help people
understand that,” he said. “Don’t judge them for losing somebody because of this method of death.” Helping survivors find credible resources to help them through their grief is helpful, Reidenberg said, because many people, especially those in rural communities, do not know where to find them. Finally, help suicide survivors, and yourself, be OK with not knowing why someone ended their life. “This ‘why’ question is going to linger forever,” he said. “We’re never going to know why someone died by suicide and why it happened in that moment in time or in that way.” He suggested telling people it is OK not to know why. “It’s OK to still grieve and it’s OK to still be sad and it’s OK to still hurt,” he said. “It’s OK to be all of the things you’re feeling right now and still not know why.” Bereavement during a pandemic When it comes to grieving a suicide amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when everyone is tapped out in their emotions, the sense of isolation may be even greater, Reidenberg noted. He urged people to ensure suicide losses are not overshadowed by COVID-19 deaths. “We need to give the same amount of grief and loss and bereavement time to somebody who died by suicide in the pandemic, as we would in any other time,” he said. While many inperson services are on pause, counseling and support groups can be accessed online by visiting Alliance of Hope, a website for suicide loss survivors, at FILE PHOTO allianceofhope.org/findWhen people lose loved ones to suicide, community members can help them through support. the grieving process by listening and not casting judgement. Knowing how to access support groups is also beneficial.
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SAUK RAPIDS HERALD | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2020 | Page 7B
A woodland steward
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Stanley Musielewicz pauses for a photo at the entrance to his land which is a certified tree farm through the American Forest Foundation.
The 80-acre property is where the Musielewiczes live. About three-fifths of the land is low-ground swamp and home to willow brush, cattails and sedges. The upland features the house, and south of the house there are
12 or so acres of pine plantation created by the land owner before him. Farther out, there is native woodland with aspen, oak, maple and basswood.
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for them; wildlife love them and they’re just a gorgeous thing.” The other day in his woods, he flushed 10 or more woodcock, which thrive in young woods and dense, thick growth. He has photographed a rare northern saw-whet owl, and many other species on his property. More than anything though, Musielewicz wants land owners to have healthy trees and healthy woods. To create that, he said, diseased and distressed trees and over-crowded trees need to be removed. Properly harvesting trees, and planning for their replacement, is essential to creating not only sources of oxygen, but a healthy woods that is resistant to insect and disease infestations that can wipe out entire areas of woods that aren’t properly maintained. As a land owner, Musielewicz has 80 acres outside Little Falls and an additional 100 acres near Cushing. Both properties are covered by woodland stewardship plans.
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LITTLE FALLS – Seedlings push through the dead-looking, sawduststrewn ground and reach toward the blue sky. Though the clear-cut section of woods looks as though a bomb went off, as Stanley Musielewicz’s wife, Geri, describes it, the absolute and utter devastation is key to creating healthy woods in the long-term. Stanley Musielewicz is a woodland stewardship plan writer certified by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. He not only has his own woodland farms as part of his business, Wolftree Enterprises, but he helps others write plans that foster the healthy growth of trees for decades to come. He assists land owners with a plan that recommends management activities for optimal growth of their trees, and coordinates the timber harvest when the time comes. “I just love woods,” Musielewicz said. “I think trees are God’s most beautiful creation on this planet and there are so many uses
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Page 8B | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2020 | SAUK RAPIDS HERALD
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from page 7B In January 2019, Musielewicz coordinated with a logging company who came out to harvest 200 cords of aspen and 50 cords of pine from the property – 19 semi loads of timber. Musielewicz even knows where it went. Much of it, he said, went 2 miles from his house to Mala Mills and was shaved into barn bedding for poultry barns and some dairy farms. Another common use for aspen is for it to go to a pulp mill; the closest, he said, is in Cloquet. The good quality aspen and larger-diameter pine from his land went to local saw mills and was likely turned into pallet material to make pallets for shipping. Now, two growing seasons later, he has a lot of new aspen growing on the property; the pine was just thinned down to allow for proper growth of the trees. In another 10 to 12 years, he plans to do another pine thinning and then, a thinning or two after that, a final harvest before the area is replanted. In the 17 years Musielewicz has lived on the property, he has planted some 4,000 pine tree seedlings, by hand, opening up a slit of the earth and placing the trees in the ground. They require almost no maintenance, though he does occasionally remove the weeds near the seedlings so they can get their best start. Though Musielewicz said the clear-cut aspen area was not pretty after the harvest, he knows it is what is best for the woods. “It was mature, some of it was over-mature and going backward, declining in quality,” he said.
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Following the clear-cut aspen harvest, Stanley Musielewicz’s property was “devastated.” However, the experienced forester knows the harvest is crucial to managing a healthy woods in the long-term.
Musielewicz marked every third pine row that had to be removed with orange paint. He did not need to mark each aspen tree but instead marked the boundary of the area of land to be cleared. The trees were harvested in January so the machinery could make it across the watery low-land areas. “Timber is a crop just like corn, oats, soybean,” he said. “It’s not going to get better or much bigger; if you don’t harvest and get a new crop going, you’re sacrificing quality timber out there. New, young growing woods is a better wildlife habitat and it sequesters more carbon than an older, mature woods.” Aspen naturally regenerate themselves from the roots (root suckering) of the mature tree underneath the soil’s surface. Already, he said, some of the trees are 12 feet tall, though on average, they are around 8 feet and thick enough that a person can barely walk through them. Through the years, Musielewicz has written close to 200 woodland stewardship plans for clients in Morrison, Todd, Stearns, Benton and Sherburne counties. The plan not only manages the land, but it is the first step in becoming a certified tree farm through the American Tree Farm System, a program of the American Forest Foun-
dation. Musielewicz does the plan writing part-time, he is retired from a 33-year career with the USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service. The stewardship plans he writes outline timber volume, the site index of main tree species, the watershed, soils on the land, topography, areas of natural significance as identified by the DNR, threatened and endangered species, archeological and historical sites as identified by the DNR and recommendations on what species of trees (or other cover) would grow best on that specific site. Landowners get a full report that outlines high, medium and low priorities for the property, as well as way to enhance the property such as adding food plots or introducing native grasses. The woodland stewardship plans typically run 15-30 pages and are accompanied by a 220-page manual from the DNR which covers timber harvesting, tree species and site index information. Some plans call for harvesting of timber while others do not. For clients who are ready for a timber harvest, Musielewicz manages the process through Wolftree Enterprises. He contacts a logging company and sets up the timber sale. He writes timber contracts on behalf of the landowner, hand-marks all the timber to be harvested, works with
the landowners to ensure they are satisfied, tallies the wood and makes sure the landowner is paid properly. Musielewicz credits Geri with proofreading the plans and handling all the clerical work on his behalf. Once the plan is written, he recommends clients get into their property every couple of years to look for invasive species such as buckthorn and look for diseases and bug infestations. Plans are good for 10 years, and Musielewicz has written so many through the years that he is now going back to re-visit properties he wrote plans for a decade ago. Landowners who opt to create a woodland stewardship plan receive a property tax break from the government, it is an incentive to manage the land properly and professionally with the help of a forester, Musielewicz said. “The idea is to keep the woods healthy and keep it growing the right way,” Musielewicz said. “People just don’t understand when their woods are too crowded, (the trees) get rot in them, they’re over-mature. As a forester, I can see and understand when a tree is not as healthy as it should be.” One of his favorite sayings: “You can love your trees, just don’t love them to death.”
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Rock Wagons Augers
Aluma Utility Trailers
Grapples
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Varieties of Trailers Serving Central MN since established in 1971 (49 years in business) TEAM “A QUALITy ITy L A U SELLING Q ” T N E EQUIPM
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