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Local Columns

Dengler Domain: Driving

My wife and I attended a wedding in the Okoboji area this past weekend. From our house, there were no direct routes. It meant a lot of backroads and two-lane highways. This is the perfect type of travel to see the past. The harvested fields gave off a dreary look as machinery was parked on the ...

Dengler Domain: FTC

No matter what happens in this election, the government should work for the people. The government may not be perfect, but it should be here to help us on a federal, state, and local level. While the federal government can feel far away, a little-known part of the Biden administration is ...

How to Change the World

My girlfriend protests for what she believes in. She demonstrates. She wears costumes or t-shirts and carries signs. When she is in protest mode, she is in your face, and there is no mistaking what she believes in, or how she would like you to vote. As a pastor, I am prohibited from using my ...

On Nature: Earth’s Future

We are on the brink of an irreversible global disaster that will imperil the very fabric of life on Earth according to “The 2024 State of the Climate Report” that was published recently in the peer-reviewed journal BioScience. This stark conclusion was the result of a study that tracked 35 ...

Dengler Domain: The Final Harvest

Harvest has always been my favorite part of farming. Riding in the combine and watching the crop feed into the combine is pleasurable. As the monitor shows the yield going up and down throughout the field, it is fun to watch. In years past, this was a suitable time to evaluate farm management ...

Iowa Outdoors

Success during the 2023 pheasant season has Iowa hunters eagerly awaiting this year’s opening day and with bird population estimates similar to two years ago, hunters are expecting another great fall afield. Pheasant hunting has been an Iowa tradition spanning generations. This year, it ...

Dengler Domain: Harvest Sunset

Nothing is more beautiful than an Iowa harvest sunset. Looking out over the horizon past the tree-covered hills of Traer provides a perfect mosaic. The sky graced with the blue hues followed by the orange tint provided by the glowing sun is a magnificent view. Being one who lives in the ...

On Nature: Hydrogen from Soda Cans

In findings that seem too unbelievable to be true, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found a way to generate non-polluting hydrogen gas from sea water by mixing it with aluminum pellets from recycled soda cans. Even more astonishing, according to an article in Cell ...

Dengler Domain: The End

This harvest will be a special one for the Dengler family. After five generations of toiling the land, the Dengler family is done. It was not an easy decision to make but a necessary one. If I were to be paid in my love of farming or the pride of having both grandparents be farmers, I ...

Pastor’s Column: On Grief

Last night, someone I love died. No warning. She wasn’t old. She wasn’t sick. She just had a weak blood vessel somewhere in her brain and then was gone, with eight children and a mountain of friends left behind. As a pastor in a small town church, I am regularly confronted with death. ...