Extraordinary Living magazine

08/27/2026

Bridging Brain Injuries: How the North Dakota Brain Injury Network Supports Veterans

Mason Krebsbach

For many veterans returning from service, the deepest wounds are often the ones you cannot see. Traumatic Brain Injuries have long been a signature injury of modern military operations, yet many veterans carry the burden of these injuries in silence. The North Dakota Brain Injury Network (NDBIN) serves as a vital and free lifeline for individuals across the state. They ensure that no veteran or their family has to navigate the complex aftermath of a brain injury alone.

For many veterans returning from service, the deepest wounds are often the ones you cannot see. Traumatic Brain Injuries have long been a signature injury of modern military operations, yet many veterans carry the burden of these injuries in silence. The North Dakota Brain Injury Network (NDBIN) serves as a vital and free lifeline for individuals across the state. They ensure that no veteran or their family has to navigate the complex aftermath of a brain injury alone.

Read Mason's story in the Autumn 2026 edition of Extraordinary Living. Your free magazine awaits on FM area newsstands. Or read the rest of the story here: https://www.thefmextra.com/bridging-brain-injuries/

08/27/2026

Cook up A Memory --
Invasion of the Cherry Tomatoes

Kelly Wambach

As a kid it seemed a good share of my summer was spent in the garden. If I didn’t know better I’d swear I was born under that proverbial cabbage leaf all heard we’ve about, but knowing my mother she would not have spent enough time in the garden for such an event to have taken place. Mom didn’t like all the creepy crawly things that lived out there. Inevitably, on a hot summer day when my brother and I could have been floating down the Buffalo River on a log, or hunting arrowheads in a field somewhere, Dad would have a chore or two in the garden for us to take care of before any boyhood fun.

What was referred to as Dad’s garden was big enough to hold ample produce to take care of our family and several others through the upcoming winter. His garden stretched roughly 100 feet by 200 feet. Certainly more than the average family would typically set aside for a garden.

Read more of Kelly's memories and recipes in the Autumn 2026 edition of Extraordinary Living. Your free magazine awaits on area newsstands. Or click here for the whole story: https://www.thefmextra.com/invasion-of-the-cherry-tomatoes/

08/27/2026

Ancient Art, Museum Lessons

Micheal Stein

While Teresa Gilbertson started training in the discipline of taekwondo 42 years ago, becoming an instructor was not part of her life-long plan. But decades later, she’s looking back on a profession that has touched the lives of thousands of students. Teresa recently retired from a long career with Northwest Martial Arts, which she and her husband, Roy, owned and operated for 46 years.

Born in Sioux City, Iowa, Teresa’s family moved around, eventually locating in North Dakota. “My dad was a welder working on power plants and missile sites. I started in martial arts in Beulah when I was 21 because I was the last of six children, and I just felt like I should be able to defend myself from my two big brothers. I wanted to be able to have some means of self-defense and learn self-control and self-discipline. I think that’s true for most people who go into martial arts.”

Although not initially sure she wanted to continue training, Teresa persevered. “At the time, Roy was a master instructor from Fargo who traveled around the area and did testing, so I met him at my martial arts test.” Teresa said laughingly that Roy, a ninth-degree black belt, was “kind of an aggressive tester, so it was a bit nerve wracking. And that’s good because in certain situations you have to perform under pressure.”

Read more about Teresa Gilbertson and taekwondo in the Autumn 2026 edition of Extraordinary Living. Your free magazine awaits at local newsstands. Or read the rest of the story here: https://www.thefmextra.com/ancient-art-museum-lessons/

08/27/2026

Diving into the Red --"
People Who’ve Made a Splash

Jack Sunday

‘If It Smells, It Sells!’

In 2002, Fargo residents were complaining about the foul smell emanating from the city landfill.

Thus, the Fargo Landfill Gas Project began as a solution … and evolved into a multi-million dollar renewable energy success story.

Fargo officials drilled vent test holes to resolve rising gas pressure and an intense odor buildup. Testing revealed a massive, unexpected volume of high-purity methane.

At the behest of then City Commissioner Mike Williams, the city installed its first 20 wells, immediately piping the gas to a nearby Cargill industrial plant. The project grew from 20 wells to 62 operational gas wells, generating roughly 1,400 standard cubic feet of gas per minute. Millions of dollars have since been invested to continuously capture and monetize the waste.

Commissioner Williams, the champion of the project coined the phrase “If It Smells, It Sells”. He actively pushed the city to adopt a “common sense economics” approach to environmental sustainability. He and others, recognized that environmentalism could be highly profitable. He and others, like Bruce Grubb, Terry Ludlum and Mayor Dennis Walaker fought for the city to invest in the capture system, pointing out that turning trash into cash would protect the local environment while adding hundreds of thousands of dollars back into city coffers. They proved that eco-friendly policies didn’t have to be a net expense, but could instead function as self-sustaining revenue generators.

Read the rest of "If It Smells" and much more in the Autumn 2026 edition of Extraordinary Living. Your free magazine awaits on FM area newsstands. Or read it here: https://www.thefmextra.com/diving-into-the-red/

08/27/2026

Artisans Share and Create at Studio 56560

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

Once trains unloaded justharvested spuds into the building on the siding just a few feet from the railroad tracks. Now, though, the mural-emblazoned structure near Highway 75 houses a harvest of a different nature: creative ceramic pottery, fiber art and curiously carved wooden creations – all produced by the artists who share coworking space in Studio 56560.

“This place has housed a lot of things,” co-founder Heather Nesemeier points out. “It started out as a potato washing and packaging facility. Over the years, classic cars have been stored here. Nelson Windows once owned it. Most recently, it was In the Chips, a working space for wood carvers and wood turners.”

It’s something similar now, but with a much broader range of artists among its tenants. When the couple who owned the woodworking studio downsized after a dozen years, another Moorhead couple – Heather and her husband Jeffrey Bodwin – bought the building. Reimagined as Studio 56560, it has welcomed artisans from ceramicists to quilters, woodcarvers to wool felters, providing studio booths where they can create as well as a shop that sells their creations.

Seven individuals and small groups currently rent booths or store their wares in the studio’s large open area. There’s plenty of room available for more, booths plus storage for another four or so who pursue their art elsewhere but need a convenient space to store materials and finished pieces.

Read more about Studio 56560 and the artists who create there in the Fall 2026 edition of Extraordinary Living magazine. Your free copy awaits on local newsstands. Or read it here: https://www.thefmextra.com/artisans-share-and-create-at-studio-56560/

08/27/2026

Close to Home and Out of this World

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

You could say that Greg Kempel’s Minn-Dak Market is the anti-Amazon. While the huge online retailer sells a breathtaking range of homogenized merchandise from every corner of the universe, Greg’s focus is just the opposite.

Every single thing that lines the shelves of his store at the West Acres Mall has been created within a few hundreds miles in either direction or even closer. And the shoppers who browse at Minn-Dakt market truly love the Dakotas and Minnesota – or are looking for quirky ways to remember their visit to the region.

The Minn-Dak Market is unique. It offers shoppers only selections that are Dakota-made or Minnesota-made. Here, shoppers browse the creations of more than 100 local companies that cook up things to eat, to wear, to use and to display that capture the tastes and novelties that reflect the Upper Midwest.

Read more about the Minn-Dak Market in the fall edition of Extraordinary Living magazine. Your free copy is on newsstands now! Or read the story here at https://www.thefmextra.com/close-to-home-and-out-of-this-world/

05/09/2026

Firefighters Fight Fear of Falling

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

When firefighters race across town on emergency calls, the first thought is automatic: Fire! But in a majority of cases, the 911 alert may involve no flames, no heat, no hoses. Instead, it may be about falling.

In Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo, as in the rest of the nation, the most common reason to dispatch fire crews is rescue. Assistance calls represent more than half of the 911 calls channeled to fire departments. While a portion are strictly medical – heart attacks, for example, or diabetic hypoglycemia – the most familiar are the kind immortalized in that vintage TV commercial: “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up.”

But falls are no laughing matter – not for families, not for the fallen, and certainly not for metro-area fire departments, whose EMS-trained firefighters are responsible for handling home emergencies.

“Falls are the number one thing – lift assists and falls,” says Mike Miller, who coordinates risk reduction for the Moorhead Fire Department. “Not all of them involve injuries. Sometimes someone has tripped on a loose throw rug or can’t get out of the bathtub by themselves, and there’s no one around who’s strong enough to help them. They just need us to lift them up.”

But that’s not the whole story. Sometimes those falls mark the gateway to losing the ability to continue to live at home – a more serious issue than getting them back on their feet. If more help in daily living seems to be required, it’s firefighters who are often the first to spot it.

Read more about local firefighters' emergency medical rescue work and safety tips in the summer edition of Extraordinary Living magazine. It's on newsstands now. Or read the story online at https://www.thefmextra.com/firefighters-fight-fear-of-falling/

05/09/2026

Cook up a Memory --
Grandma Called Them 'Hen Fruit'

Kelly Wambach

Easter is behind us. The season of new beginnings is here. Well, maybe. Looking out my window to-day it looks more like early December than early April, however there are some of the usual signs of spring if you look hard enough he sounds of geese migrating, birds singing, the power of the sun, and the country roads are for the most part, a mess!

Living in the country can have its disadvantages, but for me the advantages far out way the disadvantages. There’s nothing like the peace, the quiet, and the privacy you have living in a rural area.

Another plus is the space and ability to keep my critters. Five goats to maintain my pasture land and twenty three chickens to keep me and a few friends in fresh farm eggs. There really is nothing like a farm fresh egg for breakfast.

Growing up, chickens were al-ways a part of the landscape. I say landscape, because for the most part the chickens were free to roam. Most of the hens nested in the comfort of the coop, but there was always one or two who needed to strike out on their own. This of course made gathering eggs a bit of a challenge. It required a little stalking on our part.

Most of the time we were able to follow these hens to their secret nesting spots and sn**ch the eggs, but there was always one or two that were just a little smarter than we were. If they managed to evade us long enough they might surprise us with a family of little chicks. The new little hens that made it through the summer were next year’s layers, and the new little roosters usually shared a reserved spot at the Sun-day dinner table.

Read more of Chef Kelly's column, including Grandma's recipe for Egg Custard, in the summer edition of Extraordinary Living magazine. Your free copy is on newsstands now. Or read online at

Easter is behind us. The season of new beginnings is here. Well, maybe. Looking out my window to-day it looks more like early December than early April, however there are some of the usual signs of spring if you look hard enough he sounds of geese migrating, birds singing, the power of the sun, and....

05/09/2026

FM Science Museum set to break barriers and ignite curiosity

Michael Stein

Among area residents who visit science museums in, say, St. Paul or Chicago, it’s a good bet that many have thought “this would be great to have in Fargo-Moorhead.” Fortunately, for the past several years, a group of community leaders and experts in the field has been dedicated to turning a dream into reality with a center that focuses on every aspect of our lives and the world around us. The Fargo-Moorhead Science Museum (FMSM) exists in name and a new office location on South University Drive in Fargo.

FMSM’s Executive Director Jessie Rock oversees the multi-faceted effort to make the dream a reality, bringing several years of experience as a paleontologist and science educator, including 14 years at NDSU’s former geosciences department.

From outreach to institution

Rock said the efforts to bring hands-on science to a wide range of interests and age groups have been limited. “We are very strong in the arts here, but we don’t have a dedicated science museum,” she said. “We have colleges, universities, and other outreach partners across the community doing incredible work, but pop-up events and camps aren’t enough. This is our opportunity to build a place where adults and children alike can explore and engage with hands-on science year-round.

Throughout her years as a graduate student and university lecturer, Rock said she was regularly called on to do outreach, particularly in grade school classrooms.

“Teachers were asking if we could bring things like dinosaur fossils. I quickly learned that many of these teachers are struggling to teach topics such as climate change. So, they really need support—and that’s an area the museum is prepared to help with.”

“By 2018, I couldn’t keep up with the demand for outreach,” Rock said. “The FM Area Foundation was offering community grants, so I applied for funding for a trailer where I could keep a dedicated set of outreach materials and streamline my efforts.”

Read more about plans for the FM Science Museum in the summer edition of Extraordinary Living magazine, on newsstands now ... or online at https://www.thefmextra.com/fm-science-museum-set-to-break-barriers-and-ignite-curiosity/

05/09/2026

The Accidental Gardener --
Celebrate the Sesquicentennial: Plant a Crab

Ross Collins

As we consider ways to celebrate this county’s Semiquincentennial year (250th), we might find counsel from the celebrations of 50 years ago, the Bicentennial year. My mother Dorothy had a suggestion. “We give something of ourselves, I believe, when we plant a tree,” she wrote in May 1976. “A tree is a gift to those who live after us, providing so much happiness—a yearly spring message of hope, blooms and/or fruit, shade, sound buffer, changing seasonal leaf beauty.”

Where should we plant? Anywhere, but “this Bicentennial spring seems an ideal time to plant a tree somewhere—if not in our own yard, on the grounds of a school, a church, some public or private lawn.”

Perhaps you know of some Bicentennial trees that are still growing for a future generation-—that is, for us. Perhaps it’s our turn to offer the same to another future generation.

While Dorothy recommended a variety of trees, she was particularly fond of the flowering crabapple. It’s the tree that most reminds us that it’s spring, bursting into bloom in late April to early May. Whether at home or in public plantings, she said, “I can’t think of anything better to include in the plan than flowering crabapples.” And spring was the season she thought would most convince us. “While I have harped on this subject so often that I may becoming repetitious,” she admitted, “just take a look at the flowering crabs around right now and see if you don’t agree.”

Read more of Ross's garden column in the summer edition of Extraordinary Living magazine, on newsstands now, or unline at

As we consider ways to celebrate this county’s Semiquincentennial year (250th), we might find counsel from the celebrations of 50 years ago, the Bicentennial year. My mother Dorothy had a suggestion. “We give something of ourselves, I believe, when we plant a tree,” she wrote in May 1976. “A...