We enjoyed the annual Iowa farm tour so much last year that we did it again this year — picking a different area of the state. This time we headed southwest, to Union and Madison Counties. Very pretty rural countryside, more hilly than in central Iowa around Story County where we went last year.
Millie, our lab, came with us again and enjoyed sniffing around the old barns. The first we visited was a 19th century red wood beauty we finally found (GPS kept sending us to dead ends) in a little c county historical village in the small city of Creston. The “(New) Union County Barn” aka “Harris Barn” built in 1896 had been relocated from the countryside so it felt a little less authentic but inside, it was the real deal, with old dairy equipment, wood stalls for animals, a high hayloft and a rope, presumably to swing in the hayloft. (Or hoist hay bales into the loft.) (We’re told it’s: a perfect example of post and beam construction with diagonal braces. Horizontal cladding is rare and is associated with Civil War veterans.
Next stop, two barns in Madison County, the first west of town on Highway 96. A nice woman showed us around inside the big white 19th century barn with a pretty cupola atop. She even pointed out the dead cat hanging from the rafters that she reported noticing early in the morning but didn’t want to deal with it.
North of Winterset, on Highway 169 just north of the Winterset Cidery, we stopped at our last barn — the McBroom-Hargis barn, five miles south of I-80, an enormous red barn sitting on the edge of the highway and part of a country estate with several buildings that appeared to be old but were actually new-ish construction. The owner is apparently a talented carpenter — and we marveled at two miniature toy barns inside the big old barn. An 1884 story in the local newspaper referred to it as “the largest barn in this part of the county.” It has a wooden track, post and beam, pegs and was designed by I.F. Carter of De Soto. More photos here.
We also drove at the onset through the town of Earlham — and spotted the Restaurant the Hare and the Hound there, which I’ve had on my list for awhile. It’s next to RJ Home (RJ stands for Rescued Junk) which sells vintage, salvaged, junk items one weekend a month. We went once several years ago and didn’t find much but it was a fun outing and worth another visit, especially with the restaurant nearby.
Two years ago, when I wrote a cover story about the Raccoon River Valley Trail for Rails to Trails magazine, the trail was looking good. Now it’s even better, as promised two years ago. Where the trail intersects with gravel roads, the section you ride over is now paved – rather than gravel, which is a huge improvement. There is also new landscaping here and there – some with new amenities such as picnic tables — which is also greatly appreciated.
The Iowa countryside was a welcome tonic yesterday after a few weeks of being cooped up in my office. The hills of central and west-central Iowa were covered in a thick blanket of tall green corn and looked lush against the blue sky.
I wouldn’t normally go to the Iowa State Fair on a Saturday — too busy. But I wanted to catch Elizabeth Warren’s brief stint on the Des Moines Register’s famous political soapbox, so we went. It was hot, although not as hot as it could have been, and very very crowded but we did get to see Liz, who performed well and apparently had the largest crowd of all the 2019 Democratic political candidates, to date. (I couldn’t tell – -we were in the thick of the crowd, standing next to a young documentary filmmaker from L.A. who was shooting footage for a film about the Iowa State Fair’s role in presidential politics, or some such.)
We also happened to hear former Colorado Governor Hickenlooper, who seems like a good guy — and although we skipped the Cory Booker soapbox appearance, we passed him and a large entourage, reportedly in search of vegen-worthy fair food. Speaking of non-vegan-worthy food, I fell hard for the maple syrup cured-pork belly on a stick sold at the Iowa Pork Producers tent.
The fair always makes for exceptional people watching but even more so this year because of the political campaign workers/reporters (telltale signs: a Princeton T-shirt, the DC regulation gear – blue button down shirt and khaki combo, etc), the unnerving folks wearing NRA T-shirts, camouflage gear and/or Trump 2020 shirts (Dirck had to restrain me from shooting them dirty looks. Probably best to ignore them.) Also, the hard metal band Slipknot (internationally-known, Iowa-born) was playing its first ever state fair concert to a sell-out crowd so there were some 20,000 maggots (slipknot speak for “fans”) — many wearing menacing black Slipknot t-shirts or other weirdo Slipknot gear (bright orange jumpsuits, creepy face masks like the band members). Many waited in a long line outside a trailer dubbed the “Slipknot Museum” that was parked in the middle of the Grand Concourse (fair speak for the fair’s main drag). It all added a little je ne sais quoi to the fair…
Young and gorgeous Maggie Rogers also put on a high-spirited show, dancing exuberantly across the stage during almost every well-sung song. The folk rock group Dawes (a favorite of our son’s) and The War and The Treaty — a wife/husband soul group and one of the few Hinterland non-white groups — also threw everything they had into their show. Well done!
TakeBetsywithyou 