DriftlessNow.com’s focus is on the nature, geological features, cultures, and people of the Driftless area. In addition, we showcase events that celebrate the pride and diversity that makes the Southwest Wisconsin Driftless region unique.
It was at 4AM when I woke up this morning. I just had a dream about a wolf that was prowling around at the Commodity Shop. See, what had happened was…
I was in Black River Falls, doing my usual visits to my usual haunts. After having stopped at the Ho-Chunk Nation Executive Building, I strolled on over to the Commodity Shop; or in my case, hobbled on over. It was broad daylight outside. Not a shadow could be seen anywhere. The sky was bright and blue.
Missing out on doing things I love isn’t my fault. I have my brain to blame for that.
It started 18 years ago when I almost passed out in a Walmart checkout line. Since then, I’ve been on a rollercoaster trying to deal with anxiety and agoraphobia (a type of anxiety disorder in which you fear and avoid places or situations that might cause you to panic and make you feel trapped, helpless or embarrassed).
“People in Hillsboro are smarter than people in Chicago. Do you know why?”
Since I had just moved to Hillsboro from Chicago, I took the bait. “No idea,” I said to my new neighbor, “Why are people in Hillsboro smarter than people in Chicago?”
“Because,” he said, “everyone in Hillsboro knows where Chicago is, but no one in Chicago knows where Hillsboro is.”
A couple years back I stumbled on an old abandon homestead way back in the boonies while I was trout fishing. I typically fished this stretch in September and the leaves were still on the trees. This outing was in early season March and the trees were barren and snow was still everywhere. The world looks much different in early March.
It was 2002 when Dena Eakles bought the property now called Echo Valley Farm located just Southeast of Ontario, Wisconsin.
Last Saturday Friends of the Kickapoo Valley Reserve held their 2nd annual Rustic Raft Rally. The event saw four groups of two that worked hard crafting their rafts for the event using only natural materials.
A couple months ago I did a short on a group that gets together every weekend to go kayaking/canoeing on the Kickapoo river. While talking with the group, I learned that they were all members of the Kickapoo Valley Crochet Club.
I need to give a little background to begin the story. Recently I have been doing lots of presentations at schools to encourage young people to take up fishing. Along the way I was asked to speak at some nursing homes also. I have spoken at five now and have a couple more scheduled. My wife used to work at a nursing home and she thought it was a good thing for the retired folks. She called it bringing the trout stream to them.
Like many readers of Driftless Now, I performed my military service during the Cold War in Germany. And, like thousands of lonely young men, far from home, I fell in love with and married a German girl. Upon my discharge from the Army, Gerdi followed me to the United States, where we lived in Chicago, raised two children, and experienced the joys and challenges of married life until her untimely death in 1984.
Thirty years into a second happy marriage, questions still prey upon my mind: How might life have been different if Gerdi and I had settled in Germany, rather than in the U.S.? How would I have coped with the barriers of language, culture, and employment in a foreign country? How would our sons have fared in the German educational system? Would Gerdi have experienced less financial and emotional strain living and working in her home country? Would greater peace of mind, combined with German socialized medicine have enabled her to beat the cancer that took her much too soon?
Sitting pretty as the Grant county seat in Southwest Wisconsin, Lancaster with a population of around 3700, packs a large dose of hometown pride.
On July 18th, Lancaster held its annual ‘Night on the Square’, that saw people from inside the city and surrounding areas gather for an evening of music, dance, fun, food, fundraising, and fellowship.
I didn't even have the trout on and it haunted me. My friend Andy's encounter with it was chapter one of the saga. I remember reading his email at first and dismissing the possibility of a monster in that stretch. My left knee was at full "I hate you" phase and I dismissed the fish story partially because of my knee not cooperating. I was supposed to be with Andy that day but I chickened out because of my knee.
I caught up with Matt Albright, a technician for Vernon County Land and Water Department and Caroline Druschke of UW Madison, last week to look at the nearly completed project.
