Can't believe it is June 1st!!! The year is nearly half over. We have had beautiful weather, so far, but rain is expected tomorrow.

Yesterday I drove up to Humboldt, Iowa, and as I drove, I stopped and took pictures of Iowa, old and new - You can always tell where there is or was a farm, because of the trees. The fields stretch out for miles, with a clump of trees indicating a farmhouse. Most of the ones I saw were occupied, but some had houses that were gone and only old buildings still stood. Here are a few old structures -

An old brick silo standing guard

A couple of forgotten barns remembering their past

There were also the old and the new right next to each other. Iowa has many fantastic old barns, some of them built of bricks and wood, and intact; others have roofs blown off or holes in them. I thought as I drove around that wouldn't it be nice to find the best of them and save them. I fear that will not happen except in pictures.

Imagine what the above old and new structure have to say to each other!!!

Windmills are all over Iowa, as I wrote before, in the corn and soybean fields, making the farm owners lots and lots of money!

Hog and chicken houses, where the animals and birds are raised until they go to market, and never know the joy of real air and earth, abound in Iowa these days. Part of its "new look." These particular house are only a few of the hundreds owned and operated by an agribusiness. This business also has its own electrical plant, a concrete plant, gas station, a heavy equipment yard, and feed elevators. This is just a few of those houses -

As I continued my way on Highway 3, I remembered seeing the evil empire sign in one of the small towns before coming to Humboldt. And sure enough, there it was -

Humboldt is a great little town. Laid out, like most Iowa towns, in grids of streets and avenues. I found the County Court House, and was greeted with wonderful people who really helped me, although I couldn't find much of what I was looking for. They steered me toward the library, which is a Carnegie library. It is a beautiful building. There I found two great women who themselves were genealogists, and I was able to get copies of the plats owned by my mother's grandfather in Pioneer, Iowa, where he had a farm across the road from his father-in-law. I plan to go there next week, and see if I can figure out where the farm was. I had a good talk with both of them and we exchanged email addresses.

I left Humboldt, driving back on US 169, and going into Fort Dodge, via the river road where the Diggings was. I almost went past it! It looks so small now, and I am planning to go back and take some pictures either tomorrow or another day. Then I went up to "Round Prairie" where my best friend, Louise, lived, and drove by the park that used to be Hawley School, where I went after we moved to The Diggings. Then I drove past Louise's house, where I spent many an afternoon.

I picked up U.S. 20, which runs through Sudbury, Massachusetts. That fact always tickled my mother. To I 35 and down to Nevada, Iowa.

Last night Dick and I went through papers and photos while listening and watching reruns of NCIS, and other shows. I had also received the files of my mother while she was at Walnut Hill Boarding School in Natick, Massachusetts. Fascinating. She actually never graduated from Walnut Hill, because of various reasons, but in the fall of 1924, she was accepted to the University of Iowa, where she graduated in 1928. Interesting, no!!!

Well, that's it for now. I have come to Ames to get some printing done, to see if I can get some old negatives developed, and to go to Starbucks, where I am now, to answer email, research some things, and write my blog.

More to come...

A hui hou,
Sally