Dexter Iowa Community Site

Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

A few random thoughts this week….

1. I haven’t yet made it down to the Des Moines Art Center to see American Gothic. It’s on display until late March so make sure you don’t miss it. And the best part it’s free!
2. I’m really not sure what to think about the latest twist with the Dexter Roundhouse issue. On one side you have a historic building that is so unique that people come to see it, yet on the other hand the building is completely unutilized. Why aren’t we seeing concerts, plays, orations all the things the building was meant to be used for? I would think if the city is having to foot the heating bill why not at least hold something in it to help pay the bills and to attract more people into town. More traffic means more money spent here which helps everyone. This isn’t the first time a town has sold off a building. I believe it was the school that handed the town the building back in the first place. Perhaps there are more pieces of property that need to be sold off and put back on the tax rolls? A similar rumor took place in Stuart a month or so back when rumor floated around town and slowly died off that the city was looking at selling the former Rock Island Depot now that 40% of the restoration work on the building has been done. I’m sure there will be more to this, but certainly like we have tightened our own budgets at homes, the small towns across Iowa are being forced to do the same thing.
3. I’m a little jealous of people who are lambing and calving this time of year. I remember those days from my youth. The long nights spent watching ewes as they were getting ready to lamb. And the excitement of watching the newborns take their first steps.
4. Two words this week…. Brats and Sauerkraut! Yum!
5. The children came through parent teacher conferences unscathed this last week. It’s always fun to walk in and spend a little time with the people who see them almost as much as we do. And even more fun going home and watching the kids as they nervously await their fate.
6. Took the kids to the State Historical Museum this weekend. They had a great time. Even things I thought they wouldn’t’ be all that interested in seemed to capture their attention. An advance apology to anyone who runs into Max this week and has to hear about Mastodons. We finished up our time there in the gift shop, the girls picking out Mood Rings and Max now sporting a very stylish and sophisticated “Coon Skin Hat”.
7. Have you figured out digital television yet? There is something to be said for 6 straight hours of Laredo followed by The Incredible Hulk and A Team. But someone please explain to me what channel 56.1 is? I think it went from some home movies of a tough man competition to the Tin Foil hat Cool Aid drinker news the other night. By the end of it, the guy on the screen had even me believing in government conspiracies!
8. Have you been over to see John at the grocery store lately? If you haven’t stop by and see what’s new…and please tell him you saw his ad in the paper!
9. Finally this week, the cold weather is starting to break up which means that I’m quickly coming to the end of the “Corn Burner” season. I wonder what I will do with all the spare time I have now that I won’t have to carry buckets of corn to the basement every couple of days. Regardless of the work it has been, and those nights I sat up fixing the auger and scooping corn off of the floor, I did only spend 1/3 of what LP would have cost me this year. But they aren’t for everyone. Not as much work as a wood stove, but you can’t just load it up and forget it.

See you next week. Remember, we’re all in this together.