6-10-13. Hello again. It is a nice, bright sunshiney day here, but we’re supposed to have rain and storms later today. We were supposed to have it last night as well, but never did get here. That’s just fine and dandy. We may be in the season now where they…
6-2-13. Dear Folks: I have to double check to see if I got the right date, because of the way it goes so fast. God please help the people in Oklahoma who had all that storm damage and especially the ones who lost loved ones. My heart aches for them…
5-13-13. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers who read this. I hope each and everyone of you had as good a day as I did. It couldn’t have been much better. Bright sunshine, temps where you just needed the lightest of jackets, if any at all. Walt gave me…
5-6-13. Oh what a beautiful morning….Oh what a beautiful day! Green, green grass everywhere and green in the trees. I’ve got four bright red tulips out there and they especially show up pretty with the bright green grass all around them. And there’s the yellow dandelions and little purple violets…
4-29-13. Another month about gone, but that’s how it goes. It would really be odd if time stood still, wouldn’t it? The roof still isn’t leaking and it’s a good thing because it’s supposed to rain every day this week except tomorrow (Tuesday). It’s still been flooding all around, but…
4-22-13. Dear readers: Well we finally got a couple of days without rain, but it’s supposed to start again this afternoon. As usual, we’re going to Tipton this morning before it starts. Seems like we always go on Mondays and Thursdays. We went last Thursday because I had an appointment…
4-15-13 So look at this April is half over. More and more people are realizing how fast the time goes as you get older. I think it’s rained about every day this month and this is the time of year when it’s rainy and the mother coon is trying to…
4-1-13. So here it is April’s Fools Day. I hope everyone had a good Easter. I did. I stayed home, got caught up on some laundry, watched some golf and relaxed. We got a “Happy Easter, love ya” from Walt’s son, Randy Allison. He lives in Minnesota, but drives a…
3-27-13 Dear readers: We’re gonna try to get out this morning while the ground is frozen and go to Tipton and try to get back before it thaws. What a mess! It’s all the way up to 31 degrees right now so it’s climbing. It was twenty-eight degrees just a…
3-12-13. Dear Readers: Does it seem like it should be this late in March? It’s true that time flies faster the older you get, when you want to savor every minute. Younger people will find out. But for most younger people, they’re so busy all the time, I think it…
2-25-13. Things are about the same around here I guess. Mostly snow and cold. Today is sunny, but we’re supposed to get anothr snow storm. They’re not sure how much we’ll get yet, but we’re going to Tipton today just in case the biggest part of it does hit us.…
2-16-13. Dear Readers: Not much to write about as usual. We went to the Cities on Tuesday. Saw Frank D. Allison in Silvia, Illinois Wal-Mart. He seemed to be doing okay. Right now it’s cold, but no snow or anything, But we’re supposed to get snow and rain on Monday,…
2-11-13. Dear Readers: I’m sorry I’m this far behind in my writing. What a winter it’s been so far here on the farm stead. Nothing at all like it has been other places, or for that matter, not that bad for an Iowa winter, but it’s just where I live.…
1-14-13. Dear folks: It’s 7:15 a.m. and eight degrees and we have to go to this Cities this morning. I guess it’s not any worse than people who have to go to work every day in this weather, but it doesn’t make it feel any warmer out there for me.…
1-7-13. Dear Readers: How’s the world treating you? I hope your holidays were all you had wished for. As usual I don’t have much to write about. Yesterday was Robert Allison’s birthday. I sent him a “Happy Birthday” message on my phone and Walt will buy his lunch when we…
12-31-12. Well we’re about ready to kiss 2012 goodbye. Tonights the big night. We’ve been staying in this week as much as possible. One trip to Tipton and one to Muscatine and then back down there Saturday for our Christmas for the family. We had an excellent dinner as usual,…
12-24-12 Merry Christmas Eve everyone. I hope the weather is good where you live so Santa and the reindeer can get through to your house. He’s already been here a few times. He brought a big box full of presents from Edna and Bill Pruett from Nixa, MO. Also when…
12-17-12. Hello again. It’s hard to get one’s mind on anything other than the latest terrible tragedy, but I’ll try. It’s turned cold here again., 32 degrees this morning at ten minutes until eleven. On Wednesday the 12th we made our trek to the Cities. Frank (Dee) Allison met us…
12-10-12, Hello again. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, isn’t it? I think I’m just about ready. Still got a lot of cards to send out, but have most of them ready to mail. I got a book of stamps when I was in Tipton last week, but…
11-19-12. Well as usual there’s not too much going on right now. I think I forgot to write a letter last week. We went up to the Cities last week on Tuesday just long enough for him to run his errands, get a haircut, eat lunch and then come on…
11-4-12. Well, here I go again. I guess things have been going about the same. Haven’t seen any of my family lately, but Anita and I keep in touch. Haven’t been to the family restaurant for awhile. Maybe next week. I’ll find out if Anita’s off work on Wednesday and…
10-29-12 – Well, it won’t be 2012 much long will it? Two more months and it’ll be gone. We’ve been getting a big frost the last few nights, the pretty leaves are all off the trees now, the sumer birds are all gone and the real little animals. All the…
10-22-12. Dear readers of the Douglas County Herald: I hope everyone is blessed with good health and good weather. We are mostly. I think the second round of antibiotics did me a lot of good and I’ll never get over the sinus allergies and problems I have. Thank goodness for…
Another beautiful, delightful autumn day around here. There’s been some really pretty trees all around me here, but they’re starting to lose too many leaves now to be picture-worthy. There’s a little red tree just to the west of me that shows up bright every year, but now it’s grown…
10-1-12. Well, the old calendar on the old wall says this is October. We’re still having beautiful autumn weather, a little chilly at times, but that’s what it’s supposed to be. And much better than when it was so hot you couldn’t enjoy being outside at all. I’ve always been…
9-24-12. Well here it is getting down to 28 degrees last night and the low thirties other nights so fall is definitely in the air. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to get my propane tank filled again before I move. It’s almost down to twenty percent so I guess…
9-20-12. Goodness gracious how time flies when you’re taking pictures and enjoying yourself. God must of put all of these little animals here for me to enjoy. I’ve always loved nature and I guess he knows it, but when I move into town I will have to leave all of…
9-10-12. Hello again. We’re lucky right now with beautiful weather and more rain. Just under four inches in two rains and seventy degree weather. I hope it stays this way for a long time. We had a nice Saturday again. We went to great-granddaughter, Zoie’s, 11th birthday party. It never…
9-5-12. Good morning everyone. We got one inch of rain early this morning with lightning, thunder and some wind. We welcome the rain. One day last week we went to Muscatine and got my great-grandson Jacob, stopped and ate lunch at the resturant. Then we came on back here and…
8-27-12. Dear family, friends, relatives and people I don’t even know from near and far. It’s a good morning here at the farm. We got five inches of rain over the weekend. How nice. I guess it’s too late for the corn, but will be good for the beans, grass,…
8-20-12. Once again I will try to think of something a little bit interesting to write about. I’m afraid it won’t be very interesting though. We’ve been getting some rain and cooler weather. What a relief! The grass is growing again and it’s starting to keep Walt busy cutting it.…
8-13-12 How about those Olympic games? I could hardly take my eyes off them. And London did such an excellent job (in my opinion) in the opening, closing and everything in between. I’m so proud of our Olympians from the good old U.S.A. and another good thing, we’ve been getting…
7-23-12 – Still not much to write about. The heat is almost everywhere so that’s no news. We may go to East Moline the 27th to pet sit while Candi and Jared go to Des Moines, but that’s not certain. It will depend a lot on the weather and how…
7-11-12. It seems like I write a lot of the same things over and over, but I try to come up with new things when I can. We were back in the Quad Cities again yesterday as we often are. Frank (Dee) met us at Silvis Wal-Mart and him and…
7-9-12 Well, what does a person write about when there’s nothing to write about? Except the heat and dry weather, but almost everyone is going through that. Sadly enough the crops are really taking a beating. It’s too late for most of them even if they do get rain. I…
6-25-12. Well, hello there. Here it is a nice, bright sunshiny day. A little breezy, but that’s okay. We were blessed with a wonderful thunderstorm early Saturday morning that left us with just under five inches of rain, 4.8″. we really, really needed it. That was a blessing to the…
6-18-12. I hope all your Father’s out there had a great Father’s Day. We did. Walt’s daughter, Berta, came out from Davenport and took us to the restaurant in Muscatine for Father’s Day brunch. The restaurant was packed full the whole time we were there, constantly coming and going. We…
6-11-12. The time is still going by fast and I guess it always will. We had a much needed shower this morning, enough to leave a good sized puddle in the road. Everything is really dry here just like it is so many places. I don’t know what the farmers…
6-4-12. Well here it is another new month. That seems to happen every 28-31 days. We’ve been getting some more rain that we really need. We got 2.20″ one night and a little more the next morning. I had a good weekend this past weekend. On Saturday I called Royce…
5-29-12. Well, here goes nothing, Ha. We had a very uneventful holiday weekend and I think most of my family had to work. Anyway they didn’t have any news for me. Robert Allison was still fishing and sent a picture on my phone of him holding a really big catfish.…
5-21-12. We’re having beautiful weather again. I let the weekend slip away again without talking to anyone. We went to the cemetery and mowed grass one day and had nice weather for that, but I was surprised at how dry and hard the ground was. I couldn’t get all the…
Good morning and how are you? I hope all the mother’s had a wonderful Mother’s Day. I certainly did. Daughter Anita came and brought me a beautiful red rose with the ferns and baby’s breath and a German Chocolate cake and a beautiful big Mother’s Day card that plays music. …
“It was a dark and stormy night,” last night, (borrowing a phrase from Snoopy), he’s my hero. I wish he would get his book finished so I could read it. Ha! We did get a thunderstorm and rain again last night. It’s been that way for about a week now. …
April 30, Here we go again, another month gone by and wondering where it went. Our nice weather changed from perfect to windy, rainy and cold. It’s rained the last few days and supposed to rain all week with a chance of storms everyday. I think the nation’s had enough…
4-23-12. Hello to all the readers of the Douglas County Herald. I hope all is well with you. Everything’s about the same here. It’s been chilly and getting down to freezing and frosting some nights. I don’t know how much longer the plants will tolerate it. The campground is reopened…
4-16-12. Such terribly bad weather all over the U.S.A. I hope all of you are safe. We didn’t get any bad storms right here, thank God, but a lot of wind the last few days. It blew a big dead limb out of one of the cedar trees here in…
4-9-12. Good morning and it is a very good morning and yesterday couldn’t have been any nicer for Easter if it tried. We came home from East Moline yesterday. We had beautiful traveling weather too. We went to the Cities Friday morning. As usual Walt let me out at Silvis…
4-2-12. Well, a good morning to everyone and a beautiful morning it is. A little breezy, but that’s okay. We had a nice weekend too. Walt mowed the grass again. It sure looks pretty. We will go to the cemetery this afternoon and mow Jeff’s grave and put new flowers…
3-28-12 Well, here I am trying to think of something good to write about again and as usual, I can’t think of much. We’re still having good weather, but there’s only so much you can write about that. It’s been really windy a lot of the time, but that’s supposed…
3-19-12. Well, I hope everyone is getting ober their sinus infections. I think I am starting to finally, after starting the third antibiotics. The first one didn’t do it, the second one made me really, really sick and I had to quit it, but I think this third one is…
3-12-12 Dear Folks: Where does a person even start to write about all that’s going on. Just hard to take in all the storms, damages and lost lives. It is so sad, but a lot of good people are pitching in to help. I watched the Nascar race yesterday and…
2-17-12 How about that Super Bowl? So exciting I couldn’t take my eyes off it. And my team winning made it even more exciting. I didn’t care for most of the ads this year. Just a few of them and what a terrible shock over Whitney Houston’s death. She was…
Well here it is January 30 and as usual I wonder what happened to the other 29 days. It sure has went by fast especially with me being snowed in almost half the time. But it’s been warming up enough tomelt the snow in between times so I’ve been to…
1-17-12 – I’m sorry this won’t get there in time, but we’ve been snowed in for about a week or so and yesterday it got up warm enough to melt a lot of the snow. We just had one drift that closed the lane. Walt did some shoveling and said…
1-9-12 Here it is “12″ already. So far I haven’t forgotten and written “11″ yet. But I haven’t written it very many times so I probably will. And here, more than a week has already gone by and what a nice winter we’ve had so far. I hope we don’t…
12-12-11. Well here we are just 11 days until Christmas. Are you ready? I’m not. Never have been, never will be. But I guess I’ll get by. Candi and Jarred got back from their trip to Missouri yesterday, so we came on home after that. We got there in East…
12-5-11. Well, Merry Christmas! It’s coming up fast. As usual I’m not ready and won’t be right up to Christmas Day. First I’m gonna work on things for my family because I’ll have Christmas first with them. Zoie liked the Barbie doll and things I made for it so well…
11-28-11. Hello friends and family and some people I don’t know. I hope all of you had a good Thanksgiving. I sure did. I know I wrote this before about how we had a big dinner at Lisa’s on Saturday before and then we went to the Quad Cities and…
11-21-11 Dear Friends: A few quick lines while I’m eating breakfast. I need to get ready so we can go to Tipton for a few reasons. We had our family Thanksgiving early because I probably won’t be here on Thanksgiving Day. We went to Lisa’s in Fruitland. Those there were…
11-14-11 – Dear faithful readers of mine. I’ll see if I can think of something worthy of writing this morning. Probably not, but I’ll give it a try. Our weather is probably about the same as everyone else’s that reads this, except I guess there is a lot of people…
10-13-2011 – Happy Halloween! Boo! My costume consists of a pair of really long fake eyelashes that I got on clearance after Halloween last year. I don’t get any trick or treaters here where I live. I’ve been seeing a lot of people, kids and dogs in costume on television.…
10-24-11 – Well, here we are again. I forgot about Columbus Day so I didn’t get my letter in the mail in time for it to make the paper. The weather is still back and forth. Right now it’s forth which I like much better. It’s 48 degrees at 9:20…
10-17-2011 – As I drink my first cup of coffee I will see if my hand will write a few lines. It usually does what I tell it to. Not much going on around here right now. The farmers are still pickin’ and grinnin’. They’ve got most of their corn…
10-10-11 – Good morning. As I have another cup of coffee I will visit with you a little. We’re still blessed with beautiful weather and trees are so pretty it about takes your breath away. Everywhere you look the farmers are in their field picking their corn and beans. I…
10-3-11 – Maybe some words will come to me if I think hard enough. It’s 37 degrees this morning and is supposed to be in the seventies the next few days and even 80 degrees one day. I sure do look forward to that. My furnace still isn’t working. Anita…
9-26-11 – Things have been fairly quiet around here, I guess. A little rain off and on. The only measurable amount we’ve got so far is one-fourth of an inch. It’ raining today so I guess I’ll work on things inside this morning. We tried to fix the hole in…
September 11th, well I think we made it through this day without any major disasters. I didn’t listen to much news today and of course the Sunday paper came out early with most of it dedicated to 9-11-01. Such a terrible, terrible day, even the cartoons were about it. All…
August 29th – We’ve been having some beautiful fall-like weather; even though one day got up to a heat index of 100 or more. They said we were under a heat advisory and let a lot of the schools out early. Then before the day was over the temps started…
8-8-11. Well, I guess I’ll see if I can pull anything out of my jumbled up mind to write about. Walt (Bob) had a good birthday on Saturday, August 6, 2011. He got Happy Birthday calls from son, Robert, daughter, Roberta, daughter, Mona and granddaughter’s Mel and Candi. My daughter,…
8-15-11. Things have quieted down around here at last. No real bad news to report, thank goodness. We made our usual trek to the Quad Cities on Tuesday last week. We couldn’t of had nicer weather. Just beautiful all day. We didn’t get to see anyone in Illinois this time.…
8-1-11. Well, here I’ve been getting bad news again. Friday ngiht Frank Dee Allison called to let us know our dear friend, Harley Cox, had passed away. We had been expecting it, but we’re still sad. He was a good man and such a good sport to let me tease…
7-18-2011 – Last Tuesday we got up at 4:00 a.m., got ready and headed for the Quad Cities at 6:00 a.m. so we could be in Silvis, Illinois at 8:00 a.m. when the license bureau opened so Walt could renew his license. He had to get them every two years…
7-25-2011 Wow! Wow! Wow! Did we ever get lucky over the weekend. From around noon on Thursday until about noon on Sunday, we got a total of three and a fourth inches of rain here at the farm. We really needed it. I just wish some of the rest of…
7-11-11 – It’s that time of week again for me to get some things ready to mail. I woke up to thunder this morning, but it had just rained enough to dampen the sidewalk a little. It’s really dark, hot, humid and I’m hearing thunder again. We’re not supposed to…
7-5-11. Another July 4 has come and gone. I hope everyone had a safe one. It was nice here. Usually it is about too hot on July 4th to do anything, but here it was very pleasant. We sat out in the shade and watched all the traffic coming and…
6-27-2011. The most important thing that happened around here this past week is that Walt (Bob) Allison’s daughter, Roberta, (Berta) had a heart attack. What a shock! She’s 52 years old.It was Thursday morning at work. She was in Genisis East in Davenport. They have a special unit there for…
June 21, 2011 – well, we can soon kiss June 2011 goodbye. Yesterday morning I hadn’t been to sleep yet when I started hearing thunder in the distance. As usual, we had a chance for severe weather so I stayed awake and watched television for the warnings and watches. It…
June 13, 2011 Good morning to you. Such a beautiful day just couldn’t be beat. 67º and full sunshine. We’re supposed to get more rain in the next few days, but I won’t worry about that now. I finally got a good nights sleep last night. Which I really needed,…
6-6-11 – Good morning. It’s gonna be a hot one. We have a heat advisory out for today, Tuesday and maybe Wednesday. Then rain again the next few days. I’m going to try to stay inside all I can. I’m lucky I can do that. Walt said he will stay…
5-16-11. Like I always say, it doesn’t seem possible it’s already the middle of May. My ear kept getting worse so I quit using the expensive medicine on it and started using triple antibiotic ointment on it. It started to heal some, but I called the clinic in Tipton and…
5-9-11. A late “Happy Mother’s Day” to all the mothers. I had a good one. The weather was just perfect. Bright sunshine all day and temps in the seventies. Maybe a little heavy on the breeze, but not enough to spoil it by any means. Now that I think of…
5-3-11. Well here we are in May and still getting down in the thirties at night. It’s 46 degrees now at 1:15 p.m. and cloudy and breezy. Yesterday was nice and sunny, but still with a cool breeze. But as I always say, I can’t complain too much. It could…
I certainly hope everyone had a wonderful Easter like me. And such a happy hopeful day knowing that’s when our precious Jesus came back to life. We had dinner here and daughter Anita, grandson Jared, his wife Carrie, and their daughter Zoie, great-grandson Jacob all came out and we really…
Guess which month is almost gone now? They sure don’t stay around very long do they? You’d never know what the date is by the weather. Over the weekend it got down to 30 degrees and really strong winds with rain and snow. The chimney on the house was pulling…
4-4-11. Three words for the weather this morning – dark,windy and chilly. We went from 83 degrees yesterday to 43 degrees today. But it could be much worse. We had a severe thunderstorm warning and tornado watch yesterday evening. We were prepared to go to the basement if need be,…
3-21-11. Well, I guess spring is here and I welcome it with open arms. It’s a huge relief. Now we’re going into the stormy weather. Daughter, Anita said she would meet us on Wednesday the 16th which was my birthday and buy my lunch. I was happy to see her…
Well if I live two more days, I will have another birthday. And the weather is supposed to be nice for me. We plan to go to Muscatine that day and Walt will buy my lunch for my birthday. And I will get to see granddaughter Lisa and the other…
3-7-11. Well we made it to March. I’m sure glad to see it here even though it is just a few more days until my birthday. Then I’ll be 39 again. We have sure had a bad winter, but that’s been all over. I don’t remember a time in my…
-15-11. Happy Valentine’s Day – a day late. I didn’t go anywhere yesterday or do anything special. Walt and I exchanged cards and he gave me a little box of chocolates. I gave him a shirt, but it didn’t fit so I gave it to my son-in-law for his birthday…
1-18-11. I guess I’ve worn out the words I just can’t keep up with the time. It just rolls along so fast. It makes me feel like the horse who says I’ve fallen and can’t get up. Well, the temperature got up in the thirties and we got snow and…
1-10-11. We are into 2011. It’s already going fast. I appreciate the Douglas County Herald for the nice article they put in there for me being the correspondent of the week. It made me feel good. I graduated from Ava High School and still think of Ava as being my…
1-3-11. Well, we’ll never see 2010 anymore, will we? I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, a happy new year and a good 2011 all year long. My family did our Christmas early this year due to all their work schedules so that was good that we all got together…
12-27-10 – Happy birthday to my daughter, Anita, today and many, many more to come. If she keeps on she going to catch up with me. The kids came out here on Saturday the 18th to have our family get together. It was so good to have them all here…
11-29-10. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I know I did, twice. We went to my daughter, Anita and her husband, Carl’s for dinner on Thursday. I really enjoyed visiting with them again. Grandson, Jared, was there and Lisa came later on. Carl’s brother was there as well. We…
11-22-10. What? Well as usual I can hardly believe this month is about over then it’s the big Christmas month, our dear Lord Jesus’ birthday and all the hectic shopping up to the last minute, but not me. I don’t think I have to do any shopping, I hope, unless…
11-15-10. I hope everyone is doing okay. I know everyone isn’t but that’s a bit of wishful thinking. It was cold and rainy over the weekend. It was in the twenties last night, but has stopped raining. It went back up to 48 degrees this morning. The rainy cold weather…
11-8-10. So far, so good. We haven’t had any real bad weather yet, just down in the twenties a few times at night, but still decent during the day, but we know it can’t last much longer. At least the longer it waits to turn bad the less time we…
1-1-10. It is another new month. We’ve been having fall weather lately. Two weeks ago the temperature got up to 89 degrees then the week after it got down in the twenties one night. We’ve got two big frosts and some less than that. We brought the hanging pots of…
10-25-10. Good morning, what a beautiful fall day we have here. It won’t last long, but we’re thankful for it while it’s here. Friday night and Saturday we got five inches of rain. We needed it this time though. It had been a little while since we got any and…
10-15-10. Again I will try to write this. I wrote it once, but was in a hurry and didn’t do a very good job. I probably won’t this time either. I have an appointment in Tipton at 11:15 and it’s almost 10:00 and I haven’t started to get ready yet.…
10-4-10 – It’s a beautiful fall day in this part of the Midwest. A little on the chilly side, but sunny and bright and hopefully it doesn’t get windy again. If not, what a super day. I think the little humming bird finally left. I hope so even though I…
9-27-10. Good morning! It’s a beautiful fall morning here at the farm. We got a lot of rain again on Saturday, then yesterday was a fine day. We went out and shot some arrows yesterday and I really enjoyed it. It has been a long time since I had shot…
9-20-10. I’m sorry I took so long to write. I’ve been busy, but so is everyone else, so that’s no excuse. Yesterday was a nice quiet day around here. Saturday Walt’s daughter, Berta and her fiancée came out here at 7:30 a.m. and started working on a portable garage we…
