The Native Iowan

I know, I lied. One last post for 2025…

2025 has been a landmark year in more than one way:

1) My Brother, Monk, passed. He was 74. His is the first death, of my generation, within our large and extended Hemmer/ Iowa family. My Father’s generational family are all gone. I cant think of a single Hemmer, from Dad’s generation, that is still around. My Mother’s youngest sister is still alive. Aunt Molly is the last of that branch of my tree, from that generation. I am prompted to make contact and wish Molly and her sons and grandkids well. So, Monk’s passing is a first for my familial generation. Important in that it brings home the impermanent nature of our here and now. I wrote about Monk’s passing at the time: https://nativeiowan.com/2025/11/10/2025-v11-ode-to-my-brother-monk/

2) I learned an amazing lesson in modern child-care. My Evil-Twin granddaughters, Dawn and Vera, came to stay with me a month ago…

I was lucky to have the big empty house, all by myself, for most of November. Grace was in the Solos. Paul had been doing some work in Honiara. His return to Aus coincided with the E-Twins getting out of school. So they came to stay with me. By the end of the first week the devices that entertain and occupy were permanently on the shelf. Not just for the day, or for a week, or until Cmas… Due to the E-Twins being too clever and me being too dumb… they’d logged onto the home network, got into the www unrestrained, unsupervised, unauthorised. Their dad overseas saw them online, busted them. Bad dawgs… And we all learned together that the world does not end when devices are evaporated. We learned that we have books to read and stories to write and pictures to drawn. A scary movie is good fun. Connie showed up with son, Brimstone… he too lost his device. And guess what? His world did not end either. The Lesson-Learned is that the kids do not need to be connected and “live” on their devices. They can survive without. And, books and paper and pencils are very, very cool.

3) I am no longer young, bulletproof, and totally ambulatory. Ive known this, but am harshly reminded of all, over this past year… My ancient injuries (there are many) have been catching up with me, and ruling my world. Ive also added a couple good “mistakes” to my long list. My PhysioTherapist is now a good friend. My joints ache. I walk like an old man. I visit doctors more often than, than before… I think of my Mother who had most of her joints replaced (knee, hip, shoulder), and some replaced twice. I have been making walking sticks for “Old Friends” for a few years. All are useful, beautiful, functional weapons that I “whittle”. I scavenge ancient wood from my farm. Work the wood with ol-skool tools. Use modern materials to turn them into composite creations. Ive shipped quite a few overseas. Given a number away here in Aus. This year I started looking for “My Stick”. It’ll take a while but I’ll find, whittle a stick that I’ll claim. Here’s a few sticks whittled in 2025:

I think that may be it…

More later

Next Year

Smiles