Nobody dreams of a gray Christmas. Today is Christmas Eve, and it’s not been a bad day for winter in Iowa, just not a picture-perfect day. It’s cold, but not that cold—the high today was above freezing, in the 30s ..read more

It is December in Iowa, and while much of the Western Hemisphere is north of us (we’re about even with northern Spain, and the UK is way up there at the level of Canada), it’s definitely the dark time of ..read more

On Saturday, Oct. 26, I was digging in the ground, getting ready for a burial. It was earlier this month that my parents finally were interred in a final resting place. That was a bittersweet, overdue burial. The burial this ..read more

Fall in Iowa, 2024—we had a wet spring, which gave us a reprise from last year’s drought, but the dry time has come back. Still, if you will have a drought, I suppose October isn’t the worst time for it ..read more

Yeah, the butterfly had me fooled. I thought, based on the lack of spots seen on the bottom, that it was a girl, but when it flew from one flower to another—nope. It was male. Well, that’s OK. I’ve enjoyed ..read more

This has been Mercy & Mission Week at Mount Mercy University, an annual event that, this year, is my last as a faculty member at MMU. The theme was been immigration, and I managed to catch two very interesting presentations—Tuesday ..read more

It’s been a dicey summer for Monarch butterflies. I know it’s only anecdotal, but I’ve only seen a few of the pretty orange butterflies, numbers of which are falling due to habitat loss in Mexico where they spend the winter ..read more

I enjoyed the start of school this week at Mount Mercy University, and yet I felt a bit sad at the same time. In one sense, Mount Mercy will make it close to 100 years, but may fall short. According ..read more

In the end, they were both female—but I guess a butterfly, even a girl butterfly, doesn’t really use names and doesn’t care if you call them “Bob” instead of something more feminine like “Bobbie” or “Roberta.” Anyway, it was an ..read more

Monarch butterfly being released at Monarch Fest, Indian Creek Nature Center, July 13. As time goes on, life changes. And that darn plant has become more dangerous to me. On July 13, my wife and I, along with a grandson, attended the Monarch Festival at the Indian Creek Nature Center. You had to register in advance for a caterpillar to adopt, and both my wife and daughter had done so. So, now we have a caterpillar and they (my daughter and grandson) have a caterpillar, and that’s nice. I have not seen many Monarchs this summer, and it was thrilling to go to a place where so many of them took t ..read more