Almost Time to Plant Spuds Mary Swander’s Buggy Land is a reader-supported publication.

Almost Time to Plant Spuds

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Let's All Go for a Ride Buggyland will never be Buggyland again.

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How to get around in Buggy Land. Horse, bike, or recliner.

What You Take from the Sea The helicopter buzzed over my cottage, flying low, the noise so loud that I stopped my work and glanced out the window toward the Atlantic Ocean, the waves, a steady green unwrinkled blanket rolling o...

Each time a Connemara fisherman goes out to sea, he risks his life.

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Last Class This is the last day for Bunny.

The point wasn’t to beat down an opponent. The point was the fun of it.

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Liese Greensfelder, author of Accidental Shepherd will be signing books at the AgArts Studio, 435 B. Ave., Kalona, IA. May 5. 10:30-12:30. Drop by. 7:00 P.M. Reading at Prairie Lights Bookstore.

Today: Bender’s Maytag Repair Shop and Kuntry Nook Greenhouse open house. Free Coffee and Doughnuts. 8-5 P.M.

4/26/25: 2748 560th St. Kalona, IA.

Happy Spring!

Boats Leaving Rossadillisk Echoes of the 1927 Cleggan Disaster

One million euros asking price for a cottage in ruins in Ireland?

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How to become a responsible member of a community? Follow the cue of the musicians in the orchestra pit. Read Annie Chapman Brewer's "Together in the Pit."
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Balloon Man Things have been a bit up in the air here.

What do balloons and school closings have in common? Read Mary Swander's Buggy Land. "Balloon Man."

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Amen.

From Buggy land to Hovland Liese Greensfelder, Bettie Swarts, Dan Pease, and more.

What happens when an inexperienced solo 20-year-old Berkeley, CA, woman is suddenly put in charge of a remote farm on the mountainside of Norway?

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#farming
#Norway
#sheepherding

Inside Voices: A Prison Choir, My Mother and Me by Amy Kolen

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What's the parallel between singing in a prison choir and bringing comfort to a loved one through music in a nursing home? Read an excerpt from Amy Kolen's excellent book Inside Voices.

A floating barn and 150 pairs of boots • Iowa Capital Dispatch A 40-cow barn was cruising down the highway with no truck -- and not a single cow -- in sight. Just 150 pairs of boots.

The Iowa Capital Dispatch picked up my Buggy Land story about the floating barn. Take a look:

iowacapitaldispatch.com/2025/01/26/a...

January by Mary Swander

What's the story on this beautiful Beverly Pepper sculpture? Janus Agri Altar.

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150 Pairs of Boots In Buggy Land, cattle sometimes break through fencing and wander out onto the road.

What happens when you see a barn floating toward you on the highway in the left-hand lane.

Read Mary Swander's Buggy Land.

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#barnmoving
#animalmagnetism

The Only Neuro I Know by D.J. Savarese

What's it like to be autistic? Read D.J. Savarese's brilliant piece about opening his world to neurotypicals.

swander.substack.com/p/the-only-n...

Hey, Diddle, Diddle On my first trip to Ireland in the early 1970s, I stayed in Galway City at a splendid guest house run by two middle-aged sisters.

Driving through Ireland? Maybe not. Read my latest Substack column.

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Farming and Fishing on a Finite Planet by Taylor Brorby

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What's next? From Rolvaag to Borlaug, in beautifully written prose, Taylor Brorby traces the history of farming and fishing in the colonial U.S.

Free excerpt reading of Mary Swander's new play-in-progress called Coop. Stars Rip Russell. Object theatre.. 7:00 P.M. Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. Hillcrest Academy. 1421 540th St. SW, Kalona, IA 52247. Discussion follows the show.