Author: Thomas D. Isern

Later this week we make a celebratory expedition to the Arbuckle Mountains of Oklahoma for a family event. (Thus, no Willow Creek Folk School this Friday. Be back in the salon on the 18th.) Next week, home on Willow Creek, all week, for so-called spring break (known to us as catch-up week for editing and writing). After that the spring schedule gets hectic – lots of professional commitments. Which is OK – catching up with a lot of old friends. Meanwhile, waterfowl are the advance guard for the change of seasons we shall not name until it is full upon us, and at NDSU, the campus mask mandate has ended. (We still mask up situationally.) Throughout the corona crisis, NDSU has done a little better than the other state universities at keeping a lid on the virus. Current infection rates are minimal. Knocking on hickory.

We will be attending the conference of the Agricultural History Society this summer – in Stavanger, Norway, 4-6 August. Dr. K will chair a session, and I will present a paper on the impact of the Little Ice Age on the deep history of the Great Plains. The annual meeting of the AHS is always a joy; the level of scholarship is exemplary. Stavanger, well, that’s a bonus. We’ll be attentive to the importance of Stavanger to the Norwegian petroleum industry, but also soaking up some scenery. Veteran Norwegian travelers, we welcome travel tips.

This WordPress blog is associated with History RFD, the joint professional website of Drs. Kelley and Isern. Each of them blogs elsewhere – Kelley, as editor, in the website of NDSU Press, and Isern, as author, in Goodreads – but the blog here serves their joint professional enterprises; or, in some cases, they use it to communicate their multifarious ventures to one another! It is especially employed to document their research and professional travels.