IDA GROVE, Iowa, Dec. 5, 2013 – Photographer Don Poggensee spent a couple of weeks this fall photographing ospreys as they made their migration back south through Iowa from summering in more northern territory. “In the fall, we usually see them before it gets really cold and our ponds and lakes freeze up,” he said.…
INDIANOLA, Iowa, Nov. 12, 2013 — The Buena Vista University football team, which I’ve long followed, had a great victory here last Saturday, and you can see our coverage of that with the Feature Photo, elsewhere on this site. But I had a little victory of my own here, too. When the Beavers scored their…
PERRY, Iowa, Nov. 4, 2013 — As the Hotel Pattee re-opens here today after being shuttered since late July, let’s recall one of the grand moments it has given us in the past — like the time in the fall of 2004 when Ted Kooser, the poet laureate of the United States, came to read…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER SHENANDOAH, Iowa, Nov. 13, 2013 – When my old hometown here had the annual autumn celebration “Shenfest” in late September, one focus of it was a tribute to George Jay Drug Company, a pharmacy that is celebrating 125 years in business and happens to have a very famous soda fountain. There are…
By CARLA OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, October 27, 2013 — Let’s catch up. So I’m driving down Iowa Highway 141 on my way to Des Moines, listening to KDLS 1310 AM. Right then, they played “Devil with a Blue Dress,” which became a hit in 1966 when Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels performed it. I found…
Our Chuck Offenburger has again been back to the town of Jackson Junction, where since 1980, the school’s seniors have been picking one of their classmates as a genuinely “good gobbler.” Offenburger takes the “Turkey” to lunch, does an interview and buys the winner’s family a Thanksgiving turkey. He says it’s a tribute to the…
IDA GROVE, Iowa, Nov. 18, 2013 — Photographer Don Poggensee, who bases here in northwest Iowa, took a quick drive in the past week across the northern half of the state, capturing images along the way. “The colors were fading rather fast,” he reported. But starting with this sunrise view of Jefferson, he found lots…
INDIANOLA, Iowa, Nov. 11, 2013 – I’ve been going to Iowa Conference small-college football games for 20 or 21 years now, and I swear, the experience of doing that gets better every autumn. Saturday, it was here at Buxton Field on the campus of Simpson College, breathtakingly beautiful in the lingering fall colors. And, Buena…
PERRY, Iowa, Nov. 4, 2013 — It’s going to be a great week here with the re-opening of the Hotel Pattee, scheduled for today, and then the annual “Art on the Prairie” festival this coming weekend, Nov. 9-10, bringing more than 100 artists to the community to show and perform. I’ve had a chance to…
The battle is on at this writer’s rural home – man and two cats vs. mice. In your initial skirmishes after you move to the country, you’re grossed out. Then you get into acceptance and realize that combat with the little critters beats heck out of having to do the finances. But Iowa State U.…
