Belle Plaine High School is sponsoring a blood drive on Monday, Nov. 23 and this year, it has joined with the Blood Center of Iowa in a special promotion to provide gifts from the center’s online store.
The “What Color Do You Bleed?” promotion awards opportunities for blood donors to redeem points for prizes with Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa themes.
Eligible blood donors must be at least 16 years old, in generally good health and weigh at least 120 pounds. The drive will run from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the high school.
For more information or to schedule an appointment, contact Lisa Daily at the high school, 44-2720 or go to www.bloodcenterofiowa.org to schedule an appointment.

Editor’s note: The following is the first in a series of profiles of Belle Plaine businesses.
Business name: New 2 You Consignment Shop
Address: 828 12th Street, Belle Plaine
Owner: Lynn Markham (sole employee)
In business here for 11 months
The store features quality second hand clothing for men, women and children and shoes and other accessories.
“Business has gone very well so far, especially with the economy,” Markham says. The store offers a bright airy shopping experience with an organized inventory. She said she takes consignments for only 90 days, then either returns them to the owner or donates them to Goodwill. Consigners receive 50 percent of the sale price, with their earnings available immediately after the sale.
Markham says she accepts only good quality used clothing for her store, no holes stains or wear and tear. She accepts only 10 items at a time from any consigner. Prices charged are generally much less than in consignment stores in Cedar Rapids or other larger cities, she said.
She moved her operation from a store she formerly had in Toledo. She donated items for disasters, such as the Parkersburg tornado victims and victims or recent floods in Eastern Iowa.
Downtown shoppers have commented on her ever-changing store display windows. When Iowa played Iowa State in football this fall, she devoted a window to clothing promoting each team. She is also designing a Facebook page for her business.

by Lowell Washburn
Iowa Department of Natural Resources

For Iowa’s 56,000 archery deer hunters, there is no mystery to why November is called the Hunter’s Moon. With the annual rut in full swing, the best days of the entire season are currently at hand.

It’s a time like no other. Restless and itching for a scrap, mature monster whitetails are on the prowl 24/7. Wide beamed nocturnal stags that have remained invisible all summer have suddenly changed their ways. Brazen and full of attitude, these bruisers now swagger through mid-day stubble. Locked into perpetual search mode, bucks of all shapes and sizes relentlessly cruise ridge tops, river bottoms, and brushy fence lines in search of does. Sometimes, these wandering bucks find rival males instead. When that happens, the Iowa timbers resound with the sharp clash of dueling antlers.

With the scales suddenly tipped in their favor, archery deer hunters employ every trick in the book in hopes of arousing the curiosity [or anger] of mature bucks. Vigorously rattling a set of antlers to create the sound of mock battle is the bow hunter’s staple. Other tactics include doe [bleat] calls, grunt tube calls, and decoys.

There’s good reason for all the fuss. Whether you judge them in terms of body weight or in total inches of antlers, there is no disputing that Iowa bucks achieve heart stopping proportions. Legends of the Fall, Iowa’s behemoth stags have gained global notoriety. There are, in fact, few places on the entire continent where deer grow bigger or better than they do right here at home. To date, Iowa has produced 19 of the all time top bucks ever recorded. That’s more top deer than is currently listed by any other state or any Canadian province.

But even in November, Iowa’s big bucks do not come easy. Tagging one still requires ample amounts stealth, woodsman-ship, and above all — patience. Putting a monster in the freezer usually means passing on numerous six or eight pointers. That can be tough. For many hunters the temptation of seeing those lesser bucks becomes just too great.

When [if?] the Big Buck finally does arrive, many archers simply crack under the strain. After the drilling the bulls-eye on backyard deer targets all summer, a hunter may easily miss the entire animal when the moment of truth arrives. It’s called Buck Fever, and is the best explanation as to why so many new broadheads end up imbedded in tree stumps rather than deer.

Of course, not all shots at monster bucks result in misses. Who knows? When it finally comes time to capture that photo of a lifetime, it might even be your face that grins from behind the massive antlers of Iowa’s newest state record white-tail.