Ah, those sweet garlic dills ...

I don't get paid for this --- honest. Just saying, however, that Jill has added a line of Amish Wedding "jarred" products at Piper's: Pickles and relishes, jams and jellies, pie fillings, soups and more. The sweet red pepper relish --- with a slight bite --- at left and garlic dill pickles, right, are among my favorites. I like all the jams, and the jar in the middle has been opened because I came home immediately after buying, made toast and started eating.

I started buying this line years ago at the Dutchman's Store in Cantril. Back in the day when I was in Chariton only on weekends, I managed to get down there every month or so. Now that I'm here full-time there's never enough time for some reason to make the drive. So I'm a happy camper.

Anyhow, Amish Wedding --- produced in Ohio Amish country --- is as close to homemade as you'll find in a commercial product.

Now if we just had a bakery --- Miss homemade bread and although I can bake never seem to have time to do that either.

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Daylight Saving Time has ruined my life; not getting out of bed these days until 5 a.m. In one way that's good --- an extra hour of sleep. On the onther, I'm missing that extra early-morning hour to get things done. So should I start setting an alarm for 4 a.m. or just let nature take its course?

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How about this winter? Not that it's been anything extraordinary, just more like the "real" Iowa winters we remember --- especially up north (reading occasional Facebook complaints from north Iowa). We had flurries here yesterday afternoon after a weekend of mixed light snow and long cold rain.

Spring in Iowa last year was like living in an alternate universe and preceded a long, hard, hot and dry summer. I don't want another one of those, so this is more like it. Spring will come soon enough.

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It's been a busy week, so far --- I thought about a post here that might have been entitled "Three meetings, two funerals and a jar of pickles," then decided that would not be especially tasteful and gave the whole thing up.

People get frustrated with me sometimes because I do not have a cell phone. Nor is there an answering machine. So I'm hard to reach. I can neither send nor receive texts. Some days I'm happy about that, other days not so much. So we'll see. At least an answering machine .... On the other hand, I do check my e-mail obsessively so am not entirely out of touch.