Our Hometown by Newspaper

Don Lamb

Homer is in Life Good

By Lori Berglund

in his

where he has built a reputation for being able to fix just about anything that moves on a farm.

Don Lamb

pictured

Homer shop

“You have to love what you do”

-Don Lamb

FILE PHOTOS FROM PAST HOMER THRESHING BEES, SOMETHING LAMB HOSTS EACH YEAR

HOMER — Don Lamb has never really been bored. It’s not something he understands well. He’s far too busy to ever be bored.

“You’ve got to enjoy what you’re doing,” Lamb said. “That’s the fun part for anybody that does anything. A lot of people have jobs and they hate to go to work, and then complain about it when they get home. I’ve never been down that road.”

Where Lamb has been most of his life is down a gravel road, operating his own small business in the remnants of the pioneer town of Homer. Not much has changed here over the years, and that seems to be much of the appeal for customers who come from far and wide to have Lamb look at a piece of machinery that no one else seems to be able to fix.

“Everybody asks me if I get bored,” Lamb said. “I don’t know what bored means.”

The pace of life is different in Homer.

Pull into the driveway of Lamb Tractor and Small Engine Repair on a sunny summer afternoon, and one will find birds singing in the trees as a soft wind blows the tall grass around the edges of the sprawling property that was once a thriving little community.

It may take a few minutes to wander the caverns of Lamb’s shop, which winds around what was once the Homer grocery store. A dance hall in the second story was a popular place for couples to kick up their heels on a Saturday night.

On any given day, one will find Lamb underneath a tractor, behind his welder’s hood, scavenging for a part, or welcoming members to the tractor club that meets here regularly.

Lamb has spent most of his life within a few miles of Homer. He learned young how to work on just about anything mechanical, and that work is what makes life interesting.

“I grew up about a mile down the road,” Lamb explained. “In 1960, my dad bought this place behind us. It had a house and a garage, and we built a new shop. He had been farming for the Woodard brothers, but he quit that and us boys all grew up working in the shop.”

His father, Eldon Lamb, was a blacksmith who built a diverse business in his new shop at Homer.

“He worked on tractors. He did welding. He was a blacksmith,” Lamb recalled of his dad. “He repaired a lot of farm machinery for everybody. He sold tires — tractor tires, truck tires, and had quite a business for car tires.”

In the days when many Iowans put studded snow tires on their cars in the winter, the Lamb boys kept busying trading tires off and on for customers who flocked to Homer each spring and fall.

“When we got out of school, we’d come home and we had to work until 10:30 or 11 at night because the cars were lined up in the driveway waiting,” Lamb recalled. “There was a certain date in the fall when you could put them on, and then you had to have them off at a certain time in the spring, so there was a flood of people coming out.”

Somehow, all that hard work seemed like normal family life for the Lambs. When there was a project to be done, they worked on it together. When neighbors needed help, everyone pitched in again.

“My work ethic, I got to say, came from my dad,” Lamb said. “We did a lot of work. We baled hay for everybody back then. We shelled corn. We ran a custom combining business. We hauled livestock when they built the new stockyards in Webster City.”

Thankfully, it wasn’t really all work. For Lamb, learning at his father’s side just seemed like a lot of fun.

“I started working on lawn mowers when I was 8 years old and my dad showed me how to set the points on them. They all had points; it’s not like today where it’s all electronic.”

Growing up at such a time and place as Homer in the 1950s and ’60s provided its own sort of carefree spirit for kids.

Lamb recalls with fondness playing in the dusty streets of Homer as a kid in those years.

The streets are long gone, but Lamb can eye a fencerow and tell a visitor just where the streets and blocks were laid out. Homer had its own two-story schoolhouse, several homes, an old courthouse and four churches.

That strong faith in the Homer community is perhaps one reason Lamb has made it a lifelong practice not to work on Sundays. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule and Lamb will never forget a fateful Sunday when he broke his own rule.

“I never do anything on Sunday for anybody,” Lamb said. “We were brought up that way, not to work on Sunday, and we don’t.

“I told my wife that day that I needed to go down and plant this 50 acres. She said, ‘You don’t usually do that.’ But it had been raining and the pressure was on to get the corn in the ground.”

It was that one time that this man who is an expert at working on any type of tractor slipped on a tractor step, grabbed the shift lever, and the rest was history. He tore up his back and his wrist, but was lucky to be alive when he was basically run over by his own tractor.

“I get shivers on my back thinking about it,” Lamb said.

The accident was in 1999. The following year he was offered a job by Case to work as a mechanic and then shop foreman in Ames. The benefits were tempting.

“When you’re self-employed, you make your own benefits, and they were offering really good benefits,” Lamb recalled.

He took the job, and enjoyed it, but every day as he drove past his Homer shop on his way to Ames, Lamb was leaving a piece of his heart behind.

“Every day I went by here and there was a piece of me that was right there,” he said. “I was trying to do something on the weekends to help people, so I quit and I came back here.”

When he did, farmers near and far breathed a collective sigh of relief that Lamb was back in his shop. He has earned a reputation for being able to fix tractors, small engines, chainsaws, and a myriad of other farm implements, that most other folks just give up on.

These days, Lamb is still overhauling tractors, welding, selling lawn and garden tires, and stays busy repairing lawn

mowers and chainsaws. The combination of storms, derechos, and emerald ash borer killing the ash trees has meant that just keeping chainsaws running for folks is about a full-time job.

In August, he will again host the annual Homer Threshing Bee, bringing in folks to relive the farming methods of the past and simply enjoy an August afternoon in a place where the past seems to come to life in a most happy way.

He enjoys working with his hands, and he wishes more young people would give it a try.

“I think there’s gratification to working with your hands,” Lamb said. “Helping people is what I like to do. If you got a problem, I like to solve it.”

Sometimes, when a particular project is posing a challenge, he finds the best thing to do is walk away from it for a day or two and then come back with a fresh mind to tackle it anew. Lamb doesn’t know much about giving up. It’s not part of his DNA.

“You need to figure out that there’s nothing you can’t do,” Lamb concluded. “There’s nothing out there that’s impossible. You can do it. You just need to study it and figure it out. Do it, and move forward. You don’t need to forget the past things, you learn from them.”

CITY SCENE CITY SCENE

Fuller Hall Recreation Center Adult & Youth Recreation Programs

Fuller Hall Recreation Center offers a variety of adult and youth recreation programs to the Webster City community throughout the year.

Involving youth in recreation activities assists in promoting physical health, improving mental wellbeing, creating social interactions and developing skills and coordination. Our main goal with our youth sport programs is to introduce children to the sport and teach the basic skills and rules of the game in a fun environment. Fuller Hall also provides other opportunities for youth to be involved such as crafting and baking.

Fuller Hall provides many recreation opportunities for adults to be involved athletically, creatively and socially.

Fuller Hall Youth Programs 2024-2025

Sport Registration Period

Youth Flag Football (3rd & 4th grades) 7/29 – 8/23

Youth Volleyball (3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th grades) 7/29 – 8/23

Youth Girls Basketball (3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th grades) 9/16 – 10/11

Youth Boys Basketball (3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th grades) 12/2 – 12/27

Youth Track (2nd – 6th grades) 3/31 – 4/25

Youth Baseball (K, 1st, 2nd & 3rd grades) 4/28 – 5/23

Youth Softball (3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th grades) 4/28 – 5/23

Youth Tennis (2nd – 6th grades) 4/28 – 6/27

Fuller Hall Adult Programs 2024-2025

Sport Registration Period

Fall Co-Ed Volleyball League (indoor) 9/3 – 9/25

Fall Co-Ed Pickleball League (indoor) 9/3 – 9/25

Fall Women’s Pickleball League (indoor) 9/3 – 9/25

Fall Co-Ed Wallyball League 9/3 – 9/25

Men’s Basketball League 10/28 – 11/22

Spring Co-Ed Volleyball League (indoor) 1/27 – 2/21

Spring Co-Ed Pickleball League (indoor) 1/27 – 2/21

Spring Women’s Pickleball League (indoor) 1/27 – 2/21

Spring Co-Ed Wallyball League 1/27 – 2/21

Summer Co-Ed Slowpitch Softball League 4/28 – 5/23

Summer Co-Ed Sand Volleyball League 4/28 – 5/23

CITY SCENE

Fuller Hall Recr eation Cen ter

Adult & Youth Recreation Programs

Fuller Hall Recreation Center also offers a variety of social gatherings and craft activities for the community to enjoy. Crafting for Seniors, Fuller Hall Card Club, Senior B ingo, Indoor Park and many youth crafts and activities are scheduled throughout the year for individuals to participate in

The Fuller Hall Indoor Park program is a two-hour session where parents may bring their kids to the Fuller Hall gymnasium to run around, play and burn off some energy. This program is offered year around and is a great opportunity for your children to learn and socialize with other kids.

Our Hometown Recipe Corner

Bountiful blueberries make treats even better

There are so many reasons to include blueberries in recipes. Not only are they plentiful in supermarkets and at fruit stands, blueberries often perfectly balance the sweet with the tart in flavor. These little berries also are one of the most antioxidant-rich fruits you can find, plus they are very high in fiber. That makes eating blueberries — whether they’re nestled in pancakes or served atop a slice of cheesecake — a little less indulgent.

Blueberries are right at home in many different dishes. Blueberries can make salads sing and desserts light up. They’re equally delightful in breakfasts and snacks. “Honey-Laced Blueberry Parfaits” can be enjoyed any time of day. Made with tasty layers of blueberries, yogurt and angel food cake, these parfaits are light, flavorful and refreshing. To tailor them for patriotic celebrations, add a few red berries, such as raspberries or strawberries, to embrace a red, white and blue theme.

Enjoy this recipe, courtesy of “Cooking Light® Fresh Food Superfast” (Oxmoor House) by The Cooking Light Editors.

Yield: 4 servings

1 6-ounce carton French vanilla low-fat yogurt

1 6-ounce carton blueberry low-fat yogurt

1 1⁄2 cups frozen fat-free whipped topping, thawed

3 cups 1-inch cubed angel food cake

2 cups blueberries

1 tablespoon honey

1⁄2 cup honey-almond flax cereal, coarsely crushed

1. Combine yogurts in a bowl; gently fold in whipped topping.

2. Layer about 1⁄3 cup angel food cake, 1⁄4 cup blueberries and 1⁄3 cup yogurt mixture in each of four dessert glasses. Repeat procedure once. Drizzle honey evenly over parfaits. Top evenly with cereal. Serve immediately.

www.agforceiowa.com COME GROW WITH US!

LANDMARKS

HowwellDOYOU know Hamilton County?

Look at these photos and see if you can identify these local landmarks.

WINNER: Tammy Greenfield

ANSWERS:

Photo No. 1: Webster City Fire Station

Photo No. 2: Iowa Central Community College

Photo#1

by Jim Miller

Do You Need a Digital Will?

Dear Savvy Senior ,

My wife and I had our estate plan –including a will, power of attorney and advance directive – drawn up about 10 years ago but have recently read that our plan should include a digital will too. What can you tell us about this? Almost 80

Dear Almost,

If you or your wife spend much time online, adding a separate digital will document to your estate plan that provides a list of your digital assets would be extremely helpful to your loved ones when you die, not to mention it will help protect your privacy. Here’s what you should know.

Do You Have Digital Asset?

The term “digital assets” refers to personal information that is stored electronically on either a computer or an online cloud server account that belongs to an individual. Anyone who uses email, has a PIN code protected cell phone, makes online purchases, or pays bills online has digital assets.

Digital assets generally require a username, a password, or a PIN to access and can be difficult if not impossible to retrieve if someone is incapacitated or passes away.

Creating a digital will (also known as a digital estate plan) will help your loved ones access your electronic devices and online accounts more easily so they can manage your electronic affairs, according to your wishes, after you’re gone. This in turn will also protect your digital assets from hackers or fraud, which can happen to dormant accounts after you die.

How to Write a Digital Will

Your first step in creating a digital will is to make an inventory list of your digital assets, which includes everything from hardware to email accounts. Here are a few categories to help kick-start your list:

* Electronic devices (computer, smartphone, tablet, external hard drive).

* Digital files (for photos, videos or documents)

* Financial accounts (like bank and brokerage accounts, credit cards, cryptocurrency).

* Bill paying accounts (utilities, mortgage accounts)

* Social media accounts (like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn).

* Email accounts (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc.).

* Cloud-storage accounts (like Google Cloud, iCloud, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive)

* Movie or music streaming services (like Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Apple Music)

* Online purchasing accounts (like Venmo or PayPal)

* Subscription services (magazines, newspapers, Amazon Prime, etc.).

* Reward programs (travel, stores, etc.).

* Membership organizations (AARP, AAA, etc.).

When making your list, you’ll need to include usernames, passwords, PINS, account numbers or security questions for accessing each account. And provide instructions on how you want your assets managed after your death. For example: Do you want certain accounts closed, archived or transferred? Do you want specific files or photos to be deleted or shared with loved ones? Do you want your social media profiles memorialized or deleted? Be clear and specific about your wishes.

You’ll also need to appoint a digital executor that you trust to execute your wishes after you die.

From a legal perspective, you should know that most states have enacted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), which legally recognizes digital estates. This law gives your personal representative or executor legally protected access to your online accounts.

Once your digital will is written, store it with your other estate plan documents either in a fireproof safe or file cabinet at home, on your computer hard drive, with your estate planning attorney or online at a reputable digital estate planning service like Everplans.com or Clocr.com. But make sure your executor knows where it is and has access to it.

Also remember to keep your digital will updated regularly when you create any new digital accounts or change passwords.