BY DR. MIKE ROSMANN

Late last month we hada nine-hour power outageat our western Iowa farmhome during a thundersnowstorm withheavy wet snowand high winds.Everyone in snowcountry has sto-ries of electricpower outages.

Farm and ranchpeople experiencethese events fre-quently and possi-bly cope betterthan people inmetropolitanareas, or think wedo.

Many stories are aboutsuffering. There are serioustragedies, such as the thou-sands of cattle, sheep andsome horses that died inWinter Storm Atlas in earlyOctober last year, mainly inwestern South Dakota.

There also are tongue-in-cheek stories about howfarmers fended off terribleblizzards and plowedthrough snow drifts to getto town to complain aboutthe weather—and to seewho made it first to the cof-fee shop. And we all knowblizzards and state basket-ball tournaments occur si-multaneously.

Farm people are morelikely than town folks tokeep their appointmentswith me in the consultingoffice when the weather isbad. Most farmers have 4-wheel-drive vehicles, the“know-how” and equipmentto clear roadways, and astrong desire to keepagreed-upon commitments.

We don’t have an elec-tric generator like manyfarmers — especially thosewith livestock — rely on forback-up.

Marilyn frequently urgesme to buy and install one. Igave my word that I wouldlook into the matter so shewould feel safer.

The longest power out-age I remember is the fivedays we were without elec-tricity during the Halloween1991 ice and snow stormthat crippled two-thirds ofthe U.S. I was gone for mostof it.

After harvest, two broth-ers and I went on a “sibling-bonding” trip toYellowstone National Parkfor four days before itclosed officially on October31 and to fish the SnakeRiver in nearby Idaho. Uponmeeting at the Salt LakeCity airport, we rented a 4-wheel-drive vehicle anddrove in treacherous snowand cold to Mack’s Inn nearWest Yellowstone.

A family friend gave per-mission for us to stay at hersummer cabin near theHenry’s Fork of the SnakeRiver where it emerges asan artesian spring largeenough to meet the waterneeds of 300,000 peopleeven before it flows severalmiles to the Snake River.

We couldn’t drive to thecabin because of eight-foot-high drifts but we hiked in ahalf mile and found it occu-pied by a very cold chip-munk.

We opted to rent a cabinclose by Mack’s Inn andhad to keep the water trick-ling to prevent the pipesfrom freezing. The warmestthe outside temperature

reached during our entiretrip was -17 F.

The first two days wesnowshoed a quarter milethrough deep snow to therenowned trout stream, the

“Henry’s Fork.”We caught abun-dant trout but hadto keep our fly-fishing rods andhands in the riverwater to keepthem from freez-ing.

Then we spenttwo days in theparts of Yellow-stone NationalPark we couldreach by drivingour vehicle. Ex-

cept for one brave coupleon their honeymoon, wenever saw another person.

We were the only humanwitnesses as Old Faithfulspouted and drove the elkand bison from lying on thenearby warm rock surfacearound the orifice of thegeyser as it blew.

Meanwhile back in Iowa,Marilyn, our two childrenand a hired hand were cop-ing without electricity byswitching over to a ruralcommunity water systemand allowing the water totrickle continuously so thelivestock waterers wouldn’tfreeze. Marilyn and the kidskept the fireplace burningwith its built-in system toheat the house.

When we constructedour home four years earlier,we installed a system todraw air from the crawl-space under the house tocirculate around the hotfire-place box and to dis-perse it around the mainportion of our house. Wealso installed a wood-burn-ing cook-stove in thekitchen that they used toprepare meals and heat thekitchen.

Neighbors with a genera-tor invited Marilyn and thekids over, but it was morefor companionship thancomfort. The coldest tem-perature reached anywherein our house during thefive-day siege was 48 F.

How much better thiswas than what pioneer fam-ilies endured as they set-tled rural America andCanada!

During our recent nine-hour powerless episode,Marilyn and I sat in ourrocking chairs in front ofthe fireplace, talked atlength and ate supper pre-pared on our cook-stove.We recalled how we madeour entire Christmas dinneron the wood-burning rangea few years back when wewere without electric powerover the holiday.

We explored discussiontopics we don’t usually con-sider when we eat supperat the table. We lit candlesfor light. It was fun.

At bedtime we sleptharder than we had forquite a while. We won’t suf-fer if we have anotherpower outage.

But I will make sure wehave a generator soon thatwe too can rely on if neces-sary, even though I mustsay it was pleasant withoutelectricity for a while.

Dr. Rosmann is a Harlan,Iowa, farmer and psycholo-gist, available at: www.agbe-havioralhealth.com.

Sponsored By Lewis & ClarkBehavioral Health

FREEMAN ACADEMY2nd Trimester Honor Roll/2013-

2014 School yearGOLD HONOR ROLL 3.60 - 4.00

* — Denotes 4.0 Grade Point Av-erage

Seventh Grade — Andrea Woll-man

Eighth Grade — Ryan Brock-mueller, Annie Carlson, StephenWaltner

Freshmen — Dane Allison, Der-ian Voigt

Sophomores — Polly Carlson,*Ryan Haggerty, *Hanyang “Ben”Miao, *Sarah Miller, Andrea Ratzlaff,Jorge Sanchez, *Bethany Wollmanm*Hannah Yoder

Juniors — *Olivia Boese, EmilyEpp, *Anran “Astera” He, *Clara Ko-erner, *Brooklyn Ries, AustinVanDiepen, Brennan Waltner

Seniors — *Gabriel Eisenbeis,Meghan Hofer

———Maroon Honor Roll: 3.20 - 3.59Seventh Grade — Jaden ThomasEighth Grade — Brennan Hag-

gerty, Lindsay ThomasFreshmen — Jesse BalzerJuniors — Ornella Bisamaza,

Yunxi “Cicy” LiSeniors — Andrew Graber,

Noemi Liscano

YANKTON HIGH SCHOOLPerfect Attendance/Quarter 3:

2014-201412th GradeAlbers, Brynn MichelleAllen Jr, David LeeAment, Brittany JoBender, Brooklyn SiobhanBicknell, Michelle MBinder, Alanna LouConrad, Haley JeanCowman, Brice EverettEilers, Bradley MichaelEnger, Brady EdwardEwald, Brett DavidFeilmeier, Jennifer MarieFields, Alex EdwardHaak, Ashtyn LaurenHawkins, Bradley StevenHejna, Jordan JosephHill, Morgan LeoJohns, Mataya KatherineKing, Molly ReanneMogck, Jordan PatrickOrdaz, Martha ARichardson, Tara KathrynRothenberger, Spencer DarwinRueb, Taylor JoSawatzke, Lane WilliamSchade, Evan ThomasSchaeffer, Levi JacobSmith, Rylee RaeSpence, Jennica Lynn

Steward, William AndrewStone, Brae AnnSwenson, Gabrielle BrookTermansen, Tanner KimVanMeeteren, Abbey GailWithrow, Landon Lee MazourekWuebben, Brooke Ann————11th GradeAdam, Wyatt ThomasBarnes, David MichaelBeckmann, Danielle MarieBergeson, Kyle JonathanBlom, Brooke MadisonBorgstrom, Dylan MatthewCarr, Tyler LeeCole, Raquel RaeCross, Timothy AlanDeBoer, Jenna RoseDeWitt, Julie AdeleDonat, Austin TylerEilers, Meagan KayEslick, Dylan MichealEvans, Jaaliyah TaRaeFanta, Paul TimothyFelton, Aaron Raymond AndrewGreeneway, Evan JonHale, Brady AllanHolman, Rodney JayKotschegarow, Jessica MarieLayne, Julia AnnLee, Shelbi DarleneLesher, Story CatherineMcClure, Brody SethMoody, Malan TylerNovak, Tyler JosephOrton, Rachel MarieOsborne, Janae MaureenOsborne, Shania RosePavel, Brandon MichaelRedlightning, Kahtia AmyRice, Michael Luther DeanRose, Lee AlanShindler, Jason DayneSprakel, Andriana HollySteiner, Kristen JulieSternhagen, Ryan JosephStillo, Joshua DavidTramp, Jack JosephWesterman, Erica RochelleWillfong, Katherine TaylorWuestewald, Anna Barbara

———10th GradeAment, Austin JohnBockholt, Hannah MakayBorgstrom, Henry JohnBouza, Michael HunterBruegman, Jamee KurtChu, AlinaCurtis, Daniel GDrotzmann, Sophie AnnDvorak, Danielle JoEilers, Christopher NealElle, Skylar MichaelGoble, Jeryka BreanneGolden, McKenna RaeGreaver, Talitha DanielleGregoire, Alicia DawnHaak, Logan Gerald

Hagen, Tessa ElizabethHeadley, Miranda AarieHill, Thomas AlexanderIngalls, Sydney MJefferson, RolandKoller, Jeffrey AllanKulhavy, Ciara JadeLangeland, Mason EdwardLayne, Joseph AllanLucht, Jordan JosephLuken, Erin MicheleMagana, KevinMaldonado, Michael ChaseMegard, Lincoln JayMuehlbeier, Jessica EmeliaMurphy, Kaisee JosephMuth, Colin JamesO'Donnell, Denver ThomasOster, Logan ClarkPeitz, Andrew JohnPerakslis, Cody AllenRafferty, Jared DanielSasse, Alikah LeighSchaffer, Kierra AnnSchrempp, Kacie MarieSchroeder, Kenneth RomanSmith, Jacob MatthewSorenson, Bradey LoganSoto, Juliana GuadalupeWilliams, Hannah MarieZweber, Casey Jordan———Anderson, Stephanie JoanBak, Jordan LeeBisgard, Sophie RoseBradwisch, Britney AnneBray, Steven Mark

Brockberg, Avery AaronCarroll, Destiny JillCornemann, Kami SueDiede, Haleigh JuneFernandez, Albert JamesFitch, Eric JonathanGroves, Justin TylerHale, Lindsey JeanneHeinemeyer, Haylee MarieHill, Shanna MarieKathol, Jordan AKeller, Austin WayneLacey, Victor IsaacLammers, Lucas JamesLewno, Cole RobertLiebig, Kyra RaeLynde, Dylan RayMason, Morgan Danielle MarieMcDonald, Haley NicoleMillin, Austin HughMines-Alver, Devon WaynePinkelman, Shaun RussellRucker, Rachel AnnRuffinott, Rose MarySanders, Hunter ElwoodSchaeffer, Katina AnnSchild, Keely MarieSchindler, Cameron ScottSchroeder, McKenzie LaurenSchulz, Isaac KevinShuey, Brandon PatrickTessier, Madason GeneVogt, Chase AllenWesterman, Kelsey LeeWubben, Morgan AnnZimmerman, Courtney Lynn

Wednesday, 3.19.14ON THE WEB: www.yankton.net

NEWSROOM: News@yankton.net PRESS DAKOTAN P A G E 5

life

Dr. Mike

ROSMANN

Parents of the couple are Hal and Cindy Somer of Yankton, SD, and Mike and Vicki Palu of Grand Island, NE.

The bride-elect is a 2006 gradu-ate from Yankton High School. She obtained a bachelor’s degree in bio-chemistry from University of Nebras-ka-Lincoln in 2010. She is now work-ing towards her PhD in genetics at the University of Utah.

The groom-elect is a 2006 graduate of Northwest High School in Grand Island, NE, and in 2011 obtained his bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is currently earning his masters degree in geology at UNL.

The couple is planning a June 21, 2014, wedding in Lincoln, NE.

Rebecca Somer of Salt Lake City, UT and Jason Palu of Lincoln, NE, an-nounce their engagement.

Somer-Palu

Parents of the couple are David and Sylvera Holdt of Scottsbluff, NE, and Hal and Cindy Somer of Yankton, SD.

The bride-elect is a 2005 graduate of Scottsbluff High School and a 2009 graduate of the University of Nebras-ka-Lincoln with a BA in psychology. She will graduate with an MD from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in May 2014.

The groom-elect is a 2006 graduate of Yankton High School and a 2010 graduate of the University of Nebras-ka-Lincoln with a BS in nutrition and exercise science. He will graduate with an MD from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in May 2014.

The couple is planning a May 31, 2014, wedding in Pensacola, FL.

Sarah Juliet Holdt and Bryce Allen Somer, both of Omaha, NE, announce their engagement.

Somer-Holdt

Visiting Hours

The Nutrition Label: Changes AheadBY SARA GERMAN, RD, LNAvera Sacred Heart Hospital

Nutrition labels. We might not alluse them, but we certainly know whatthey look like. The nutrition label hasbasically stayed the same since it wasintroduced in 1993, but that is about tochange. On February 27, the Food andDrug Administration (FDA) announcedthat it is proposing several updates tothe nutrition label.

So, what’s (likely going to be) chang-ing? First, the updates are designed tomake the nutrition label easier to readand apply to everyday life. Secondly,the field of nutrition has grown tremen-dously over the past two decades, andthe proposed changes reflect that.Here’s how.

• More realistic portion sizes. Whenyou eat ice cream, do you eat just half acup (about the size of half a baseball)?For most people, that’s not a typicalportion size. One of the proposed ruleswould update portion sizes to be closerto how much people actually eat.

• More emphasis on calories. Weight

loss is a matter of eating fewer caloriesthan your body burns. Because caloriesare so important, the new label wouldput this information in larger, bold font.

• Identifying added sugars. Somefoods, including milk and fruit, containnatural sugars. For most people, how-ever, the majority of sugar in their dietis from added sugars. (Foods withadded sugars include things like regularsoft drinks, candy, sweetened breakfastcereals - even spaghetti sauce.) Excesssugar is associated with a number ofhealth problems, and most of us get toomuch of it. The new label would createa line for added sugars.

Several other changes include re-quiring the amounts of potassium andvitamin D (two nutrients most peopleneed more of) to be included on thelabel, while making vitamin C and vita-min A optional. The “calories from fat”information would be removed. Dailyvalues would be updated, and format-ting changes would make it easier toglance at the label and see if a food is“high” or “low” in a particular nutrient.

As a dietitian, I’m extremely excitedabout the FDA’s proposed updates. The

current nutrition label is already one ofthe most useful tools available to helpfollow a healthy diet, but the proposedchanges would make it even more user-friendly and add important information.A few of the foods I’d want to check outwith the new labels are flavored yo-gurts and breakfast cereals: one of thefirst things I’d do is visit the cereal aisleto see how much sugar in my raisinbran is from the added sugar frostingthe raisins (as opposed to the naturalsugar in the raisins themselves). Andmaybe the serving size would be up-dated to reflect the 1-1/2 to 2 cups ofcereal I normally pour into the bowl, in-stead of the 1 cup serving that’s cur-rently on the label. You never know!

Don’t expect to see a new labelwhen you visit the grocery store, how-ever; the changes aren’t official yet. Thepublic has 90 days to make commentsbefore a decision is made. If thechanges are approved, food manufac-turers will have two years to complywith the new regulations. To see an ex-ample of the new nutrition label andlearn more about the changes, visit theFDA’s website at www.fda.gov.

SCHOLAST ICS

Lessons FromPower Outages

Junior Achievement South Dakota

SUBMITTED PHOTOJr. Achievement of South Dakota is a partnership between thebusiness community and the classroom. Kathy Quinlivan fromAvera Sacred Heart Health Services visited Mrs. Jensen’s fifthgrade classroom at Lincoln Elementary School on five different oc-casions during the month of February. Through games and activi-ties the students learned about entrepreneurial ventures and howresources are related to technology. One goal of Jr. Achievementis to make the students aware that they truly live in a global societywith the ever-growing increase of advances in technology. (stu-dents l to r : Hanna Adsero, Shelby Tjeerdsma, Dakota Doering)

SUBMITTED PHOTODugan Smith (shown) and Chris Wilkinson from the National ParkService enlightened the students in Mrs. Jensen’s fifth gradeclassroom at Lincoln Elementary School on Lewis and Clark’s Ex-pedition. The students were shown items that were taken on thejourney. Pictured is student Donald Bonneau with a uniform fromthe day. Information was shared with the students specific to ourregion. The students realize how fortunate they are to have theMissouri River literally in their backyard.

Connecting ArtistMeeting Set For March 27

A Connecting Artistmeeting will be held at 7p.m. Thursday, March 27, atthe GAR Hall Gallery, 508Douglas, Yankton.

The featured program is“Selling on ETSY” by JudyMace.

All visitors welcome tocome and bring somethingthey have done or are work-ing on to share with thegroup.

For more information,call 605-660-8021 or 605-857-0896.