Diversion III – Dickeyville Grotto

Our North Woods destinations usually take us due north into the Driftless Region, crossing the Mississippi River at the old city of Dubuque, Iowa (founded 1765) and through nearby Dickeyville, Wisconsin. Here stand a Grotto and Shrines conceived and constructed nearly a century ago by a tireless parish priest.

"[O]n Holy Ghost Parish grounds are the works of Father Matthias Wernerus, a Catholic Priest, Pastor of the Parish from 1918 to 1931. His handiwork in stone, built from 1925-1930, is dedicated to the unity of two great American ideals — love of God and love of Country. These religious and patriotic shrines were constructed without the use of blueprints."

Alan and Donna consult with the docent and prepare to enter the central maw.

A staggering quantity of colored stone was donated to the work from quarries in the Dakotas, from Iowa, and nearby in Wisconsin. The stones and shells and glass and all else are attached expertly and almost invisibly with very little obvious weathering or aging. The docent told us that when pieces come loose or fall away, they are very quickly reattached.

It is a relaxing and contemplative place.

The constructions include huge pieces of petrified wood, such as this incredible specimen.

The fencing and railing were especially impressive from an engineering standpoint – very stiff concrete constructions for being so slender, and with so little spalling at the many sharp edges. That priest had a good sense of strength and proportion.

Diversion III

On Thursday we drove about seven hours up into the North Woods to Donna's family's cabin on Soo Lake near Philips, Wisconsin for the annual Labor Day celebration, joining others from Chicagoland and the Des Moines area. We played hard: 27 holes of golf, a couple games of bowling, boat rides on the Party Barge, and a 32-mile / 9-tavern (!) bicycle ride.

We deep-fried a turkey for dinner one night, and with a large fryer on hand...well, the imagination takes hold, in this case producing the Heart Attack Vendo Snack® coming soon to a State Fair near you. Bacon-wrapped marshmallows dipped in a tempura batter and cooked to a crispy golden brown. Humans were, after all, evolved to desire such food, or so we justified the excess to ourselves.

Our cucumber pickles were popular even for breakfast, and our pickled hot pepper garlic green beans were an excellent garnish for Bloody Marys. Eventually (drawing a line from the Bloody Marys) I was inspired to compose a poem, which I shall share with you now.

Bestish whenic
Wiggiloe barquart
Miscontro whatsit
Bel...is...is...is...mo!
Majan wansit
Epsilo Quan
Bersak mediloo
Wiill?
Perserman kicky
Blou
Bloustein
Xsty kwansty
Lonsterry bigaloo berony itsmith
Wanverve

We arrived home last night after dark and awoke this morning to find the lawn overgrown and the purslane again to have taken over the west garden. There are strawberries somewhere in this photograph, and this is not by any means the worst of it. I reckon I have about 20 hours of weeding and cultivating ahead of me in the next few days. The weather is now typical hot and humid Iowa August.

On my morning walk through the woods I came upon a strange sight, but quickly realized what it was: Calvatia gigantea, a giant puffball mushroom.

I found a second one nearby and brought it home. It weighs one and three-quarters pounds and, assuming the interior is still pure white, indicating the spores have not yet developed, I intend to cook it for dinner.

Tired Iron

I traveled with our good old Mom east of Columbus, Ohio through Franklin County, past signs to all the little places around which Dad and Uncle were born and raised – Reynoldsburg, Etna, Wagram, Pataskala. Then into Muskingum County where the land begins to lift and roll and hardwood forest closes in on the highway. Outside of New Concord live longtime family friends George and Helen. George and Dad met at Muskingum College in about 1947 and only later realized that their grandmothers were sisters.

George collects, restores, displays, and operates antique traction engines, the early versions of which were essentially railroad locomotives without the rails and which eventually became the modern farm tractor. Most of his collection is steam powered – external combustion.

From the operator's station.

Power take-off has always been an important feature of traction engines. On modern tractors, a PTO implement is connected with a steel shaft. These old engines powered belt-driven implements of all sorts from a rotating drum PTO.

The boxes behind the rear wheels hold water for the boiler and wood for the firebox. These engines typically were rated in the 10-40 horsepower range.

A belt driven sawmill. The red section houses a flywheel.

This is just a portion of the belt drive mechanism for a threshing machine that separates grain, chaff, and straw.

Another threshing machine.

 This Aultman-Taylor has an early gasoline engine – internal combustion.

An early portable gasoline powered engine.

A little later gasoline powered garden tractor, with a cultivator attachment.

The steam engines are really beautiful examples of 19th century manufacturing.

Whistle and steam vent.

Governor.

One of George's everyday tractors.

Back home, everything is growing big and fast.

Diversion II

This weekend we traveled north out of corn country, across the Mississippi River and into the driftless region with its old rock bluffs and dales, past dairy and hay farms, and beyond to the paper and timber lands of the North Woods. This is where the legends of Paul Bunyon and Babe, his blue ox, were born.

Our destination was Chippewa Falls, WI. Our purpose was the ninth annual Leinenkugel's Family Reunion, where we met family & friends from Chicagoland and conducted some practical research on brand creation and customer loyalty and retention. It was a very pleasant, low key affair on the grounds of this mid-19th century brewery, with plenty of free beer, food, and music.

I made some new friends, played catch with a couple of my little nephews-in-law, and swam in beautiful Lake Wissota whose clear waters have the merest orange tint from naturally occurring iron in the underlying geology.

We returned yesterday and were grateful to find an inch of rainwater in the gauges, enough to have filled the soil profile to a depth of fifteen inches or so. A lot of the second planting has already emerged: corn and pole beans intercropped, bush snap beans, turnips, mustard, Swiss chard. Today brought high winds and extreme heat. Relative humidity was 70% at dawn, plummeted to 18% by noon. Two hours' work beginning to clean up the big brush pile in the northwest field, and all the junk buried within it, completely sapped me. I gathered more spearmint and it's drying in the garage – strong stuff.

As the sun set and we ate our dinner outside, the bunnies came out to engage in several parties and frolics, most amusing.

The pond is eminently swimmable. Y'all come down now, hear?

Bozeman to Sioux Falls

I'm in Sioux Falls this morning – 860 miles yesterday. Puck is coping but not very happy. We'll get there today.

Seattle to Bozeman

I've made it to Bozeman, MT and am in a hotel room. Puck's in the car just outside the window – he has all his kitty stuff in there so I thought that was better than yet another transition into and out of the hotel.

The new adventure has begun. It rained all day –– 680 miles –– often hard and the spray from the semis has been intense.