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Iowa’s State Flower is a ditchweed. Flat, open pink flower with five petals and yellow center, it blooms on a stout shrub by a dusty roadside. Wild Prairie Rose is a hardy native, adapted to its sometimes-harsh habitat. Even though the virgin prairie is long gone, the area near the gravel road mimics the wild rose’s preferred conditions, and the plant flourishes here.

Mothers

Updated May 7, 2026

Mothers are everywhere and come in all shapes and sizes, but the work they do is similar no matter who or what they are. Let’s take a look at some of the mothers that live on Owl Acres and the work that they do for their young. Mothers have to select the place where their […]

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A green, columnar plant sends triangular branches up from a central stem. Short spines line the edge of each lobe. Triangle cactus or Dragon Bones or any of numerous other names, it makes a great house plant.

Living Sculpture: Dragon Bones

Updated October 23, 2025

About fifteen years ago, I went to a fundraiser and bought, for $10, a little cactus. It was an odd little thing, about six inches tall with a triangular stem and a weird head at the top. It looked like a deformed little tree with spines on it. I decided I didn’t like it much […]

Photo by Author Alt Text: A tiny black insect clings to a wall. The camera can’t zoom in close enough to get much detail. We submitted the photo to an AI-powered insect identification app to see what it might tell us. We were not disappointed.

Guess who: AI Identifying Insects

Updated October 23, 2025

In the news here at the beginning of October, we’ve been hearing about the tiny flying, biting insects we call no-see-ums. Minute pirate bugs and biting midges have been flushed from the fields by the harvesters and are looking for a warm place to winter. They’re so small (1 to 3 millimeters long) that you […]

Spring Is Here

Updated March 31, 2025

Spring is here. Along with the winter-hardy cardinals, finches, house sparrows, downy woodpeckers and blue jays, new voices are joining the dawn chorus. We hear red-wing blackbirds, brown-headed cowbirds, and northern flickers. The juncos haven’t left yet but will soon. Robins have arrived, but they’re being quiet. The life on Owl Acres is waking up. […]

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Karen sits by the fireplace in a domestic moment with her dogs. Dave, the Yellow Lab working dog, sits at her feet in his usual, supplicant “pleeez feed me!” pose. Clancy, the Golden Retriever pet, assumes a somewhat undignified, submissive attitude under her bare feet.

The Canine Component: Dave and Clancy

Updated January 6, 2025

There’s a lot of living going on outside on Owl Acres, but there’s also a lot of living going on inside the house. The principal actors, besides the humans, are two beautiful canines—Dave and Clancy. These two beings bring a verve and energy to our world that wouldn’t be here if we didn’t invite them […]

Fraser Fir that drew the honor (misfortune?) of being our Christmas Tree this year, in its place in the living room. Tall and cone-shaped, it’s hung with baubles accumulated over years. The antique, incandescent lights connect today into the flow of yesterdays and tomorrows.

Christmas Tree: Fraser Fir

Updated December 30, 2024

Author’s note: I’m taking an unusual step to anchor today’s post in a moment. A reader has offered a comment, which I heartily endorse. Here it is: “Jimmy was probably the only kind and good hearted politician in history… Have a good 2025. It will likely be an interesting year.” One year when I was […]

Prairie Sunrise

Updated May 29, 2023

On a cool spring morning, we roll out of bed at 4:30. The goal is to watch the sun rise over Owl Acres. It’s been doing that forever, but I don’t remember many times, if ever, that I’ve paid attention to the sunrise per se. Today I have asked Bryan to narrate the event. We […]

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Photo of Dave, a Yellow Labrador Retriever, and Clancy, a Golden Retriever pup, catching some zzz’s on a mat on a sunlit tile floor. Favorite toys lie strewn on the floor next to the mat.

A New Member of the Household: Clancy

Updated March 26, 2025

I have gained a heightened appreciation of the 500 or more families who take on the task of raising puppies for the Seeing Eye each year. It takes a lot of focus, attention and work just to get them housetrained, let alone all the other things that a new puppy needs to learn. And the […]

Karen stands with her new Seeing Eye dog on a platform in front of a gleaming Amtrak coach

Introducing Dave

Updated December 8, 2022

Dave moved in last February. He doesn’t know this, but he is a dog. A big very light-colored yellow lab with long floppy ears, a nose that brings him the world, and a heart as big as Texas. He thinks he is a little puppy and likes nothing better than to climb into my lap, […]

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Image of a tree stump that is carved into an owl with a dark red wooden shed in the background.

Owl Acres

Updated August 2, 2022

Owl Acres is a small patch of rural Iowa with woods, a yard, an open meadow, and a house where I live with my partner Bryan and my dog Dave. At evening and into the night, a pair of barred owls often calls through the trees, wooing and courting, discussing domestic issues, or arguing about […]

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