On to Greener Pastures

I'm moving on, friends. A friend and fellow blogger has led me to Vox.com and it seems to be less cumbersome to use. So now you can find me at: http://rawbanana.vox.com/ See you there!

Thawing Out

It’s been a long time since I posted on this blog. Life has been just a little hectic and clearing my head long enough to write has been too much of a challenge.

We’ve come through one of the coldest and snowiest winters in my lifetime. I’m sure I’ve endured a day or two in the “teens”, but never weeks…and weeks….! I’ve heard that this was one of the longest stretches of cold weather in recent memory and, darn it, it just had to be my first in Iowa! And then there’s the snow. I think there was about 10 weeks of continuous snow cover on the ground, which is about 9 weeks longer than I have ever had to deal with. The first 5 or 6 weeks was pretty, but I got pretty sick of it after that.

The worst of the weather was the Blizzard of March 2. I’ve posted a couple of pictures on my flicker site (http://flickr.com/photos/rawbanana/) that show white-out conditions where the snow was actually blowing sideways. Amazingly, by the end of March the sun was out, the grass was greening-up and daffodils were emerging. The weather forecast for this week calls for some cooler weather with snow flurries, but the worst is behind us.

The seasons here seem to be pretty clearly defined: summer = hot, fall = cool, Winter= cold and spring = a huge sigh of relief!!

Winter Chill

The weather has turned frigid. The high temperature today was 9 degrees but the wind chill is 30 degrees below zero. This is the Iowa winter I was warned about.

The view from my kitchen window is beautiful. The skin is a brilliant blue and the sun casts long shadows across unblemished white snow. But take one step outside the door and the cold will quite literally take your breath away. When I went outside this morning to go to the grocery store, the skin on my face stung from the cold. The wind is brutal, coming in from the north. It's true - the only thing between us and Canada is Minnesota...and Minnesota is even colder than Iowa! The weatherman on the television said this is the coldest weather in almost 11 years and there's no let-up in sight.

I had forgotten a few items when I went to the store this morning but I decided we could do without the extra burger and cat litter until tomorrow. Today I'm going to stay inside and admire the view from this side of my kitchen window.

I Just Had Myself a Good Cry

<--- (a view of the Shenendoah River at Harper's Ferry)

Wow...I just surprised myself with a crying jag that came on out of the blue.

I'm at the computer, planning my spring gardens and listening to the XM radio station "The Village". Nice folkie-type music to warm me up on a 30 degree below zero windchill day. Cool coincidence - my favorite gardening song came on and I sang along.....

The Garden Song http://www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/garden-song.shtml

Inch by inch, row by row,

gonna make this garden grow.

Gonna make it deep and low,

gonna make it fertile ground.

Inch by inch, row by row

Someone bless these seeds I sow

Keep them safe and sound below

'til the rain comes tumbling down.

Pullin' weeds and pickin' stones

Man is made of dreams and bones

Need a place to call me own

'Cause the time is close at hand

etc.................................

That song was followed by "Take Me Home, Country Roads". I love that song. (I'll even admit to being a huge John Denver fan.) Of course I started singing along with this song too, and then the tears welled up in my eyes and I let out a sob. My God, I was feeling homesick for Virginia (and Maryland, West Virginia too). I had to stop working and compose myself and just when I thought I'd pulled myself together, what should start playing next was "Shenandoah". The tears began, the sobs started and I was a mess once again.

I was really blown away by this flood of emotions. I hadn't given my old home a second thought since I moved to Iowa 5 months ago and swore I didn't miss anything we'd left behind. Until now. Up from deep inside came those southern roots and memories of the haze hanging over the Potomac River on a humid August afternoon, the sound of locusts at night, sweet iced tea and fried green tomatoes. I'm wondering if I'll ever be an Iowan or will I just be a transplant from someplace else.

Oh, I'm sure I'll recover soon enough and once again sing the praises of prairie life. But right now I feel like crying a little more and missing home.

Presidential Politics Come to Iowa

Matt and I took off yesterday on a trek to Iowa City/University of Iowa to attend a Town Hall Meeting with John Edwards. As most of you know I've always been a bit of a political junkie, so I was really looking forward to this event. I was happy to have Matt express an interest in the upcoming Presidential election and I look forward to guiding him through the process. It was a 75 mile drive south to Iowa City and we used the time to talk about Matt's questions. It gave me a chance to explain the electoral college, differences between the major parties, and what my beliefs are.

We arrived about an hour before the eventbut we were able to get into the hall and get really great seats in the second row. I took some time to check out the audience and saw quite an assortment of "types" - a pink haired punker, David Crosby look-alike "old hippie", SEIU union members in their purple t-shirts, college students, average Joes and Janes. I hate to use a cliche', but you could sense the electricity and anticpation.

Elizabeth Edwards entered the hall to a rousing cheer and applause, followed by her husband. She took a few minutes to speak and talk about why she felt Edwards was the best candidate before turning the microphone over to Edwards. The crowd gave him a lengthy standing ovation.

I won't bore you with the content of his comments since you can find them anywhere on the 'net. I will say that I was extremely impressed with his candor and willingness to say when he had not yet formulated a solid view on a particular issue. Quiet honestly, this is the person who would get my vote if I had to make a decision today. But there are two years to go and many more candidates to sort through.

Hilalry Clinton is due to visit Iowa in the next couple of weeks and we plan to go to one of here events if it's held close by.

www.johnedwards.com

Winter Chill

Winter in Iowa has finally arrived, with a vengence. After basking in spring-like 60 degree days well into January, the temperatures have dropped into the teens during the day. And then there's the snow...About 4 inches of snow fell last weekend, and unlike what would happen in the East, it's still on the ground. I'm used to having a glorious snowfall that quickly melted, turned to slush, froze and reverted back to an icky brown slush. A week later, the snow here is still a pretty white.

More snow is in the forecast for Sunday evening.

Awesome Sight

I was driving from Manchester to Dyersville this morning and told my daughter to be on the lookout for an eagle. The eagles that normally inhabit this area usually travel east to the shores of the Mississippi River when the fields here are snow covered. Because of our lack of snow, the fields are bare and there are plenty of small animal prey for the eagles.

I've never seen more than two eagles at any one time so we were shocked to see a group of at least 50 eagles standing in a field by the side of the road. We pulled off onto a gravel road to get a better look. Such majestic birds!

Life's Little Irritants

Every have one of those days when it seem slike the entire universe is conspiring to tick you off? Well, this is one of those days.

1. I keep running into a situation that's driving me crazy. I know someone who is adopted. When this person's actions cause disagreement, some folks consistently blame it on the fact that he's adopted. It just strikes a raw nerve with me, being an adoptee myself. I can be bitchy, bull-headed, contrary or all of the above and it doesn't have one little thing to do with the fact that I'm adopted!!!! It has everything to do with the fact that I'm bitchy, bull-headed and contrary!!! (Rant over...I feel better now.)

2. The phone rang at my office all morning. I had work coming out of my ears and every time I got half way into something I had to answer the phone. I came this < > close to throwing the thing right out the window!

3. I hate knee-high stocking that keep sliding down my legs. I feel like I have a rubber band around my calves. Pretty image, huh?

I'm done for now. Have an appointment to run to. I'm sure I'll have more rants later.

I'm In Love

I love this place.

I've heard people talk about how the land becomes a part of you, but I never understood what that meant. I've lived in many places and some I've liked more than others, but I've never felt a physical connection to any of those places, until now.

The seasons define the land here and all of its attributes. It can be both beautiful and stark, gentle and rough, colorful and plain. It's winter now and the colors are muted and mostly shades of brown. The contours of the land are visible - rolling fields stretching for miles into the distance, stopped only by the straight line of the horizon. Driving on an overcast morning, you can sometimes be startled by the sun breaking through the clouds and shining brightly on a red barn and white outbuildings in the distance. It's as if God is blessing the farmer, assuring him that the warm days of spring are just ahead.

Summer brings farm fields awash in color - the vibrant bright green of the corn stalks, robin's-egg blue skies and the billowing white clouds signaling the impending birth of a thunderstorm. The ups and downs of the hills are shielded from view by the lush crops.

I travel the rural roads and see lonely cemetaries and their tombstones standing above the graves of generations of people who came to this place and made it their home. I think about these people and their lives filled with hard work, heartache and lonliness. Many left their families behind, crossing the ocean, to come to these small towns in search of a better life. Many prospered here, leaving the land to their children so that the work could continue. Some failed and their abandoned homes are their legacy.

How can I not love this place? It is a place where hard work and honest hearts prevail. It's my home and it has welcomed me as its own.


This is a link to "Prairie Poetry", a website I've just discovered.

http://www.prairiepoetry.org/poetry06/index1106.html

You See Things Differently When You Move to the Middle

I've come to the conclusion that living in a major metropolitan area blinds one to the realities of what life in this country is really like. New York, Chicago, DC, LA...all great places to visit but what happens there is not like what goes on in 90% of the rest of the country.

Let me explain - I spent 30+ years in the DC area. I grew up reading the Washington Post and thinking that National News = Local News. News of war, crime, global issues, political intrigue shaped my attitudes and opinions. Carrying a protest sign in front of the White House for the cause du jour was a right of passage for a young person living in the DC area. Big Global Issues were what had my attention. Music, fashion, culture were all influenced by the media and the influx of people from all over the world. What was important there was where you lived, what car you drove, where you shopped and, of course, what you wore. There were rural areas close by, places that were important to us for the quaint antique shops and famer's markets. If the children from those areas attended our schools they were called "hicks" or "rednecks".

Fast forward a few years and a thousand miles and here I am living in the middle of Farm Country, the rural midwest, and I've found myself suffering the effects of complete culture shock! I've given up Starbucks, the Washington Post, shopping malls, trendy restaurants, and funky boutiques. I can only pick up a few radio stations and the local tv news is not the glitzy production I'm used to. Are these bad things? At first I thought so, but as time goes by I'm missing them less and less.

I'm beginning to realize that rural folks, farm people, are some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I've met. They talk politics from the common-man point of view and seem to know pretty well what's important. They can discuss economics because they live it - running a 2000 acre farm is big business, my friends! The energy crisis and gas prices are a hot topic here in Iowa as more and more communities have to decide if they will welcome ethanol plants. Education takes center stage because rural schools are the heart of most communities. The entire state of Iowa may only have the population of the DC area, but Iowa schools are ranked as some of the best in the country.

So what's important here? People. Neighbors, friends & family and important. Saving the family farm, keeping our well-educated kids here after graduation, jobs, taking care of our elderly...that's what seems to be on people's minds. Sure, there's a world outside of Iowa and people talk about Darfur and Iraq, but it's seems to be kept in perspective. How can we save the world if we can't take care of issues right here?

The '08 elections are looming and Iowa will take center stage with the caucuses. I'm looking forward to participating and hearing my neighbors ask tough questions of the candidates. I hope the candidates listen because what happens here is what's really important in this country.

Here's a link to a wonderful blog that gives great insight to the issues facing rural America. Take a minute to look it over. It just might give you some things to think about.

http://ruralpopulist.org/

Time to Exhale

I'm beginning to emerge from a long dry spell where I was unable to get my thoughts together enough to write about them. Chalk it up to a bout of bipolar depression brought on my too many gray days, endless deadlines at work, the usual Holiday stress and life in general. I'm back to "normal" and ready to once again put pen to paper...or fingers to keyboard.

I changed the format of the blog because the focus will also be changing. I started out writing from culture shock - getting used to life in this strange new place called Iowa. After 4 months I'm beginning to acclimate to life here, so there'll be fewer occaisions to write about all the things I found so odd and fascinating (not that I don't still find inspiration in the ubiquitous Jello Salad). Now I find myself more focused on my life as a Stay-at-Home-Mom, Bride-to-Be, spiritual seeker and gardener.

And so it goes.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.........

What can I say? It's mid-November and it snowed on Friday afternoon. Only an inch, but it was blustery and cold. Has the dreaded Iowa Winter arrived?

Farm Livin'

Farm Livin' alright! My #2 son (Daniel) just started a job on the area's largest cattle and hog farm and he is as happy as a pig in......well, you know the rest! Seriously, he's a kid who loves to get his hands dirty and work hard (not bad for a teenage boy) and when I suggested he get a job at a local fast-food joint he replied, "No Mom, I want a real job." Ok, not argument from me. This job came up and out we drove to the little hamlet of Greeley, IA, named after Horace Greeley and home of 2 of the original Budweiser Clydesdale wagon drivers (hence the big horse statue in the middle of town).

Honestly, you all know I'm not exactly a farm girl so it shouldn't come as a big surprise that I find much of farming to be "icky", especially the lovely aroma around a hog confinement facility. But I did my best to not crinkle up my nose when we met the owner of the farm and took a tour. It was impressive - 6 huge grain silos, barns, acres and acres of corn fields, cattle, hogs...and "poop". Lots of "poop". "Poop" on my shoes and in my car and, well you get the idea. :)

So, Dan got the job and I left him there to work a few hours. He had a grin on his face as I drove away and was positively ecstatic when he got home 3 hours later. He was soaked from head to toe with water and hog yuck, all from power washing the hog barns. He was thrilled to have been allowed to drive a skid loader and the big diesel Ford F350 truck. He stunk up my entire house as he wandered up and down the hall and through the living room, telling about his adventures. Truly, I'm very proud of my son for wanting to work hard and earn his salary. He's going to work every afternoon after school and on Saturdays, which is fine as long as he can keep his grades decent at school.

I keep being amazed at the changes I'm seeing in our lives as we adjust to living in small-town America. It's not always easy to give up the conveniences of city/suburban living but so far, so good for all of us. I just plan on keeping a good supply of Glade Air Freshener handy!



"Green Acres"Green Acres is the place to be
Farm livin' is the life for me
Land spreadin' out so far and wide
Keep Manhattan just give me that countryside

New York is where I'd rather stay
I get allergic smelling hay
I just adore a penthouse view
Darling I love you but give me Park Street
The chores, the stores
Fresh air, Times Square
You are my wifeGood bye city life
Green Acres we are there

It's Already Cold and I'm Looking Forward to Spring!

The seasons have definitely changed and there's a hint of winter in the air. Coming from the mid-Atlantic states, I'm used to 4 distinct seasons. I've endured cold winter weather and gray days, but those occurred much later than what we're seeing here in Iowa. It's just mid-October and we've already had a dusting of snow on the ground.

I'm beginning to fear what might lie ahead in the next few months - frigid below-zero days and snow. Invariably when I meet someone and they find out that I'm from the "Tropics of Maryland", I hear the phrase, "I hope you're ready for winter here!" Honestly, I'm not sure I am! The snow I'm used to might have accumulated 6 inches or more, but it often began to melt within 24 hours. The cold weather might have gone as low as the teens, but it was followed by sunny days in the mid-30's. Blizzards, true blizzards, were very rare. Am I going to now feel the effects cabin fever from being snow-bound?

I think I've found a remedy to my fears.....Garden Planning! The Iowa State Univesity Extension Office has a wonderful website with tips on what to grow in Iowa. I'm keeping busy making lists of vegetable plants and flowers that I want to put in the ground as soon as it thaws...even if it's not until June. Prairie flowers are becoming my new passion. Maybe I can recreate a little plot of the native plants and flowers that are reapidly becoming a rarity here. Wouldn't it be lovely to have a garden that attracted birds and butterflies all summer long.

And then there are the vegetables. If my garden is as big as I think it will be, I'm going to need a pressure cooker and lots of jars for canning! Beans, peppers, tomatoes (lots of tomatoes), cucumbers, melons, herbs will all have a place in my garden. And I'm going to set aside at least 2 of those tomato plants for Green Tomatoes. Isn't that the Holy Grail of Southern Cuisine? A Platter of the Almighty Fried Green 'Mater? That, my friends, is heaven on a plate! The thought of those green delicacies sizzling in pan of bacon grease just might be enough to get me through the next few months.

It Takes a Village

I’ve been writing this blog for a month or so and it all sounds so idyllic, doesn’t it? I certainly don’t exaggerate when I extol the virtues of living in the Heartland. I can’t help but think how lucky people are to have lived here all their lives here, but how unaware of how fortunate they are. Perhaps I’ve been away from the East Coast long enough to begin to have some negative feelings towards the environment we lived in. Just as my descriptions of Iowa are no exaggeration, neither is what I have to say about life in the East. (These are just my opinions. I expect that some readers will have had different experiences than mine.)

We lived in a pretty solidly middle-class area. There were pockets of affluence, but mostly there were just people who aspired to affluence. Never in my life have I seen people so consumed with driving expensive cars, living in big houses, wearing designer clothes and being better than the folks next door. In order to maintain the illusion of affluence, they endured horrendously long commutes to get to impersonal corporate office parks and toil long hours in tiny cubicles. It never seemed to me that there was any quality of life.= when so much time was spent away from home. Many kids were out of control because (in my opinion) no one was at home to supervise what they were doing. Drug use , sex and teenage pregnancy was not uncommon. Children had no respect for adults and their parents reinforced that attitude with their “Don’t you dare tell my kid what to do” attitudes. It seemed so selfish, narcissistic and soul-less.

Unfortunately, my own children became part of that culture and took on the attitudes to go with it. They were often out of control and disrespectful both at home and at school. It was nearly impossible to hold them accountable for their actions when their environment reinforced and rewarded them for it. I know I was part of the problem because my children needed a Mom at home to give them roots and stabilty, but I couldn't afford to be where I wanted to be.

Fast forward a few months……………….and here we are in the Heartland. Most of what you hear about Midwest values is true. What’s important is God, family and community. No one really cares what car you drive or how many square feet of house you occupy. Status doesn’t come from where you work or how you dress. In fact, status isn’t really important at all. Stay-at-home Moms are commonplace and the Village really does help raise your child. The Village cares about children.

It took about a week for my kids to get with the program and realize that the attitudes they brought with them were not going to cut it here. Imagine my joy when #2 son said to #1 son….”People in Manchester Don’t act that way!” Their hair is shorter, their pants are up around their waists and I’ve even caught them listening to country music!

To be honest, all is not perfect here. I still miss my Sunday Washington Post and sometimes I get a little crazy realizing that I have to drive 40 miles in any direction before I find a Mall. But I’ll trade those things for a life that gives me Friday Night Football and genuinely friendly people who couldn’t care less that I drive an 18 year old car. I like this place more each day.