To do - not exactly a list

Today's To Do List.

because all I did yesterday was clean and watch Iowa/Ohio State. Man, what a game. It's too bad our side lost but really bodes well for the future of more fun Iowa football. Go Hawks!.

While at the game I told Leslie Wright, curator of the Faulkner Gallery at Grinnell College about my plans to apply for a Wall Service Award. She offered up my first recommendation. I need a lot. But that means it is time to get on that application.

Yesterday I also watched Saddle Up with Dennis Brouse, one of my favorite public television shows. Someday I will have a horse. One of the segments showed Living History Farms, I haven't been there since a school trip long ago.

That, along with Rose Rohr's advice to DREAM BIG, made me think we can do something equally significant and educational with our river area. Stillwell, is still on the map, a junction of road/railroad near the river, and Millgrove, only a dream were both platted towns. I need to find out exactly when and what happened. It seems like the yin of the yang of how Grinnell was settled, and certainly would augment the Wegman mill just upriver in Lynnville (where I've been told the millstone from Millgrove still lives) and the new transportation museum being created in Grinnell. Add to that a possibility of a Poweshiek County Museum, in the old jail in Montezuma, our county starts to look like a real place for people to want to come. People talk about Moore's Station all the time. What did it look like? Where was it exactly?

"If you build it, they will come." The mantra from Field of Dreams - does that work for earlier history as well as it does for baseball.

So beginning that application is on the list.

The engineer from Peterson Contractors emailed and he will call on Monday, and perhaps we will hear from Greater Poweshiek Community Foundation whether they have accepted us under their charitable umbrella. If not we have to get our own 501C3 status, and that will take some time.

Mark said that he would get a crew down to the river Monday or Tuesday to clear the trees that have been severely undercut by erosion, one is already just sitting in the river, and the other is leaning towards the bridge. If we had done this last year, we might not be looking at repairs this year. Vern agrees with Dad, that the tree got lodged into the bridge structure, and then iced up and created a jam.

Once that is done we need to cable the bridge to other trees, as suggested by Vern and Nathan. This will help stabilize the bridge from this winter's weather and certain flooding in the spring. Of course, we now also need to rock the lane so that heavier equipment can get down to the bridge, 40 loads of new dirt will be a little fresh for our needs, but in the long run, not a bad idea at all. It's just that the ruts I saw were over a foot deep. My jeep can't do that!

plenty to do,

I expect that I should contact Andrew Leichty from ACE, and I look forward to hearing from the National Guard. I emailed on Friday regarding a suggestion by Doug Shutts, of the Supervisors, who thought the Guard might like this riprap project for training purposes. Always support the troops!

And the logo, I still need help with that. Jim hasn't had the time and I really don't have the expertise. Dad likes Nathans photo of the bridge better so I will email him and ask if we can use it for our hat/t-shirts. I'm okay with the photo of the bridge in kinder times as the logo for the friends and will work to refine it this week.

Then time to really work with Sam on the fundraising/grantwriting plan of action. This means that the mission statement needs to be tweaked, then written down. Living History Farms had some great documentation on their website.