Exploring Iowa

Biking the Trempealeau Trails in Wisconsin

In May of 2022, while on a work trip, I biked three of the 18 Trempealeau Trails Bicycle Association’s Loops. The bicycle loops range from 16 – 56 miles with a range of different elevations. I rode these routes around 5-7 p.m. each night and encountered almost no traffic at all. You can review each…

Biking the T-Bone Trail from Atlantic to Audubon, Iowa

In April, I cycled the T-Bone Trail spanning Cass and Audubon counties, over 40 miles with 259 ft. of elevation on a paved, scenic trail. LENGTH: 19.8 miTYPE: asphalt, concreteDIFFICULTY: easy History of the T-Bone Trail According to mycountyparks.com, the T-Bone Trail is a former railroad right of way; purchased with the help of the…

Slater to Rhodes, Heart of Iowa Nature Trail

Last June, I rode the Heart of Iowa Nature Trail from Slater to Rhodes, Iowa. The trail was a mix of pavement, crushed limestone, road, gravel and GRASS (which was quite unexpected). LENGTH: 30.41 MIELEVATION: 472 FT. CLIMBINGTYPE: ASPHALT, CONCRETE, ROAD, GRAVEL, GRASSDIFFICULTY: EASY View a portion of this trail on Alltrails here. Here is…

The trail between two lakes, Sauk Rail Trail

Last summer, Ryan and I rode the Sauk Rail Trail from Lake View, Iowa to Swan Lake State Park just south of Carroll. LENGTH: 24.3 miELEVATION: 374 ft. climbing TYPE: asphalt, concreteDIFFICULTY: easy On Saturday, July 3rd, we started in Lake View, riding down through Breda to Carroll and around Swan Lake State Park before…

Biking the Katy Trail – Clinton > Machens, MO

This May, Ryan and I biked the entire Katy Trail from Clinton to Machens, Missouri (and then some). The official Katy Trail is 239.6 miles long, here is a blog recap of our trip. Day One On day one we road from Clinton to Pilot Grove for a total of 62.41 miles. We parked our…

Recap of 2020

Well, it’s been awhile. I never dreamed we would still still be in the same place nearly one year later. In case you missed it, I’ve been working from home since March of last year. I spend my entire day on my work computer writing copy, sending emails and attending meetings on video so it…

Raising Bottle Calves

I’ve been working from home since March 13, 2020. So, this week marks 17 weeks. Wow. I figured this spring was as good of time as any to raise a few bottle calves! In late March, two bottle calves arrived at our farm. They were either abandoned by their mom or their mom did not…

Cabin in the Woods

Over Mother’s Day weekend, we met Ryan’s family on the property near our farm for a little grill-out at the cabin. This little plot of land is truly amazing. While we were there, I spotted my first Monarch butterfly of the year. I was so excited I started pointing and yelling, nobody understood what I…

Garden Journal 5/12/20

Each spring there seems to be new birds visiting every single day. Over the last few weeks we have seen orioles, woodpeckers, catbirds, goldfinch, cardinals, a pheasant, turkey, geese, hummingbirds and more. I put out some oranges, grape jelly, suet, bird seed and hummingbird nectar for my little visitors. Definitely a highlight during these crazy…

Quarantine 2020

Well this is not exactly the year that I had planned. Since the Coronavirus spread to the United States, our lives have changed significantly. This has definitely been the weirdest spring of my 35 years! I’ve been working from home for six weeks now and only have barely left my house since Friday, March 13….

The Garden in Winter

It’s beautiful out today with a high of 45 degrees on this gorgeous February 1st. I’m itching for everything to turn green again, the smell of spring and the buzz of insects. Winter does wonders for my appetite for gardening as its come back in full force. I make sure to leave all of my…

‘Unbelizeable’ Belize

This post is a little out of the norm but I thought you might enjoy seeing some beautiful lush island photos as we head full-force into winter here in Iowa. I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Belize, specifically Ambergris Caye island (also known as San Pedro, Belize) twice in the last two years. I thought…