Coop's Corner: July 2021

Sunday, July 25, 2021

Little Log House & Antique Power Show 2021

I had a wonderful time, met some new people and saw lots and lots of old stuff. A hot day and I had been apprehensive but up on the prairie the wind was keeping things very pleasant. It wasn't until the afternoon that I'd finally had enough of the heat.

3 Posts in as many days....I'm going to take a break for a bit. I've got chickens to look after.

Friday, July 23, 2021

Quick Overnight on the VStar - 2021/07/22

I did it again, a last minute, Thursday evening break-away. In fact I broke away so fast that I forgot my mattress but still enjoyed my night in the woods. I had the campground almost completely to myself, the silence sure sounded that way. A very fine Friday morning ride home.

Bonus Footage at the end.

Iowa Moto Guzzi Rally 2021

Attendance was good but there would have been great plenty of space for you if you weren't one of the lucky few that were present. Next year!!

Once more, my take on the event. It took longer to get this video ready than I had hoped but there's a lot going on right now. "Life moves pretty fast....."

Sunday, July 18, 2021

Lorem Ipsum Overnight - 2021/07/17

The weekend was coming up, a weekend with no rally plans or other real plans and the Lorem Ipsum event had been mentioned more than once. It had been years since I'd attended and the thought of going down to Viroqua for the day, while always a great trip, by itself just didn't sound very appealing. But then it dawned on me that I could make it an overnight camping trip and that was all it took.

Breakfast in Wabasha....

The Friday ride....

Saturday's ride

Burdey's Cafe in downtown Pederson, MN...

Blueberry Lemonade...I approved!

Rushford, MN....

Eitzen Road...more gravel but this wasn't as deep.

New Albin, Iowa.....

Esofea-Rentz County Park, just outside of Westby. Eric and I had stayed in the same site a few weeks ago.

Broiled cod in Coon Valley...

Saturday morning....

I went down to Viroqua for gas and then up to Westby on my way to Coon Valley to meet Will and Eric. The Esofea-Rentz County Park is just west of Westby, the area we've come to know well with all of the time that we spend in the area.

Beanie's Diner...Open 6am...Breakfast and Ice Cream. A new establishment that was being constructed last year that I noticed while we were at our Wildcat Mountain Labor Day Rally. Beanie's kitty corner from the Old Towne Motel on the south end of Westby.

It was still early so I took the slow route back to Viroqua, Driftless Books the site of Lorem Ipsum.

Couldn't help myself, two more books I probably didn't need.

Some more events coming up, a few ideas and hopefully at the very least, a few more quick overnights. It felt great to be in the tent again, a quiet evening around the campfire.

Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Garden Update - 2021/07/14

Of course the garden is growing but it continues to evolve.....bigger. Hopefully the fence will control any further expansion ;)

Training continues with the chickens....

At times I'm not sure if I'm the Trainer or the Trainee

They like their breasts rubbed and that's something I've always enjoyed.

This 'Buff was after a selfie....

Flying wood chips the most dangerous part!

Out in the (John's) soybeans, a young Buck, a couple of Does and a mom with triplets. Just out of view to the right, a mom with twins!

The Live Action shots!

Others say....

"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)