Along Our Way
The third annual membership banquet of the Raccoon River Valley Trail Association was a huge success Saturday night, February 20, at the Panorama National Conference Center. About 200 people attended. Auctions and a few cash donations helped raise $10,604 to help market and promote the RRVT, the paved rec trail in west central Iowa that's in the midst of an expansion, 56 to 89 miles.
[TO READ THE STORY, AND TO SEE THESE AND OTHER PHOTOS IN LARGER FORMAT, CLICK HERE]
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A conversation
COPING WITH CANCER
with the Offenburgers
Chuck Offenburger was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins, follilcular lymphoma cancer on July 10, 2009, and is undergoing treatment. We post updates weekly here, including brief insights from Chuck, Carla and at least one of you readers.
''The Lord will overshadow you, and you will find refuge under his wings.''
FOR THE LATEST UPDATE, CLICK HERE.
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Chuck Offenburger's
new book on sports
legend Gary Thompson
gets excellent reviews
FOR INFORMATION ON WHERE & HOW TO BUY THE BOOK, CLICK HERE!
''GARY THOMPSON: All-American'' is the new, 352-page biography of one of the state’s genuine sports icons. From 1950-’53 Gary Thompson led the Roland Rockets to high school sports glory in basketball and baseball, giant-killers from one of Iowa’s small schools. Then he led the Cyclones at Iowa State from 1953-’57, becoming the college’s first two-sport All-American. He’s had major success in broadcasting and business, from his home base in Ames. And he and his wife Janet have a family as solid as they come. “I’m the luckiest guy around,” Thompson says.
TO READ CHUCK OFFENBURGER'S COLUMN ABOUT THE BOOK AND THE ''BOOK LAUNCHING'' HELD EARLY IN DECEMBER, CLICK HERE.
TO READ DES MOINES REGISTER SPORTSWRITER RICK BROWN'S REVIEW OF THE BOOK, CLICK HERE.
TO READ CEDAR RAPIDS GAZETTE SPORTS COLUMNIST JIM ECKER'S REVIEW OF THE BOOK, CLICK HERE.
TO READ AMES DAILY TRIBUNE SPORTSWRITER DICK KELLY'S STORY ABOUT THE BOOK, CLICK HERE.
TO READ DOUG BURNS' STORY ABOUT THE BOOK IN THE CARROLL DAILY TIMES HERALD, CLICK HERE.
TO READ ANDY GOODELL'S STORY ABOUT THE BOOK IN THE OSKALOOSA HERALD, CLICK HERE.
WANT TO SEE AND HEAR THE OLD ROLAND HIGH SCHOOL FIGHT SONG PERFORMED? CLICK HERE!
FOR INFORMATION ON WHERE & HOW TO BUY THE BOOK, CLICK HERE!
FOR PHOTOS FROM OUR BOOK LAUNCHING EVENTS, CLICK HERE!
SEE BOB MODERSOHN'S PHOTOS OF OUR BOOK CHAT AND SIGNING AT BEAVERDALE BOOKS IN DES MOINES!
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Our Partners & Patrons
Iowa Hall of Pride
netINS, Inc.
Butler House on Grand B&B
Sam's Barber Shop
Douglas T. Bates III, Attorney
KMA Radio's ''Chuck & Don Show''
Barack Obama story & coloring book
The Monks of New Melleray Abbey
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The Simple Serenity Farm
columns
Farm Photos, 2006 - 2008
Our Iowa News Digest
Along Our Way
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
After the toughest, snowiest winter that either of us can remember, we have now reached the point in early February where snow is stacked everywhere. Piles are six or seven feet high. The dogs can drop full-body into snowdrifts if they're not moving fast enough. Some drifts are five or six feet tall, and 30 or 40 feet long. Whew!
Click here for larger format
Earlier photos in this series
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Carla Offenburger's book reviewsFebruary 6, 2010 - “The Help,” by Kathryn Sockett
December 30, 2009 - “Julie & Julia,” by Julie Powell
December 15, 2009 - “The Audacity to Win,” by David Plouffe
November 19, 2009 - “Picking Cotton,” by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton with Erin Torneo
November 10, 2009 - “Sabbath,” by Wayne Muller
October 29, 2009 - “Prayers for Sale,” by Sandra Dallas
September 21, 2009 - “Organizing the Good Life: A Path to Joyful Simplicity,” by Celia Rocks
August 25, 2009 - Novelist Debbie Macomber’s “Cedar Cove Series”
August 3, 2009 - “And Ladies of the Club,” by Helen Hoover Santmyer
July 13, 2009 - “Home: A Novel,” by Marilynne Robinson
June 8, 2009 - “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society”
May 9, 2009 - “The Girls from Ames,” by Jeffrey Zaslow
April 21, 2009 - A round-up of our reviewer’s recent reading
February 27, 2009 - “Salem Falls,” by Jodi Picoult
February 2, 2009 - “The Shack,” by William P. Young
December 29, 2008 - John Grisham’s books – every single one!
December 1, 2008 - “The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox,” by Maggie O’Farrell
October 22, 2008 - “The Age of Innocence,” by Edith Wharton
September 3, 2008 - “The Best of Frank Deford: I’m Just Getting Started,” by Frank Deford
July 3, 3008 - “A Cure for Dreams,” by Kaye Gibbons
June 16, 2008 - “Skies Over Sweetwater,” by Julia Moberg
May 18, 2008 - “Making a Difference: 182 ½ Ways to Change the World,” by Deborah Naybor
April 7, 2008 - “Growing Up Country: Memories of an Iowa Farm Girl,” by Carol Bodensteiner
March 3, 2008 - “Boomsday,” by Christopher Buckley
February 18, 2008 - “The Firm,” by John Grisham
February 3, 2008 - “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life,” by Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, and Steven L. Hopp
January 14, 2008 - “Whose Names are Unknown,” by Sanora Babb
January 1, 2008 - “Dreams from My Father,” by Barack Obama
November 26, 2007 - “Susannah’s Garden,” by Debbie Macomber
November 12, 2007 - “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time,” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
October 30, 2007 - “The Potluck Club: A Novel,” by Linda Evans Shepherd and Eva Marie Everson
October 16, 2007 - “The Horizontal World: Growing up wild in the middle of nowhere,” by Debra Marquart
September 19, 2007 - “The life all around me by Ellen Foster,” by Kaye Gibbons
September 4, 2007 - “Three Junes” by Julia Glass, and “Infidel” by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
August 22, 2007 - “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan,” by Lisa See
August 10, 2007 - “What Do Mormons Believe?” by Rex E. Lee
July 30, 2007 - “The Good Earth,” by Pearl S. Buck
July 23, 2007 - “The Innocent Man,” by John Grisham
July 9, 2007 - “Eat, Pray, Love,” by Elizabeth Gilbert
June 29, 2007 - “The Prize winner of Defiance, Ohio,” by Terry Ryan
June 18, 2007 - “Grace from the Garden: Changing the World One Garden at a Time,” by Debra Landwehr Engle (2003)
June 5, 2007 - “Water for Elephants,” by Sara Gruen
May 28, 2007 - “Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith,” by Anne Lamott
May 7, 2007 - “Rise and Shine,” by Anna Quindlen
April 23, 2007 - “Miss American Pie, a diary of love, secrets, and growing up in the 1970s,” by Margaret Sartor
April 2, 2007 - “The Secret Garden,” by Frances Hodgson Burnett
March 19, 2007 - “Nature Girl,” by Carl Hiaasen
March 6, 2007 - “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir,” by Bill Bryson
January 29, 2007 - “Widow of the South,” by Robert Hicks
January 14, 2007 - “Marley and Me,” by John Grogan
December 24, 2006 - “A Christmas Visitor,” by Anne Perry
December 18, 2006 - “If Grace is True: Why God will Save Every Person,” by Philip Gulley and James Mulholland
November 27, 2006 - “Hoot,” by Carl Hiaasen
November 9, 2006 - “I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman,” by Nora Ephron
October 31, 2006 - “Five Days to an Organized Life,” by Lucy H. Hedrick
October 17, 2006 - “Beloved,” by Toni Morrison
September 28, 2006 - “Bad Girl Creek,” by Jo-Ann Mapson
September 11, 2006 - “The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother,” by James McBride
August 22, 2006 - “Invisible Acts of Power: Personal Choices That Create Miracles,” by Caroline Myss
July 28, 2006 - “One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd: A Novel,” by Jim Fergus
July 4, 2006 - “A Lantern in Her Hand,” by Bess Streeter Aldrich
June 19, 2006 - “The Three Miss Margarets,” by Louise Shaffer
May 30,2006 - “The Lincoln Lawyer,” by Michael Connelly
May 8, 2006 - “Shop Girl,” by Steve Martin
April 24, 2006 - “Change Me Into Zeus’ Daughter,” by Barbara Robinette Moss
April 5, 2006 - “Humble Pie: Musings on what lies beneath the crust,” by Anne Dimock
March 20, 2006 - “Ellen Foster,” by Kaye Gibbons
March 8. 2006 - “How to Make an American Quilt,” by Whitney Otto
February 22, 2006 - “The Mermaid Chair,” by Sue Monk Kidd
February 6, 2006 - “Lillian’s Legacy: Marriage and Murder in rural Iowa,” by Carroll R. McKibbin
January 24, 2006 - “Unlikely Angel,” by Ashley Smith
January 9, 2006 - “Our Endangered Values,” by Jimmy Carter (2005)
December 29, 2005 - “Outrage, Passion & Uncommon Sense,” by Michael Gartner
November 28, 2005 - “Knitting,” by Anne Bartlett (2005)
November 28, 2005 - “Jesus in the Underwear Drawer” by Sandra Flahive (2005)
November 15, 2005 - “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith,” by Anne Lamott
November 3, 2005 - “Midnight Assassin,” by Patricia L. Bryan & Thomas Wolf (2005
October 11, 2005 - “God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It,” by Jim Wallis (2005)
September 18, 2005 - “Sky All Around,” by Sarah Shey (2005)
September 5, 2005 - ''Bernie Saggau & the Iowa Boys: The Centennial History of the Iowa High School Athletic Association,'' by Chuck Offenburger
August 8, 2005 - “Gilead,” by Marilynne Robinson (2004)
August 11, 2005 - “Standing in the Rainbow,” by Fannie Flagg
August 5, 2005 - “The Child Who Never Grew,” by Pearl S. Buck
July 23, 2005 - “Aprons on a Clothesline,” by Traci DePree
July 9, 2005 - “Evita: The Real Life of Eva Peron,” by Nicholas Fraser & Marysa Navarro
June 23, 2005 - “God Save the Sweet Potato Queens,” by Jill Conner Browne
June 9, 2005 - ''Charms for the Easy Life'' by Kaye Gibbons (1994)
May 30, 2005 - “Pay It Down! From debt to wealth on $10 a day,” by Jean Chatzky
May 23, 2005 - “Reading Lolita in Tehran,” by Azar Nafisi
May 9, 2005 - “The Secret Garden,” by Frances Hodgson Burnett
May 2, 2005 - “Miles from Nowhere: Tales from America’s Contemporary Frontier,” by Dayton Duncan
April 20, 2005 - “Cat’s Eyewitness,” by Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown
April 11, 2005 - “All I Did Was Ask,” by Terry Gross
March 28, 2005 - “Nickel and Dimed,” by Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
March 21, 2005 - “Blue Shoe,” by Anne Lamott
March 14, 2005 - “The Gift of the Deer,” by Helen Hoover
March 7, 2005 - “Peace Like a River,” by Leif Enger (2001)
March 1, 2005 - “The Only Dance In Iowa: A History of Six-Player Girls’ Basketball,” by Max McElwain
February 21, 2005 - “The Kite Runner,” by Khaled Hosseini (2003)
February 14, 2005 - “Christ’s Passion – The Way of the Cross: Prayerful Reflections,” by Mary Beth Young, with original artwork by Mark Barone (2004)
February 7, 2005 - “Divining Women,” by Kaye Gibbons (2004)
January 31, 2005 - “Invisible Acts of Power: Personal Choices That Create Miracles,” by Caroline Myss
January 24, 2005 - “A Place in the Woods,” by Helen Hoover (1969)
January 17, 2005 - “Courting Trouble,” by Lisa Scottoline (2002)
January 10, 2005 - “The Jane Austen Book Club,” by Karen Joy Fowler (2004)
January 3, 2005 - “It’s Not About Me,” by Max Lucado (2004)
December 27, 2004 - “The Christmas Train,” by David Baldacci (2002)
December 21, 2004 - “Portrait of a Marriage,” by Pearl S. Buck (1941)
December 13, 2004 - When all else fails, buy a book
December 6, 2004 - “Nice Girls Don’t Get The Corner Office 101,” by Lois P. Frankel (2002)
November 29, 2004 - “Tathea,” by Anne Perry (1999)
November 23, 2004 - “Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation,” by Cokie Roberts
November 15, 2004 - “Pride and Prejudice,” by Jane Austen
20041108 - “Now is the Time to Open Your Heart,” by Alice Walker
November 1, 2004 - “The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People,” by David Niven
October 26, 2004 - “O Pioneers!” by Willa Cather
October 17, 2004 - “Journey Through Heartsongs,” by Mattie J.T. Stepanek
October 11, 2004 - “Tears of the Giraffe,” by Alexander McCall Smith (2000)
October 5, 2004 - “Ripples from the Zambezi,” by Ernesto Sirolli (1999)
September 27, 2004 - “Just Shy of Harmony,” by Philip Gulley (2002)
September 20, 2004 - “The Last Girls,” by Lee Smith (2002)
September 13, 2004 - “The Red Tent,” by Anita Diamant (1998)
September 6, 2004 - “Epicurean Simplicity,” by Stephanie Mills (2002)
AUGUST 30, 2004 - “A Girl Named Zippy,” by Haven Kimmel (2001)
August 17, 2004 - “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” by Audrey Niffenegger (2004)
August 9, 2004 - “The Shop on Blossom Street,” by Debbie Macomber (2004)
August 2, 2004 - “The Holy Ground,” poetry by Michael Carey (2004)
July 26, 2004 - “A Voice in the Wind,” by Francine Rivers (1993)
July 19, 2004 - “Pitching my Tent,” by Anita Diamant (2003)
July 13, 2004 - “Main Street,” by Sinclair Lewis (1920)
July 5, 2004 - “The Book of Salt,” by Monique Truong (2003)
June 28, 2004 - “Seasons of Grace: Wisdom from the Cloister,” by Mother Gail Fitzpatrick
June 22, 2004 - “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation,” by Lynne Truss
June 15, 2004 - “The Great Iowa Touring Book,” by Mike Whye
June 7, 2004 - “Be Intolerant: Because Some Things Are Just Stupid,”
May 31, 2004 - “You Don’t Have to be Rich,” by Jean Chatzky (2003)
May 27, 2004 - “Five Thousand Days Like This One,” by Jane Brox
May 18, 2004 - “The Last Juror,” by John Grisham
May 11, 2004 - “Elizabeth and Her German Garden,” by Elizabeth Von Arnim
April 28, 2004 - “Blindsided by Grace: Entering the World of Disability,” by Robert F. Molsberry
April 23, 2004 - “Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Ecomony,” edited by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild
April 14, 2004 - “A Life of Her Own,” by Emilie Carles
April 6, 2004 - “The Story of My Father,” by Sue Miller
March 31, 2004 - “Confederates in the Attic,” by Tony Horwitz
March 22, 2004 - “An Hour Before Daylight: Memoirs of a Rural Boyhood” by Jimmy Carter
March 15, 2004 - “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” by Tracy Chevalier
March 9, 2004 - “Five Quarters of the Orange,” by Joanne Harris
March 2, 2004 - “God is in the Small Stuff and it all matters,” by Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz
February 23, 2003 - “My Losing Season,” by Pat Conroy
February 16, 2004 - “Dreaming in Cuban,” by Cristina Garcia
February 9, 2004 - “Evensong,” by Gail Godwin
February 2, 2004 - “Ten Fun Things to Do Before You Die,” by “Nun Other Than” Karol Jackowski
January 26, 2004 - “Fahrenheit 451,” by Ray Bradbury
January 19, 2004 - “A Can of Peas,” by Traci DePree
January 12, 2004 - “Renewing the Countryside: Iowa,” edited by Shellie Orngard and Jan Joannides
January 5, 2004 - “The Five People You Meet in Heaven,” by Mitch Albom (2003)
December 29, 2003 - “Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden,” by Diane Ackerman
December 22, 2003 - “Skipping Christmas,” by John Grisham
December 17, 2003 - “Another Country: Navigating the Emotional Terrain of our Elders,” by Mary Pipher
December 8, 2003 - “The Book of Famous Iowans,” by Douglas Bauer
December 1, 2003 - “The Lazy Way to Success,” by Fred Gratzon
November 24, 2003 - “Eyes at the Window,” by Evie Yoder Miller
November 17, 2003 - “Getting Mother’s Body,” by Suzan-Lori Parks
November 3, 2003 - “Wait Till Next Year,” by Doris Kearns Goodwin
October 28, 2003 - “What Should I Do With My Life?” by Po Bronson
October 21, 2003 - “Horse, Follow Closely,” by GaWaNi Pony Boy
October 14, 2003 - “Understood Betsy,” by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
October 6, 2003 - “Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden,” by Diane Ackerman
September 29, 2003 - “Our Lady of the Lost and Found,” by Diane Schoemperlen
September 22, 2003 - “Organizing from the Inside Out,” by Julie Morgenstein
September 15, 2003 - “Words Fail Me,” by Patricia O’Conner
September 8, 2003 - “Message in a Bottle,” by Nicholas Sparks
September 1, 2003 - “Celebration of Discipline,” by Richard J. Foster
August 24, 2003 - “Bel Canto,” by Ann Patchett
August 18, 2003 - “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency,” by Alexander McCall Smith
August 11, 2003 - “The Sweet Potato Queens’ Big-Ass Cookbook (and Financial Planner)” by Jill Conner Browne
August 4, 2003 - “Living History” by Hillary Rodham Clinton
July 28, 2003 - “Thoughts in Solitude” by Thomas Merton
July 20,2003 - “Everyday Sacred: A Woman’s Journey Home” by Sue Bender
July 14, 2003 - “American Pie: Slices of Life (and Pie) from America’s Back Roads” by Pascale Le Draoulec
July 7, 2003 - “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” by J.K. Rowling
June 30, 2003 - “Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden” by Diane Ackerman
June 22, 2003 - “All Over but the Shoutin’,” by Rick Bragg, the recently departed New York Times reporter
June 15, 2003 - “Small Wonder,” novelist Barbara Kingsolver's new collection of essays and commentaries
June 8, 2003 - “Out West: A Journey Through Lewis & Clark’s America,” by Dayton Duncan
June 1, 2003 - “Passing” by Nella Larsen
May 25, 2003 - “On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon” by Kaye Gibbons
May 19, 2003 - “The Bingo Queens of Paradise” By June Park
May 11, 2003 - “The Wife” by Meg Wolitzer
May 2, 2003 - “Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden” by Diane Ackerman
April 25, 2003 - “The Secret Garden,” by Frances Hodgson Burnett
April 18, 2003 - “The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom,” by Don Miguel Ruiz (1997) and “Simplify Your Life,” by Elaine St. James (1994)
April 11, 2003 - ''The Secret Life of Bees,'' a novel by Sue Monk Kidd
April 4, 2003 - ''Enemy Women'' by Paulette Jiles
March 28, 2003 - "Open House" by Elizabeth Berg
March 21, 2003 - "The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen
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