We have noticed significantly more bug spatter since we got to the Missouri river. And I can hear the bug sounds all around (locus are especially active.) It is sort of a background noise that you don't notice if you live here, but coming from the West where we don't hear it, it is noticeable. Brings back memories of growing up in Kansas. I don't miss the chiggers or the locus, but do miss the lightning bugs in July.
The landscape here is similar to where I grew up in Kansas. Short trees, corn fields, rolling hills, silos and farmland. We finally figured out the "Modern Rest Area" signs. It seems that in Iowa, "rest area" is a parking area with no facilities. So it isn't that they have outhouses as Jim surmised -- they just have bushes. "Modern" rest areas, however, have bathrooms. In South Dakota has the same system, but they call the non-facility variety "parking areas" and the facility variety "rest areas."
As we headed towards Des Moines we suddenly encountered white windmills, then more and more of them. Jim said it was a windmill farm, but to me it was more like a windmill forest. It seems to me that windmills are the tall trees of Iowa. Just like the tall trees of the NW, they block out sky and horizon views. They also use windmill blades as abstract sculpture in front of buildings in Iowa, or at least we saw one being used that way at a "modern" rest stop.
We passed a sign for a "Danish Windmill Museum," a "Silo and Smokestack Heritage Area", and a Tractor museum. The Tractor museum has over 150 full-sized tractors plus a toy tractor exhibit and other farm items. They even have a small doll collection in a room named the "Tractor Widow's Lounge." It seems like in the MidWest "points of interest" are more man-made than nature-made
We arrived at Rob and Linda's house in Chariton around noon. They have made a lot of improvements to the house since we were last here. Rob and a neighbor built a large shop, and Rob has been remodeling the house. Most recently he completely redid the bathroom, which looks great.At the back of the shop, Rob built a room that he uses to make diesel and soap from discarded cooking oil that he collects downtown. They run one of their trucks with it and don't need to buy gas. They jokingly call it their "meth lab" and I'll have to admit that it does look like something straight our of "Breaking Bad."
Rob and Linda have been doing some landscaping as well. They planted a row of arborvitae along the sidewalk and installed an arbor with a gate and have put in lots of plants around the house.
They bought one plant at Lowe's that came with it's own hummingbird -- following them right out of the store. Or at least they thought it was a small hummingbird until they looked it up and discovered it was actually a moth called the hummingbird moth. And we got to see it. They have lots of hummingbirds too. Amazing how similar they look as they are hovering over a flower. I took some pictures and when you stop the action, you can see that it has moth characteristics.
Rob was smoking some chickens for dinner when we got there. He is quite a chef. He also smokes
jerky, cheese, and every kind of meat. He got two deer this year and he made summer sausage, and even breakfast sausage. Their garden is going strong as well and they do a lot of canning. We enjoyed
a wonderful meal from the garden and smoker.
For several years now Rob has been buying tax liens. Every once and a while he ends up with a house. This happened recently and he and Jim slipped away to see the house. Linda and I followed. They couldn't get rid of us that easy! The house is in disrepair (as you would expect). At one time it was divided into three apartments. There are tons of stuff that the people left behind and it's going to take Rob and Linda some time to go through everything and get it cleaned out before they can start work on it. Problem is it is not all junk. There are some valuable or at least sellable items along the junk.
The house is pre-1900 and has some beautiful wood flooring and other features. Jim thinks it would be a beautiful house if restored. Rob is putting a roof on it and then putting up a "For Sale" sign while he continues to fix it up. Hopefully someone will see the potential and snap it up.
We also went by a building that Rob's partner in tax sales picked up and is letting Rob use for storage. They have their boat there and plan to rent out space for storage of recreational items and such.
Linda and I took off on our own for a tour of "hay round" sculptures around town. Hay rounds are like hay bales only rolled up into large cylindrical bales. Every year in Chariton they have a contest for the best hay sculpture. They will judge and announce the winner around Halloween.
Sculptures around town - Iowa style.
No comments:
Post a Comment