In August The Northeast Quarter won The Pinnacle Book Achievement Award 2017 Best Book Category Fiction. Wherever my mother is right now, I am sure she is throwing one hell of a party.

Two months ago Cedar Rapids had another flood. The Cedar River overflowed and now the citizens of Cedar Rapids are repairing the damage. Many Iowans compare this occurrence with the larger Flood of 2008 in which both the Cedar and Iowa Rivers overflowed and caused what FEMA estimated to be almost 800 million dollars in damage.
It got me to thinking. How do the Iowans (or anyone) truly predict a flood? Sitting here in Brooklyn, I had always thought that you predict a flood from the intensity of the rainfall. Around here if the rain falls hard and nonstop for a few days, it is only natural that the result will be water rushing over the curb, onto the sidewalk and maybe over the surface of the street.
Predicting a real flood is more complicated than that. One must take the river into account as well.
I found a posting

In Iowa the economy of each particular year is a reflection of that year’s harvest. Some years are good; some are bad. At the moment 2016 doesn’t seem to have the makings of a good year.

I was reading an article in The Des Moines Register by Kevin Hardy and Donnelle Eller entitled “Is Iowa Heading For A Recession?” which explores this subject.

It is a truism that if there is an economic downturn one year, there will always be a rebounding of the economy a few years down the line. For many farmers the downturns can be particularly painful. It’s their livelihood. And since Hardy and Eller’s article is dated February 10th of this year, this year’s story is not over. There is still a strong possibility of a recession in 2016.

What is different about this year? For one thing, on first glance there are examples which make

While writing my installment on the raising of monarda in Northern Iowa, I was curious about what types weeds could be found in the fields along with this new type of crop. One offender (among many) is the Canadian Thistle.
What are farmers doing about this? They’ve been fighting weeds for years, but now the government has gotten into the act to help them out. I came across an article in AGinfoday by Bob Hartzler. The title is Biggest Problem For Iowa Farmers Missing From Noxious Weed Law. Hartzler is referring to Iowa Code 317 which defines the law. It sounds like common sense – except for one thing. A question of timing.
With their legislation it is the bureaucrat who are defining which weeds are harmful (“noxious” in the document) and which ones are not. So far so good. However, Hartlzer mentions that the category of what is noxious

I was reading through Iowa Farmer Today and came across a couple of articles which caught my attention. They concern Monarda, a flower which is being grown in Northern Iowa in place of a crop.
What is Monarda? According to Gene Lucht’s article, their full name is Monarda Fistulosa. Although the name makes the plant sound like a wayward prize fighter from a small town in Italy, they are actually a species of mint. Monarda looks like a purple wildflower and a field full of them definitely offers a pleasant change of scenery among the corn fields.
Why then are some farmers raising them in place of a crop such as corn or soybean? A biotech company called Prairie Pharms LLC has discovered that an extract from Monarda contains thymoquinone (or TQ) which is used in the manufacturing of certain cosmetics. Up until the closest ingredient to TQ was found

The other morning I saw a photo of a wind turbine out in California. Part of the wind energy business. It got me to thinking how that endeavor is doing in Iowa. I came across an article “Wind Energy Production: Legal Issues And Related Liability Concerns For Landowners In Iowa And Across The Nation” by Roger A. McEowen. It was in the Iowa State University CALT (Center For Agricultural Law And Taxation) newsletter. Although dated June 20th 2011, the article is as pertinent today as it was five years ago.

Windmills have always been part of the our landscape. In the old days they pumped water for the traditional American farm. For me there was always something soothing about them. It meant people lived there, the crops were irrigated. They belonged on the farm on which they were located. It didn’t bother the people on the next plot of land