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I don’t remember ever watching my mother, grandmothers or great-grandmothers (how lucky am I to have memories of each!) use pressure cookers. I don’t have a lived traumatic pressure-cooking experience. Yet still, I am downright terrified of pressure cookers!

Why?

I hypothesize we suffer from the generational trauma of pressure cookers. Although I never directly experienced a traumatic pressure-cooker explosion, it’s possible the fear has been passed down from one generation of my family to the next.

Beyond supporting North Dakota’s economy and feeding the world, farming and ranching is a lifestyle – and livelihood. It is a legacy built on generations of hard work, sacrifice and success.

To protect this legacy and family farms and ranches around the state, North Dakota State University (NDSU) Extension, in partnership with North Dakota Farmers Union (NDFU), has developed succession planning workshops to help families transition operations to the next generation.

North Dakota Living was once again amazed by the photo entries for the second annual photo contest! There were 600 entries, double last year’s amount.

From North Dakota skies to North Dakota people and more, the photos captured North Dakota in all its beauty. The judges remarked how difficult it was to choose the winners.

Thank you to everyone who participated, and congratulations to the winners of the 2026 North Dakota Living Photo Contest!

The story of a professional chef in New York City moving to small-town North Dakota for love seems the perfect plot for a Hallmark Christmas movie.

Except it’s not so far-fetched for Sheri Shockman.

When Sheri joined an online dating service about 15 years ago, she was not looking for a relationship. Rather, she wanted to help a loved one who had fallen victim to an online scam.

“I went on (the online dating site) to find this scammer. Instead, I found my husband,” she says.

As Christmas lights twinkle across the North Dakota landscape, the state’s electric cooperatives are radiating holiday cheer in their local communities.

Electric cooperatives adhere to seven cooperative principles, including concern for community, year-round. But as the holidays approach, cooperatives collaborate with their members to bring a brighter Christmas to those who may otherwise do without.

 
Wrapped in warmth

This year, the United States has used tariffs in unprecedented ways.

In an effort to incentivize producers and consumers to manufacture and buy products in the United States – among other goals related to political negotiations and curbing the drug trade – the United States has implemented sweeping tariffs around the globe. Some target entire countries instead of specific commodities, from as low as 10% to as high as 50%.
What’s the point of tariffs? How are North Dakotans affected?

“When I left for Vietnam and flew out of Bismarck, that's the first time that I saw my dad cry,” Vietnam War veteran David “Dave” Logosz says. “My mom and dad were there, and my grandparents were there, and they were all in tears. I'm sure they didn't think I was going to come back alive.”

But he did.

“They needed people, and we were just kind of a link in a food chain,” Westhope native and Vietnam War veteran Dennis “Denny” McKechnie says. “I didn’t have a choice. I got No. 19 in the lottery, and my buddy got 18. … We knew where we were going, right?”

They were just boys when their country called them.

“I didn’t want to be there, but yet, here I am with 30 guys. They don’t want to be there neither,” Denny recalls of the plane ride to Vietnam in May 1971.

He was only 20 years old.

Carol Crabbe has always been a busy lady.

Vietnam War veteran David “Dave” Logosz of Dickinson (read his story here) was one of 227 veterans from North Dakota who traveled to Washington, D.C., in September on the all-expenses-paid Western ND Honor Flight.

“It was quite an honor to go on the Honor Flight, and I would recommend it to every veteran to go, if possible,” he says. “It was very uplifting.”