Rich Patterson

3 weeks ago | thegazette.com | Rich Patterson

The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced. As I was about to cast toward shore, a slight movement caught my eye. Five painted turtles sunning on a log had turned their heads to stare at me. Was I a threat? With fishing momentarily forgotten, I rowed toward the reptiles as stealthy as possible. Before I could snap a photo, they plopped into the water, leaving me with a memory of time on the water.

1 month ago | thegazette.com | Rich Patterson

The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced. After guiding us through a small museum behind his office, Kirk Brandenberger of the Keokuk Area Convention and Tourism Bureau pushed a long lever that cradled an ordinary looking softball sized rock. With a sharp crack, the rock sheared in half, revealing dozens of tiny sparkling crystals inside. “There are more geodes in the Keokuk area than any place on earth. People come here to hunt them,” he said.

1 month ago | thegazette.com | Rich Patterson

The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced. As a stiff north wind buffeted our small group, Jens Jensen pointed to an emerging prairie outside Iowa’s Museum of Danish America. Jensen, owner of Jensen Ecology, oversees reconstruction of the prairie. Both the emerging grassland and his name are symbolic of the museum’s closing circle.

Mar 26, 2025 | thegazette.com | Rich Patterson

FILE - Eggs are for sale at a grocery store in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, as bird flu is forcing farmers to slaughter millions of chickens a month, pushing U.S. egg prices to more than double their cost in the summer of 2023. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File) The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced. Eggs are scarce and expensive because society does not allow chicken flocks to practice DEI or social distancing.

Feb 21, 2025 | thegazette.com | Rich Patterson

The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced. After stomping through deep snow under brilliant sunshine, a dark hole in a tall ridge loomed ahead. Minutes later Clayton Gomez led us into the dimly lit tunnel. We followed him deep into the bowels of the ridge, where he stopped in a wide spot. “We’re about 350 feet below the surface,” he told us. Gomez is chief of interpretation for the Quincy Mine on Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula.