Stuff in the Basement

  The History of Sioux County , a wonderful storybook, was written by one of Sioux County’s own pioneer journalists, Charles L. Dyke, way ba...

Just found this, this morning. It's 17 years old, almost prophetic, except for me talking too much. I do much less of it, but still spil...

Stephen A. Ambrose says, in Undaunted Courage , that the Fourth of July on the Missouri River began with shooting off "the canon."...

Took this picture on Saturday, late afternoon, at Broken Kettle Grassland, maybe the most beautiful spot in the neighborhood, right now an a...

“You turn men back to dust, saying, ‘Return to dust, O sons of men.’” I received a note, years ago now, from a couple who claime...

  Was it arrogant of them to name things like rivers and creeks and mountain meadows? Isn't it really silly to call the operation "...

Generally speaking, reading through the Emily Dickinson portfolio of poems is no picnic. Evasive, often deliberately ambiguous, her lines ar...

The pastor and his missus, the Nobles, are worried, but not scared. They're about to be visited by members of the church council, and th...

Sunday, these six deer crossed the land behind our house, going west toward the woods along the river. They're running here, but they to...

  at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers Of course, back then, there was no KC out there on the misty horizon. In case you'...

Before the mountains were born  or you brought forth the earth and the world,  from everla sting to everlasting you are God. Psalm 90:2 What...

Here's the thing. It's become something more than a game with us, which is not to say that there's no joy in it because there is...

Although I don't remember seeing any, we were aware that the Spakenburg locals would occasionally don traditional costuming and look--fo...

Thirty years ago, there were still some Hollanders who didn't know English--not many, but some. Still, it came as a surprise that the pe...

There they sat, at the bottom of a box of real winter stuff, unused and totally unnoted because the winter just hadn't been cold enough....

  Visceral reactions aren't always pretty, not in an old men anyway. I get 'em and I'm not always proud of 'em; but not bein...