Pickling
Beginning Monday, I’ll be covering the editor’s desk for Trish Nelson at Blog for Iowa for the month of July. Everyone needs a vacation and Trish works harder and more persistently than most to get a...
View ArticleWriting My Way Out
The culprit is a long, engaging worklife. The crime? Diminished creative output. Early on I realized, with a few exceptions, creative endeavor doesn’t pay. To support it I took work… for over 50 years....
View ArticleNew Potatoes and Cucumbers
The ambient outdoor temperature is 89 degrees and the heat index is 100. Another midday spent inside. I feel caged. Near sunup I harvested cucumbers and watered. I tasted a red tomato — they are not...
View ArticleMoving On to Fall
My supervisor at the orchard called yesterday to ask me to work this weekend. I said yes. We’ll be selling blueberries from Michigan for a few hours on Saturday and we’ll discuss plans for the upcoming...
View ArticleCarrying the Past
We live each moment in a march of time weighed down by our past. Cognizant of what we experienced and hopeful for a future, we live lives drenched in the culture that engendered us and provided what...
View ArticleStaycation 2018
There’s plenty to do on the property so this week will be a staycation. I took paid vacation from the home, farm and auto supply store. On day three of an eight day work hiatus, I left the property...
View ArticleWe’re Going Home — Donald Kaul
We knew Donald Kaul had prostate cancer and it spread to his bones. He’d been ill for a number of years but after this diagnosis, the prognosis was not good — we expected him to die this year and he …...
View ArticleOutside The Comfort Zone
In an effort to get outside my comfort zone I tried something new. I went to a media event called “Pints and Politics” at the Cedar Ridge Winery and Distillery in Swisher Thursday after my shift at the...
View ArticleWriting in Summer Rain
Thunderstorms have been rolling over all day bringing needed rain and a chance to get caught up indoors. I’m less freaked out about the amount of food processing ahead. There have been more cucumbers...
View ArticleNewspapers Are Working – So Subscribe
Despite significant decreases in staff and other expenses, many newspapers crank out stories relevant to our daily lives. For example, Jason Clayworth and Brianne Pfannenstiel published a full-page...
View ArticleAt Summer’s End
We turned on the T.V. for the first time in a couple of years to watch the weather report. A large storm moved across Iowa at a high rate of speed and despite home computers, mobile devices, and a...
View ArticleHard Road to Winning
My first election campaign spoiled me. I stopped at the Democratic headquarters in Davenport, Iowa in 1964, after paying the bill for my newspaper route, to stuff envelopes during Lyndon Johnson’s...
View ArticleLandslide
We don’t have mountains in Iowa. There are only so many cliffs. The idea of a landslide conjures something abstract and usage is mostly related to politics and the hope of a big win in the November...
View ArticleA Place to Write
When we moved to Big Grove in 1993, the lower level of our split foyer home was unfinished. It remains so and may never be other than a storage area for extras from lives past — ours and our deceased …...
View ArticleFair Redistricting Makes for Fair Elections
The 2018 Midterm elections are over and I’m happy about the outcome. I live in Big Grove Precinct, nestled around Lake Macbride, and here Fred Hubbell beat Kim Reynolds by two votes of 1,107 cast in...
View ArticleLeaning Into What’s Next
The second half of 2018 has been weird. A burden was lifted when Social Security checks began to arrive a year ago. With them came a view that new undertakings were possible, unlike at any time since I...
View ArticleFriday Community Work Day
Our electric clothes dryer was on the fritz. A technician arrived Friday morning and replaced the idler pulley that had been making noise. Although long ago replaced, a washer and dryer was one of the...
View ArticleNo Going Back to Coal
On Aug. 10, 2016, Donald Trump appeared at a campaign event about 50 miles from my father’s home place in southwestern Virginia. He asserted coal miners would have one “last shot” in the election,...
View ArticleThis is not France
We see a lot of customers wearing yellow safety jackets at the home, farm and auto supply store. Mostly they seek something to complete a project. Road crews, construction workers, and tradesmen of...
View ArticleIce on the Lakes
On early morning walkabout the moon and stars were out, casting silvery light on me and everything. Yesterday a thin layer of ice rested on the lakes, its mirrored surface perfect for skating if it...
View Article