A book about my hometown

This has been an amazing week. I just found out a novel has been written about my hometown. I guess that is not very surprising to most people, unless you were born in a town with a population at the time of possibly 100 or less.

Homestead, Iowa. A village in the Amana Colonies. East Central Iowa. The book is Love Finds You in Homestead, Iowa by Melanie Dobson. This little add-on village to the Amana's has almost always been forgotten. Nothing special ever happened here. It was just a great place to live as a child. In the fall, spring and summer, we played outside with all the neighborhood kids (all here means ALL) until the street lights went on. Riding bikes, kick the can, baseball, kick ball. It was perfect and safe. In the winter, we'd walk to the Pine Pond for ice skating. We had to cross the railroad track to get there, so I suppose our parents got together to figure out something safer. For many years, an empty lot was flooded and we ice skated right by our homes.

We used to have a working railroad station. My grandfather was a traveling salesman and spent a lot of time on the rails going between Amana and Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City. He sold woolen items made in the Amana Woolen Mills. It was always a great thrill welcoming him home, because he would bring all sorts of treats from the big city.

This new book, just released, takes place in the late 1800's. My grandparents were born during this time and I remember a lot of their stories about the time. I am hoping to recognize historical sites in our town in the book. As they say, "it is in the mail as we speak."

I see statistics now that the population is 425 which I tend to question. The most famous person ever to live in Homestead would have to be the actor, Ashton Kutcher. Of course, he is younger than my children, so I never knew him or his family. He lived outside of town on a farm.

Another famous person was Bill Zuber who, during his baseball career from 1936-1947, played for the Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, Washington Senators, New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.

So, I have just added to my reading stack of books, but I have a feeling this book will be read quickly.

I am being overrun by books!!

I have a stack of 6 books sitting in front of me and one in the mail. Then there is another stack in the guest room with at least 3 paperbacks by daughter left for me at Christmas when she was here. My problem is I have been very distracted.

I am very late in finishing a baby blanket that I am knitting for a baby that was born last week. It has turned out to be a boring but pretty pattern and I get easily distracted. And then, there is the Internet and all the blogs I read and the time I spend on Facebook.

I need to step up to the plate and decide which book I need to start first. Actually, I am half done with 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper. He spoke in our church about his car accident and being declared dead for 90 minutes before someone noticed he was still alive. A very good book about how he saw heaven.

Spinning Forward by Terri DuLong is a novel about small town life in Florida and she is a knitter. I have corresponded with this author since she has a blog. I think this book will wait until I am in Montana for the summer.

Two wonderful books which the Trout has already read by the same author, Michael Sanders, are Families of the Vine and From Here, You can't See Paris. Since we love France and will be there soon, we do enjoy reading this kind of a book. I hope to get to them before we leave.

My blogger friend, Sam on 'My Carolina Kitchen' suggested The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry, by Kathleen Flinn, the story of romance, food and Paris and attending the Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. I know I will love this book!!

I picked up Dear John by Nicholas Sparks at Costco last week. I love all of Nicholas Sparks' books and have heard good things about this one.

And then, the one in the mail. It is titled Somewhere to Belong by Judith Miller. It is a novel about people living in the Amana Colonies in the late 1800's. I am really looking forward to this one because that is my ancestors she is talking about. I commented on a review of the book and the author saw it and corresponded with me. I told her I would be critical because I have lived these stories of the past all my life. The book should be here this week. I am also in a drawing to win one on a blog of the reviewer and I have my fingers crossed for that one. I can certainly pay this one forward.

"What do you do all day?"

One of the questions I am asked most often is, "what do you do all day while the Trout fishes?" I chuckle at the question. I have always been pretty much a loner. I love solitude and I love experiencing the beauty of nature that surrounds me. Be it walking on a beach by the ocean or walking through the mountains, I am comfortable and at peace. I do need "something" to inspire me to get out of bed though.

This is a baby blanket I just finished knitting for a first time grandmother. I hope to get it in the mail this week. It is a very favorite pattern of mine called "Estonian Lullaby Baby Blanket." This is actually the third I have made and I love the pattern. Montana is an excellent place to knit. Several years ago, we drove to the Bitterroot Valley of Montana to Corvallis, to "Mountain Colors" to buy yarn and watch how they dye it. Lovely people and their discount shelves were very inviting.

I have also been reading a lot and finished several reads with more sitting on a shelf waiting for me.

I brought my sewing machine along also. I have been plugging away sewing myself a jacket out of patchwork fabrics with the seams on the outside so that they fray and get a raggy appearance. Perfect for winter dog walking in Florida.

Of course, I spend quite a bit of time on the computer also. It is great that we have this broadband plug this year. Makes it very convenient for me and I no longer have to go to the library in the neighboring town to use their computers.

I've watched several DVD's including Benjamin Button and The Notebook. I know the Trout would not enjoy these movies, so they also made the afternoons fly by. A couple more are still waiting for me, but I will put those off for cooler days.

We are actually getting warmer out here. The weather from the southwest is reaching up here this coming week, so it will be great walking weather again.

Our guest

We have a guest at our house. His name is Stanley Lambchop, or aka Flat Stanley. Somehow when the Flat Stanley series of books were written in 1964 by Jeff Brown, they passed over our home and we never met this adorable child.

Well, our grandson, Joshua, is in 2nd grade in Wisconsin, and he mailed Flat Stanley to visit us and we are to take pictures of Flat Stanley while he is in Florida, and then mail the pictures back to Joshua's classroom. Fun?

So, I have found him in a palm tree and a grapefruit tree so far. I thought about taking him to the Trout's colonoscopy today, but that just didn't seem right. So, Joshua, Flat Stanley will probably come back to see you sometime next week in the envelope you sent. Gosh, wish we could all travel by envelope now and then.

The end of the story

I did something unexpected this weekend. I spent it reading, reading and reading. On Saturday, I stopped in our library here in our retirement community and found three black notebooks on a table with a sheet of paper and pen next to them.

A man who lives in our community has written his 5th novel and with this last one which is still is draft form, he is asking the residents who live here to read it and add the epilogue. If he chooses it, you can receive credit in his book.

So, I quickly raced through the draft making notes, proofreading (as a former medical transcriptionist, this comes normally) and have just finished the reading. This is a murder mystery taking place in Canada with Detroit connections. I am mulling things in my head that I would like to change, etc., but I do not have a definite ending yet. I think it will come, though. I felt there were loose threads during the story that needed tying up. So, will just have to keep thinking about this one. This has been fun.