As you sit in your cozy warm house, blanket on your lap, the outdoor temperature in single digits, do you ever look out your window at your backyard birds and wonder, “How are they not freezing out there?” I have, so I decided to investigate.

The holidays are here, and you are probably seeing many traditional holiday plants for sale at your favorite flower shop and garden center. These may or may not be part of your holiday traditions but knowing a bit about their lore can be something fun to share at holiday gatherings.

Shawano County’s 4-H is holding Spark Saturday, an event open to the public for children in kindergarten through high school at 9 a.m. Jan. 10 at Shawano Community High School, 220 County Road B, Shawano.

Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year, is practically here. Christmas is such a special time, a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus with many treasured traditions. Advent wreaths, Nativity scenes, Christmas carols, Christmas decorations and, of course, Christmas trees make the cold month of December seem much cozier.

Yami Sweeney said that if she knew how much she loved being a nail technician, she would have started a long time ago.

She also knows people’s past shapes their future, and previous decisions lead one to their current place in life.

Today, she is the owner of Painted Dock Nail Salon in Cecil, a business that held its grand opening Oct. 6.

Outside Madison’s Wingra School on a sunny fall afternoon, Ho-Chunk artist and horticulturist Lightning New Rider was busy measuring canvas and preparing twine.

He was there to help the students refurbish the school’s ciiporoke, a Ho-Chunk structure made with bent tree saplings tied together to make a frame and often covered with natural materials like birch tree bark or woven mats — or, in this case, canvas.