Here in Iowa we pride ourselves on being friendly and helpful and supportive of others. Some of us call it Iowa nice. Maybe it is the media that encourages us to believe that we are the good guys while the folks who live in urban areas are impolite, cold, and uncaring folks who live isolated ...

During a layover at the Denver airport some years ago I heard a commotion just a few yards away. Two teenage boys, accompanied by a handful of other teenagers, were boisterously greeting one another. Not an uncommon sight at airports, except these young men were speaking in German. After a ...

Looking to avoid raking leaves this fall? Leaving excessive amount of leaf matter on the lawn can cause problems going into winter, and is bad for several reasons. Leaves can smother the grass and if not removed by very early in the spring, the growth will be inhibited. A mat of ...

It’s that time of year when some anglers are starting to think about ice-fishing, but there are still a good number of anglers who are open water fishing. Regardless of how or where or when we fish, anglers want to catch fish. To do so, we need to figure out where the fish are, what they ...

When I was a small boy there was a middle aged man in our community who suffered from an obvious and unusual physical affliction. I remember asking my father about the man and Dad explained he was injured in a gas attack during the First World War. That discussion is one of my first memories ...

Another time I realized I wasn’t in Iowa any more while I was traveling out East early this month was when we were driving in six lanes of pretty solid traffic in the Boston area. I was thankful not to be behind the wheel of our rental car. My traveling companion lives in Atlanta and deals ...