This report begins with the Chinese real estate bubble but let's start that discussion off in Brazil. It was generally the rule in Brazil that apartments were sold prior to construction with buyers making mortgage payments well before they were completed and the buyers had moved into them. My son, Matthew, bought an apartment there that way. Developers had a majority of the apartments sold before they broke ground. Developers used the money to build the apartments. In general, it worked.

Rarely would someone call a week including a major surgery a good one, but last week was exactly that.

Oil company profits are through the roof. Natural gas prices are rapidly rising.

CBS News reported last week that Exxon Mobil had $17.85 billion in profits in the second quarter of this year. Chevron made a record $11.62 billion. Shell also broke its profit record.

Spencer is a great community. The people are friendly and there are good schools. There are many great parks and walking trails. There is a variety of churches and restaurants. But even with all these amenities, there is room for improvement.

July has been a month of painting our house, which has given me hours of reflection time but little writing time. Two of my role models’ birthdays are in July: Aunt Janet in Everett, Washington, turned 99 this month, and Verna Peterson would have been 100 this week.

Both seemed to “step with the Spirit,” reminding me of Galations 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

As people who like to go fishing, it’s probably not very often that we wonder how all those baits, rods, reels and the other things that we need to go fishing got into the fishing retail shops or the websites or wherever we buy the stuff that we need to go fishing. I’ve been in the fishing business going on 45 years and I thought I knew how those things happen.

Poor flowering and misshapen or a lack of fruit on tomatoes, peppers and squash may be due to the weather, not your gardening skills. Temperature extremes can interfere with flowering and fruit set on these and other vegetables in your garden.

FARMLAND LEASING MEETINGS

ISU Extension and Outreach will be offering our annual Farmland Leasing Meeting here in Spencer on Thursday, Aug. 11, from 9 a.m. to noon, at the 4-H Auditorium on the Clay County Fairgrounds. The cost of this program is $20 per person or $30 per couple. This program is for both landlords and tenants and will discuss Iowa cash rent and land values.

BITE BY THE BARN

I was so excited to see Jordan Peele's newest sci-fi/horror film. Maybe too excited. And perhaps that's why I didn't enjoy it near as much as I had hoped I would.

I was huge fan of Peele's first film, "Get Out," a psychological horror thriller with a social commentary; and although not as good as "Get Out," his second offering, "Us," was a genuinely creepy and disturbing tale which registered.

Life is filled with questions and the Bible is filled with the answers. There are four major questions that deserve serious attention and consideration. Questions like these are often posed to young minds who are in higher learning, hoping to expand their thinking or to cause them to come up with some new idea. It is God’s intention that we look to Him and His word for answers for every situation in life.

It’s been more than a decade since the doors opened at the Grand Avenue Community Outreach and I have been a part of the governing board since the formation and birth of what was then known as the Spencer Dream Center. We’ve learned a lot in those 10-plus years of providing Christian care and service to those in need of hope and healing.

OVERWEIGHT LOAD CLARIFICATION

The Iowa Department of Transportation has received many questions about a law passed in the 2022 Legislative Session related to overweight loads moving on Iowa roadways. The new provision will allow motor carriers who need to haul loads over the legal weight limit to apply for a new annual overweight permit applying to many roads in the state beginning Jan. 1, 2023.

To clarify a few common misconceptions:

We have been bullish on the U.S. dollar. We also noted that the strong dollar would become a problem for commodities, as a headwind to U.S. exports, if exceeding 102-103, which has occurred. The currency exchange rate gains weigh on U.S. exports above that level. The dollar index has recently bested 108. For historical perspective the dollar index hit 164 as the Fed killed inflation in the 1980s. The agriculture economy would be dead by then.

North America is the home of all sorts of fishing opportunities. An angler can find a lake, river, pond, or reservoir to fish in without looking too hard. Wherever you live, you don’t need to drive far to wet a line.

Rivers can provide outstanding fishing action throughout the summer. Actually, rivers can be good year-round, especially the larger rivers. However, in the summer, small, medium and large rivers can provide anglers with action from a wide variety of fish species.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to fish with longtime friend, Denny Harms, who lives in Lawton. We became fishing buddies when he was the football coach in Estherville, leading the Midgets to a second place finish in the state playoffs in 1987.