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BLUE EARTH - Adoption, Alzheimer's, faith, family and farming all radiate in life lessons in a Blue Earth resident's new book.

Sue Peterson Johnson finished the year-and-a-half project in May, and will sign copies of "The Yield" 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Good News Bookstore in Fairmont.

Johnson has been a columnist for The Land magazine since 1978, so that's where she came up with the book title. Her column readers asked her for years to write a book. Ten years ago, Johnson agreed and kept the idea in the back of her mind.

"There's a lot of spirituality to it," she said. "I write about family. I write about God first. My husband is important in my writing and also my two children."

Johnson said the book is broken down into short stories - her columns. So a person could read a page and a half and know that whole story - with many more to follow.

"It was designed to pick it up and take it with you," she said.

After each story in the book, there's a questionnaire that focuses on the key lessons Johnson wanted the reader to learn. Many focus on faith, others on humanity and living.

"Some of them people really enjoy (are the things) children do," she said. "My children caused me to grow as a person. I have to be unselfish as a parent. A lot of parents at 21, 22 are pretty selfish - or at least I was."

Johnson and her first husband, Larry Peterson, adopted two children 10 years into their marriage - a boy and a girl. Johnson tells different stories about her children, struggles and triumphs in child-rearing, reflections on her own childhood and how she grew.

Johnson said her family moved to Garden City when she was young. After she graduated from high school, she went to college and graduated in three years. She then married her high school sweetheart, Peterson.

"We farmed near Amboy with his family," she said. "That was a positive situation. Then Larry got Alzheimer's after we were married 42 years. He was 57 when he got Alzheimer's and was 64 when he died."

Struggling with the effects Alzheimer's has on a loved one is a popular portion of her columns and books. When Peterson got lost in a corn field, Johnson knew it was time to move him into a nursing home.

"The only thing that changed was I got a good night's sleep," Johnson said of the move.

She visited him every day. The hard part was watching the disease progress to the point where Johnson no longer recognized the life in his eyes.

"If it didn't sound so awful - I really learned a lot through this," she said. "Patience. I accept people more. A clean house isn't as important as it was."

After Peterson's death, chapters of Johnson's life kept going.

"When I was in first grade, there was a young boy in our class - Stan Johnson," she said, explaining that when her family moved to Garden City she didn't see him again until high school, and afterward he joined the Navy.

"I always liked him," she said. "He was a nice boy."

Peterson was moved to St. Luke's in Blue Earth, which happened to be the same town Stan was living in.

Stan's wife had just died of cancer, and his sister saw Johnson in passing, asking her to give her brother condolences.

"I did, and the rest is history," Johnson said. "He's been a good husband."

Both have focused their lives on sharing God's word. Stan has a custom Curved-Dash Oldsmobile, similar to a 1903 Olds, which he described as a "horseless-carriage sort of thing." The couple uses it as an ice-breaker in sharing their faith with others. At Saturday's book signing, the vehicle will be there as well. The Yield can be purchased at Good News Bookstore or online at www.bookhousefulfillment.com