Wisconsin Small Town Celebrations

This summer and early fall we have attended many small town celebrations throughout the Madison area. We've been to the Sun Prairie Corn Fest and found several unusual and corny specimens

We made our way to the  Sun Prairie Art Fest, Middleton Good Neighbor Days, Marshall River Fest , Waterloo Wiener and Kraut Days (yum?)

De Forest Dragon Fest

etc., etc .

But even more unusual than seeing grand kids milk a giant Holstein and much more interesting was Indian Summer at Ashippun.  Ashippun is a small community northeast of Watertown which celebrates living history organized by the Ashippun History Committee. 

The event included the "Voyageurs," who were licensed by the French to transport furs and other goods between points A and B in North America.  These travellers were limited by the French in order to maintain profitability of the fur trade.  Even several Lemkes got into the act on this hand made 18 passenger canoe similar to the ones used on the rivers during the fur trade heyday:

Also displayed was a domed, round shelter or Wigwam as well as a Tipi village.  Included was a drum circle and stone prayer circle.

I thought it was somewhat unusual to find a golf cart within the village, but then what do I know? 

Included in the event was a Civil War encampment:

The event also included a cook shanty (the :Dirty Ketl"), a trading post, buckskinners, and demonstrations of knife and hawk throwing and "atlatl," or spear throwing.  We also came upon this young buck reposing in a buckskinner's tent:

We had a good time walking through the large exhibits and talking with the people who were living in the tents for the weekend event. 

Some of us even got a carriage ride pulled by "Sky:"

It was a n intersting event and a quick summer here in south central Wisconsin.

Transitions

August was a month of transition for the Lemkes.

 A year ago we sold our house and decided to try full timing in our 31 foot Award Classic trailer.  We survived!  We have had many a good adventure and saw parts of the country we have never before experienced.  We have felt cramped for space only a few times but still have a positive attitude about our life style.  One re-occurring problem is trying to find something we packed away" somewhere".  "Somewhere" seems to be one of those universal black holes.  When we find it, there will be a lot of good stuff in there.  It has been a fun year.

We celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary this year.  Where has the time gone?  It seems to have disappeared with my hair.   Life goes on and hair gives up.

The grand kids are growing.  Easton (4) has mastered riding a two wheeler without training wheels (!) and is off to pre-school.  Chezney has also mastered bicycle riding and is in first grade.  Kiley is in middle school and has learned to on-up me on most everything. 

Erik has sold the village of Marshall on putting in a 19 hole disc golf course at an under utilized village park.  He sold the idea, designed the course, plotted the course through a mix of prairie and woods, and put in countless hours of back breaking work putting it into being.  The baskets were in place last week!  The village is adding water, toilets, a shelter and parking.  Way to go Erik!

And Becky has a permanent teaching job in a middle school in Janesville.  Fantastic!  A second degree in English as a Second Language sealed the deal.  She will be a great teacher.

We are yet in DeForest making plans and plotting courses for our winter travels.  We will end up somewhere and find new adventures this coming year.

More transitions are on the horizon somewhere in the black hole!

We are here

This summer has passed with amazing speed.  We have spent much of it in DeForest WI parked at the KOA visiting family. 

We took the three grandchildren camping for a week at Mirror Lake State Park at Lake Delton (the "Dells" area).  They enjoyed several days at the beach, camp fires, hikes and other good fun.  We did not get hooked into the Dells commercial activities but roughed it in the campground. 

We did a little yoga:

And ate a little ice cream:

We travelled a few miles south to Devil's Lake State Park to use their beach.  It is significantly better than the small one at Mirror Lake. 

The campgrounds at Mirror Lake are, however, much nicer than at Devil's Lake.  Of course our brand new water pump did not work on its first use.  We survived without running water.

From there we moved backed to Deforest and suffered through a week of near 100 degree temperatures and very high humidity (82% and over).   Water pump replaced.

Last weekend we stayed at the Vista Royale Campground in Bancroft WI.  The Lemkes, Haugs and Sterns have spent the last weekend of July there for the last three years.   The camping, like many private campgrounds, is crowded and somewhat disorganized.  The sites don't have designated boundaries and shade is at a premium.  Temperatures were in the upper 80s with cloudless skies for the most part.  It was good sunburn weather.  Severe storms fortunately missed us though there were many in the area.  The kids enjoyed playing in the water.  The adults enjoyed staying out of the sun.

Last Sunday we travelled from Bancroft to Amerst Junction about 30 miles northeast.  We camped at Lake Emily County Park.  The park was beautiful and relaxing.

 It sits on the Tomorrow River Bicycle Trail.  Unfortunately, our bicycles did not make the trip.  We did, however, watch a bald eagle fish in the Lake while we set up camp.  And, yes, the newer water pump worked. 

On Thursday we travelled 100 miles south back to Mirror Lake.  We are enjoying the quiet even though there is no vacancy in the park.  Thursday night we celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary dining at the Cheese Factory Restaurant in Lake Delton.  It is a highly rated vegetarian/vegan restaurant.  Great food.  And topped the meal off with a slice of chocolate cake for two that was bigger than my head (in other words, darn big.)   Life goes on.

Madison Farmers' Market

On Saturday morning we went to the farmers' market on the Capitol Square in downtown Madison (see here).  The market is open year round.  However, the outdoor market runs every Wednesday and Saturday mornings from mid April until the first week of November.  On Saturdays it is held on the inner ring around the State Capitol.  During the winter, it is held indoors nearby.  The market begun in 1972 is billed as the largest producer only farmers market in the country.  There are no resales allowed--the person behind the stand is the producer of the product.  Vendors are members of a co-op and elect members to sit on the Board of Directors.  There is a currently a 5 year waiting list for vendors to sell at the market.  Though it is a market, it is also an must see experience.

On Saturday vendors offered meats including bison emu, ostrich, chicken, beef and pork.  One could purchase fresh cuts, prepared meats and even smoked and fresh trout.  Vegetables included the usual spring mix of leafy greens, rhubarb, tomatoes, onions, etc.  And of course artisan cheese (and curds!) flowers, bedding plants and baked goods (Amish pies).   Don't forget mushrooms, popcorn, honey and maple syrup!  Many of the vendors are certified organic and others advertise "no sprays." 

Literally thousands of shoppers take advantage of the market and most follow the unwritten rule and walk counter clockwise around the square.

But with all the concern about walking in the appropriate direction with the flow of the crowd and trying to remember which vendor had the best deal on what, where would one find Donna and her sister Dianne lurking?  Squeezing the tomatoes perhaps?  Perusing the spinach?  Checking the squeakiness of the cheese curds, maybe?  Not even close.

Whoopie Pie anyone?

May 24

Well it came as no surprise.  I should have known better.  The rapture came and went and passed us by.  Oh well.  Life continues and so do birthdays.

Speaking of birthdays, the better half of our team celebrated her birthday on the 24th.  She continues to be 39.  It was a special day starting with a spinach and bacon souffle at Panera Bread.  After digesting both our breakfast and the daily paper, we went to the Olbrich  Botanical Gardens in Madison here  The gardens lie on a 16 acre tract along Starkweather Creek and across from Lake Monona.

It was a rather cool and overcast day and the gardens were abuzz with volunteers removing bulbs, planting annuals and providing a general clean up.  Signs of spring (finally) were in the air and the blossoms were still evident even after the recent storms.

The jewel known as the Thai pavilion seemed out of place with the spring colors.

There were far more volunteers in the gardens than visitors though a bus load of school children from Mount Horeb were evident. 

It was a ducky day (or turtle-y?)

We were almost enraptured. 

The Great Horse Race

Yesterday, we participated in a horse race for the ages.  Jockeys Easton, Chezney, Grandma and Great Aunt Dianne braved the cold rain (not a whine but merely a statement of fact) donned their jockey duds and mounted their assigned steeds.  Hearts were aflutter with the anticipation of racing out of the starting gates and galloping into the winners circle. Bets were laid awaiting the start signal.  And then after an eternity of waiting, the race was on.  But there was some confusion at the gate resulting in downed horses and jockeys:

Three jockeys and their brave steeds hit the dirt!  No one was hurt.  They were able to right themselves and the race continued:

But one fearless jockey was not involved in the three-fall.  Easton managed to hang on and steer his horse into the lead.  Steady and sure he rode:

And he rode into the victory circle where he collected his pirate-loot winnings:

As the winner, Easton recieved a real pirate's pistol, an eye patch and a hook to attach to his arm if he ever lost a hand in combat with fierce deep sea denizens.  Chezney in second place earned a photo shoot with the winner.  The excitement of the race lasted throughout the day.



Water Softener

As I have been accused of being a weather whiner, I won't discuss the weather.  Instead, I'll discuss water.

We decided to add a water softener to our system to help prevent water heater failure and other hard water issues.  Water softeners for RVs are different from those for stick houses.  Most stick house softeners are of a large capacity and have electronic controls.  Those for RVs do not.  Ours also uses regular table salt instead of the rock or solar type salt used in homes and some RV softeners.

We bought the Mark 8000 from Flo Pur.  It has an 8000 grain capacity which means if the water is tested at 10 grain hardness, the softener can condition 800 gallons of water before recharging is needed.  It attaches to our water hook up with a garden hose.  I also added an adjustable water pressure gauge.  So far so good.