I’ve noticed some noisy neighbors recently in the area and it has been a bit fun to watch and mostly listen to the little guys/gals as mom or dad flies to and fro feeding them. But I can’t figure out how all three of the baby sparrows plus an adult fit into the birdhouse.
And I imagine at some point the little dears will be ready to fly off and just hope they make it on their life’s journey. Other neighbors, furry ones, hear the cries of “feed me” and watch longingly from afar, possibly thinking of their own meal.
Nature is what it is. But one hopes like with all living beings they get a chance, but sometimes it sees chance can be a good or bad encounter.
Sometimes it’s nice not to have to travel too far in Siouxland to find an interesting exhibit to check out. A traveling exhibit currently at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Sioux City consists of recycled Jurassic critters, or creatures from an earlier age. Artist Dale Lewis created whimsical creatures out of recycled metal bits and pieces. Although pieces might not be the best description for some of these towering creatures.
Lewis harkens from Minnesota so this may be a way to spend cold winter days as he created these creatures from various metal materials. The exhibit is slated to be on site until April of 2023. So it will be interesting with a heavy winter snow to see these creatures peeking out from under snow drifts. Maybe experiencing another ice age that their forebears endured and were lost in so many centuries ago.
With the recent heat wave and high temperatures I haven’t been sitting outside much to watch my backyard friends in Siouxland. Although I keep them fed and watered and really early on those mornings when the temps are hovering in the 60’s I sit outside listening to bird song before the temperature spike to the 90’s as the day wears on.
It’s just fun to watch these creatures, some of which I think are conscious of being watched as they appear to keep checking and posing, which I guess is my cue to only capture their best side, the famous quote mentions, “Ready for my close up, Mr DeMille.”
Some new exhibits are being prepped for opening sometime down the road that expands on the history of the Sioux City Railroad Museum which was a functioning repair yard servicing steam and diesel locomotives and repairing rail cars for 65 years.
As the museum has grown it is expanding its educational framework and in the last year added actors who portray “real characters” who lived and worked in the rail yard between 1918 and 1981. And now new exhibits will explore more in-depth the work done at the yard as well as information regarding the Holocaust that took place in Europe during WWII.
A new engine has been added to the mix and some excavation was also occurring on the museum grounds as more information about the repair yard is discovered and catalogued for inclusion in the future. History is so soon forgotten it seems these days. Transitory and fleeting. But what is most times forgotten seems oft repeated.
Recently a sailor from Siouxland was laid to rest eight decades and a year after his death. Sailor Storekeeper 3rd Class Harry E. Nichols was buried in Sioux City with military honors after perishing aboard the USS Oklahoma during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Nichols was killed along with his shipmates during the February attack and like many others, until recent technological capabilities became available he and others were not identified. But with new tests and DNA analysis Nichols was brought home to Sioux City where he had grown up and enlisted in WWII and buried next to his parents in a local cemetery.
Remaining relatives and family and members of local American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts attended the ceremony honoring his life and service on what turned out to be a nice day, as days preceding and later brought some storms rolling through the region. And for a family that never really knew what had happened to to this relative some closure and remembrance a long time in the making.
Winter has finally arrived in the Siouxland area although temperatures continue to seesaw up and down from extreme cold to unseasonably warm. Of course there is nothing to the issue about weather and climate, and will leave that discussion to others.
During the “warmer” days though it’s nice to get out and take a walk even if it’s brief and more time is spent trying to photograph than actual walking.
Some days when the temps hit below zero with wind chill, it might be a good time to do some house cleaning and cataloguing photos already taken until more agreeable weather allows one a safer venture outside to enjoy nature and whatever might be seen to continue photographing Siouxland. Winter is nice, but spring and longer days might be nicer.
The “holiday spirit” has begun in the Siouxland region. A number of communities like Sioux City have begun with their lighted parades and other festivities now that Thanksgiving is past and Christmas is only a couple, three weeks away.
At night the Christmas lights and decorations light up neighborhoods, a cheery reminder to people about the approaching Christmas holiday, when hopefully more people take to heart the meaning of Christmas and put aside their vitriolic beliefs and really consider loving their neighbor. But I suppose that is a large Christmas ask as political parties and failed politicians continue to push their agendas.
But the chance for a momentary set aside to again think like a child and enjoy the magic of Christmas might give some folk pause to enjoy the present and wish their fellow citizens a Merry Christmas.
Recently attending the Sioux City International Film Festival in Siouxland where a variety of short films: animation, documentary, comedy, etc., are shown, the feature film was a documentary about small town journalism, and the place it occupies in a community and the real threat of what is loss when that voice disappears.
Having worked for a number of small daily newspapers over the last couple of decades it was a story I am all too familiar with, and saddened, that these kinds of newspapers are struggling to just stay in existence, as are many of the locally owned “mom and pop” stores that support them. Some might say at times a love/hate kind of relationship, but something all mutually benefit from.
The “star” of the film is the writer/editor Art Cullen, who won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing that takes on the “more powerful, well heeled and moneyed folk than the common Joe.
The Storm Lake Times is a family produced publication where most all report, write and produce the twice weekly paper. All play a role, large and small, because for small town publications it truly takes a village to survive and no job is too small that needs to be done. And the large ones are there for tackling and making a difference.
Ones hopes that this paper survives and the few remaining ones throughout the country, much like mom and pop stores, they serve a needed value to the local community. And in many cases today as yesterday, connecting neighbors and telling local stories that local folk are interested in that concerns their neighbors and other residents in surrounding communities. During the last “caucus season” when so many Democrats were running a number of them made it to the Heartland Forum in Storm Lake where they got to meet to Cullen and answer questions about rural life and agriculture, no small issues for many in Iowa. And maybe hoping rubbing elbows with a known local would help them down the road.
A quiet little park area in Sioux City attracts all sorts who on a quiet Sunday evening in Siouxland like to hang out and enjoy some of summer’s last or waning days. Meeting some friends for a bit of a picnic lunch before fall really revs up I got there early to find some other locals enjoying the park as well and a quiet summer’s eve.
There was plenty of bird song emanating from the surrounding bushes and trees that filled the air even as some of the little creatures had some problems finding a good spot from which to sing. But that happens to all of us at one time or another.
Over the years when I worked at various newspapers I photographed my fair share of baseball games, high school, college and minor league. The Sioux City Explorers is an independent league here in Siouxland, and have called this area home base for over a decade. Nothing says summer like baseball, to most folk. To me covering a game as opposed to watching one are two different things. While personally not a fan, nor even having a favorite major leagues team, I enjoy watching moves and action that happens on the field. And locally, I enjoy late afternoon, early evening games as the sun sets behind the local stadium. The light play can sometimes be very nice.
Watching the game sometimes certain actions while helpful on the field, become almost comical seen from the spectator stands. What might be obvious doesn’t always come to fruition for the players, especially when making note of what intentions are and then failing to follow through. Oops! But so goes the game of statistics. Columns upon columns of stats for each player, each team, etc., etc.
But watching those guys at bat I wonder how they even see the ball hurtling toward them, at speeds I can not even imagine. And once there on base, making certain the keep their spot so as not to become another error statistic for that evening’s game. Play Ball!
I live in the Siouxland area that encompasses a wide swatch of land in northwest Iowa, northeastern Nebraska and southeastern South Dakota. The people that inhabit this area are generous folk and your basic honest, Midwestern people you like to have as neighbors. I explore the area and share observations, mostly photographic, sometimes through video, and and short text. All images and video are copyrighted material of the author.
Jerry Mennenga, Sioux City, Iowa
jerrylmennenga@yahoo.com
lostinsiouxland 