News Center newsletter

Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon will again be awarding prizes to all those in Allamakee and northern Clayton counties that participated in the Live Healthy Iowa 10-week Wellness Challenge in 2017. Prizes will be awarded during the hospital’s annual Family Wellness Fair which will be held Wednesday, May 10 from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the hospital.

In order to claim a participation prize at the Veterans Memorial Hospital Family Wellness Fair, Live Healthy Iowa participants are asked to present their access card at the receptionist desk during the fair. Personalized participant access cards can be found by going to the Live Healthy Iowa website at www.livehealthyiowa.org and under the participant’s “my dashboard” tab, clicking on the “access card” graphic at the bottom right of that dashboard page. The card can then be printed and brought in to the Wellness Fair to redeem the prize.

Memorials were recently received by the Veterans Memorial Health Care Foundation in memory of Darrell Snitker by Jerry and Linda Siegrist, Harold and Shirley Marti, Gayle Larkin, Robert and Judy Iseli, Patsy Kerndt, Rosanne and Darrel Wicks, John and Sheryl Prestemon, and family and friends of Darrell Snitker.

Memorials were also received in memory of Arden Hanson by Ardys Kuhse, Randy and Lori Hesse, Al and Fern Rissman, Harold and Shirley Marti, Mary Fink, Mavis Berns, Marcella Selberg, Bob and Marilyn Bulman, Jerry and Linda Siegrist, Bill and Karen Regan and Joyce Hanson.

Memorials and donations are greatly appreciated by the Veterans Memorial Health Care Foundation.  The Foundation is a 501C3 organization. All donations to the Foundation are tax deductible. Memorials and donations can be sent to 40 First Street SE, Waukon, IA  52172.
 

N. Josh and Nicole Hutson of La Crosse, WI announce the birth of their son, Seth Roderick Hutson, born March 27, 2017 at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, WI. He weighed 7 lbs. 4.2 ozs. and measured 20-1/4 inches in length at the time of his birth. He joins a sister, Mia (19 months).

Grandparents are Steve and Robin Oden of Waukon, Jean Hutson of Olympia, WA and Jim and Sandra Hutson of Olympia, WA. Great-grandparents are Phyllis Kubitz and Bob and Jo Oden, all of Waukon.

The Waukon High School Class of 1961 will meet Friday, April 28 at 11:30 a.m. at Gus & Tony’s in Waukon for lunch and social time. All classmates are invited.

by Jeremy Leitz, Allamakee County Executive  Director (563) 568-2148

Upcoming Deadlines and Important Dates
• May 15 – August 1: Primary Nesting Season - No Mid-Contract Management Activities on CRP acres   
• May 31 - Marketing Assistance Loans for Prior Year Harvested Corn and Soybeans
• August 1 - ARC/PLC Sign-up

CRP Participants Must Maintain Approved Cover on Acreages Enrolled in CRP and the Farm Programs
Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) participants are responsible for ensuring adequate, approved vegetative and practice cover is maintained to control erosion throughout the life of the contract after the practice has been established. Participants must also control undesirable vegetation, weeds (including noxious weeds), insects and rodents that may pose a threat to existing cover or adversely impact other landowners in the area.

The Allamakee County Soil and Water Conservation District hosted a cover crop field day on Thursday, April 6.  Area producers had the opportunity to stop by three different sites and drive by two additional sites to view cover crops.  All of the fields also had manure applied before or after seeding the cover crop.  The field day offered producers the opportunity to view different methods of cover crop establishment and manure application and see that the two practices can work together.  This field day was funded through a grant from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture.   Speakers included project coordinator, Sara Berges; NRCS Area Agronomist, Neil Sass; Scott Nelson from the Iowa Soybean Association; and the producers (Scott and Dylan Ness, Nick Rolling, Mike Johanningmeier, and Derek Bentien).

As the number of Iowa farmers using cover crops continues to grow, it’s important to help make sure these farmers have a successful experience. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey today shared a number of spring management tips for farmers new to growing cover crops.

Northey also encouraged farmers that are using cover crops to share photos on social media.  The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship will be sharing photos on Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #FarmersCoverIowa.

Pastures represent an important land resource, but many pastures are overgrazed resulting in uneven forage stands, low yields, higher weed pressure, and erosion issues due to bare ground. Continuous grazing doesn’t allow forage time to rest and recover and high-quality species die out from selective overgrazing.  Rotational grazing occurs when a pasture is divided up into segments and only a portion of the pasture is grazed at one time.  Cattle are rotated between the paddocks giving forage time to regrow and build deeper root systems.

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that I watched this morning the swearing-in of the new Supreme Court judge, Neal Gorsuch.

I also watched large portions of his time before senators considering his nomination.

Except any sort of consideration in those hearings seemed lacking. Republicans knew that, thanks to former senate leader Democrat Harry Reid, they had the final word if necessary in the so-called nuclear option. Democrats, still angry over the Electoral College loss to President Trump, and the failure of their court candidate, Garland, in 2016 to even get a hearing in the senate, stayed firmly opposed.

Personally, I think the person who benefited most as a result of the actions is Garland! Democrats argued loudly and long that he should have at least been called before the senate.

They have a point.

As a Lenten practice I’ve been trying to read poetry for my morning meditation and was recently moved by “Blessing for a Broken Vessel” by Jan Richardson. It reads: Do not despair. You hold the memory of what it was to be whole.

It lives deep in your bones. It abides in your heart that has been torn and mended a hundred times. It persists in your lungs that know the mystery of what it means to be full, to be empty, to be full again.

I am not asking you to give up your grip on the shards your clasp so close to you,

But to wonder what it would be like for those jagged edges to meet each other in some new pattern that you have never imagined, that you have never dared to dream.