Riverbend Journal

  1870 map showing Appanoose Island and the ferry It was 6 a.m. Friday morning on the 30th of March, 1860 when Obediah Aumack drove his horse and wagon into the Des Moines River at lower ferry of Ottumwa on his way to do his daily milk deliveries. As he drove the team through the shallow water, he saw the body of a young girl laying in the river slightly downstream at the head of Appanoose Island. She was laying on her side with her face down in twelve inches of water and her head pointing downstream. Her red calico dress was hooked on a tree stump beached on a towhead at the head of the island.  Sand had already partially buried her body. Her skull had been broken and blood matted her auburn hair and small gold drop earrings. One eye was black and blue and the face swollen. Deeply indented finger marks were still visible on the fair skin around her throat. Aumack shouted for some help from some people on the town side of the river but the distance was too great to be heard clearly so

For the last week or two, our harvests from the garden have looked very much like the one above, a few yellow squash and a couple handful of French green beans. Largely, we have been keeping up with them just eating them with our evening meals but we did break down and give away some squash to a couple of acquaintances that evidently weren't hooked up since squash and zucchini are practically everywhere this time of years. With a cool streak for July, nearly breaking records for the lowest high temperature of the day in the upper 70's, we decided to take advantage of it by digging up what remained of our root crops. Above, you see what was left drying on our deck before we started the preservation process. We had eaten most of our white potatoes over the last couple months so there wasn't a lot of them left. But we hadn't picked any of the red potatoes so there were quite a few of them. Being the first year for this garden, the soil quality is horrible but I was pleased

  I've written in the past about someday writing a book about a true story that I came across years ago. But I have come to realize all these years later that by setting my goal so high, I have doomed myself to failure and indeed, every time I sit down at the keyboard on the computer, I become so lost in the details of book formatting, citations, getting the order of story correct, fleshing out details and fretting over other details, that nothing really every happens towards the writing aspect.  Back when I started this blog some 21 years ago, I think it was every November was a month when bloggers all over the world dedicated to writing a story of sorts and I participated a couple times. There were no dreams of publishing or getting things just right, only putting words to "paper" and I have fond memories of those days. So I thought I might attempt to do something similar with this true story that has been percolating in my brain all these years and maybe pick one day a

  After throwing a party for my MIL's 76th birthday and getting things cleaned up and put away, I was crawling into bed when I noticed the strobing light coming through our bedroom windows. I put on my glasses, looked and saw it was some very intense lightening that wasn't very far away and yet didn't make a sound. It was just silently flashing at a very rapid clip. I'm not sure I've seen anything quite like it. The storm cell eye passed a little over a mile or two from us so we never got a single drop of rain. 

  Checking to make sure the coast is clear. Saturday morning I arose and did my morning routine. As part of that routine, I checked on the bluebird house from the dining room window and didn't see any activity. I kept watching for probably around 20 minutes and saw not a sign. Thinking they had already fledged, I put on my shoes and went outside to check but saw that the three chicks were still inside. Indeed, they had all been standing up but laid right down when my face showed itself. I knew fledging was probably imminent so I went inside and sure enough, it soon got started and I was fortunate to capture some of it on "film" using my DSL camera with zoom lens through a dirty window. Enjoy the show. One of the parents saying, "You can do it!" "Do what mom? Wow, there is a lot of room out here." Chick 1 successfully launched out and landed in the grass near the house without me catching the shot. Parents back saying, "Chick 1 did it. You're n