I can hardly wait!  We are leaving soon for a road trip!  I would be ready to hop in the truck tomorrow if I could!

What I am actually doing is plotting and planning what to take along and what route we might take.  But I have had something niggling in the back of my mind, taking a back seat to whatever is on our list of to-do's. It's music.  I mean, the music in my sweet old iPod.

Last weekend, Mother's Day weekend, Bob and I got to spend some time with my mom, Sally, in northern Iowa.  It is a late and wet spring there, which effects a lot more than how fast your perennials come up.  Down there, it is all farming all the time.  My brother, Jared, retired from farming last year but still lives on the farm he owns.  It's nerve racking for farmers, both men and women plus families, to predict when to get started planting crops.  Namely, corn first and soybeans to follow.  And there are a lot of negative feelings due to the newest tariffs imposed, which are really hitting the agriculture industry.  China buys LOTS of American crops, soybeans more than corn, I believe.  They won't be buying all those crops when they have to pay an additional tariff.  I sincerely wish that there could be some relief for farmers, to make it feasible for them to not only work very hard and very long hours, and be rewarded by a profitable marketplace.  Otherwise, there will many that don't make it.

Although it was cool and wet, we went for an exploration of the Kettleson Hogsback Nature Area near Spirit Lake.  The name "Hogsback" really has nothing to do with pork!  It refers to a raised ridge in the nature area that served as a landmark.