"Fowl!" he cried

I am excessively partial to poultry, creatures of distinct personality and delicate sensibility. Which is why the barn housing fowl and rabbits at the Lucas County Fair is so appealing.

There's a degree of optimism here not present in other livestock containment areas, too often points of transition between barnyard and a Hy-Vee meat case.

But here, long careers as free-range layers may be in the future and it seems possible at least that the cage of mallards might be opened and its occupants released to roam.

The spiffy white Leghorns (top) won my congeniality award. They were lively, engaged and occasionally burst spontaneously into song. Did you know Leghorns are of Italian descent, first brought to the United States from Tuscany in 1828? Perhaps nationality has something to do with it.

But this magnificent Buff Orpington (above) was without doubt queen of the show. Although her male counterpart (below) was a handsome devil, he seemed standoffish, somewhat patronizing. That may have been just British reserve. Orpingtons are English, you know.

His counterpart, on the other hand, was friendly, alert and hummed to herself while assessing carefully the humans sent to amuse her.

The birds share their barn with rabbits and sadly there were more bunnies than chickens this year. I find rabbits menacing, including this guy --- although to be fair both of us had been badly startled when two cars collided with a Bang! just outside the barn door.

Across the way, it was easy to see why this dramatic specimen had been judged queen of the cabbages. Just think about the volume of coleslaw encapsulated here. But despite their beauty, cabbages lack personality. I still like the poultry barn best.

The blazing star curtain rises

The curtain is rising just now on what may be the best blazing star show in the south of Iowa, sandwiched between the Cinder Path and Highway 65 on the Lucas-Wayne county line just north of Humeston. Blazing star spikes open to full flower from the top down and that process is just beginning here.

If you want to be in the audience, be cautions about drive-by viewing --- accidents happen. The best bet is to look for the big white anhydrous ammonia tank on the east side of the highway and pull off there. The driveway offers access to the Cinder Path and farm fields beyond --- and is public property.

This unique, and narrow, prairie survival stretches northeast for about two miles, the distance Highway 65 and the Cinder Path run parallel to each other, but the blazing stars perform here.

The area has survived for a couple of reasons. In the first place, the beds of both the highway and the old railroad (now recycled into a path for hiking and biking) are nearly level with the surrounding landscape. That means the ground was only minimally disturbed during their construction.

The area between road and old railroad has never been plowed, nor has it been grazed. People who live in the area have been aware of its significance for many years and took steps to head off blanket applications of roadside herbicides when such practices were common. 

Had the abandoned rail bed not been converted into a public trail, it is likely that the then-owners of adjoining farm fields would have plowed right through it and up to the highway right-of-way.

Circumstances have combined to protect this rare survivial. All we have to do is enjoy and appreciate it.

Compass plants also are putting on a show in the area, too, now --- and I found butterfly milkweed hiding unobtrusively in the grass on Monday.

Diverted by blazing stars

Blazing stars are coming into full bloom now --- and all's right with the world. Briefly, but in remnants like this of the old tallgrass prairie, surrounded by amazing diversity, it's hard to be too distressed about less consequential stuff --- politics, religion, war, the economy.

Wear sturdy shoes --- and pants (unless your legs are outdoors-hardened). Accept the fact a few ticks are going to adhere. It's been a banner year for ticks --- as well as blazing stars.

Sunday was perfect for walking meditation --- cool, sunny, dry. Look down --- not up. Be amazed.

Consider human folly. There once were millions of acres like this, now only tiny remnants.

Imagine a time when, by that folly, humanity is reduced to a remnant and the prairie begins to reclaim its rightful place, escaping narrow bounds, moving across the landscape toward once-prideful little burgs like Derby (now vanishing) --- and swallows them.

Blazing star is unique because it blooms downward from the tops of its flowering spikes. The show is just beginning. Today, you've got plenty of time.

There's much more to see, but pink and purple caught my eyes Sunday.

Wild petunias. Not many, but this one glistened in the grass.

And lots of prairie clover, not actually clover at all. Looks delicate, doesn't it? Not exactly. Tap roots can be up to six feet long.

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The Lucas County Fair, which launched quietly over the weekend, gets serious today as exhibits roll in. You can have all that big-time livestock --- hogs, cattle, still some sheep.

I'm excited about the poultry.

And the sandwiches at the 4-H food stand. And the potential of gooseberry pie. Maybe I'll see you there.

Bee's knees & other moving parts

Bumblebees are our friends, but like other non-human critters are under threat as habitat is destroyed and pesticides applied.

Because of the inter-relatedness of stuff, that means we're in danger, too --- but who pays attention? Who even notices these guys, so common we take them for granted?

I mean, when was the last time you sat down on the grass among the coneflowers and just watched?

Now that all human knowledge has been encapsulated into Wikipedia, I was able to learn after coming in from the back yard last evening that bumblebees are of the genus Bombus. Love that.

And did you know that bumblebees can pollinate plant that others can't by using a technique called buzz pollination?

Or that three varieties of bumblebee native to North America are vanishing and one already may be extinct?

Unless you're aggressive, bumblebees aren't. So get out there, enjoy and marvel.

The Buddha, Desmond Tutu & Mormon Stories

PBS has been featuring this week its 2010 documentary The Buddha, a film by David Grubin --- described occasionally, in a kindly way, as Buddhism for Dummies, since it was intended as an introduction aimed largely at an Americian audience steeped in Christian triumphalism.

The older I get, the more convinced I am that the Buddha got it right although, like Christianity, the basic fabric has been heavily embroidered. Parallels between "the Buddha" and "the Christ" are intriguing, however, and the film worth watching online --- if you've got an hour or two.

The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetian Buddhists, makes quite a few appearances, as might be expected.

The Dalai Lama is a good bud of retired Anglican Archbishop (and bodhisattva) Desmond Tutu (above), who rather famously declared during a conversation with the esteemed Buddhist sage some years ago that "God is not a Christian." Think about it. 

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Anyhow, Tutu is in the news again after declaring on Friday in Capetown, "I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place… I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this."

The archbishop was speaking at a launch rally for the United Nations' new "Free and Equal" campaign that seeks to raise awareness of antigay violence and discrimination throughout the world. Me, too.

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Also this week, I've been listening to Mormon Stories --- principally because of John Hamer's excellent four-part YouTube history of the Community of Christ --- formerly Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Here is the first installment:

Mormon history fascinates me, in part because of remote family connections, but also because so much that was crucial to it played out across the south of Iowa during 1846 and thereafter. I come very close to living right on top of the Mormon Trail, for example.

The Community of Christ --- now headquartered in Independence, Missouri --- is especially of interest regionally because its principal early gathering point was Lamoni, where the denomination's Graceland University still is located.

But I've enjoyed in the past and still do listening to other stories told here of affection, disaffection and challenge for the main branch of the LDS expression of Christianity, headquartered in Salt Lake City.

Some of the story-tellers are LGBT --- the LDS church traditionally has treated its gay children harshly. But many others tell there stories here, too.

It's the type of forum those estranged, or facing estrangement, from the other branches of Christianity might find useful, too, since simply telling one's story can be therapeutic, liberating and perhaps a step toward avoiding the spiritual vacuum that sometimes develops when a faith tradition is abandoned.

One Woman Band and Friends

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 150-160 friends and neighbors turned out Thursday for ice cream --- but mostly for the music I think --- during our old-fashioned ice cream social on the Lucas County Historical Society Museum campus.

It was a great evening --- perfect weather, a steady flow of guests through the museum buildings before ice cream and music were served. Plus, Otterbein Church turned out to be a great setting for the Lucas County Nonprofit Roundtable, which preceded the social.

Sharon Seuferer and her One Woman Band and Friends have a good deal of stamina --- in addition to talent. They had performed three and a half hours straight on Wednesday for thousands of RAGBRAI riders, but you'd never have known they were tired, which they surely must have been.

That's Sharon in the middle up top, flanked by two of her friends --- Craig Wright on hammered dulcimer and Carol Oliver on accordion. You can see from this angle how Sharon does her part --- foot on bass, hands on guitar and mouth on harmonica.

Here's Sharon again, this time a little closer. Carol (below) performs both on accordion and keyboard --- but one instrument at a time only.

Vocals are provided by Cindy Baker (below), rounding out a great ensemble that kept everyone involved for about an hour with a lively mix of old-time and in some cases original music.

There was plenty of ice cream --- Bob Ulrich is serving here.

But it wouldn't have been much fun if it hadn't been for the crowd that turned out to enjoy everything. So thanks to everyone who attended, to Sharon, Carol, Craig and Cindy and to the hard-working LCHS board members, staffers and volunteers who organized and coordinated everything.

Sharon and her group have a new CD available, by the way --- "With God and Butterflies." You can purchase copies at Piper's on the square.

Remembering a "forgotten" war

Korean War veterans, including four who served in combat (above), were honored and ten Lucas Countyans who died were acknowledged late Wednesday during a moving and informative program at the Chariton Public Library organized and presented by Frank Mitchell (left).

That war ended with an armistice signed on July 27, 1953 --- 60 years ago come Saturday. It often is called the "forgotten" war because of the lack of attention it received both during and after, something that is attributed to its position between the global catastrophe of World War II and the angst of Vietnam.

Nonetheless, 327,000 U.S. troops served in the war and more than 36,000 died in combat or of other causes.

Frank, a retired professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles, who now lives in his hometown of Chariton, is himself a Korean War era veteran who was assigned elsewhere.

The four combat veterans of Korea who were recognized Wednesday were (above, from left) Ed Tighe, Junior Nichols, Donald Crawford and Harold Culbertson.

The photograph here includes two additional people. Bob Clark (left) served as a peacekeeper in Korea after the armistice was signed. Shirley (Halferty) Hamilton was present because her brother, U.S. Army Private Donald Lee Halferty (left), age 17, was the first Lucas Countyan to die in the war --- on August 6, 1950, at Naktong Bulge.

Additional information about nine of the Lucas Countyans who died in Korea can be found here, in an earlier post that needs to be updated --- and will be.

The veterans themselves talked a little about their experiences after Frank's presentation. Ed Tighe and Donald Halferty, for example, were by chance aboard the same transport ship conveying troops from the United States to Japan and spent a good deal of time together during that long trip.

And Mr. and Mrs. Donald Crawford (below) were married the day he enlisted --- and are married still. He teased about returning from Korea thinking he might make a career of the military --- an idea that Mrs. Crawford did not find appealing.

Iowa (or is it Ohio?) in the news

RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) spends tonight in Knoxville, then meanders over to Oskaloosa for Thursday night and down to Fairfield Friday before ending the week-long event in Fort Madison on Saturday.

The designated route down from Des Moines today sticks to lesser-traveled paved county roads, but because of Red Rock Lake, there's only one way into Knoxville from the north --- Iowa Highway 14, including the long bridge. This might be a good day to consider another route if that stretch of 14 ordinarily would be included in travel plans.

And remember, too, that Pella on Thursday morning at least, will be one of those places you can't get to from here.  

RAGBRAI's huge and lots of fun (as well as making a substantial financial and public relations impact on towns where it overnights). As a rule it generates at least a little national attention. But so far the media have focused on the disgraced Lance Armstrong,  back in the state for the first three days --- his fifth RAGBRAI.

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Iowa's U.S. Rep Steve King seems to have grabbed the rest of Iowa's share of national attention with remarks last week about "Dreamers," children born elsewhere but brought here while young by undocumented immigrant parents. These kids end up in a peculiar kind of limbo because the U.S. is the only home they've known but they have no legal standing here. The "Dream Act" in its various incarnations is aimed at offering relief.

King expressed his opinion last week in an interview with Newsmax that a majority of these young people are drug traffickers.

"For everyone who's a valedictorian," King said, "There's another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert. Those people would be legalized with the same act."

You've got to love old Steve --- he just opens his mouth and stuff like this comes out. This is great news for Democrats --- because of Steve and his kind our growing population of voters with Hispanic roots is not likely to favor Republican any time soon. On the other hand, Steve --- by association --- helps make Iowans in general look like idiots. But of course the Iowans who keep electing him are.

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The recent decision by Ottumwa High School administrators to ax a student production of The Laramie Project continues to percolate through the media --- The Register finally got around to a weekend report, which then was picked up elsewhere. 

Including by The Advocate, which back in the day before electronic media and mainstream attention to LGBT issues was a widely respected national news magazine devoted to covering the gay community. It still plugs along, but in diminished form.

Anyhow, The Advocate --- in its Twitter and other promotional efforts --- moved Ottumwa from Iowa to Ohio. This happens a lot to Iowa --- mistaken if not for Ohio, then Idaho. There's still a good deal of confusion on the coasts about mid-American geography.

Some have argued that we should let Ottumwa go. But there are too many architecturally significant buildings there to give up without a fight.

Ever watchful & sky-scraper

Looking up --- while picking up cigarette butts, trash and assorted debris between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. today on the Courthouse square. Our ever-faithful soldier boy standing guard atop the Civil War memorial and the copper finials that crown courthouse turrets.

From cleanup to Kate Middleton's uterus

Somehow, a month has passed and it's time for July cleanup. That involves appearing on the square at 6 a.m. to pick up cigarette butts and other trash. This always seems like a good idea --- at any time other than 5 a.m. on the designated morning.

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This also is the day Alliant Energy's tree contractor is scheduled to demolish (top and reshape) the two trees in my front yard. Planted at the same time the house was built, these are not ancient trees and because of ice storms they're a little raggedy, but still. 

Our utility, in its great wisdom, has decided to move electric services out of the alley (where there are no trees) and into the street (where there are), resulting in a peculiar jog that will suspend highline wires over the front yard.

This hardly seems like progress, but if you look at the airborne infrastructure around Chariton --- a nightmarish tangle of leaning poles and tangled milti-level electric, telephone and cable wires --- you would know this is not a place where either aesthetics or integrated planning has high priority.

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It's shaping up to be a busy week otherwise, too. Frank Mitchell will present a public program marking the 60th anniversary of the Korean War at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday in the lower-level meeting room at Chariton Public Library. All are welcome.

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On Thursday, we've got a Policies Committee meeting at 4:30 p.m. at the museum, the non-profit roundtable --- same location --- at 5:30 p.m. and the ice cream social at 6 p.m. (serving begins at 6:30; live music at 7 p.m.). That's going to keep those of us involved in all three moving at a good clip.

At least the day's high is supposed to be only in the lower 80s and fair skies are predicted. So hopefully the weather will cooperate.

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But you never know about the weather around here --- our surprise "shower" Sunday afternoon dumped roughly four inches of rain on Chariton in a fairly short period, leading to brief flooding. We used to call this a cloudburst. 

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Finally, why the gushing over-the-top media coverage (and apparent matching interest) in the product of Kate Middleton's uterus? Golly, I'm as much an anglophile as the next guy, but all of this seems excessive --- and rather silly.

Glamour camping and misspelled names

The Register's Mike Kilen had a good piece in Sunday's Register, headlined "The boys of Highway 34," about the slice of roadside Americana that's sprung up recently on the Lake Vista hill just east of town along --- Highway 34.

Just ignore the YouTube clip for the moment; it's only tangentially relevant. I'll come back to it a little later.

I've written here a couple of times about my friend Nick Cattell's (whose name unfortunately is misspelled in the article) Country Cabins and Glamour Camping Resort, which now forms kind of a unit with Norm Paulsen's Frontier Trading Post, Soda Pop Saloon --- and most recently, miniature golf course --- right next door.

You need to go read the article here --- and maybe fire off an e-mail to Mike about that misspelling after you're done (be sure to thank him politely, though, for a fairly rare positive Register piece about the south of Iowa). 

Kilen isn't a friend of mine, but we do go back a ways --- to the newsroom of the old Globe-Gazette (Mason City), where he sat sportside as a budding writer and I, on the copy desk, perfecting my disdain for reporters who misspell the names of those who figure prominently in their stories. I blame Tom Thoma for this one, however. Or maybe Jeff Tecklenburg was Mike's supervisor at the time?

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Anyhow, the YouTube clip at the top here --- set in California rather than Iowa --- also is about glamour camping, although in a different context. This guy here lives year-around with a good deal of style in what he describes as a three-tent house (living room, bedroom and guest bedroom tents) arranged around a pond in a scenic --- and remote --- location. 

The kitchen is entirely outdoors --- under a shed roof; dining is on a deck (or inside the living tent when the weather isn't cooperating) and the bathroom, in a small permanent building with shower along the wall outside.

The tents are vinyl over stable frames on decking with conventional windows and doors built into the framework. Canvas roofs allow the tents to breathe, but waterproof flysheets are suspended over the canvas to make the roofs rainproof.

This could work in Iowa during the warmer months; not practical for winter, however (as of yet, but what with global warming and all, who knows?). Whatever the case, the concept is fun to look at and dream about. So go ahead.

Fearfully and wonderfully made ...

... or evolved, it you like. In the end methodology makes little difference.

I wandered through a gap in the fence in the southwest corner of the Chariton Cemetery late yesterday morning, then moved onward into undeveloped greenbelt wrapped around the western slope of the big hill --- long placid ponds where fish were jumping, the river just out of sight over an embankment to the south and west, wooded slopes rising to the north and east.

Grasses were in some cases waist high after a lavishly watered spring and the path unclear --- contrast to manicured ranks of granite now out of sight behind me.

The cemetery had been a lively place. Walkers, joggers, at least two groups of family pilgrims armed with cameras and notepads among ancestral tombstones ---and the tent-vault-and-folding-chair fixings for a committal service halfway up one slope.

I parked beside the vault truck, driver snoozing with windows down in the shade, waiting.

Then the dragonflies rose around me --- dozens with every step. Darting, alighting, taking flight again, swooping out over the water, coming back to land.

This golden guy posed willingly. I'm thinking he (or she) had just emerged and was waiting for wings to dry fully before taking flight.

Others were not so cooperative --- although this Blue Dasher seemed to be in no hurry, black-veined wings barely visible against an intense green background.

Life and death juxtaposed, although --- for a few seconds there, I was reincarnated with translucent wings.

Join us for live music - and ice cream - on Thursday

Everyone's invited to join us this coming Thursday on the Lucas County Historical Society Museum campus for an old-fashioned ice cream social that will feature live music, free ice cream, museum tours and, as the name suggests, time to socialize. If the long-range forecast holds, highs that evening are expected to be in the cooler 80s --- and it should be dry (although who would complain about rain between now and then?).

I'm really looking forward to this year's music, to be performed by a trio from the Lacona area. Sharon Seuferer (left above) and Carol Oliver (right) are widely known both as musicians and as proprietors of White Breast Pottery & Weaving. They will be joined by their friend, Craig Wright.

This photo here was taken last fall during the annual Farm Crawl --- at White Breast Pottery. I have another photo in hand --- taken last week by Wanda Horn when the trio performed at the Chariton Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. It includes Craig, but that's reserved for use with publicity that will originate at the museum.

As you can kind of tell from the photo, Sharon performs as a one-woman band, playing harmonica, acoustic guitar and (with her feet) electric bass. Carol generally plays keyboard, but is proficient on a number of instruments, including accordion. Craig will be featured on hammered dulcimer. They're a great group to listen to --- and to watch.

All buildings on the museum campus --- Stephens House, Lewis Building, Otterbein Church, Puckerbrush School, Pioneer Log Cabin, barn and blacksmith shop --- will open to guests at 6 p.m. We'll begin serving ice cream and ice water in the barn at about 6:30 p.m. and the music will begin on the adjacent patio in the neighborhood of 7 p.m. 

Also that evening, we'll host beginning at 5:30 p.m. in Otterbein Church the quarterly meeting of the Lucas County Nonprofit Roundtable. This is a regular gathering of representatives from Lucas County nonprofit organizations who get together to compare notes, learn about funding opportunities, talk about scheduling and strategize. In addition, there will be a brief program on Iowa's REAP (Resource Enhancement and Protection) program. Anyone interested is welcome to attend this program, too.

The museum's Puckerbrush School benefitted last year from a REAP-funded Country School grant (administered by the State Historical Society of Iowa) that aided in roof replacement. We've received another grant this year that will help us deal with foundation issues.