Autumn in Iowa is… quirky. It can go from the 80’s to below freezing in a day and does so often enough that it’s not commented on as “strange weather”. There isn’t as much fall color here as there is in other places I’ve visited. It is definitely not Rhinebeck, but few places are! However, we do have the harvest, which is oddly fun to watch. In my opinion, it is way more interesting than the football that everyone seems to get all excited about this time of the year. They even have stats on the evening news like they do for the sports as to what percentage of the crop is harvested, etc.
Perhaps I am a little odd.
The past week has been so warm that I feel sorry for the kids in the non air-conditioned schools around here. It seems a pity to be trapped indoors in this weather with its crisp mornings and flawless skies. Knowing the kind of weather that will be coming down for us express from Canada in a few weeks makes these few weeks all the more glorious.
I’ve been taking the dogs out at every chance but I’ve not brought the camera all that much. Today I rectified that. 
This is a field that was harvested earlier this week. It had soybeans planted in it and at one point they had 3 combines taking them out at one time. It didn’t take very long for the crop to be out when you have that many machines (and people) working on it. In the background you can see the Ackley Co-op and water tower.
The dogs are enjoying their daily walks with the exception of Meara who has to be coerced into coming along. Micheal, who is a tubby little tank of a dog alongside Malcolm, sometimes quits early too, but he’s always game for going!
Autumn color in Iowa is more subdued than in other parts of the county, but it’s still there. These are the sugar maples in front of our house from out in the field.
And from up close:
Trees aren’t the only things that provide fall color. Here is a wild asparagus plant that grows in the ditch in front of the house:
One of the bad parts of harvest time is the grain trucks. These are semis that haul grain from the fields to the elevators. There’s nothing wrong with the trucks or the folks driving them in themselves, it’s the amount of dust that they kick-up on the road. Even the dust isn’t really their fault, it’s just that it’s dry and the road gets dusty. But the fact that there are probably a dozen of them going by each hour makes it so that everything outside is covered in a fine sifting of beige dust.
(Funny enough, with the 4 trucks that I took pictures of in order to get these 2 photos, all but one slowed-down when they saw me snapping pictures of them. I’d guess that they have had complaints about their speed [they are going fast] in the past:-))
There is still a little other color around. I found a few wild violets blooming still. These little plants with their heart-shaped leaves have mostly taken over the lawn here and I don’t think anyone is complaining. They make a lovely carpet of purple in the spring and summer. I used to pick handfuls of these when I was a child and display them in juice glasses on the kitchen table.
Dad and I had dinner tonight at The Goat Barn out at Crazy Acres which is a great camping facility not too far down the road from us. As you can guess, they put the restaurant in what used to be the goat barn. This is a great place to camp around here as they even have cute cabins that can sleep a ton of people for really reasonable prices along with RV hook-ups and more traditional camping stuff. The food at The Goat Barn is really reasonable with good-sized portions. If you are around Ackley, you should stop in!
Sarah Jane Humke 