 If you watch Common Ground Online, consider becoming a member or making a donation at lptv.org. Lakeland PBS presents Common Ground, brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota. Production funding of Common Ground is made possible in part by First National Bank Bemidji, continuing their second century of service to the community, a partnership for generations. Member FDIC. Welcome to Common Ground. I'm your host, Scott Knudson. In this episode, peek inside a unique learning group, Women of the Woods. How is a women's group that started here in this area in 2006, but it morphed out of an original women's group called the Maxines that started after World War II. They did quilting and charity work in this area. And then as the women aged and weren't interested anymore, a few of the younger women decided that they wanted to keep the group going, so we called it Women of the Woods. Yes, it's a group of like-minded women who just love being up here. Some people have been here all their lives, but most of us have retired up here and come from cities someplace. And everybody is interested in outdoor things and getting exercise and learning from each other. And just having fun. This is called Western Ironweed. It's a little bit like the swamp milkweed and a little like the Joe Pie weed. All these beautiful flowers are called weeds. I think we should be on a campaign to change that. Wow, is a group of women who love the woods, who love the lake. It was started when more and more people were retiring and coming up here and building their homes and planning to spend summers and part of the year. And it's amazing the backgrounds, the professions, the experiences, the talents that everyone was looking forward to meeting people with all these things. And it's just been a growing experience and meeting people from all over with incredible backgrounds and intelligence. I agree. A lot of it has to do, people might think that we're a coffee club or just a bunch of women getting together. A common thing that we have in WoW is how independent we are, but yet how we still need each other for that information or that decision making. Someone's gone through it, you can talk to them and rely on their information. And we're all pretty strong. Yes. You have to be, I think, up north. You're far away from anything. If you needed a lot of comforts, you wouldn't be here. No. You're here for the beauty first. I was reminded yesterday when I came home and I read my email and it was Pat who had put out the email to everybody to remind them that the meeting was to date. And one of the things she said in there was it was a potluck because we had guests. But she said, and some of you know because you've read your email, she said, but not you, Bonnie, you're not a guest, you're one of us. And when I saw that, it just reminded me of how much being one of us is important to me. For me, it's the camaraderie of women. I lived in a metropolitan area for 40 years and have no friends. And this area is so remote and the women come from so many different backgrounds that if we met on the street in a metropolitan area, we probably wouldn't even associate with each other. But here we have the common bond of being in the woods and sharing with each other and supporting each other and helping each other in all kinds of times. Well, the first thing you're probably going to get is a hug. And it's just a fun group of women. What I get out of it is it can be challenging because you learn new things, you make new friends, and there's just always something fun going on. When you first walk into a Wyoming, there's just a bunch of women in lots of little groups talking with a cup of coffee and visiting and hurting them into an activity because they all are happy to see each other. Yes. They want to catch up and learn what's been going on with each other. And it does look like just a regular coffee gathering. However, then we sit down and we have our meeting and we share. We invite new people all the time to come, introduce themselves, and then we go around the table and introduce ourselves. And boy, do the conversations take off from there about what's going on and where our group can go next and what we're going to do next and what new project there might be. When I first started with the group, they talked about doing crafts and I thought, oh, great, I'm going to be gluing macaroni on Hilux bottles and spraying it gold. But that's far from what we do. It's loosely organized, but it has a structure to it. But there's a freedom that if someone would like to... I'm a musician and so we all had a kitchen band one time and handed out sticks and ratchets and pots and pans and we just practiced different kinds of things with it. But everybody has been made to feel welcome and interested in what they have to share. Well, we could talk for a long time about all the different things we've done. The list is... Cheryl and I both went through and kind of noted what things we've done in the past and it's remarkable the ground we've covered, the common ground. One of the activities that we have done is weaving with cat tails. We had a naturalist from the Cutfoot Visitor Center to show us how to weave cat tails. It kind of grows in a clump and tends to be round or oval-ish where it all comes together and comes out of the wetland. And the fruiting part of a cat tail is what we think of as the cat's tail. The brownish kind of cigar-shaped cat tail. I thought it was going to be very easy but it was really hard and challenging, which is a good thing. So what we are going to do is I will pass out scissors and we will pass out cat tails but you are going to have to decide about which size you want to do it. We're going to cut off the pointy tip and then you want to cut off kind of the bottom half of the cat tail and get rid of the whiter part. It took a little patience and it took a little saying, unkind things to yourself but we got through it and they looked gorgeous when they were done. I did do the weaving with cat tails and matter of fact I had tried it on my own and so we all brought some cat tails and she had some and tables were just covered and we were trying to weave the cat tails and trying to make a rectangular shape and I was not successful. It was fun seeing the big bundles of cat tails that she brought in and she had soaked them in water because they are more pliable then and it was fun watching the girls helping each other trying to figure it out and some gales got it right away. I didn't but it was fun in the end and the mats looked really nice. So in August of 2016 we went to the big bog in northern Minnesota around the Red Lake area and it was an incredible adventure for all of us seeing this immense bog was just fabulous. I'm sure it was at least a mile long board walk that they created but once you got to the end oh my gosh it just opened up and you almost couldn't tell that you couldn't step on the peak. Yeah I find it's getting up. Exactly. But that was well worth getting down and trying to get some pictures I should see what I've got. The big bog walk up in Red Lake was one of the few times that we allowed men to come because that change is a dynamic but we knew they were interested so we thought oh well we'll let them go but it was such an interesting thing to come across it came from one of our members she said I read about the bombing and the big bog do you think we could get the guy to come and talk to us about it so we said okay go for it and she made the contacts and he came out and chatted with quite a group of us it was so interesting to hear that they would land a plane on the frozen swamp and that would cause the water in the fish houses to come flying up the hole the thought of a great big plane up there bombing the bog was just crazy but he did a marvelous job of the presentation and there was a lot to learn it was really fun and then the group that went to the bog up north I wasn't able to go but they had a marvelous time. The bog walk was fantastic the first time though that it was actually introduced to us was Doug came and spoke to us at Sand Lake Community Center the bombing of the bog that was fascinating talked about World War II the Cold War and how these big old airplanes coming and they had to practice and so they saw these great big holes that were in the bog and thought that meteors created these and then they actually found out that it was bombs and then Doug got to go and talk and interview people who are older now but they were kids and learned about that and so that was our really first introduction he actually came and brought some shell of a bomb it was a fascinating thing that you don't even it was a practice the military would leave Texas and fly to Duluth and then come over the bog Texas because they needed to have long distance flights and they also needed to learn how to land on ice so they did a lot of landings with different size planes with different fuel and whatever and it was just it was amazing that it's tucked up in this little spot in Minnesota just another thing that's in our backyard that you don't know about but that's what led us to the bog walk it was huge it was immense it wasn't anything I expected I don't know what I thought it would be the boardwalk itself was made and they tried to do the boardwalk where they didn't leave a footprint because if anything is put in the peat moss it lasts for quite some time so whether it was just a touching or their feet but I think they actually started the boardwalk out and then stayed on it and moved it on out and it lets air and light filter through it it's beautiful they did a fantastic job doing that and then we have people that are so knowledgeable about plant life Pammer had a book with her or not but she's very knowledgeable it can pick out pictures and talk about pictures there's a picture plant that I kept thinking I didn't understand what they were talking about so we're taking pictures of that and pictures of picture plants but they actually are almost like a venous fly trap where they catch insects and they're just gorgeous but that was just one of the many species that was out there we took so many photos and trying to get the correct shot and I did get a couple really good shots and I loved the long boardwalk we had a friend from Detroit Lakes area a friend of mine who was kind of the botany person and she's just right up there you know and she's got her little iPad and she's looking stuff up and she could recite this all in whatever language that is scientific language yes that's it yeah so those were pictures that we all took and tried to get the close up shots and do you remember any plant names? I don't the picture plant everybody was looking for and it was so obvious everything is so miniature because it doesn't grow very fast so everything is miniature and marked and it's easily accessible with places to stop and sit and wheelchair accessible and this is another example of a bunch of spouses and spouses and open to anybody and what was fun was that you didn't know certain people knew so much about different things and some had their books and you go how did you know this oh I studied this or I taught it or something and all of a sudden we're learning tons more than we ever would have and you also start out with walking with four or five people and then you start looking and talking to somebody else who knows something you don't know and so you start walking with those three people and you get to know someone from a different state who's been up here forever or just started the last week and they've come different times of the season you'll see different plants happening at different seasons of it people who remember and can share when we go to a place like that it kind of exposes everybody and those that know about it they just come to the front and start sharing and yeah but I didn't realize red lakes were part of those remnants of the glacier if you get a chance I brought to the group the question if something happened to your partner or significant other for whatever reason and that person is no longer there would I stay or would I go and it was a discussion not a presentation and it's one of those discussions that really traveled all over the map most of us are up here not with our immediate family the kids and grandkids are elsewhere so if you're in a spot and you're by yourself and it's 30 below outside and the power goes out do you know what to do and how to take care of yourself do you plan to stay in the woods if you were single find yourself single would you stay or would you leave and the kinds of things that single women do up here to provide to provide for themselves so that they can stay up here and that's what's so different too is that now we're so far removed anything that we go to is 30 minutes away I mean minimum and so we do have to plan things differently we have to bring saws in our cars in the wintertime there's trees that fall down and you have to get across so there's you know some of that from a city girls point of view that never even knew it's not just putting sand in the back of your car so you don't get stuck anymore but you have to really plan I wasn't able to attend and I'm looking forward to the new presentation but I've thought about it since that subject came up and we built a home up here I would feel much more comfortable to stay here because of wow because of the support system that we have we all have different skills but just to know that you can pick up the phone and call someone in this area who could help you out in any kind of a situation I would prefer to be here I don't have family where I live in the summer I have a few close friends but it just would not be the same so I think for me I would stay and one thing we learned is it's a good insurance policy to learn how to run the generator and write down the steps the good thing to learn how to run a chainsaw run an ATV just how to take care of things yourself and if you don't choose to take care of things yourself you're probably going to have to pay someone to do it for you so that's something to keep in mind the group has lots of information with that and help and have resources what resources are available if you're from out of state and all of a sudden you're up here where do I call to take down my tree or who do I call to shovel my land so anyway those kinds of things this group can brainstorm and share and that's just one example the kinds of things that we do to help each other there are lots of questions that would come up do you know where your bank accounts are will your income change if you lose your significant other there's lots of things to think about and you have to decide can I do this on my own or through the people that I know or will I have to leave there was one gal that she tragically lost her husband a few years ago she'd never even put gas in her car so some people are they have different experiences and different levels of being able to take care of yourself and so we learn that we need to examine those things and come up with a plan but wasn't it also interesting that some of the women said it was the friends and the people that they got to know here and made relationships would keep them here as opposed to family move or go but you can depend on the gals here because we're on the same boat we all know what we need of like mind and like age and willing to just pick up and go and do and help part of our success is there's no pretense back in the old days when we were working you had a profession and you were always trying to get to the top but here there's nothing pressing us it gives you freedom to be where you want to be and what makes you happy and as long as you can be healthy and can get around and can take care of yourself you want to be here and women around of like whatever they make it happen they could make it happen we are all independent and I think that's the common thing that we have and while it's hard to put a finger on what's the key to our success we talked about it and tried to figure it out and then we decided it doesn't matter you just come and enjoy and see what's going to happen next what happens to women when they get together in this neck of the woods first of all they're independent women they're strong thinkers and they are not shy and they go out and they explore and they share with one another they care for one another in a whole new way we're confident in how we approach things and we know we can go to anybody and say I'm having trouble with something and there's several women who will come and say oh I've done this or I've done that or why don't you try this and it's a broad resource out there you can always call on anybody really but I think what the women have done too for the community is what we've learned we don't just keep it to ourselves we share and it doesn't just stay in our community it goes elsewhere goes to I have friends in Detroit Lakes area that would love a group like this and I share with my family our kids down south and the things that they learn and how impressed they are that we are doing what we're doing and accomplishing so much and learning so much and then sharing with everyone our husbands and other people in the community and reaching out to them I think just wow it's a community here in this area where we're divided by distance but it feels close it doesn't feel like you're separated by miles whereas in the city I feel like I don't belong I am distance away from everyone when they may be 15 feet from my house but we don't share in a large community this just gives us a great sense of belonging for me wow is my best friends yeah every time I go I see people I haven't seen in a month or a year and how are you where have you been did you ever buy that house did you ever buy that canoe I just truly enjoy some of the wows are my very best friends up here so I think that's the most important thing for me anyway it's a tremendous network of resources we have health care professionals as part of the group we have teachers we have musicians and it just enriches our lives I believe and I think the future of wow also is to continue learning and the great imitation so if we can't have one of our activities on our Monday then we will extend it to be and invite whoever would like to come to that I think that I would be wrong if I could tell you what the future of wow is because it's meant to be informal it's meant to be fun and other than planning more exciting events that's probably it and I would guess we'll continue to grow and we even talk about as the group getting too big and we say of course not one war is always welcome but that's the one thing about wow is that we're experienced all these from cat tails to felting I don't know if you were there for this and the scarves and the porcupine earrings and so you're not always I'm not good at things but I like to experiment and then it leads you to would you continue with this at the end of one of those meetings it just gets you upbeat and you've had such a wonderful experience spending time with your friends it's just it's good for your head good for your heart too wow meets twice a month and it's on every second and fourth Monday of the month that they meet at 10 o'clock at the sand lake community center if somebody wants to attend a wow meeting all you have to do is show up on our fourth Monday of the month at the sand lake community center at 10 a.m. and bring a dish thank you so much for watching join us again next time on common ground if you have an idea for common ground in north central minnesota email us at legacy at lptv.org or call 218-333-3014 to watch common ground for more information visit lptv.org and click local shows for episodes or segments of common ground call 218-333-3020 production funding of common ground was made possible in part by first national bank bameji continuing their second century of service to the community a partnership for generations member fdic common ground is brought to you by the minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund by the vote of the people November 4th 2008 if you watch common ground online consider becoming a member or making a donation at lptv.org