PROPERTY BLOG
&
further details about OUR extraordinary property (as well as SOME OF its unique and beautiful features for our invited guests)

A familiar tag-line but with a slightly different answer than that movie version. I believe my 60-acre wood is about as beautiful a spot as there is in northeast Iowa and so naturally I broadcast that sentiment on my rear license plate holder. I know everyone is proud of their spot o' heaven, but the fact that my sixty acres is so unique in its flora (compared to other similarly-sized properties) makes a pretty good statement that it really is heavenly.

I about stepped on this fawn, probably only days old, as he was curled up in long grass near my out-building slab. Although the deer are a complete nuisance and a costly bother for my tree farming activities, the fawns are quite cute and it is hard to keep my negative prejudice against such a sweet little creature. I carefully looked around and could not see her, but I have no doubt that mama was intensely watching me from a distance.

Joining my much-larger pear tree, this small pear tree provides its initial burst of blossoms to welcome early spring in Iowa. I can always look forward to these Bartlett pear trees being the very first trees to provide their much-anticipated and lovely flowers in the spring. Not seen in this picture are the hundreds of small pollinators that were buzzing in and out of the blooms, to ensure my summer crop will be plentiful. I have a separate orchard for the prunus group, e.g., plums, peaches, cherries, nectarines and apricots--and at the time of this photograph, those fruit trees were also just beginning their spring blooming ritual.

In the late 19th century, 10,000 acres of an oak-hickory forest encompassed an area from Waverly to Jefferson City (now called the town of "Denver"). The timber from that massive woodland built the cities of Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Waverly. At a time long before the likes of Lowes and Menards lumber stores existed, five steam-powered sawmills processed that wood for building beginning in the 1870s. What may be the largest, surviving remnant of that once-massive forestland still exists on my property, with some of those bur oak and shagbark hickory trees nearly 300 years old.

WE'RE NUMBER ONE! The berry with the highest anti-oxidant number (ORAC of 19,220, blowing away the competition) are the wild black raspberries, found all alongside my woodland edge. There are probably millions of these berries in my forest, but I can never pick all of them when they start to ripen every year around the first part of July.

Great-Grandsons Dylan & Hunter provided a mutual kiss to their Great-Grandmother Shirley at her Ninetieth Birthday Celebration, our first big social event at the property. She was appropriately-outfitted with her "Birthday Princess Crown" during her party (provided by sister-in-law Esther--Lora B. Hesse's daughter) which featured birthday cake, a large party tent, live entertainment, plenty of food and drink, and the extremely-popular golf cart tours of the property for all of the birthday celebration guests.

Although the day was hot, the tent, the cooling fans and the golf cart rides provided a respite for party-goers from the heat. Here, nephew Dan was just one of many surprise guests for Shirley's big event. For those friends and relatives with less-formidable constitutions, a second party in Shirley's hometown church had welcome air-conditioning.

On the avenue that runs alongside the north property line (and also near the entrance to my property) is this monument sign, with a metal cow silhouette and (underneath the cross-bar) a cowbell--both items that are symbolic of the land's previous use as an area to pasture cattle. This photo was taken on a gorgeous late-summer day near my north property line, with only the growing goldenrod and north fence line in the right/background.

The hazlenuts were planted in this field of clover and then mulched to keep in the moisture. Unlike most nut trees that require several years before the nuts will be harvested, the hazlenuts (filberts) should be available within the next year.

Nature provides this sinister coloration to alert potential predators to the danger in eating it--although this is not a hornet and most birds probably would find this hover fly snack entirely palatable and quite tasty.

One of my happiest experiences in early summer is finding small, newly-formed apples on the property. There are at least a dozen mature apple trees on the property, but these have been supplemented with newly-planted Fireside apple trees and a recent Yellow Delicious cultivar.

The unusual sight of a junked 1950s automobile that was dumped in a woodland ravine. Such practices were common on Iowa farms until the advent of environmentalism in the 1970s along with the growing consciousness that this was not an appropriate way to handle one's trash. Now this interesting scene provides hikers a fascinating resting spot where they can take a moment and examine the wreckage as well as the vehicle's 1958 license plate.

New England Asters (Aster novae-angliae) light up the late season landscape with bunches of purple flowers. This aster can grow up to six feet high. The flowers are an important source of nectar for late season pollinators, especially Monarchs as they stock up for their fall migration to Mexico.

These large caterpillars are even bigger than those of the Monarch butterfly. The swallowtail larvae reflect the gorgeous coloration of the adult butterfly and tend to be very partial to the dill plant. Aside from the breathtaking beauty of a swallowtail (easily spotted in any meadow on The Lora B. Hesse Trust property) they are also quite physically large. This is the largest butterfly in North America and sometimes larger across than a human hand.

Photograph taken on a bright, sunny day in my pasture, but it looks to have been taken in the middle of the night due to the aperture settings on my camera. The wild carrot (Daucus carota) is also called "Queen Anne's Lace" because of the purple spot that looks like a spot of blood on lace. Commonly identified as such because it was thought to resemble Queen Anne’s lace headdress (wife of King James I). The 18th-century English courtiers used the flowers as “living lace” and also because Queen Anne challenged her ladies-in-waiting to a contest to see who could produce a piece of lace as beautiful as the flower, but none could rival her own efforts.

This Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) butterfly feasts on nectar from this native thistle.

Baskins Run is an almost-ideal creek to have on my property. It runs alongside the west edge of my land and then cuts over next to some very large hills before exiting onto the next tract. It runs alongside several open areas that are naturally-inclined to serve as my "hothouses" for walnut trees. Interestingly, the Iowa black walnuts have cooperated with this scheme by self-seeding these open fields with dozens of seedlings in preparation for the next generation of a walnut forest. By the way, the "Iowa Grade" black walnut is an industry standard for "superior wood" and denotes "the highest quality" black walnut lumber.

Have you ever sniffed the bloom on a common milkweek plant? It has a surprisingly-pleasant fragrance, so we should not be surprised that many pollinators--not just monarch butterflies--are drawn to these unusual and fascinating plants that cannot be no longer dismissed as "just a weed."

This hearty troupe was up for a hiking adventure and followed me with great interest, being very attentive to my exhaustive descriptions of the varied wildflowers that populate my property. Lora B. Hesse regularly would walk back to her hills and meadows and collect a massive bouquet of Iowa wildflowers--one of her truly-great passions in life. Lora would be heartened to see my nephew and his children out enjoying the beauty of what was once her Iowa woodland. What is especially-compelling about this photograph is that the four youngest members of this group are all great-great-grandchildren of Lora B. Hesse.

The bucketloads of delicious montmorency cherries has formed in my largest monmorency cherry tree and should be ripening around the First of July. I have discovered that not only do I look forward to these delicious fruits, but a large number of the feathered inhabitants of my woodland similarly anticipate this bounty each year. While it pains me to do so, I also determined the only way that I can preserve these cherries until they are ripe is to cover the tree with massive nets that will prevent the bird predation.