Sharon Zinsli, of Beach, didn't know what hit her at first.

Eventually, she found out it was something that bit her a brown recluse spider, whose poison was enough to put her in the hospital for nine weeks.

Zinsli, 65, said she noticed a burning itch on her upper thigh one morning in April.

She figured she rolled over in bed and the spider bit her then.

A small water blister quickly grew to the size of her palm, and being a diabetic, she knew she'd best seek medical help.

Dead tissue had to be surgically removed, and since the spider venom radiates, or tunnels, away from the sting location, more tissue was at peril.

Eventually, she was transferred to SCCI in Mandan, where doctors attached a vacuum pump to the bite site to aid in healing.

She said two other people were admitted to SCCI with brown recluse spider bites while she was a patient there.

One man was bitten while putting on his shoes and nearly lost his leg from the poison, she said.

"They are bad even if you don't have diabetes," Zinsli said.

She is at home, remains in a wheelchair and still uses a portable pump 24 hours a day on the wound site.

Zinsli said people should be aware of the spider, which comes out at night. It's a small spider with long legs and a distinctive fiddle, or violin mark on its back.

In most people, a bite would be tender, red and swollen, but heal within a few weeks without serious complications.

However, young children, the elderly or people with compromised health like Zinsli can sustain severe reactions.

Golden Valley News

Bison defended

A herd of bison on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation has attracted public concern.

The bison are on one of the Wilder Ranches, not far from McLaughlin, S.D., and visible from Highway 6, where pastures are heat struck down to nothing.

State and tribal agencies have contacted the ranch operators, asking whether the animals are getting proper care.

Those inquires prompted ranch administrator Dan O'Brien to write a public letter to the editor, explaining the situation.

He said the extreme heat since early July has prompted the ranch workers to keep a close eye on the bison.

He said the animals are each getting 34 pounds of an alfalfa, alfalfa grass and distillers grain mix daily, along with salt and mineral tubs and fresh water.

The Wilder Ranches breeds, raises and feeds bison, and eventually sells them.

"It would not be beneficial to Wilder Ranches to mistreat, abuse or starve their bison," O'Brien said. "Wilder Ranches is large enough and has enough capital to be able to keep and continue feeding its buffalo during abnormal weather patterns."

O'Brien said the ranch will buy more than $500,000 worth of feed and minerals.

"It is Wilder Ranches policy to raise and sell a large, health animal, and an unusual weather pattern such as this will not change our goals," O'Brien.

News-Messenger

Outsourcing to the heartland

Dennis Hanson came home to Watford City and became an advocate for development in rural America.

Hanson manages CrossUSA, a computer technology center that opened in Watford City eight years ago, a branch expansion from headquarters in Egan, Minn.

The Watford City branch now employs 20 people, and Hanson said it's being watched by the corporate world, as an example of outsourcing technology work to the heartland instead of to foreign lands, like India.

He thinks the branch is a perfect example.

"This can be the beginning of a resurgence for rural America," he said. "I see the cutting edge as completing circle."

The industrial and manufacturing ages in development drew people out of the rural area to urban centers, because the work was dependent on things like steel and transportation.

Technology, which is not dependent upon anything but high-speed Internet, can reverse that trend and allow people to easily move back into less populated parts of the country.

He thinks the next decade will tell the tale.

In the meantime, CrossUSA has a motto that it hopes will help lead the charge: "Outsourcing to rural America."

McKenzie County Farmer