Fifty Years in the Dirt

 Recently I changed my facebook photo to this:

I rather like the image....as several have pointed out there is clearly something interesting going on off camera to the right!  But it did prompt some old friends to point out just how long I've been messing around in the dirt, digging things up.

One sent this gem, purporting to be me and in 1985.

Uh, the guy in front, not the guy in back.

I've been digging around looking for things for a long time, probably going back not 50 years but 60, to when as a kid I would dig holes in the back yard of our house and find odd things.  Broken plates, marbles, that sort of stuff.

Still digging.  Guess I'll keep throwing the dirt out of the hole until somebody decides I'm Done and shovels it back in on me.

Robot School 2024

Robot School time again.  We've roughly doubled the class size and had kids sign up for either software or build/design.  So far so good.  We are only taking 7th and 8th graders so the maturity level is - by the standards of middle school - fairly reasonable.  And I have good help.  FIRST team alumni coming back to train up the next generation.

So, what do we do?

Oh, learn how to use tools.  Many of them have never worked with metal at all.

Measure mark, drill.....learning by doing it wrong a few times....

Everyone on build has to at least try CAD for a session or two.  Several really enjoy it.

The drive base is now complete, and the winch mechanism to raise and lower the whiffle ball collector is in place.  Of course foam based bumpers are needed....these are newbie drivers after all.

Here's a couple of the students who have been developing the intake design.  We expect to get it attached and powered up later this week.  Look out, there will be whiffle balls flying everywhere until we get things dialed in properly!

CCC Camp Globe Revisited

My earlier post on CCC Camp Globe had too many loose ends.  I had gone there looking for remains of the place, particularly of the impressive gate posts that once held giant globes.  Instead I found scattered remains, and these big hunks of stone work.  Which seem to be too close together for gate posts.

And there were other problems.  Usually the signs marking the location of CCC camps were put pretty close to the main entrances of same.  This "stuff" was a couple hundred yards in.  So, it was time for a repeat visit.  Actually it took two, as on one occasion there were some rather unfriendly guys scouting hunting locations right there.  

With a few more leaves gone I was able to see more.  Down the road from the above photo was:

More stone, cement, even a cellar hole.  So at least I'd found a few more remains.  But what about the gate posts?

The cover of the CCC Camp Globe newspaper is helpful.  I've generally found such images to be reasonably accurate.

You can see my point about the spacing between the gate posts.  Also, see how the road is coming off what I suspect is the existing county road at a 90 degree angle, and then starts to curve to the right.  Same view today:

Alas, I think the gate posts are long gone.  Probably they were destroyed when the county road was widened and ditches added at some point.  

CCC camps are a real test of my archaeological "eye".  Most were only occupied for a few years, and most have subsequently seen logging activity.  This tends to create many ambiguous lumps and bumps, and to either re-use or destroy the roads of the original camp.  While of course adding new roads specific to the logging operation.  As CCC camps were laid out rather loosely on military principles the position of roads is critical to understanding them.  So Globe is a tough nut to crack, although I think the road seen above - now used only by hunters - was probably the main road of the camp.

I had a flicker of hope when I learned that there was a geocache hidden here, supposedly at an old building foundation.  Alas, it was a few yards from the mystery pillars, which I suspect were part of a gigantic fire place.  Cool cache container though....

Karma of the Caterpillar

What a remarkable summer.  It started early, and just kept on going. We are still enjoying warm days even as the October shadows lengthen.  The deer are grow plump, and alas, clever.  And wooly bear caterpillars are everywhere, crawling hither and yon on their enigmatic missions.

I write something about the woolies every fall, as they are said to be a harbinger; an oracle.  Their color pattern allegedly predicts the severity of the upcoming winter.  

A few days ago while out at The Homestead I saw my son's lunatic dog jumping about and snapping at something on the ground.  She's a bit like a malicious cat in this respect, she'll capture baby bunnies and such and toy with them.  I do not approve.

So I went over and found that the object of her taunting was a curled up wooly bear caterpillar.  Well, I rescued the little guy, took him off to a safe location and said: "Hey, how 'bout a mild winter?"

I knew this was a big ask from a little guy, but it is rather their forte, so what the heck.

An hour later I went for a stroll down their dirt road.  Just enjoying the day and getting some fresh air after an afternoon breathing through a respirator while installing insulation.  And right there on the road I found something extremely implausible.  This:

It's a box of ammunition.  Now you might think this is not totally implausible as there is a rifle range down the road a bit and yes, things do bounce out of pickup trucks.  But I've never found ammo laying around - other than my archaeology experience at Ypres - and to have this appear just when I'm getting discouraged about hunting prospects.....and to have it be in the somewhat atypical caliber that I actually hunt with????

Thanks Wooly.  I know one small bug does not have the power to change the climate for a continent.  But hey, a box of ammo that retails for around $37?  You've out done yourself.

Bowhunting - October 2024

Bow hunting, specifically with a crossbow, is a different breed of cat.  It's a quieter, more solitary undertaking.  No compressed 9 day season as with firearms.  No traditional "hunting camp" gatherings.  You pick a time, go out to the woods and sit.  Quietly.  Very quietly.

Many consider it more true hunting.  The deer have almost every advantage.  A rifle can do the job at 100 yards.  A bow, especially with a novice hunter....30 or 40 yards tops.  The one advantage hunters do have is that this is the time of year when the deer go crazy and chase each other around.  Sort of like a gang of distractible middle schoolers.

Here's the view from the tree stand:

Another difference between this a gun hunting is that for the latter you need to wear blaze orange garb....so you won't get shot by other hunters.  Not much risk of that with short range weapons, so the priority is on camo.  Here's the annual tree stand selfie.

Because I'm hunting on my youngest son's Homestead I have a bit of a drive in the pre-dawn hours.  I'll often stop in at a convenience store for coffee on this trip.  I guess I'd better not do this while so attired!

Warmer weather means once you - hypothetically - get a deer you need a plan.  In November just hang them up in a cold garage for a few days and process them when you have time and hands to do so.  Warm weather and without a large hunting crew.  Hmmmmm.

There is a place down the road that does this work.  They'll take it in the field dressed state and turn it into nicely packaged venison.  I stopped by the other day to ask what the procedure was.  A very pleasant young man said:  "Well, first of all you stop at the bar down the road, they'll have the paperwork".

Best Step One Ever!

My second day of hunting I did a better job of time management and was up in the stand before first light.  It was a wild, windy morning.  Plus side:  No way the deer would smell or hear me.  Negative side, if I had a shot I'd have to make some serious accommodation for windage.  

If.  I saw no deer.  So, time to change uniforms do a bit of Homestead work.  Specifically, help install insulation.  Honestly, silly costumes, doing things with modest at best results.....feels more like cosplay than serious hunting and honest labor....

 As my scamp of a grandson got the family "on the board" during today's special youth hunt weekend I can't let up.  Back in the stand tomorrow, weather permitting.

So What Was the First Brewery in Chippewa Falls???

I gave a talk recently on the breweries of 19th century Chippewa Falls.  Most people around here know Leinenkugels.  A fair number knew there was another early brewery run by a scoundrel named F.X. Schmidmeyer.  But while doing research for the program I was able to finally piece together some pesky bits of information and nail down a date for another early brewery.  Was it the first one?  Hard to say, as the Schmidmeyer brewery has sketchy documentation.  But if you define the question as "what is the first brewery for which there is a solid date?" Well, that date is 1858.

An "old settler" named Thomas McBean had a series of stories of the early days that he published in the local paper around the turn of the century.  In two of them he mentions a brewery built in 1858 by a man variously named Hubert or Herbert Massen or Mannsen.  

Initially constructed as a brewery it was later to become a hotel, The Wisconsin House.  It seems probable that the brewing continued, think of it as an early brew pub for the patrons.  Here's the Wisconsin house as it existed in 1874.  It is marked 18 on this map.

There is a nice convenient hillside where a small beer cave could have been excavated.  Perhaps behind the little building across the street?  Sadly the landscape has been completely altered.

Massen shows up in the 1860 census of Chippewa Falls, being listed as a "Brewer".  He is in fact the only person so listed, so it is likely that the 200 barrels of beer on which tax was paid for that year came from this establishment.  

Hubert died in 1866, his wife also dying soon after.  His 14 year old son August seems to have inherited a stake in the hotel, as the next year this ad was running.  Note that the name Massen has now been anglicized to Mason.

 .

 August Mason seems to have been a bright lad.  Spending his formative years seeing lumber jacks roll into town to blow their paychecks persuaded him that going off to the cold, lonely woods to make a living was a bad option.  Why not just sell things to the lumber jacks?  He started a company that made work boots.  And Mason Shoe is not only going strong to this very day, it is still doing business along Duncan creek, just a couple hundred yards away!

Here's the site of the Mason brewery in 2024.  The decommissioned Lutheran church occupies essentially the same foot print.  There's probably some really interesting stuff in that back yard!

Although the Mason brewery is the first one I can nail a date to it is probable that the Schmidmeyer brewery did get going on a small scale just a bit earlier.  But records from this era are hard to come by and so I can only surmise.

Walk like an Egyptian....

I'm not a very "musical" person.  My assorted relatives a couple generations down were amazed that I don't own ear buds, don't have a music streaming service...heck, I don't even listen to music when I'm driving.  Meh.

But every now and then a song, or in this case a music video, captures a moment in time and I take a liking to it.  For instance....The Bangles, and Walk like an Egyptian.....

Here's the full video.....it brings back the 80's every time....

1986.  Women mostly had hair like that.  It was a silly era.  So what was the actual story behind this nonsense?

I assumed it was a call back to the famous Steve Martin appearance on Saturday Night Live in 1978.  And I bet there is some indirect influence.  He was very much, and very over the top, dancing like an Egyptian.

But the actual story is odd.  Apparently the song writer, a certain Liam Sterberg, was crossing the English Channel in a ferry during rough seas.  As the boat swayed side to side the passengers had to do a sort of "Egyptian" dance move to stay steady.  I've crossed the Channel back in the days before the hover ferry and the Chunnel.  I can relate.  The first few lines of the song seem to reflect this story when they mention "..if you move too quick...you're falling down like a domino.."

I was new in medical practice and a first time father when Walk Like an Egyptian came out in 1986.  So I probably did not notice it at the time or even know who The Bangles were.  But as they are my age contemporaries its nice to find on a bit of searching that they are all alive and seem to have had mostly successful lives.  

Not all the people appearing in the video did.  Princess Diana would die in a traffic accident 11 years later.  Muammar Quadaffi had a few brushes with mortality before meeting an unfortunate but not undeserved end in 2011.  And the fire fighters of Ladder Company 100, well, some of them would have a date with destiny on September 11th, 2001.  Which makes this image from the end of the video especially poignant.  The Lady who is doing various Egyptian moves has her torch directly above the Twin Towers.