Greetings from View from the Farm

My name is Phil Miller. I am an economist at Minnesota State University, Mankato. I blog regularly at Market Power and at The Sports Economist. The present blog contains the week-t0-week writings of Patsy Bronner, my wife's cousin and farm wife extraordinaire. She writes a column for the local newspaper in her locale, The Cresco (Ia) Times Plains Dealer, in which she details the high points of the most recent week.

Patsy's husband, Brent, is an imposing figure, but a gentle man - trulya gentleman. He "runs" the farm, but as any farmer knows, the farmer's wife is the person who holds it all together. Patsy is the mother of two extremely smart young ladies, both attending the University of Iowa.

Her eldest, Sarah, is in med school at Iowa. I first met her when she was a wee lass of 6 or 7, and I thought her a bit of a smart aleck back then. Now I realize she is just plain smart. Brilliant, one might say. She'd make a good economist. Not that I need any competition. But I digress.

Robin, Patsy's youngest, is a young lady I met when she was 4. Now she's taking the world by storm. OK, she, like most college students, is just trying to do as well as she can (which, I understand, is pretty danged good!).

Each week, Patsy writes and sends me her column for the local paper. When I receive it, I shall post it here. I hope you enjoy reading what she has to write. Even if you live in the most cosmopolitan of places, I bet you'll empathize with most everything.