The sound of weeping and gnashing of teeth can be heard throughout the land at this time of year, and not just because it’s National Poetry Month, mandating by federal law that we have to …
Drive west, and the corn and soybean fields gradually give way to wheat and milo, which gives way to rangeland and cattle, which gives way to sagebrush and the occasional bug-eyed antelope. Keep …
Every so often, a guy hears of something that seems totally improbable. One such thing might be a WWII POW camp located in northern Iowa. My wife and I visited Algona, Iowa, some years ago, so …
Some years ago, an email from a 13-year-old dairy farm girl from Central Minnesota landed in my inbox. She said she wanted to be a journalist and was wondering if I could give her some advice. …
We Americans have been spoiled by technology. Flip a switch and the lights come on; pick up your cell phone and instantly begin to waste time watching funny cat videos. If you want a …
Every boy dreams of discovering buried treasure. Finding gold doubloons and muttering “Yar” are among its chief benefits. I recently voyaged out to where the rotting hulk has rested …
‘Tis the yule season, which is vastly different than the mule season, mainly because nobody has ever been kicked by a yule. I don’t think anyone has actually seen a yule, for that matter. …
We all have ancestors. They may not be the ones we might have chosen, but there they are, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Used to be that having a notorious forebear was the sort …
Whenever things are floating along nice and smooth, it is a sure bet that something is about to go haywire. That’s just one lesson I learned from revivifying our 1949 John Deere A tractor. …
Some years ago, my wife and I were driving toward Illinois, which is how we ended up in Quasqueton. Quasqueton, located in eastern Iowa, is a small town that sits astride the Wapsipinicon River. …
Summer is over, the days have grown shorter and our instincts are urging us to fill our larders in preparation for the long cold. In essence, we are nothing more than large and mostly-hairless …
The fateful diagnosis was given to me when I was 9 years old. My parents, suspecting something was amiss, took me to a specialist. The doctor tested me, furrowed his brow, …
There once was a time when it was as common as dirt, but the prevailing attitude turned against this activity. You don’t see it much anymore, although it’s made a modest comeback in …
There are some things wrong with today’s world that can be traced back to some of the customs we’ve abandoned. For instance, we were a much more civilized society when men wore …
People watching is my favorite hobby. It’s much more interesting than bird watching, although the use of binoculars is frowned upon when one studies the sapiens species. An increasingly …
Some sneaky, creepy creatures have been slinking around hereabouts. No, I’m not talking about the latest crop of political candidates. What have been sighted several …
After nearly 150 years, the James gang and their Northfield bank robbery still loom large in our collective imagination. Small-town celebrations have played a big part in keeping this legacy alive. …
Like many Baby Boomers, I was raised on a steady diet of movies about the Second World War. I especially enjoyed films that were airplane centric. As a kid, I often pretended that I was an ace …
The June cloudburst sweeps across the field, pounding the young corn plants as I scramble for shelter beneath the belly of the John Deere A tractor. This is tricky, as that area is occupied by a …
It’s time for us to gird our gardening loins and wage war against a relentless army of evildoers. Yes, it’s weeding season once again. They say that a weed is just a plant that has …