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Our Partners & Patrons
Iowa Hall of Pride
netINS, Inc.
Butler House on Grand B&B
Sam's Barber Shop
Breitbach's Country Dining
Douglas T. Bates III, Attorney
KMA Radio's ''Chuck & Don Show''
The Monks of New Melleray Abbey


How the donut man from Bunkers Dunkers in Jefferson helped land RAGBRAI XXXVI for an overnight stop here!
The route for the 2008 RAGBRAI -- that's the Des Moines Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa -- includes our Greene County seat of Jefferson as an overnight stop on Monday, July 21. An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people will be in Jefferson that night. Read the amazing story here about a chance encounter three years ago in Florida, where our vacationing local donut king Randy Bunkers warmly greeted a stranger who was wearing a RAGBRAI T-shirt. The fellow happened to be RAGBRAI director T.J. Juskiewicz -- and now, hurrah! RAGBRAI is coming our way! [READ MORE]

Our hometown of
Cooper may look
pretty sleepy but
there's a whole lot
happening here!

There’s the annual Cooper Prom (for all ages), concerts, basketball, suppers, ice cream socials and people coming through all the time on the Raccoon River Valley Trail. Here is the story on the little community in Greene County, Iowa, that is now home for the Offenburgers. [READ MORE]

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Chuck Offenburger's columns
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Carla Offenburger's columns
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Guest Columns
The Simple Serenity Farm
     columns
Farm Photos, 2007 & 2006
Our Iowa News Digest




What's the deal with the Saddle Shoes?
What’s the deal with the
black & white saddle shoes?



Click here for the story of our farm in Greene County, Iowa.

Here's looking at life
at Simple Serenity Farm


Carla Offenburger got the lawn work season started Sunday, April 20. We saw rhubarb and lilac bushes budding, but the bad news is that we realized we must have the three ugliest trees in Greene County.
Click here for larger format

Earlier photos in this series


POGGENSEE'S POSTCARDS
Click to enlarge
Photographer Don Poggensee
takes us back for a visit with
an eagle family that is nesting
in Loess Hills near Sioux City.

Pictures by Iowa photographer Don Poggensee

COMING UP IN IOWA
We recommend the following, if you want to experience this state at its best!

May 15-17: Orange City Tulip Festival, a tradition in NW Iowa since 1936. Details, click here.

THE CONTINUOUS
IOWA CAUCUS
With which of these recent Iowa newsmakers would you most like to have a cup of coffee and long conversation?
Drake's Keno Davis, AP national college basketball coach of the year
Archie Brooks, ex-Des Moines city councilman, embroiled in CIETC trial
Peggy Whitson, due back on Earth this week after commanding the International Space Station
Gov. Chet Culver, after he visited Iowa troops in Kosovo last week
Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey, just back from a learning trip to China

[SEE PAST RESULTS]

Out in Greene County, Iowa
Cooper Prom day was snowy, cold & windy, but in our tropical hotspot it was “Almost Paradise!”
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER
April 14, 2008
COOPER, IOWA
We discovered that when the weather outdoors is miserable and uncomfortable, it is not at all bad being the only tropical spot in Iowa! More than 250 people packed our Cooper Community Building on Saturday evening, April 12, for a memorable night of great food, fun dancing, high (and low) fashion and a whole lot of fun. Here is the report in a brief column and a bunch of colorful photos – and we’ll be adding more pictures in coming days. [READ MORE]

My View from the Porch
Let us introduce our newest family member, Sally, a 50-pound pup with a ton of energy
By CARLA OFFENBURGER
April 7, 2008
COOPER, IOWA
She is a nine-month-old mix between a black lab and golden retriever that we bought at the local animal shelter. Our cats, after four days of protesting by staying in the garage, have now resurfaced. Even better, we're pretty sure word has spread fast among Franklin Township's skunks, possums and raccoons -- there's a new boss at Simple Serenity Farm! [READ MORE]

What's Carla Reading?
This Iowa writer’s memoir about “Growing Up Country” is good reading, but almost too good
By CARLA OFFENBURGER
April 7, 2008
COOPER, IOWA
Carol Bodensteiner, who grew up on a farm near Maquoketa in eastern Iowa, had a childhood that comes off as almost idyllic, at least to our city girl of a reviewer. “Eventually warm and fuzzy, nice and sweet, can put a reader to sleep,” our critic says. And yet, she’s “glad I read it.” [READ MORE]

Guest Columns
 A humble Iowa broadcast exec leaves $35M to eastern Iowa institutions after dying in August
By TIMOTHY WALCH
March 31, 2008
WEST BRANCH, IOWA
One of Bill Quarton’s beneficiaries is the Hoover Library and Museum in West Branch, which he gave $1.75 million, the largest gift in its history. The Hoover director says in his column here all in eastern Iowa are astonished at the generosity. [READ MORE]
  
Our Iowa News Digest
Recent items of interest in
our perhaps peculiar view


STARRING IN AUDUBON AS “ELVIS” - Audubon, March 31, 2008
ONE EXCITING TRAIL BRIDGE! - Council Bluffs, March 31, 2008
SECOND BEST BARBER IN IOWA? - Ames, February 18, 2008
BRR! IT'S ANOTHER BIKE SEASON - Perry, February 2, 2008
IN LITTLE YALE, THEY ARE GAMERS - Yale, January 21, 2008
A $1 MILLION DAY FOR OUR TRAIL - Cooper, January 14, 2008 [READ MORE]

 
Say what?
Our letters-to-the-editor: Reactions to what you've read here
at Offenburger.com & elsewhere, and a place to tell us what
else is on your mind.


“I doubt I would have gone to Cornell College had I not been so comfortable with Iowa, thanks to the hospitality and fun I experienced on RAGBRAI!”

Messages are posted now from Sarah Bates King... Allen J. Hall... Mark Potter... Leslee Oziah... Arnie & Shelly Henden...
[CLICK HERE TO READ THEM]
 

Featured Partner & Patron


Butler House on Grand

One of Iowa’s best B&Bs

4507 Grand Avenue
Des Moines, Iowa 50312
(515) 255-4096
info@butlerhouseongrand.com
www.butlerhouseongrand.com

The Offenburgers’ home away from home in Des Moines, the Butler House on Grand is an elegant 78-year-old Tudor home built by one of the capital city’s leading families.

It has been lovingly restored as a bed-and-breakfast by Clark and Lauren Smith, who bought it in 1996 and live there with daughters Darby, 7, and baby Brigid. The Smiths’ progress was followed in a series of articles in the Des Moines Register. The Butler House was named the Des Moines Symphony Alliance’s Designer Show House in the fall of 1999, and its living room, dining room, library, hallways and seven guest rooms are filled with the work of area designers and artists. Andrew Offenburger never misses a chance to sit down and play the baby grand piano.

The Butler House on Grand is across the street from the Des Moines Art Center and beautiful Greenwood Park and, as the Smiths say, “Close to everything in the Des Moines Metro!” The rooms are quiet and comfortable, the food is great and the friendliness of the Smiths is unsurpassed by any innkeepers anywhere.


Your hosts: Clark and Lauren Smith and daughters Darby and little Brigid.

Sam's Barber Shop