By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, April 8, 2019 — It was a wonderful way to spend a springtime Saturday morning — going “birding” at Dunbar Slough Wildlife Management Area in the southwest part of our Greene County. A group of about 20 of us were led by Matt Wetrich, the naturalist for the conservation board…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Aug. 19, 2018 – I’ve long said that one of the things I like most about being a Catholic is that the church is slow to bend to the social whims of the moment, including my own. That has probably helped Catholicism survive for centuries in the many very different…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, Aug. 21, 2018 — In late summer about five years ago, Scott Shriver and his crew from Shriver Farms had most of us in Greene County stumped about what the “new” crop was that they had coming up in a very visible field along Iowa Highway 4. First there were…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, July 4, 2018 — Well, God bless America anyway. That’s the mindset good farmers like our neighbors Doug & Karen Lawton have to put themselves in this Independence Day. Yes, the corn looks way better than the old “knee-high by the 4th of July” standard of the pre-hybrids era of…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, June 5, 2018 — If you’ve known Terry Rich well over the years, you’ll be shocked at this — when I asked him the other day what being named the 2018 “Bell Tower of Fame” award winner means to him, he lowered his chin, choked back some emotion and said softly,…