- [Announcer] Funding for "Off 90" is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(bird call) - Cruising your way next, "Off 90."

We learn about making wooden bowls in Byron, we talk to restaurant owners in Rochester to see how they're dealing with the Coronavirus.

We go on a photo safari for relics of the past by Glenville, and a double shot of Big Band Jazz.

These stories and more are coming up next "Off 90."

(jazzy theme music) Hi, I'm Barbara Keith.

Thanks for joining me on this trip "Off 90."

Mike Denney was unhappy with the direction his life was going.

So one day, he decided to make a change.

He had been woodworking for decades as a hobby and wood turning, the process of making wooden bowls, had become Mike's passion.

Mike turned that hobby into his profession and he started a business called Good Wolf Bowls.

We paid Mike a visit to learn how wood turning is done.

- A Native American grandfather is telling his grandson that there are two wolves constantly fighting inside you.

The good wolf and the bad wolf.

And the good wolf represents everything that is good.

Kindness, fairness, what have you and the bad news is evil, anger, jealousy.

And the grandson thought for a minute and he said, "Well if they're constantly fighting, "which one eventually wins?"

And the grandfather said, "The one that you feed."

And the reason that's important for me, or it was important for me, is that you know, I was a programmer, analyst, technician kinda guy and after almost 40 years, it wasn't feeding me anymore.

My name's Mike Denney and in very simplest terms, I'm a wood turner.

I take scraps of wood and I turn 'em into bowls, and vases, and whatever I can make that's round.

At my last job, my co-worker turned bowls.

I got a nice, small lathe from him and just started going and it just clicked.

I don't know if you've had something where you start on it and it's like natural and something that you develop a passion for.

And it just feels so right.

That's what it was.

Basically what I do is I find some wood somewhere.

It's everywhere.

I use salvaged wood.

It's all Minnesota wood, it's everything just laying around here.

I don't order exotic, tropical woods.

I don't know if they can see this, but I have piles.

Piles of wood here.

So I get a stump, cut it in half, and each half can make a bowl.

And then I try to cut that half round with a bandsaw.

I put it on the lathe and turn it.

Meaning, I cut off the outside with a very sharp gouge and then I flip it around on a lathe and do the same thing with the inside.

And at that point, it's what we call rough turn.

It's not necessarily rough, but rough turned.

And so for the next, oh, four to eight weeks, it dries.

Just air dry.

Sometimes I used a microwave to speed things up.

But it has to dry.

And then I sand it and finish it.

It's pretty much the whole process.

I'm more of a measure once, cut twice kind of a guy.

But with the turning, it's all free form.

I start on something and there are no rules, it's just smooth curves.

And so there's...

There are few mistakes and I don't have to throw stuff away.

It's all good, essentially.

The pieces that I like to work with are usually not the straight grained, easy to work kinds of things.

I like a little bit more of a challenge.

Knots, wormholes, cracks.

Where two branches come together.

That grain is kinda swirled together so that makes a very pretty, very pretty piece.

I attend shows where I'm selling my craft and people all the time come up and say, "Hey, we had this tree fall down, "could you make something for us?

"I wanna give my kids something from that tree."

I even had a gentleman ask me to make an urn for him out of his walnut tree.

The first person who wanted something for an urn, I didn't have any urns for sale but I make vases.

And so she was really interested in this one vase.

And you know, we were talking about it and she says, "Okay, I think I want that."

I said, "Oh, what are you "gonna put in it?"

She told me it was for her father's ashes.

We both cried.

(laughs) And gave a hug, I mean, it's just a very emotional thing for me.

- Mike and I have been friends for years and when he shared that he was going to do what he calls "plan B," when he left his original career to start turning bowls, I was very excited for him.

Mike is very passionate, he's passionate about his beliefs, he's passionate about the work that he does.

He's also passionate about nature and the environment and to be able to repurpose wood and these beautiful trees into something that people can use forever I think is pretty special.

All of the bowls are food safe and so I use it for salads, we use it for chip bowls, we use it for fruit bowls.

At Christmas time, I actually had some Christmas ornaments in it.

And they're just beautiful to look at so even just having it sitting on a table or on a counter, it's just a beautiful work of art just to enjoy looking at it and feel good about the fact that, like I said, they're all made with love and good energy and they have a story.

And I love to have pieces of art that have a story behind them as well.

- My wife always says, "Everybody has a gift," and it took me a long time to find this one.

But that's okay, I'm very happy.

And this will take me right into full retirement and after that.

(jazzy rock music) - John Paulson taught jazz at Saint Mary's University for over 30 years and recently retired from part-time teaching at Winona State University.

John is also a composer and recently performed some of his music with the help of the John Paulson Big Band.

They performed at the Saint Cecilia Theater in Winona.

Here's a song he wrote called "Big River Bossa."

(jazzy rock music) The Coronavirus spread rapidly around the world, impacting nearly every aspect of daily life, including restaurants.

In an attempt to keep guests and staff safe as well as stabilize their business, the industry responded with operational changes and even store closures.

We checked out Rochester to see how the restaurants in one Minnesota city were dealing with the pandemic.

(mellow music) - We were having a pretty good winter.

Once that COVID hit, boy, it just fell of a cliff.

We were down anywhere from 70 to 80%.

(mellow music) - Being a brewpub, we were allowed to distribute our beer via our delivery drivers and curbside pickup.

Our sales probably dropped about 30%.

- The most difficult part right away was the employee side.

We furloughed probably close to 90% of our staff right away.

It was pretty rough for about six weeks.

- The hardest part of this has been the fear of unknowing.

A lot of fear of our staff getting infected and we also, we're just nervous that we may see family and friends lose their lives to this.

(mellow music) - The second that's been really frustrating is just not being able to look forward and to try to see what's coming next.

(mellow music) - Certainly, we heard feedback immediately that that is not going to be enough.

- I think what's key for our business is you have to have consistent volume to make the restaurant and bar business work.

- [Mayor Kim] I don't have sidewalk space.

I'm on the second floor of a building.

How is that going to affect me?

- Peoples' locations where they can't have a patio, it's just not gonna be sustainable.

(mellow music) - We've loosened some rules and regulations and allowed very quick permitting so that businesses could use streets, could use more of a sidewalk, could perhaps use someone else's property.

So we're trying to be really flexible in order to allow those businesses to be able to make ends meet under the current guidelines.

- What we'd like to see the Governor do is at least give us 25%.

I mean, I don't think that's much to ask.

(mellow music) - We have worked with Ecolab to get a specific set of chemicals that will kill anything related to COVID.

We have someone on staff who's spraying down door handles and our menus are all throw away menus.

They're recyclable Our staff is all wearing masks.

- Of course, sanitizing, employees wearing masks, we have Plexi glass now up front to place your takeout order, six feet stickers, and you know, making a new exit, taking tables out when we can finally open.

So it's been a lot of prep work.

But I can definitely tell you we're ready.

There's no doubt.

(mellow music) - I think the economy needs to get back going.

Practicing social distancing, and doing all the things we need to to sanitize and not spread the virus is also just as important.

But to have the economy open back up and be able to save businesses.

- Being in the medical field, you know, I deal with the COVID disease on a daily basis.

It would make me slightly nervous just because of what I've seen with the virus.

However, I think you know, businesses are really taking a lot of measures to be responsible, safe, and smart and we have to start back up.

(mellow music) - One of my fears would be opening stores, bars, restaurants too quick, allowing too many people in, and seeing people in this community come down with COVID that are medically compromised, which of course, we have healthcare patients here.

The elderly that live in senior living facilities, that's my fear and that we would see such a loss of life that would be devastating to this community.

On the other hand, my second fear.

If we don't do something to help our area businesses open up and be able to employ people, the economic impact on our community will also be devastating.

So it is this finding the fine line and that's what I was trying to ask the Governor.

Help me find the fine line so that businesses can make money but we can keep people safe.

- I can definitely say the public, for the most part, is ready and, you know, for us, what it really comes down to is it's still a choice to go out to eat, you know?

So if you don't feel comfortable, if you walk into a place and see bad practices, you walk straight out the door.

- I am just so grateful to all of Minnesota for getting through this together, working as hard as we can to be innovative during a time of a pandemic, something that we've never really planned for.

(mellow music) (jazzy rock music) - Here's another song written by John Paulson and performed by the John Paulson Big Band called "Dis 'n Dat."

(jazzy music) (audience applause) (jazzy music) Julie Bronson is a photographer who loves ambling down seldom traveled gravel roads, looking for farms begging to have their photo taken.

She can spot an abandoned house from miles away.

The beauty of broken down, faded wood and rusted metal shows through in the photos she takes.

Her fascination with the architecture of the past never grows old.

(serene music) - I've always liked old buildings, old barns, any kind of architecture that was... That you could tell somebody put their heart into building.

I started shooting back in 2008.

I just look at craftsmanship in these houses and to see them deteriorating away is kind of heartbreaking.

(camera shutter) My name is Julie Bronson I am an author and photographer.

I take pictures of abandoned buildings, cars, houses, barns, whatever.

(camera shuttering) Anything rusty that catches my eye.

I guess I feel like it's my job, my duty to record these things so that other people can see 'em before they're gone.

The way things are going now with every bit of land wanting to be farmed, you know, every acre they want, some places have gone completely and you can't even tell they were ever there.

The way it starts is there's a hole in the roof or windows get broken out and rain, snow, and wind, and critters move in and it just starts the process of mold and the wood starts rotting away.

Vandals break things really bad and pretty soon, the floors cave in, the chimney falls in, then the roof falls in, and the house is just gone.

A man bought and built this house and furnished it for his future bride.

And she backed out of the wedding.

So the house just sat.

He never moved in, nobody ever moved in the house, it just say there with all of its furnishings and everything.

But now somebody went and burned it.

It was a very interesting house just because of the story and because it looks so neat through the pictures I've taken through the birch trees.

(birds chirping) This is what used to be a school house.

(camera shutters) It has beautiful windows in it that somebody has painted over and there's a fancy porch in the front of it.

So I never thought of a schoolhouse as being that fancy but this place has that.

What first caught my eye at this farm place was the tree growing out of the silo.

Now this house has...

It's like somebody cut it right down the middle.

It's just folding in on itself.

I get inspired by these houses to write little ghost stories, kind of thing.

You know, it's not anything scary, it's something kids can read or grandma can read and they still can go to sleep at night.

When I got home and downloaded the pictures onto the computer, I was startled to see the image of a little boy in one of the attic windows.

Sorry, little boy.

Had I known you were there, I would have come in and played for a little while.

(eerie music) I guess I just like to see the appreciation on peoples' faces and the smiles.

Instead of seeing something that somebody should light a match to, maybe they'll appreciate it a little bit more.

(ominous music) - We've reached the end of today's tour.

Thanks for riding along.

See you next time, "Off 90."

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