Riverbend Journal

  I had to run an errand one morning and on the way back home, the sun peaked out and it was such a nice fall day I pulled into a park that I have driven by thousands of times over the years and even visited a handful of times. I had no real plan other than to enjoy the day for a little bit when I happened to notice a cabin down over the hill. Had there always been a cabin there? I'm pretty sure I've looked down into the area where it was located during previous visits but I have never "seen" it before. So I walked down there to check it out.  There were a four picnic tables out front (removed with AI photo editor) along with a chained up trashcan. On the backside I looked into a window and saw that the interior was bare except for several more picnic tables. Our parks rent out the various shelters for get togethers and I suspected that this cabin had been turned into a rental as well. It had a name on a placard so when I got home, I looked up the history of it. I onl...

My great grandfather Victor Kuck (far right) somewhere in France during World War I  

Back when we had a garden down at the farm that was probably four times the size of our current garden, we invested in a nice tiller. BCS Tillers are made in Italy and are known for their quality and versatility. Technically, it is a walk behind tractor with a tiller attachment because they make a dozen other attachments for it from brush cutters to snow throwers. We only have the tiller attachment which makes things easy since I don't have to swap out anything. They make a variety of models but I chose the 722 model mostly because it came with electric start. I've have spent a fair amount of my life yanking on corded starts that I wanted something I could start like a car. The electric start worked really well for the first year or so that we owned the thing but then the battery died over one of our cold winters and I've never replaced it since. In the spring, I will put a portable charger on it a couple hours before I till the garden and that is good enough to start it th...

  I sit on the board of an orchestra and we kicked off our 40th season recently. As on officer of the board, I have to show up early so I was able to snap a picture of an empty stage before the performance began. Although I like our symphony and our civic center, we don't get any off Broadway plays coming through. We do have a couple locally produced shows but nothing I would call current. Someday, I hope to just get season tickets at the civic center in our Major Urban Jungle but it will have to wait until we have more time since it is a major commitment to get there, eat, watch a play and get home. Not a very good picture of some Oreo macarons by youngest daughter created. She is turning into quite the baker which I have no complaints about. I told her that they were so tasty that she should start a side business. I thought she would say she couldn't sell them for a price to make it worthwhile but her response was that merely she wouldn't have enough time to meet demand. ...

  A month or so ago and again this week, our little town made the news when a prayer before the local city council started led to a prayer to Satan. As usual, the media outlets across the country picked up the "story" with sensationalized headlines but had absolutely zero backstory. A guy stood up and said a prayer to Satan, not once, but now for the second time. That was all the details offered.  The backstory actually began eight or nine months ago when our city council voted to allow their meetings opened with a prayer by any citizen who wished to sign up. I of course was against it because I am a firm believer in the separation of church and state as generally interpreted by our First Amendment in our Constitution. Only one city council member thought it might lead to trouble in the future and was the lone dissenting vote.  The warning shot came later when a few months later, a fellow citizen offered up an amusing prayer in a Star Wars theme, among other things urging...