In the 'Ton

The La Crosse Curling Club took two teams to the Appleton Women's Bonspiel this weekend. For two of our curlers, it was their first time curling on dedicated ice in a curling club, compared with our usual arena ice that is shared with a hockey team.

Everyone played well and had a fantastic time, especially because we dressed up a bit - penguins and snow women. The Appleton club members were great hosts who made delicious food and provided plenty of beverages to keep the party going late.

In terms of placement, my team finished as runner up in the 3rd event, which means we got sixth place of eight. The other team finished last. But we all improved, and the more experienced teams in attendance were great to learn from.

I'm quite looking forward to going back next year.

Bonspiel!

My first bonspiel of the season! Let's curl!

Cidering

Britt and I went up to Ecker's Apple Farm yesterday to get some fresh pressed cider, and ended up helping with the pressing ourselves!

In the process, we got to hang out with the sisters who run the orchard and learn about some of the nitty gritty details of farming apples. I had a great time, and came back with three gallons of cider to ferment and one to drink.

I think hot apple cider is in order tonight.

Frozen river

I've been stuck in the house for the past couple of days with a nasty cold and cough, and I needed to get out today. So armed with lots of tissues and cough drops, I headed over to Great River Bluff State Park in Minnesota for a short hike with Millie.

It was too overcast and hazy to see Wisconsin clearly across the almost four-mile expanse of river channels, but the ice pattern on the near one was quite pretty.

I overestimated my ability to breathe while hiking, so we didn't stay long, but I hope to make it back again for some skiing once we get some decent snow.

On the water

It's our only weekend at home for months, and we're enjoying it!

Yesterday, we finally took the canoe out to Goose Island and paddled around for a few hours among the backwaters of the Mississippi.  The weather was gorgeous, with a nice breeze coming down the river.  Millie jumped out of the canoe only once (to chase a tree stump), but we didn't tip over.  We found a beach and a few sandbars to get out and explore, and Millie loved swimming around chasing whatever looked worth chasing.  It was pretty much perfect.

Thanks to our awesome friends Cassy and Connor for the indefinite loan of the canoe!

March madness

Last week was a very busy work week for me.  I was stressed out and felt very much tied to my office chair.  Two things really kept me going.

Firstly, Sam is a great cook and volunteered to make all the dinners last week.  He will comment that he makes a substantial amount of the dinners anyway (which is true), but it is especially nice to know that I don't even have to think about food when I am so busy.

Secondly, the weather was gorgeous on the weekend, and Millie and I were able to take a breather or two out on the marsh.  We found a new trail that provided lots of sniffing opportunities for Millie and a few nice photo-taking opportunities for me.  It was quiet and beautiful just before sunset, and even the half hour we got out there went a long way to keeping me sane.

Now if that weather would only come back...

Bridging the seasons

Well, hello, blog readers.  It's been awhile, hasn't it?  I do apologize.  It's been very wintry around here, and nothing much has been happening except shoveling snow, walking in the snow, working, and watching Dr. Who.

On a surprisingly nice day in February, my friend Andrea joined Millie and me for a walk around the neighborhood.  Andrea takes fantastic photos, and she took a few of us.  This one is particularly nice.

The snow is actually working on melting right now, and Millie and I are working on transitioning from cross-country skiing together to running and biking together.  We'll miss the snow, but we're looking forward to a little more variety in the scenery.

Edward and Viola

When the inspector was going through our future house, he told us that he thought the house was built in the 1910s or 1920s due to the thickness and style of the basement walls.  None of the documents that accompanied our house indicated an actual date.

Well, I got curious, so I went over to the La Crosse Public Library to the Archives to see if I could figure it out.  And wouldn't you know, David (the very helpful archivist) and I figured it out fairly quickly.

It seems that the best way to find out when a house was built, at least in La Crosse, is to determine when water lines were run to the lot.  Our lot got water on Oct. 23, 1923.  Now, in the Assessor's records for 1923, there was no valuation for a house on our lot, but David thought that because all the yearly records were handwritten, it didn't make it into the tax record that year.  It showed up in the 1924 records though.  In 1923, our lot was worth $275.  In 1924, our lot was worth $400, and our house was worth $4000.  We assume, then, that the house was built in late 1923 or early 1924.

In looking up these records, I also learned that a Mr. William Schroer originally owned our lot and the lot to the south of us.  It appears that in 1923 he built houses on both lots.  He continued to live in the house on the lot to our south, and sold our house to Mr. Edward J. Kreutz and his wife Viola R.

Because David is the curious type, and I was not disinterested, we looked in the city directory to learn more about the Kreutz household and their time in our house.  We pulled out directories for approximately every 10 years, beginning with 1924.

1924: Ed was an estimator for Segelke and Kohlhaus Manufacturing.
1934: Ed was an assistant estimator for S & K Mfg.
1943: Ed was promoted to vice president for S & K Mfg.
1953: Ed rose to president of S & K Mfg.
1963: Ed was a draftsman at North La Crosse Lumber
1970: Ed was still a draftsman at North La Crosse Lumber

We figure that Ed rose through the ranks to president, and then either retired (he was born in 1891, so he would have been 72) or the company folded, and he went to work at a less taxing job as a draftsman.  Viola's name was missing from the 1970 entry, and we learned that she died in 1967.  Ed was no longer listed in 1980, and we found that he died on November 10 (spooky!), 1974.  They are buried in the Catholic Cemetery with their daughter and son-in-law.

So, who moved in after the Kreutz's?

1980: Anthony Kromke, relief machine operator at Safeway Foods; Michelle Kromke, chief pharmacy technician at St. Francis Hospital.
1990: Carl Barnes, salesman at Frank's Liquor of La Crosse

And there we stopped.  We could have looked at shorter intervals or continued for more years, but I was getting hungry (it was way past my lunchtime), and I had found what I had come looking for.  I will probably go back another time and fill in some of the more recent gaps, but for now, I am delighted to know a bit about the early history of my house and the family who loved it so much as to live in it for 50 years.

eagles on the water

Every year, hundreds of bald eagles make a stop in La Crosse to fish as the ice on the river begins to break up.  They stay for a few weeks until the ice clears, and then mostly head on their way.  While they are here, you can go out to the river and see them sitting on the ice, gathering in trees, or soaring overhead.

The ice broke up earlier than normal this year, and I almost missed the eagles.  On the day after the ice broke, however, we chased some leads and found a few eagles on the slough between La Crosse and French Island.   You can't see it from this angle, but there's a fish in this eagle's talons, and I watched him catch it.  Pretty amazing.

golden keg

Today was the first day of La Crosse's Oktoberfest, which someone told me is second in size only to Munich's Oktoberfest. I missed the opening parade, but made it down to the fest grounds in time for the Tapping of the Golden Keg.

The tapping itself is not that impressive, but the people who line up to drink the special Fest Bier are well worth watching. I spent all afternoon admiring dirndl, lederhosen, and a wide-variety of specially made drinking shirts. Of course, I enjoyed a few Oktoberfest beverages as well.

singin' in the rain

I was eating a cookie at the reception after my chorale concert when a thunderstorm developed directly above the building. It rained, it poured, it hailed marble-sized hail, the wind blew ferociously, and then the sun came out and a beautiful rainbow appeared. All of this happened within about seven minutes.

As I rode my bicycle home through streets flooded with water the drains couldn't yet handle, I noticed how many people were outside their houses. I ride the same route a few times a week going to choir and Ultimate, and I rarely see people. But there they were, watching the hail in their front yards melt and wondering how long til the intersections were clear again. It felt like I was riding through an entirely different neighborhood.

And now the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and I should really check the basement for water.

opposite of first place

I am a fairly competitive person. I like to succeed at things, especially things that Sam and I do together. I like to do better than Sam at these things. But this has not been the case lately.

For example, yesterday Sam and I played in the Winter Rec Fest Euchre Tournament. This was ten rounds (seven hours, including lunch) of the Midwest's favorite card game* played by one hundred casual and serious players from the La Crosse area. After every round, the winners would move up a table, the losers would stay at the same table, and everyone would switch partners, so you rarely played with the same partner twice. Winners got 12 points, and losers got the number of points they received in the game.

Sam advanced steadily and ended up tied for 26th place. I stayed at the same table for seven rounds, won one game against an undefeated player, and secured last place in the tournament. Yes, I got 100th out of 100 players. I mostly blame bad cards, but Sam will never let me live it down, I'm sure.

*In the next room, there were about 120 people playing Sheepshead, another Midwest game I am very interested in learning. Although since it is more complicated than Euchre, I will most likely not be very good at it.

trailblazer

I've been waiting for lots of snow ever since the temperatures started dipping in mid-November. There are two reasons for my anticipation:

1. Cold weather is horrible without snow to mitigate it. Snow makes everything pretty instead of gray and dreary, and it gives me something to kick or jump around in when I'm walking in the cold.

2. I'm ready to go cross-country skiing again. One time last year was definitely not enough.

The La Crosse Tribune says we have gotten 16.9 inches of snow in the past two days. The drifts in my backyard are significantly higher. There are all sorts of travel advisories and frostbite warnings, and the snowplows have yet to get to our alley.

But that's okay, because Sam shoveled the truck out this morning (just in case), and I used the unplowed alleys and the parking lot next door to create my own cross-country ski course, complete with a few snowdrift hills to climb up and ski down. I had a great time. In fact, I might have had more fun breaking my own trail around my house than I did skiing last year on the groomed trails in Hixon.

curling

Sam and I tried out a new sport tonight - curling!

Honestly, most of what I knew about curling before this evening came from very brief glimpses during the Winter Olympics and an episode of the Simpsons. It seemed to me to be like shuffleboard on ice.

And now I know that it is indeed like shuffleboard on ice, only with 42 lbs stones. The most difficult part is sending that 42 lb stone across the ice without falling over, releasing the stone too hard, releasing it too soft, curling it too much, or giving it a shove in the wrong direction. There's also a knack to sweeping the area in front of the stone to melt the ice and keep it moving or curving.

Mostly, curling appears to be a sport of finesse, and finesse takes practice. Unfortunately, the curling club meets only once a month for about three more months. We'll see how much finesse I can gain by in that time. Perhaps I'll even get to enter a spiel (tournament).

winter running

Well, it's finally and officially winter in my book. We have six inches of snow on the ground here in La Crosse, and I've seen kids out sledding on hills.

The first snow of the season just happened to coincide with the first race of the Winter Running Series (one race a month December through February). Sam and I both signed up last year, but I decided not to this year since I chickened out of running at zero degrees last January and February.

The numbers were a little low this morning since the roads weren't exactly clear, but we made it to the race. Sam placed 21st out of 215 runners, and 3rd in his age division. My camera didn't like the cold, so I couldn't get a good picture of Sam's frost-coated beard, but I'm sure I'll get another chance for that this winter. (Sam is not in the picture above either. Sorry.)

la crosse riverbank

It's been a stressful week and weekend for me. I've been working non-stop on a big project for work, and I feel like I've been missing out on all the fun fall scenery around La Crosse. So as soon as I finished working today, I jumped on my bicycle to take a leisurely ride down to the river and across to the marsh.

I forgot that we have barely fallen under flood stage around here. The Mississippi was well over the docks in Riverside Park, Pettibone Island across the channel was obviously impassable, and the the La Crosse River had eaten up my path to the marsh.

But that didn't stop me from enjoying the fall colors in the afternoon sun.

oktoberfest parade

The Oktoberfest Opening Day Parade starts two blocks from my house, so I went down this morning to participate in the beginning of La Crosse's 50th Oktoberfest Celebration. There were liederhosen, steins, buttons, motorcycles, and every high school marching band within a 50 mile radius. There wasn't much of a crowd.

This 30 minute parade is just a warm up for tomorrow's four hour extravaganza, for which people have already started claiming spots on the sidewalk. But I will be playing Ultimate in Rockford tomorrow and will have to miss the fun. For this year, a few festers and some kids happy to get out of morning of classes will have to do.

ridgeland harvest

Yesterday, Sam and I went out to Ridgeland Harvest, our CSA farm, for their annual Garlic Party.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and we support a family farm run by Cate and Mat and their two small sons Paul and John. In exchange for a reasonable amount of money, they grow and deliver to us a box of tasty, organic fruits and vegetables once a week for twenty-two weeks of the year. And they host events at the farm so we can get to know them and how they grow our food.

After meeting everyone, we walked around the farm for a few hours seeing the fields and hearing how Cate and Mat plan, plant, rotate, deal with pests organically, agonize over weather, and thoroughly enjoy being small farmers. Along the way we grabbed some sweet corn from the stalks, grazed the raspberry bushes, plucked and nibbled on some edamame, and pulled a few onions.

Sam and I don't buy any of the animal products Ridgeland Harvest offers, but we enjoyed chasing the chickens and pigs around. At first, the pigs ran away from the group invading their field, but by the time we left, they were following us through the tall grass.

Everyone brought a veggie salad, and Cate and Mat roasted samples of each of the four types of garlic they grew this year: German, Siberian, Asian Tempest, and Georgia Crystal. Delicious. Mat also took the corn we'd picked earlier and grilled it in the husk, which I have now decided is the best way to eat sweet corn. And just in case that wasn't enough, there was homegrown bbq chicken and raspberry cheesecake.

We left with stomachs full of great food, hands full of raspberries and garlic, and happy to know we are supporting a wonderful family with a wonderful farm.

food and drink

I have one big complaint about La Crosse. It has no ethnic food eateries (Mexican and Chinese don't really count.) So when Sam and I go someplace else, we search out the most random ethnic food we can find.

This past week we were in Madison and Milwaukee, and took full advantage of their many tasty eateries. We filled out bellies with :

Afghani (Kabul Restaurant, State Street, Madison)

Ethiopian (Alem Villiage Restaurant, Wisconsin Street, Milwaukee)

Thai (The King and I Thai, 2nd Street, Milwaukee)

We then came home to the Between the Bluffs Beer, Wine, and Cheese Fest where we tasted a plethora of local, regional, and distant beers. My favorites were:

Thermo Refer, Furthermore Beer (sour ale brewed with organic beets and black pepper)

Harukaze, Dave's Brewfarm (gruit ale brewed with herbs and spices)

Doppel Bock, Old Man River Brewery (German style beer)

anything from our homebrew group, LAGERS

duck crossing

These ducks were taking a tour of the town yesterday. I saw them on the river, at the park, and then they took a break from the excitement of downtown La Crosse in the neighbor's parking area. They must have been having a little tiff at this point, because neither one would look at the other.