A recent column shared by the Capital Dispatch, an independent Iowa news source, entitled “Coaches, please don’t lead team prayers: A Jewish former athlete’s perspective,” written by Laura Belin.

I would like to share some of her points then offer some perspective of my own.

Hi there, Pard. Yep, it’s me, Alphonse Wilson, the one they call Windy. But this ain’t pertickler a good day for ol’ Windy. Fact-a-matter is, if I was to study how to do that depression stuff? This’d be a good day to start.

Ya see, it’s what’s called an annual-versary of a sad time fer me, and I thought I might repercussion it to you today, so’s mebbe you won’t have to have your heart broke, neither.

In a recent guest commentary by Randy Evans, we learned of the mighty effort in Davis County involving the moving of a large barn by some 300 volunteers. The seemingly Herculean fear only took about 20 minutes, and covered some 900 feet, distance wise. Quite an accomplishment considering, the volunteers lifted the barn in unison and walked it the entire way.

I appreciate Randy Cauthron's candor in commenting on city rental dynamics, July 15 editorial. It has taken six weeks to gather my courage to comment. My take away from the editorial on housing "health" in Spencer is that it's not only rental in need of guidance. His question, How did the trailer park get to this point?

Come Thursday, I'll be the parent of a public school student for the first time in my life.

The thing I was most worried about was the drop-off lane, but not anymore.

My decades-old frame of mind was bent and then completely broken Monday night by a 4-0 vote from the Spirit Lake School Board. But it just goes to show that times really are a-changin' and I'm not as young as I was.

People's checkbooks tell you about their priorities.

A couple of weeks ago, it was determined that your money should be used to hire 87,000 more IRS agents.

Not 87,000 more lawmen and lawwomen.

Not 87,000 more mental health workers.

Not 87,000 more teachers.

Not 87,000 more school security officers.

My daughter and I were enjoying a long-anticipated trip together on the northwest coast of Italy, hiking on a Sunday morning between the quaint, old villages of Cinque Terre. We wandered past vineyards hanging heavy with white grapes and stopped often to gaze at the beautiful Mediterranean below. As we approached one of the villages, we could hear faint music which grew in volume as we got closer. Our path took us right past a centuries-old church, whose doors were open to the fresh air.

Preserve a few memories of this summer’s garden or create gifts to share with family and friends. Pounding flowers onto fabric or paper is a fun and easy way to preserve the beauty of garden flowers.

Use watercolor or other rough surface paper when pounding on paper. Purchase ready to dye or prepared for dying fabric or prepare the fabric yourself. You’ll find supplies and directions at most craft stores.

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach is offering Mental Health First Aid — virtual programs to help Iowans help each other with mental health challenges.

Mental Health First Aid isn’t a typical self-help program. Instead, participants learn how to help someone else who is experiencing a mental health challenge or crisis.

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of posts on social media ironically trashing, well … social media. Don’t think I don’t get it. There’s a lot of junk out there, and to make matters worse, people tend to use the distance provided through social media to publish things they would never say to someone face-to-face.

OK, OK! I get it. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. It doesn't mean it is necessarily the safest or best route. I get it that some of us get off to a late start in the morning, and don't want to be late for our destination. Sometimes we cut corners, we take risks with the traffic lights.

I’ve often thought how might the drought conditions from Canada down through the Pothole Country of the upper Midwest affect our breeding ducks. Well, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently released its report on the 2022 Trends in Duck Breeding Populations, based on surveys conducted in May and early June by the FWS, Canadian Wildlife Service and other partners.

You can feel it in the air and you can see it in the sun. Nights are getting cooler, and the days are getting shorter, all is closing in on us. While some folks mourn the passing of summer, a good number of anglers are looking forward to autumn. And many of those anglers are looking forward to catching crappies.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service makes the September teal season available when the teal population is above certain levels.

Packing people into the back country doesn’t sound really exciting, I know. And if it gets exciting, it’s undoubtedly because something went wrong. But we did have occasional chuckles during those eight summers.

I stopped off at the backcountry ranger’s tent near Bullfrog Lake, in Kings Canyon National Park. He mostly checked fire permits and had a fun summer. He told me to get off my horse and in the tent … now, to see what he had.