Baker's heartbeat

After we built our house in 1993 we started to get water in the lower level. Our house is located at the bottom of a hill. We had very heavy rains in the 1990s, and the water would rush down the concrete roadway, into our yard, end up on our patio and pass into the house via the patio doors. We tried a number of "fixes," and finally had a few dry years in a row. We felt safe enough to finish this part of the house with carpeting, and built a rec room, bath and guest room. The concrete patio block started to slope more sharply into the house and the carpeting kept getting somewhat wet. We finally changed that patio block three years ago. We also explored other ways to keep the floors dry. While searching on YouTube, we discovered "French drains." This seemed to be a good approach, so we bought the inexpensive items needed and installed the drain above the new patio. I want to endorse this as one way to address water issues in a cost-efficient manner. It's...

Yellow flag irises on the lake beachside had spread, maybe six or eight feet, and 2-3 feet into the water. This patch of vigorous, yet glorious perennials had been untended for a decade or more, and it looked that way. So, armed with a small Arsenal of garden tools, and finally, a hand saw, I attacked the space. We needed to start to eradicate the unwanted plants to add more room to a recreational area, increasingly used by kayakers (mainly, me), pontoon boaters and family members who would like to float on the water this summer. The yellow irises made the beach into a small entry point. It was the hardest landscape chore I've tackled in the 25 years I've lived on Lake Huntington, located in northern Scott County. First, I decked out in old pants, socks, and my garden tennis shoes. It was about 60 degrees and cloudy, so I had on multiple jackets as well. These would not be needed very long. The irises showed about 6 inches of green leaves, but the underground rhizomes...

The "London Underground" badge announcement from Fitbit was unexpected. Fitbit tells me I have walked 250 miles, and that is the same length as the world's first underground highway. "This triumph really lays the tracks for some big things in the future," the e-mail message reads. That badge partly explains why I was able to lose 1.2 pounds of weight in the past week. As my husband can attest, I worked out like a maniac, getting some 18,000 steps yesterday, the hardest workout day, and lifting weights for 25 minutes on three occasions ... (I could not wait to be done and now am enjoying two days of rest.) A question on my Facebook stream wondered on why I set a goal of losing just 5 pounds. Well, it's actually a quest to get back to the 130's. For 11 years, I explained, I've been as low as 133 pounds, and as much as 139 pounds. It wasn't until I turned 60 years old in December, and took a long, fun vacation, that the weight creeped, and cre...

Back in October 2007 I was about 30 pounds overweight. I love eating sweets and, especially, salty treats but I realized a change was needed: My father had died of a sudden fatal heart attack at age 72, and there is a genetic risk in the family. I joined the Scott County Y in Davenport and proceeded to lose the weight, determined to stay at about 135 pounds, healthy for my 5-foot-6 frame. In the intervening 11 years I worked out five days a week, nearly every week of the year, and aimed to lift weights, twice each week. Then came a serious professional setback on Jan. 29, and bad habits re-emerged. I'm currently at 143.6 pounds, the most I've weighed in 11 years. I am determined to lose at least 5 pounds before an upcoming beach vacation. (Editor's note: I reached my final goal of 135 pounds on Nov. 2, 2018. So many months past the time I thought!) I'll blog on this topic because it could help in the weight-loss quest, much more difficult at age 60 than it...

Have you seen a mermaid lately? We found three of them on a recent trip to Florida and the southeastern United States -- the underwater show at Weeki Wachee Springs State Park was one favorite activity during the journey. A World War II Navy frogman named Newt Perry got the idea to establish an underwater show near Florida's Gulf Coast. In 1947 he invented a system to breathe underwater and the popular Weeki Wachee mermaids were formed. These days, the swimmers are ages 18-25 years old, and viewers see them in the original tank auditorium Perry designed. We reached the entrance gate about 40 minutes before the first show at 11 a.m. This allowed us to sit up front, in the center. We were impressed by the show, which featured three young women in mermaid costumes, dancing underwater and holding positions steady despite a 5-miles-per-hour current from Weeki Wachee Springs. The name is from the Seminole language. Other favorite stops off the beaten path: * Spotting several manatees...

I'd never heard of the Arbuckle Mountains before March 10. This is an ancient mountain range in southern Oklahoma, formerly part of the Chickasaw Nation, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society online (okhistory.org). Steve and I have completed a 28-day journey through the southeastern United States, and this is one of the blogs to discuss the places we visited. Ardmore, Okla., is about 12 hours south of Ankeny, Iowa, on Interstate 35. We took off from our daughter's Ankeny home in the wee hours of March 10, and sped south, excited to see one region of our beautiful country. We did pass through Oklahoma City, but soon started to notice the mountains. I could not name the range but urged Steve to stop at a scenic overlook. That turned out to be most fortuitous: We saw the Arbuckle range off the interstate, and a forest fire. This is something we'd never witnessed in person, coming from our home in Eastern Iowa. I took several photos, attached to this blo...

After three days of spicy Tex-Mex food, husband Steve and I were ready for a culinary change. It was "spring break" week March 11-17 in San Antonio, Texas, and we Iowans were in the middle of a favorite vacation spot in this state. We Bakers had embarked on a 28-day, 4,742-mile trip through the southeastern part of the United States, driving through Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. During our multi-day stay we walked to the Historic Market Square in the city, and en route, passed by a very busy cafeteria named Bill Miller's Barbeque. It was packed with local office workers, construction workers, and others. Steve and I loaded up on lunch foods, and found a place to sit. As we ate, I brought up the fact we had yet to find a way to get to a location I found of interest: The McNay Art Museum. We talked about using a taxi, Uber, or driving there, when a woman at the next table spoke up: "I don't mean to butt in, but have you heard of the VIVA...