corn brooms was New, improved Was: Data Entry 1273

Oh, right - we moved from Lincoln, Nebraska, actually. I was thinking you were referring some connection between Indiana and the Dakotas that I wasn't getting.

We were only in Lincoln for four years. And while there is a lot of farming in Nebraska, they're not like farms in Indiana or Michigan - they're those huge agribusiness horrors with gigantic pivot irrigators (if they're growing corn) or mbuttive feedlots and waste lagoons (if it's hogs or cattle).

We didn't see much farming in Nebraska up close - no point. Farms there aren't pleasant. (I'm sure not everyone finds little midwest family farms pleasant either, but we like 'em. Stayed at one for our honeymoon.)

Mason, which is about eight miles south of Lansing E Lansing, has its share of factories. Dart (who make all those polystyrene cups) is headquartered here and have a big factory; there are some others. But there's still the town square with the county courthouse and you can find little farms not far away. Industrial buildup drops off quickly to the east or west, until you get near the next small city.

Going north you run pretty quickly into Okemos, which is all suburban sprawl from E Lansing, but once you get north of the city it opens up again.

Yeah, they're the real deal. It's a great place; in addition to our everyday meats, we get venison and bison and homemade bratwurst and all sorts of things there.

I don't know if it's on the regular menu, but they probably have it periodically as a special.

I think that's the lumber yard my father uses, too.

--

The lark is exclusively a Soviet bird. The lark does not like the other countries, and lets its harmonious song be heard only over the fields made fertile by the collective labor of the citizens of the happy land of the Soviets. -- D. Bleiman