CLICK HERE TO SHOP NOW!


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]

RELATED LINKS
About Offenburger.com
Biographies
Want to Reprint?
Need a Speaker?
Want Updates?

ARCHIVES
Chuck Offenburger's columns
Christie Vilsack's columns
Carla Offenburger's columns
Carla's book reviews
Jared Strong's columns
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


Carla Offenburger's book reviews

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

Breitbach's Country Dining