Fall is here and so is the camp fire. When a little cold bit hits the air in the morning, the leaves start to change, and the warm sun feels good on your face … you know it’s time to get that hiking stick and head into the woods. A little hot fire, a pan, some bread and honey, this is the simple life.
The Midwest at it’s best.
Well, you know, at least the truth has finally come out. Remember that Rob Sand, who is the “Governor of All?” According to the talking heads and their daydreaming wishes, the “moderate” Rob Sand would be able to lure some Trump supporters, and at the very least, moderates and independents over the line.
So, Iowa has made its winding way to the front page of every major news media. Who would have thought the quiet corn fields could have catapulted us to fame that quickly? There are a few things that will stir the hornet’s nest, like the combination of politics, education, and guns. Yikes.
It’s hard to know what to think these days. On one hand you have farmers on the news, along with John Deere crying foul on the tariffs. Not to mention the recent John Deere layoffs, just another addition to their never ending quest to trim the proverbial fat. But, then you take a little drive to one of the many expanding Des Moines suburbs, pick a direction; Ankeny, Waukee, West Des Moines, Altoona. What do you see?
Never ending housing develops seemly springing up out of fields like its the new corn.
It is an interesting time to be alive in Iowa, a place known for its slow pace of life and laid back culture. It’s hard to understate what a hidden gem of the upper Midwest the once beautiful prairie state is, sandwiched between the mighty Mississippi and that lesser known Missouri River, Iowa has plenty of its own drama and troubles.
In the high intensity political country we live in, Iowa has not escaped that bitter culture war that seems to be engulfing us with violent outbursts. As a reader and admirer of history, American history in particular, and as someone who is very familiar with the mostly violent past of this great country; it comes no surprise to me that the even here at the heart of the bread belt hatred and rivalry has overtaken common human decency at last.
This is, of course, overstating the facts, but indeed it is, at least for the hopeful few, a possible harbinger of a small respite that is in order for the once sea of prairie that is not corn that covers the landscape of Iowa. Indeed, the news has been bleak for John Deere (especially their employees) over the last few years, with things continuing to heat up.
As Deere suffers and the agriculture economy as a whole, across Iowa, contracts, it is possible the land may get a small, brief, respite from the continual environmental flogging it recieves. How so? The weak farm economy might spur an increase in CRP, row crop acres dropping generally, less chemicals and fertilizers being dumped (opps, I mean sprayed).
“While the political parties rage and tear each other to pieces, and the multi-billion-dollar agriculture corporations turn a handsome profit, Iowa citizens pay a terrible price with every drop of water consumed.”
Sometimes I feel as if I’m living in a strange cross between some Orwellian future, and 1984. The rains in Iowa have been pounding steadily for months and the rivers have been running milky brown and over the banks the entire summer. In 2024, Iowa received a total of 36.95 inches of precipitation on average. 2025 has kept the pace going. “July 2025 ties 1897 as the 46th warmest and ranks as the 2nd wettest July in 153 years of statewide records.” – Iowa Ag.
This has come at a price, seemingly out of nowhere for most Iowans.
One of the best-kept secrets in the Midwest is the Lake Superior National Forest. Nestled in the tall pines of Northern Minnesota, close to that wondrous North Shore, the Lake Superior National Forest is home to wilderness and adventure unknown to most people who call the Midwest home.
Most who visit the far north keep to the North Shore, driving through Two Harbors, Lutsen, Grand Maris, and other beautiful lake shore towns that offer waterfalls, rock beaches, State Parks, and shopping. You can’t blame people, can you?
