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Journey Home. Isn’t that where we are always heading?

This blog is where I write about Iowa, gardening, writing, politics, and whatever crosses my mind while walking on the state park trail.

Welcome new visitors! I have been writing a version of this blog since 2007, although older posts were taken off line in 2013. I post about whatever comes to mind, yet there will be some common themes this year.

  • Until the June primary election, I’m filling in at Blog for Iowa. Each weekend I will cross-post those pieces here. They cover what I have been doing in the Democratic Party during the previous week, along with a special Iowa politics post on Sunday.
  • The ground is not ready for a shovel yet, but I’m planning a large garden. Some of my posts will be about that. I attempt to keep things different, and I’m beyond the standard photos of emerging plants and harvested produce. Growing food is one of life’s pleasures, and I’ve been doing it since the summer after my spouse and I married.
  • I also write about writing. Some of my most popular posts are when I take some current writing challenge and work my way through it.
  • Thousands of paper and digital photographs remain in shoeboxes and on the cloud. I started an archival process and write about it in a series called “A Life of Photos.”
  • I review things — books and events I attend, mostly. I also have an informal series called “We’re Going Home” in which I reflect on generational change caused by the death of people I know or who have had a profound effect on me.
  • I walk on the state park trail almost daily, usually at sunrise. Those walks give me time to think about issues, and some of those make it back to this blog.

I’ll be 75 years in December and I’m determined to make 2026 a productive year. Watch for it here.

On Aug. 21. 2024 I received my Library of Congress Control Number and ISBN for An Iowa Life: A Memoir, the first part of my autobiography.

I began writing in public with an August 1974 letter to the editor of the Times-Democrat newspaper in my home town. The majority of my public writing has been such letters, opinion pieces, and since 2007, thousands of posts on several blogs. When I was younger, I had vague notions of becoming a novelist, yet found it difficult to break from the exigencies of a life to produce fiction. What I write now is grounded in some form of reality, not really non-fiction, but not fiction either.

Read my most popular post Autobiography in 1,000 Words to learn more about me.

If you got this far, please consider giving me a like or follow this blog.

For now, I enabled comments. I read them all and post about half of them. Pro tip: If your comment is longer than my original post or on a different topic, I recommend you get your own blog.

Thanks for reading my work.

5 replies on “About”

We are new garlic farmers in Colorado. I would love to learn more about your garlic harvesting, sorting and curing set up. It’s very interesting. As we need to decide what method to use and prepare it now during the slow season.Please contact me through Messenger, Facebook or give me a way to contact you. Thank you.

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Kathy, Thanks for reading my blog. I have worked at a local CSA for the last five years and all of the garlic produced is either distributed to members or used for seed. The farm plants in the fall, although garlic can be planted in the spring as well. The best resource for you is to explore Practical Farmers of Iowa. http://www.practicalfarmers.org/ If you join, there are discussion groups where you can learn which members use which techniques regarding garlic. They have a lot more expertise than I do, and they may be aware of a similar group closer to where you live. Whatever methods you use, start recruiting volunteers now as it takes a lot of people to plant, harvest and weed. Best wishes for your new endeavor. Regards, Paul

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I recently discovered this blog because I was researching the Solon Advocate. I am writing a story about my parents. Fritz and Marjorie Arrowsmith who bought the paper in 1948. My understanding is that it was on its last legs, when my parents bought it. Dad was a Linotype operator for the Omaha World Herald and Mom took journalism in high school, they had no money and zero business experience. However, Markatan, the local banker had a hunch about them and wanted to save the paper so he loaned them what was then a huge amount of money. I have also been in contact with man whose parents bought it from them. I am currently writing a piece about them and what I remember about growing up in Solon where as a baby my playpen was often left on the sidewalk while Mom and Dad worked. I was truly “raised by a village” and it was Solon. I want to extend this into something bigger. I was thrilled to find your piece about it and that while no longer family owned is a least least at the University. I would love to have a conversation with you about it and perhaps send you my piece Regardless, this is very personal for me and I appreciate that you gave me this piece of information. Margo Arrowsmith

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