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Working the Polls

By Kendall Kroesen
Our First Time as Poll Workers On November 3, 2026 Mary Beth and I spent over 14 hours as poll workers at an election site in Richmond Indiana.  The setting was a polling location at an African-American Baptist church. The day was peaceful and cooperative, with no disruptions, no illegal electioneering, no protests, and no threats. However, the process of helping over 400 people vote during the 12 hours the poll was open was a physical, psychological, and vocal marathon.  Training and Arrival Polls were open from 6am to 6pm. We arrived at 5am, along with five other poll workers. They included an owner of local rental properties, a home school advocate, a teacher, and a gardener and marketer of tonics and fermented foods. We left most of our lunches, snacks, and extra drinks in a break room and then unlocked the room in which voting would happen.  The equipment and supplies for the voting process had been delivered by the county voter registration office the day before. La...
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Fall Temperatures and Colors

By Kendall Kroesen
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Autumn is in the Air Today the air was crisp, topping out just over 50૦. Fall is definitely here. Up to now autumn weather has been much like Tucson in the winter. Daytime temperatures have been 65-80૦ and nights cool. But tonight it will get into the high 30s.  From the desert around Tucson I always posted some photos of its scarce but good fall colors. Limberbush. Coral bean. Desert cotton. But here there is definitely more color. Fall colors have generally not been as spectacular as some New England locations, but we have enjoyed a lot of yellows and some oranges and reds. Here are a few photos.  Maples seem to have the best colors. A range of colors on a nearby street.  Muted fall colors on trees along Brookville Lake. The walnuts behind our house have already lost all their leaves.
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One Small Step

By Kendall Kroesen
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 One small step for native plants, one giant leap (okay, also small step) for turf reduction. Back Yard Lance-leaf coreopsis ( Coreopsis lanceolata ) New England goldenrod ( Solidago sp.) Hairy mountain mint ( Pycnanthemum verticillatum var. pilosum ) Rattlesnake master ( Eryngium yuccifolium ) Blue-stemmed goldenrod ( Solidago caesia ) Spiderwort ( Tradescantia sp .) Cup plant ( Silphium perfoliatum ) Wild marigold ( Caltha palustris ) Grass-leaved goldenrod ( Euthamia graminifolia ) Ohio goldenrod ( Solidago ohioensis ) Swamp milkweed ( Asclepias incarnata ) The idea is that these plants will grow a little bit in the fall, survive the winter, and grow big in spring/summer. Maybe some mulch would be a good idea, to help protect them over the winter.  The lawn here is a thick mixture of grass and weeds. I used a shovel to chop out chunks of sod. I used them to fill in a strip on the side of the house where the ground had subsided over sewer line that was p...
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Life in the Back Yard: Part Two--Birds

By Kendall Kroesen
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I've seen 122 bird species in Wayne County Indiana so far. Here I'll report only on the 41 species I've seen so far on our property. Click on the link for more information on a species.  Mourning dove: Mourning doves are very common in Tucson so I was surprised that it took me a while to see one here. They are not uncommon here, but the don't reach the density that they have in suburban Tucson. Now that I've had a seed feeder out for a while, they come by sometimes to peck around on the ground for fallen seed. Ruby -throated hummingbird Ruby-throated hummingbird: The ruby-throated hummingbird is the only hummingbird regularly found here. It's most similar to the black-chinned hummingbird of the West. I'll keep an eye out for other hummingbirds that have been seen rarely in Indiana, including rufous, black-chinned, Anna's, calliope, and (amazingly) Mexican violetear.    Turkey vulture: Turkey vultures are quite common here as well as black vultures.  ...
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Miscellaneous Notes on Life in a New Place

By Kendall Kroesen
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Tan Lines Are we losing our burn? Mary Beth noted that I'm turning paler. The weather has been sunny here pretty often, but less often than in Tucson. And I'm probably outside less. I think I'm starting to lose my Arizona burn.  This made me think about other miscellaneous changes that we have experienced.  Mileage I've noticed that we're getting better mileage in our PriusV. We're in the high forties and sometimes over 50 mpg on a tank of gas. The Prius really shines when you have roads with moderate speed limits and few stoplights and stop signs. The gas engine runs when you first start it up and for a little while after that. You can build up a good battery charge and then--at 35-45 miles per hour--back off and allow it to go on the electric motor. Often there are hills that you can go up--at first on battery power, and then with gas--and then coast down the other side, going back to the electric motor. On flat ground you can go a while on battery power and w...
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Grass Means Something Different Here

By Kendall Kroesen
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Our house here in Richmond sits on a quarter-acre lot. About 0.15 of an acre is landscape. That's more than we had at the Tucson house. What is one to do with landscape in this setting? I'm in the process of learning from a variety of sources about how to replicate natural ecology to benefit animals of all sorts, especially birds and pollinators. There are a variety of sources here, including the Cope Environmental Center, the Hayes Arboretum, Indiana Audubon, Indiana Native Plant Society, and other local experts. I've gotten tips about sources of native plants. But I need to hurry because September is a good time to plant natives.  A typical front yard (ours), with a small area of  shrubs and the rest mostly grass.  I also want to start by looking at what neighbors do. That gives me a starting point for your list of possible landscape enhancements. I'll add some of what I see to my "to do" list and some to my "not to do list."  The overwhelming choi...
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Initial Observations on Hoosiers

By Kendall Kroesen
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I'm sure that Hoosiers are not blameless. They are complex, like people anywhere, and have problems and biases and confrontations. I have met a psychotherapist here who would probably attest to this.  But like any traveler to a new place, I have encountered almost universal friendliness and helpfulness in the initial, and mostly superficial, interactions one has while getting settled. Here are some observations on that so far. Observation 1: Helpful Commenting about recent flooding here, a friend from Tucson wrote "Luckily it’s the Midwest where people famously help one another." I have to say that initial indications are that people here in Richmond are cut from the same cloth. Yesterday I bought a fairly heavy metal wheelbarrow at Lowe's Home Improvement. In the parking lot, two different people offered to help me lift it into the bed of my pickup. One of them wasn't even an employee.  The next-door neighbor has helped us to move new furniture into the house on ...
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