Riverbend Journal

  After putting the canner and supplies for another season, I thought I would share with you a picture of our canning shelves in the storage room of our basement. As you can see, they are pretty well stocked with preserves for the upcoming year(s). For many of the things I preserve enough for multiple years worth of food because we don't always raise them like beans, squash, cucumbers and such. Other things like tomatoes, fruit, and pickled goods, I fill jars as they become available and I have excess to preserve. We do give away a fair amount of our canned goods to family and close friends as gifts so there is enough for them too.  It is a bounty of good eating. It also isn't all of our stash. Upstairs in our walk-in pantry, I have a custom made canning rack that holds around 100 jars. Typically, we store a variety of stuff up on the pantry shelf in no certain order and then replenish it from time to time with stock from the above shelves. Generally as I get a basketful of emp

My wife had a milestone birthday a few weeks back and to celebrate, we went out to eat at a new(ish) fancy steakhouse that opened up in a new motel in town earlier this spring. It is a chain known for their fancy steaks though neither of us much care for steaks in a restaurant setting. My wife got the chicken and I got the fish, both delicious and both a small fraction of the price of their steaks. We enjoyed the meal tremendously but due to the high price (much much less than had we ordered steaks) we probably won't return anytime soon. However, our server for the night was extremely nice. He perfected the service by making us feel welcome and engaging us in the right amount of conversation without feeling over bearing. Our waters were constantly topped up and he was more than happy to fulfill any requests we had. My wife, near the end of the meal, asked me if he was in the running for "Mom's Tip." I had never heard my wife refer to it as such but instantly that noti

In the afternoon of Thursday, June 9, 1864, the trial of Lant McComb for the murder of Laura Jane Harvey and George Lawrence, continued on with D. F. Gaylord being recalled to the witness stand. This time the questioning focused on his effort to track down McComb in the days after the murder. Gaylord said he had traveled at first in several directions trying to locate McComb and finally stopped for the night at a house seven miles north of Sigourney. There he learned that a team of horses had passed by some time ago which led him to travel onto South English and from there to Iowa City. It was in Iowa City that Gaylord found the brown and bay horses, harness and both of the bridles. The brown horse was in the possession of the livery man and the bay with a man named Craft. Gaylord continued onto Rockford where he stopped at the Harvey family farm and then returned back to Ottumwa, bringing the bridles with him and handing them over to Judge Aaron Beardslee. Two months had passed by sin

  After getting the firepit dug out and the misplaced planter box cut up into three raised beds for my wife to move her strawberry plants to a new raised bed location, I ordered four tons of dirt which is a full load and had them dump it on my driveway to one side so I could still sneak around the pile with vehicles. I thought it would take me a few days to move the dirt. Seven days later, I still have a small pile left. If anyone asks, I'm telling them it was my test for a new reality show called the fountain of youth, where I, the star of the show, attempt to ascertain if I still have access to my youth or not. The alternative title is how many ibuprofen do I need to get through the rest of the day. I moved maybe half a ton of the dirt into the three raised beds my wife wants for her strawberry plants, something to distinguish them from the rest of the garden so they don't get trampled on. I then moved another two and three-quarters of a ton to fill in the void where the fire

A.I. Generated Image "Beyond the Grave" is a book by Condon and Condon that is well recommended among some internet circles that I participate in about the proper way to leave assets to your heirs after your death. I've heard it goes into lots of reasons of why you shouldn't try to control things for lots of years after your death because inevitably something will go wrong. I haven't yet read this book but have it on my soon to read list. Unfortunately for some of my ancestors, this book wasn't around and a real mess was created. I won't attempt to give you a blow by blow because it was two hours of reading a legal document and a very complex case. But the short version is thus: William Barr Sr., brother to my 6th great grandfather Samuel Barr willed his estate to his son, John M. Barr for life. Should John predecease him, then to John M's wife Maria and after her death to all their children. Four years after the death of William Barr Sr., son John M.