Dear Rainmaker,

I feel rather powerless and inadequate in broaching this subject to you. Who am I to complain or nag about the weather? That being said, your power is unrivaled. In some regions of the country (except San Diego where the weather is usually the same from day to day) nearly every conversation begins with talk about you. Every day a portion of the nightly news is devoted to you. So, please do not take offense at my humble entreaty.

Between me and you – the rain needs to moderate. Really, enough already. In this neck of the woods, we get it. You win. Knocking out a major city’s water supply and flooding downtown Des Moines, along with filling Hilton Coliseum in Ames with water in 1993 was an attention getter. In 2008, you took out Cedar Rapids and did your best in Iowa City. Just last week, you took out a dam on the Maquoketa River. Heck, for the first time on the ride home from Minnesota, there was a road detour on a detour.

Many people have traditionally danced for you to bring rain. I’m not sure what the ritual or program is to ask the the rain not to stop, but to stop the excess. I’ll wait for inspiration. Heck, maybe a blog entry will be all it takes to appease you.

Mark

one year ago…”Garlic Harvest”

Today we might just as well have lived on the approach to ORD, DEN, or MSP.

Early Sunday morning, the crop dusters started buzzing, sometimes two at a time, it seemed for most of the otherwise quiet and calm Sunday morning and afternoon. In the city, FAA regulations don’t allow planes to fly this close to residential properties and structures. And of course, it just isn’t one fly-by, but repeated twists, turns, and approaches. I was happy when the droning and buzzing finished for the day.

one year ago…”1,000 Friends of Iowa Conference”

There are some places that are so incongruous.  The Rockford Fossil Quarry in north central Iowa is just such a place. It is only one of three public fossil collecting sites in the nation.

Here’s a fine example of the kinds of fossils you can easily find.

The town in quite proud of it’s claim to fame, as it is proclaimed not as “Home of Devonian Fossils” but Home of THE Devonian Fossils”

The landscape has a decidedly western feel to it – something you’d expect to see in South Dakota or Wyoming, not surrounded by corn fields.

Martin readies to pluck a 370 million year old fossil exposed to the light for the first time in a LONG time!

Martin showing off one of his finds.

Again, Linda and Emma collecting on a Badlands-looking outcrop.

Mud cracks – nothing screams the desert west more than these!

The quarry was originally home to these beehive kilns that were used to make bricks.

A waste pile of bricks leftover from when the kilns shut down.  I think they’ve got a bit of an artistic look to them, much like Tiffany glass patterns popular in Frank Lloyd Wright homes.

one year ago…”Who Put a Spell on Mark”