Prairie Bosens: Round and Round

Helpful map of Des Moines It is a calm, clear Sunday night in Dallas County. We just finished watching the Olympic closing ceremonies and "Mad Men" on TV. Now, we are watching the local news and its accompanying barrage of ads for seed corn, "roundup-ready" soybeans, pesticides, and presidential candidates. It is a lazy evening, but it has actually been a fairly action-packed weekend for us. Yesterday morning, we headed to Maffit Lake for a walk in the oak woods with Rosie. Although the lake is very close to town, it is a beautiful place, and there were only a few other people there on a perfect Saturday morning. The puppy loved walking in the woods, and did very well. Asher had a great time watching butterflies, finding rocks, and running full speed down the trail. We headed home for a batch of our favorite pasta, with tomatoes and basil from our garden, then drove an hour north to Boone, Iowa. We still have tickets left for the steam train there, and next weekend is our last chance to use them. I have discussed the scenic railroad before, but suffice to say, Asher loves the huge steam train, and it is a beautiful ride through... well, it is a scenic valley! From the train, we drove into Ames, home of the ISU Cyclones. We hoped to eat at a somewhat famous BBQ restaurant there, but a huge crowd spilling way out into the parking lot made us decide to try another time. We ended up eating at a so-so Mexican place on the outskirts of towm, which was sort of a good thing, because it happened to be across from a location of Thiesen's. Thiesen's is a store that is kind of an Iowa wonderland for guys. They have anything, absolutely anything that you might need for your farm, your pets, your livestock, your tractor, your car, your house, your tackle box, you name it. They only have them in Eastern and Northern Iowa, and not around here. I really like Thiesen's. We got a huge bag of puppy food, a Farmall tractor shirt for Asher, and one of those underground invisible dog fences. We have been talking about installing one for a long time, and this is a top-of-the-line one, and was half-off of a clearance price! I'll let you all know how it works, and how installation goes. This morning, we went to church, then headed to a car show at Union Park in Des Moines. The carshow was a benefit for the upkeep of the wonderful carousel they have there. The carousel is great! It is only about ten years old, but it is a genuine, old-fashioned carousel, with wild, exotic carved animals, and loud music from a real calliope, complete with actual drums. We took a ride, and Asher was a little freaked out.

The car show itself was fun, although Asher's mood deteriorated rapidly through the afternoon. In this picture, he is admiring the artistry and workmanship of a beatiful custom creation. Oh, I'm not talking about the absolutely masterful bright yellow Model A hot rod. He is blown away by the trailer behind it, which was partially fashioned out of a plastic Dale Jr race-car bed. He was amazed by it, wouldn't leave it, and threw a fit to go see it again. No matter what rare classic or one-of-a-kind custom we were looking at, he wanted to go back and see the race car bed. To each his own, I guess.

I apologize for the scarcity of pictures in the blog lately. We had a little bit of a technical problem that is all fixed now. Here are some pictures from last Monday, when Aaron and Jenny were here.