Riverbend Journal

  After scanning all the pictures, I turned my sights on some of the smaller loose things in my tub of Clara Kuck's belongings. I found her birth registration, a Christmas card, a baby book for her grand niece Beth and two of the above books. They are just slightly smaller than three inches by five inches and came new with about 20 pages of blank paper. One belonged to Clara and one belonged to her older sister Bertha.  They were given in 1888 when Clara was around 5 and Bertha 7 so the inscriptions were likely written by their mother Elizabeth and indeed, the first pages of both are notes written by Elizabeth too her daughters. Clara's book reads, " My dearest Clara, Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Your loving Mother, Elizabeth. " Beneath that is the date November 2, 1888.  On the rest of the twenty pages are more notes of similar nature written by family and friends, some of which are unknown to me and will require a bit of research to figure out. One...

  For the last few years, I have not had a lot of success when it comes to hunting morel mushrooms. In fact I'm pretty sure I blogged that perhaps last year would be my last year. But every spring, about this time of year, especially with idle time on my hands, I find myself fighting the morel madness as I call it and it doesn't take my heart/stomach long to convince my brain that perhaps this time will be THE time when I pick a mother lode of morels under a mushroom machine producing tree. And so with idle time on my hands this Tuesday, and a wife conveniently unemployed, we made the drive out to the farm to enjoy a walk if nothing else.  We found a small mess of grey morel mushrooms, all under elms that had been deceased for a good number of years and no longer mushroom machines. (Note to newer readers, a recently dead elm can produce as many as 50+ mushrooms around it's roots for a year or two after it's death and hence my term of mushroom machine.) We had to probabl...

With my mistake fixed, I proceeded to do a lot of sanding and then was able to glue the shelves in place. Because I am working with real solid wood, which tends to shrink and expand with changes of temperature and humidity, I couldn't fully attach them along the width of each shelf. Instead they are essentially doweled only in the center of each shelf on each side to the side panel and the edges of both shelves just float in the air for now. Since it is a book-shelf, meaning heavy objects might be placed upon it at some point, I will need to add further support. I had flirted with the thought of some sort of floating mortise and tenon joint similar to a "bread board" table to accomplish the same thing but at the end of the day, I just purchased some small brass brackets which I will pin the underside of the fronts and backs of each shelf to the sides. This will allow them movement for seasonal changes and support for heavy objects. While that was drying, I got to work on ...

  I've been so caught up with cranking out posts on my latest woodworking project or some new find among Clara's Things as I refer to them in my head, that I am neglecting to show signs of spring which are definitely present around here. This picture, taken three days ago as you read this, gives you a good idea of what it is like here in the Midwest. The Serviceberry tree is blooming which for me is always the official start of spring. The Redbuds too are blooming but I don't have any up in my front yard where I can easily monitor them. I do have one down in the ditch and despite my efforts over the years, I've never been able to transplant one or grow one from seed. Above you can also see the two apples and one small sour cherry trees are all leafing out and will be blooming shortly. Below is a shot of our spring garden which we planted nearly a month and a half ago. It is coming up but due to the frequent cold spells we have been getting, has been slow growing. But pr...

  My wife is currently unemployed and has been looking for something to pick up the time. Long story short, ever since the Affordable Care Act was passed, the medical industry has been going through rapid changes and part of those changes have been massive corporations gobbling up and absorbing all the private practices. After several mergers and trades, the clinic my wife practices at was finally just closed since it is without a hospital facility where all the money making procedures occur. Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements generally are only enough to pay the bills and vary state to state. Iowa ranks 50th out of 52 regions in the United States for the amount reimbursed by our federal government under the ACA and so rural places where the population tends to be older and on Medicare and Medicaid are struggling to remain solvent, unless they are partnered with a hospital where more lucrative things like MRI's, ultrasounds and other specialty tests are done.  Despite all th...