December 2023 issue of the Farmworx Magazine

December 2023
→
GIVING GIFTS
THAT DON'T
COST
A CENT
Check Out
the New
Farm
Connection
Section
→
→
FARM RESCUE
Volunteers Help Woodley
Family with Harvest
→ MOVING DAY:
Melohn Family Relocates
Century-Old Barn Near Jolley
DASHING THROUGH
THE SNOW
Lake City Equestrian Builds Unique Bobsled

December 2023
contents
Free Publication by Dudley Printing. 515 4th St. Rockwell City, IA 50579
If you would like a free copy sent to you, please email us at farmworxmagazine@gmail.com
Publisher - Jason Major
Graphic Designer - Teri Marsh
Advertising Account Executive - Dianne Julian
Editorial Content - Darcy Dougherty Maulsby
→
4
dashing through
the snow
Lake City Equestrian Builds
Unique Bobsled
→
11
farm rescue:
Volunteers Help Woodley
Family with Harvest
→ 6
moving day:
Melohn Family Relocates
Century-Old Barn Near Jolley
giving gifts that
→ 15 don't cost a cent
Page 2
December 2023

JASON SHAVER
ROCKWELL CITY, IA
E-MAIL:
SHAVERAGSERVICES@YAHOO.COM
Contact us for any of your drag hose needs.
Eric 712 830-9435 • Zach 712 210-5933
1220 S. Center St.
Wall Lake, IA 51466
(712) 664-2173
December 2023 Page 3

Dashing Through The Snow
Lake City Equestrian Builds Unique Bobsled
By Darcy Dougherty Maulsby
Let's take the road before us
And sing a chorus or two.
Come on, it’s lovely weather
For a sleigh ride together with you.
While Christmas carol lyrics speak
of jingle bells, wintry fairy lands and
a wonderland of snow, Bill Albright
knows that chilly winds might be part
of the experience when he’s gliding
over the snow in his pasture south of
Lake City with his horse-drawn bobsled.
That doesn’t mean he doesn’t
enjoy hitching up his team, Copper
and Smokey, for a spin around the
acreage.
“It’s a smooth ride with the bobsled,
and it’s quiet,” said Albright,
whose bobsled is a mix of modern
craftsmanship and historic preservation.
The runners on the bobsled once
belonged to Rudy Engstrom, a longtime
ag teacher at Lake City High
School. After Rudy and his wife,
Naomi, passed away in 2019, their
children sold a number of items from
the Engstrom estate. “Their son-inlaw,
who was in my high school class,
called and told me that Rudy had quite
a bit of horse stuff,” Albright said.
Albright told the Engstrom family
he was trying to downsize but was
willing to take a look at the items, including
some bobsled runners. No
one purchased the runners, and the
Engstrom family reached out to Albright
again. “’If you want it, it’s yours,’
they said. ‘If not, we’ll probably dispose
of them.’”
Albright decided to take the old
bobsled runners home. “They were
pretty dirty and had some old paint
on them,” he recalled. “I was curious
what was underneath, so I started
cleaning them up.”
It turned out the runners were
oak. After stripping the old paint, Albright
sanded the wood and applied
tung oil and a top coat of varnish. As
he worked on the runners, Albright
wondered how Rudy Engstrom had
acquired the runners. “He probably
bought it at the sale barn that used to
be in Lake City,” he said. “Rudy loved
going to the auctions on Thursday
evenings and sometimes came home
with treasures.”
Bobsleds were versatile tools
on the farm
In some ways, Albright is an unlikely
equestrian and historic preservationist.
A “town kid” from Lake City,
he enjoyed riding horses with local
farm kids like Ray Hildreth when they
were growing up.
While ag was never part of Albright’s
career (he retired from the hu-
Page 4
December 2023

Bill Albright built his horse barn from wood he salvaged
from a barn that had been built south of Lake City
in 1903.
man resources department of Stewart
Memorial Community Hospital in
Lake City), he never lost his love of
horses.
His daughter, Allison, also shared
this interest in horses. Through the
years, the Albright family purchased
an antique doctor’s buggy (which
came from Nevada, Iowa) and an elegant,
horse-drawn carriage. While Albright
was never in the market for old,
wooden bobsled runners, he decided
he couldn’t pass up the opportunity
that the Engstrom family offered him.
As he worked on the runners off
and on during the fall of 2019, Albright
decided to make a box for the bobsled.
“Bobsleds were really useful,
versatile tools to help get work done
on the farm,” he noted.
It’s easy to look at horse-drawn
sleighs as charming and nostalgic,
but in their day, they were basically
utilitarian, necessary to get around
on snow-covered roads. The bobsled
was a standard fixture in farms and
towns throughout Iowa and beyond
more than a century ago. “Farmers
could remove the bobsled box from
the runners after winter was over and
use it as a wagon box in the warmer
months,” Albright noted.
Not only were bobsleds useful on
the farm, but they were sometimes
used as “busses” to help transport
kids to school. They also provided fun
for young people. Frances (Moseley)
Pray, who grew up in Lake City in the
late 1800s and early 1900s, spoke
of a bobsled in her diary entry from
Thursday, January 10, 1901.
“The boys had a large bobsled. We
all got in the bobsled and were driving
up Main Street [in Lake City] when the
big Hughes’ boy’s father called him
and told him to take that [bobsled]
right to the farm, or he would give
them a merry ride. So they took us
back to Alice’s while they went to the
livery barn for a team.”
Preserving pieces of the past
As Albright designed a box for his
bobsled, he sought advice from Ted
and Nancy Janssen of rural Auburn,
who have years of experience with
horse-drawn rigs. Albright used a
few oak trees that had fallen on his
heavily-timbered property, plus he
cut down a few more trees to acquire
lumber for his bobsled.
He took the trees to a sawmill
near Slifer, Iowa, to mill the lumber
into boards.
“It was rough-sawn lumber,” Albright
said. “When my brother-in-law
[Andy Grantham of Lake City] and I
planed the wood, it was exciting to
see the white oak really come to life.”
Albright built an 8-foot-long box
for the bobsled, whose sides are 2
feet high. The bobsled isn’t the only
piece of local ag history that Albright
has preserved. He built his 30-foot
by 36-foot horse barn from lumber
he salvaged from a large, wood-peg
barn that used to stand just south of
Lake City on the Fitch livestock farm.
“In the 1990s, the property owner
was going to burn down the barn,
but I got permission to salvage the
wood,” said Albright, who used the
lumber to build his own barn at his
mother’s property on the edge of
Lake City.
He figured this would be the barn’s
permanent home. Then Albright and
his wife, Pat, had the opportunity to
purchase land south of Lake City.
When they moved to their acreage in
2000, they took the barn with them.
“I numbered all the pieces, and our
family helped reassemble the barn,”
Albright said.
Everyone involved with the barn
raising inscribed their name or initials
on the barn wood, taking a cue
from a unique piece of history from
the original barn. “When I salvaged
the lumber originally, I found a board
in the rafters inscribed with the words
‘F. Rice, L.C., July 21, 1903, 12:04,’”
said Albright, who figured this was a
local carpenter.
That 1903 board is preserved inside
the Albright’s barn. It honors local
history, just like the family’s bobsled.
“Building the bobsled has been
a fun project,” Albright said. “I’ve
learned a lot.”
Bill Albright of Lake City used oak milled from trees on his property to make the box on his bobsled.
December 2023 Page 5

MOVING DAY:
Melohn Family Relocates Century-Old Barn Near Jolley
By Darcy Dougherty Maulsby
It’s not every day you see a massive,
old barn rolling down the road. It’s
no wonder that spectators of all ages
parked along Keota Avenue during the
noon hour on November 28 to watch a
once-in-a-lifetime spectacle.
Thanks to the Vote House Moving
crew from Bradgate, the old barn
rolled easily through a field to its new
home about half a mile north at Troy
Melohn’s farm. People who watched
the whole event kept commenting,
“That’s just amazing!” and “It’s so great
this beautiful old barn is being saved.”
“This is a peg barn, and it was way
too nice to tear it down,” said Troy
Melohn, 50, the barn owner. He lives
just up the road from the site where the
barn stood for decades in Butler Township
in Calhoun County.
While no one knows for sure when
the barn was built, Melohn estimates
it was around 1915 or 1920. “This is a
really big barn. It measures 40 feet by
80 feet and is about 30 feet tall.”
An old wooden sign in the haymow
with the words “Green’s Registered
Herefords” hints at one way the barn
was used decades ago. The barn was
part of a farmstead that included a
two- story farmhouse, corn crib, grove
and small outbuildings. The Melohns
began demolishing the worn-out buildings
after they purchased the property
several years ago.
The barn, however, posed a different
issue. “The barn is within a quarter
of an inch of square,” said Melohn,
who wishes he knew the name of the
barn builder. “The craftsmanship is superb.”
When it was clear the barn could
be moved safely and fairly affordably,
Melohn asked his four children (who
range in age from 24 to 18) what they
thought about moving the barn to the
Melohn farm. “They all liked the idea,”
said Melohn, whose family has owned
land in Butler Township since 1882—a
year before Jolley was founded.
Barn included state-of-the-art
equipment
The spacious, gambrel-roof barn
was originally designed to house horses,
dairy cows and hay. It included a
milking parlor, two feed rooms, a tack
room and more. It also showcased
equipment that would have been stateof-the-art
when the barn was new, including
a Louden manure carrier.
Manufactured in Fairfield, Iowa, by
the Louden Machinery Company, the
manure carrier from the old Green barn
shows a patent date of 1907. Some
ag historians have noted that William
Louden’s contributions to barns and
livestock farming were as revolutionary
as what John Deere did for plows.
Louden’s manure carriers (sometimes
cont. on pg. 8
Page 6
December 2023

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Page 7

called “litter carriers”) saved farmers
considerable time in moving manure
from the barn to the manure pile or
manure spreader outside.
The carrier was a large, rectangular-shaped,
metal box with a rounded
bottom. Overhead tracks enabled the
carrier to be moved around the first
floor of the barn’s interior. Later models
featured pulleys and chains that
allowed the carrier to be lowered to
the barn floor so it could be loaded
and raised again to be moved to the
next spot. When it was time to empty
the carrier, the box could be rotated to
dump the manure outside the barn.
“I’m still deciding what I’d like to
do with this,” said Melohn, who plans
to repurpose the Louden equipment,
which had to be removed from the
barn prior to the move.
While the old Green barn hasn’t
sheltered livestock for decades, previous
owners took good care of the
structure and even swept out the barn
a couple times each year. The barn still
has traces of white paint on the top of
the exterior walls and a band of faded
red paint around the bottom, although
time and the elements have been hard
on the building. The east wall was falling
off the crumbling concrete foundation.
The barn was never anchored to
that original foundation. “The barn itself
weighs about 65 tons, so it wasn’t
going anywhere,” Melohn said.
When it was time to roll, the Vote
House Moving crew estimated the total
weight at 80 tons with all the moving
equipment and the barn. As the rig
pulled the barn into the south driveway
at the Melohn farm, the massive structure
glided silently to its new location,
almost like a large ship passing quietly
in a harbor. “They make it look so
easy,” said Ron Hanson of Pomeroy,
who watched the barn move to its new
home.
“It’s an amazing barn”
While the move itself didn’t take too
long, the Vote Housing Moving crew
had started preparing the barn for this
process earlier this fall. The Melohns
Page 8
A hydraulic system helps large buildings like this barn move smoothly from one site to another.
also worked for several weeks this fall
removing livestock pens, stanchions
and more from the barn’s interior.
An area contractor poured the new
concrete foundation and floors in late
October 2023. “I’m raising the barn up
3 feet higher than it was in its previous
location, because I want to be able
to drive a skid loader in there easily,”
Melohn said.
After the barn was moved on November
28, the crew positioned the
barn onto its new foundation. The haymow
door still faces the south, just as
it did when the barn was located half a
mile to the southeast.
“Now we have three generations of
barns here,” said Melohn, referring to
the white barn his grandfather Kenneth
Melohn built in the 1960s and a metal
pole barn built around 2005, which are
located east and north, respectively, of
the former Green barn.
Melohn and his family plan to remodel
the century-old barn and will
add steel siding to the exterior. They
look forward to using the barn for a
variety of purposes. “We’ll use half of
it for livestock, and we’ll use the rest
of it for living space where our family
can hang out,” said Melohn, who has
horses, cattle, goats, chickens and
other livestock. “We might put some
bedrooms in the haymow.”
Melohn knows the renovation process
might take a number of years, but
his family is up for the challenge. “I’m
glad we can help save this building. It’s
an amazing barn.”
Troy Melohn plans to repurpose the antique Louden
equipment that was previously located inside the barn.
December 2023

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December 2023 Page 9

Christmas Sweets!
Easiest Christmas Cookies
1 box of Vanilla cake mix
2 eggs
½ cup vegetable oil
Green food coloring
½ cup red & green M&M’s
½ cup white chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together cake mix, eggs and oil. Add a
few drops of the green food coloring, mix
well. Mix in M&M’s and white chocolate chips.
Scoop into balls and place on a baking sheet
lines with parchment paper.
Bake for 8-10 minutes.
No Bake Cheesecake
8 oz. cream cheese (softened)
1/4 cup butter (softened)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 oz. cool whip
1 pkg jello mix(any flavor)
1 graham cracker pie crust
In a large bowl, mix cream cheese, butter,
sugar & vanilla extract until well blended.
Blend in cool whip. Add jello mix and blend
well. Pour into pie crust and set in freezer. Set
out a few minutes before serving, refrigerate
any leftover pie.
Page 10
Puppy Chow
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
10 cups rice chex cereal
2 cups powdered sugar
Microwave chocolate chips, butter and
peanut butter in a medium glass bowl
on high for 1 minute. stir together with a
wooden spoon. continue at 20 seconds
increments, stirring each time until melted,
add vanilla extract and salt, stir until smooth.
Pour cereal in a large bowl and pour mixture
over cereal. Stir with a wooden spoon to coat
cereal. Pour into a large plastic bag and add
powdered sugar. Shake well to coat. Pour out
puppy chow on a large baking sheet to cool.
Easy Christmas Cake Pops Recipe
1 box vanilla cake mix, I used Betty Crocker
1/3 cup vanilla icing, I used Betty Crocker
1/2 bag white candy melts, 12 oz
1/2 bag red candy melts, 12 oz
Festive sprinkles
Start by preparing your cake batter by
package directions. Beat cake mix, water,
vegetable oil, and eggs in a large mixing
bowl.
Pour the batter into a greased 9×9-inch
baking dish or two 8×8-inch round cake
dishes and bake in a 350 degree F oven until
a toothpick inserted into the center comes out
clean.
Let the cake cool completely, then crumble it
with a fork in a large bowl or in the baking dish.
Stir the frosting into the crumbled cake, cover
with plastic wrap, and freeze until chilled.
Use a cookie scoop and your hands to roll the
mixture into evenly sized small balls and place
on large baking sheet. You want to try make
them all a consistent size – aim for the size of a
ping pong ball.
Freeze again until balls are hard.
It’s easier to roll the cake & frosting mixture
into perfectly round balls if it’s cold. The cake
& frosting mixture is super moist, and at room
temperature it makes it extremely difficult to
shape them perfectly.
Once they have been frozen, I give them
another little roll to smooth out the sides. Then
place on a cookie sheet.
Melt candy melts in the microwave or in a
double boiler. Dip lollipop sticks into the
melted chocolate, then stick into one of the
frozen cake balls.
Do this with all of them and put back in freezer
till they are solidified.
Gently dip balls into the melted chocolate or
spoon the chocolate onto balls and twirl to
coat, letting the excess chocolate drizzle off
onto parchment paper. Decorate with festive
coloured sprinkles.
Place them upright in a styrofoam block, or a
cardboard box to harden. There you have it,
you have easy bite-sized treats!
December 2023

The Woodley family is grateful for Farm Rescue. Members of the family shown here (left to right) include Junia, Alyna, Nicole, Grant and Dietrich.
Farm Rescue:
Volunteers Help Woodley Family with Harvest
By Darcy Dougherty Maulsby
If you drove through the countryside
southeast of Clarion this
fall, you would have seen a common
sight of farm families harvesting
corn and soybeans. Yet two
big clues hinted that something
remarkable was underway along
Page Avenue.
First, there was the colorful,
semi-truck trailer in a field with the
message “Farm Rescue: 1,000+
Families Served.” Then there
was a John Deere combine emblazoned
with the Farm Rescue
logo and the words “Helping Farm
Families in Crisis” in white letters
along the auger.
Farm Rescue volunteers were
there to help Grant Woodley, 44,
and his wife, Nicole, 43, who are
licensed foster parents with five
children. These pastors-turnedfarmers’
faith has been challenged
at every turn in recent months,
from Nicole’s ongoing battles with
cancer to a mysterious, life-threating
affliction that attacked Grant’s
brain last spring.
“There are so many miracles in
our story,” Nicole said. “God definitely
shows up in the tough times.”
Farm Rescue provides planting,
haying, harvesting, commodity
hauling and livestock feeding assistance
for farm and ranch families
like the Woodleys who’ve experienced
a crisis, whether that’s
a major injury, illness or natural
disaster. Farm Rescue gives families
a chance to continue their
livelihood by providing the necessary
equipment and labor (free of
charge) to get the job done.
Keith Barkema, a retired farmer
from Klemme, Iowa, drove the
Farm Rescue semi-truck for the
Woodleys during the 2023 harvest.
“I don’t get paid for this work,
but I get rewarded,” said Barkema,
who has volunteered with Farm
Rescue across the Midwest and
Great Plains for years.
A medical mystery, a medical
mess and a medical miracle
Grant and Nicole never
dreamed they would need the services
of Farm Rescue. In fact, they
never expected to be farming.
Grant, a 1997 graduate of Clarion-Goldfield
High School, met
Nicole, who grew up in Newton,
Iowa, when they were undergraduate
students at Simpson College.
The couple married in 2003,
attended Duke University Divinity
School in North Carolina and became
ordained Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA)
pastors. “I had caring, influential
adults in my life when I was growing
up, and I wanted to do that for
others,” Grant said.
December 2023 Page 11

Farm Rescue has assisted more than 1,000 farm and ranch families since the non-profit formed in 2005. This Farm
Rescue combine harvested soybeans this fall for the Woodley family of Clarion, Iowa.
Farmer and pastor Grant Woodley has been called a
medical mystery and a medical miracle.
The couple was serving the congregation
at the Lutheran Church
of Hope in West Des Moines when
Grant’s father, Gary, had rotator
cuff surgery and some other health
issues. Grant, Nicole and their
children moved to rural Clarion in
2015 to help with the Woodley’s
Century Farm, which has been in
the family for more than 100 years.
“I said I would never move to Clarion,
Iowa, but life changes,” Nicole
said.
Following the move, Nicole decided
she’d like to get two pigs.
By the fall of 2016, the Woodleys
made a big decision to build two
2,400-head swine finishing barns.
Then Gary Woodley decided to retire
from farming full-time in 2017.
“All of a sudden, we had to figure
out how to run a 1,000-acre
farm,” said Grant Woodley, who
had been working as a part-time
pastor but started farming full-time
in the spring of 2018.
Grant was active in various ag
groups, from Farm Bureau to the
Iowa Soybean Association (ISA).
In early March 2023, he traveled to
Orlando, Florida, to represent ISA
at the Commodity Classic, one of
America’s top agricultural conventions
and trade shows. When he
felt a headache coming on during
the event, he figured he could
manage with an over-the-counter
pain reliever.
“I was wiped out at the end of
the day,” Grant said. “The pain felt
like a vise squeezing my head.”
Grant thought maybe he had
COVID-19, since his kids had been
sick before he traveled to Florida.
The pain didn’t subside, and light
and sound only made it worse.
“When he returned home, he just
wanted to sleep,” Nicole recalled.
After nearly a week, Grant
looked jaundiced, and Nicole
scheduled a doctor’s appointment.
“They sent Grant to the emergency
room and found out his white
blood-cell count was sky-high,”
she noted.
After identifying signs of gallbladder
infection, the doctor prescribed
antibiotics. By mid- March
2023, Grant felt well enough to
handle chores at the family’s
swine barns by himself on Saturday
morning. He later headed into
town, but his kids quickly noted
something was wrong. “I was mixing
up my words and started to
lose control of my limbs,” Grant
said.
He was rushed to the local
hospital, where he had a seizure.
While he didn’t suffer a stroke, the
local medical team discovered
multiple spots on Grant’s brain.
“I was in agony,” said Grant, who
was transferred to Iowa Lutheran
Hospital in Des Moines and then
to the University of Iowa Hospitals.
The Iowa City medical team
determined a course of treatment
to deal with infection and four big
abscesses (some of which were
golf ball sized) in the portions of
Grant’s brain that guide speech,
social interactions and emotions.
“The doctors did surgery right
away on March 25, but it was wildly
unsuccessful,” Grant said.
After making little to no progress
in four weeks, Grant underwent a
second surgery on April 25. He
continued to suffer from severe fa-
Page 12
December 2023
cont. on page 14

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Keith Barkema, a retired farmer from Klemme, Iowa, drove the Farm Rescue semi-truck for the Woodley family during the 2023 soybean harvest.
tigue. “I also felt like my chest was
fire,” said Grant, who continued to
battle infection.
Through all these challenges,
the Woodleys were grateful for
neighbors like Mark Zwiefel and
his family. “Our families have
farmed together for four generations,
and they handled the planting
for us this spring,” Grant said.
While doctors tried a variety of
medications to help Grant, nothing
worked. Then a physician assistant
suggested an antibiotic
that wasn’t a common treatment
for a condition like Grant’s. After
the Woodleys decided to try this
new approach, an MRI revealed
that the spots on Grant’s brain
had shrunk.
“Everyone was amazed that
this antibiotic worked and that it
worked as quickly as it did,” Nicole
said. “The doctors didn’t
have a good explanation. But we
knew lots of people were praying
for us.”
“We’re eternally grateful”
Grant started physical and
occupational therapy at On
With Life, a rehabilitation facility
in Ankeny. “While I’ve been
making steady progress, it will
take a year or two to figure out
who the new me is,” said Grant,
who still faces a variety of medical
challenges due to his brain
injury.
This past summer, Woodley’s
friends contacted Farm Rescue
to see if they would help the family
with the 2023 harvest. “Grant
hadn’t worked since March, and
we wondered, ‘Are we going to
lose everything?’” said Nicole,
who has faced her own battles
with breast cancer.
God’s mercies come every
day, added Nicole, who is a firm
believer in the power of prayer.
“When you feel defeated, there’s
always someone who steps up
to help.”
That includes Farm Rescue.
The Farm Rescue combine that
harvested the Woodley’s soybeans
was in Minnesota before
coming to Iowa. Then it was on
to Illinois to help another family
in need. “Helping each other
is just a part of farm life,” Grant
said. “We’re eternally grateful
for Farm Rescue.”
Page 14
December 2023

Giving Gifts That Don’t Cost a Cent
By Darcy Dougherty Maulsby
‘Tis the season for giving back
and spreading cheer and good
will to others. You’d never know it,
though, if you walked into a local
convenience store recently.
I heard the clerk chatting with a
customer about fall cleanup day,
which an area high school was
sponsoring that morning. During
the two-hour event, students were
excused from classes. They and
their teachers helped local residents
and non-profits with yard
work and other small projects.
“Yeah, about 75% of the kids
who came in here this morning
were upset they had to help,” the
clerk said, shaking his head.
It was sobering to hear this, especially
since I had just worked
with six students and their teacher
at Central School Preservation
(CSP), the museum in Lake City,
for fall cleanup day. Central School,
like many non-profits, depends on
volunteers. The crew dusted, vacuumed,
swept the stairs, polished
woodwork, removed trash, hung
banners and more. Truly, many
hands make light work.
The morning passed quickly,
and we got a lot of work done. The
kids seemed to be in good spirits,
especially since we had time for a
break (complete with homemade
chocolate chip cookies I baked)
and a tour of the museum.
This experience reminded me
of my high school days. One afternoon,
our FFA instructor told us we
were going to plant and water flowers
in the big containers near the
town square in Lake City. The job
was fast and easy, since we had a
group of students to help.
While I learned a little about floriculture,
this experience planted
a seed of understanding that took
root years later. I learned that volunteering
can be enjoyable, especially
when you’re working with
people who share a common goal.
I also learned it’s important to give
back to the community where you
live, and kids can be part of the solution.
I hope this seed was planted
with the students who volunteered
at Central School. As Winston
Churchill observed, we make a living
by what we do, but we make a
life by what we give.
In this season of giving, I’d like
to give you this poem (author unknown)
that I clipped years ago
and keep on my refrigerator. May
it inspire you to share these eight
priceless gifts throughout the year.
8 Gifts That Don’t Cost a Cent
The Gift of a Favor: Every day,
go out of your way to do something
kind.
The Gift of Listening: But you
must really listen. No interrupting,
no daydreaming, no planning your
response. Just listening.
The Gift of Affection: Be generous
with appropriate hugs, kisses,
pats on the back and handholds.
Let these small actions demonstrate
the love you have for family
and friends.
The Gift of Laughter: Clip cartoons.
Share articles and funny
stories. Your gift will say, “I love to
laugh with you.”
The Gift of a Written Note:
It can be a simple “thanks for the
help” note or a full sonnet. A brief,
handwritten note may be remembered
for a lifetime and may even
change a life.
The Gift of Solitude: There are
times when we want nothing better
than to be left alone. Be sensitive
to those times and give the gift of
solitude to others.
The Gift of a Compliment: A
simple and sincere, “You look great
in red,” “You did a super job” or
“That was a wonderful meal” can
make someone’s day.
The Gift of a Cheerful Disposition:
The easiest way to feel good
is to make others feel good.
Darcy Maulsby, Iowa’s Storyteller, is
actively involved her family’s Century
Farm near Lake City. She is an ag journalist,
author of the book “Iowa Agriculture:
A History of Farming, Family and
Food,” and owner of a marketing/communications
company, Darcy Maulsby &
Co. Visit her online at www.darcymaulsby.com.
December 2023 Page 15

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