Hibernation: this entire idea came to this author’s attention again during a casual conversation with several friends. They were commenting on our recent cold air weather pattern that made them say “I wish I could hibernate.” For us humans that idea is something we can attempt to ...

Barred owls are common in Iowa. Their year around range as a non-migratory bird of prey is all of eastern USA and much of Canada, Yukon territory, Alaska and the northern Rocky Mountains. It hunts at night for small animals such as squirrels, chipmunks, mice, voles, rabbits and birds up to ...

Winter’s season has pounced upon us, reminding us of who is in charge of the weather. Mother Nature has transformed the landscape into a bright white layer of the new snowflake dominated moisture. It is beautiful to look at, and is not an unexpected outcome of living in a Midwest location ...

Inspiration is a unique quality. Sometimes it leads us toward special places, or to accomplish things we did not know we could do. Our known “to-do” lists might become agonizingly too long, so it becomes easy to join the club of procrastinators. If you can identify with that idea, raise ...

irst of all at this holiday season time of the year, I wish you and all whom you care about a very Merry Christmas. So in that theme, you can read, again, the special “First Christmas” story penned by the late John Garwood. Many of you never knew this man. He wrote columns for this ...

Winter is a reminder that colder weather is a normal expectation. Cold air, strong winds, snow, sleet, freezing rain, rain, sunny days and cloudy days are all part of this seasonal transition. Our Earth’s axis is tilted away from the sun to its maximum angle of about 24 degrees. One week ...