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Is small scale manufacturing possible?

Is small scale manufacturing even possible in your town?  Just what is small scale manufacturing?  It's the artisan makers, the prototyping to small scale, it's the production at scale, the makerspaces and the shared commercial kitchens and workshops.  You'd be looking for craft brewers, artisan businesses, contract manufacturing, commercial kitchens, farmers market organizers, and the 'connectors'. Let's play a short game of who do you know. Who likes to cook and is making food at home for sale?  Who is making crafts, sewing, painting, digital graphics, signage? Who do ...

Three ways to catch fall crappies

Wherever people fish anywhere in North America, and that's almost everywhere, there's an excitement right now about fishing. Fall is a wonderful season to be on the water trying to get a fish to bite. And, if you put your bait in front a fish, chances are good that it will eat that bait. In ...

It’s going to be snowy, icy and icky

So here we are in September. The official summer season is almost over. Autumn officially begins on September 23 and then we know that winter isn’t too far away. We Iowans are subjected to the extremes of weather – from beastly hot, humid summers to bone-chilling winter cold spells. Accordingly, we love to talk about the weather and these days I’m hearing discussions of how bad winter will be. The Old Farmers’ Almanac is oft quoted and the prediction for Iowan’s 2019-2020 winter is “snowy, icy, icky.” Forecasting a snowy, icy, icky winter for Iowa is safe. I have ...

Finding your place

Recently I read an article on finding your place, which got me to thinking about the various ways we talk about our place and how that changes during the travel of life. Take the phrase “There’s no place like home.” Does that mean a real, physical place, or is it wherever the people you love are together? Is that place a feeling in your heart, or does that mean home is only one specific building in the same location? Since I am in a different home since our children left for college, sometimes I wonder which is the right answer. I’m sure it must be a little unnerving ...

The beauty of imperfection

Occasionally I read something that really speaks to me. Maybe you’ve had that experience, too, when a piece feels like it’s targeting you individually-- addressing what’s been on your mind, perhaps, or just appealing to your sense of humor or resonating with where you are at the time. Sometimes it’s a piece that gives me the feeling of, “why didn’t I write that?” Well, I read something like that recently, and all of a sudden I knew that was me the article was describing even though it was a concept I had never heard about before. What is it? The Japanese art of wabi ...

Not to me either

One of the news stories getting air time and ink in Iowa this summer was the report that Iowans are now the fourth most obese people in the United States. According to the study by ConsumerProduct.com, 36.4 percent of Iowa’s adult population struggles with obesity. The study determined that the national average is 30.1 percent, a number that has doubled since 1990. That’s not a good news story. Obesity is the root of many maladies. I am one of those obese Iowans. I am 6’7” tall and weigh more than 300 pounds. My doctor calculates such things as a Body Mass Index or BMI. ...