Murder in Old Chippewa Falls - Part One, The Wrong Corpse!

This will be a True Crime Story in five parts.  Not my usual fare, but I ran across this while looking for something else.  Which actually is how this story begins....

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On August 3rd, 1905 Ole Madson had an unpleasant duty to perform.  He was dragging the river bottom near the rail road bridge above the Chippewa Falls dam, looking for the remains of Andrew Gonyers, a log driver who had recently drowned near that spot.  Madson had a long "pike pole", and when he snagged something and started to pull very hard, he thought he'd accomplished his grim task.  With considerable force he hauled up a dead body.  Gonyers had been found.

Or had he?

This body had been in the water for a much longer time, and had been weighted down with 100 pounds of metal, including "rail road iron".  The body was pulled from the river, examined, and pronounced to be - most probably - that of Felix Fourboul Sr.

Oddly there are still piles of abandoned rails on the shore near the bridge!

Felix had last been seen on Wednesday, April 19th, some three and a half months earlier.

He was an interesting character, of the sort more common in earlier times than today.  Born in France circa 1844 he had spent some time as a sailor.  Indeed, it was nautical tattoos on the body that helped make the ID.  When he came to Wisconsin is not clear.  He is said to have arrived in Chippewa Falls in 1874, although that would seem to be partially at odds with other information.  Because he was also said to have lived on the Lac Corte Oreilles Reservation near modern day Hayward, where he married an Ojibwa woman and had a child with her circa 1885.  He must have been part of the early populace who bounced back and forth spending winters in the northern logging camps and summers in the more settled river towns to the south.

Felix's first wife had died around 1890, at which point he married a woman named Zele and moved more permanently to Chippewa Falls or its environs.  He farmed a bit, but by 1905 he and his wife were running the boarding house at Theriault's brick yard west of town.  Mrs. Fourboul was said to be in declining health, and the couple were getting ready to give up the boarding house and buy a home in town.  Evidently some money had been set aside for this....but it went missing.

The prime suspect in the disappearance and subsequent demise had actually been in custody for a while but had been released.  When Felix Fourboul Jr. was told that his father's body had been found in the river he said: "Is that so!".  And he asked for an attorney.

Next time: The Suspect

Detritus - 2025

I shall at least start the new year of writing with good intentions and a plan.

FIRST Robotics kicks off at the end of this week.  So for January, February and March expect one robot post per week.  More than one on occasion, certainly for tournaments and if anything unusual happens.

I recently stumbled into an interesting local history tale.  It has forced me to start a new "tag", True Crime.  This is not a genre I generally peruse, but it appears to be of some interest.  I'll spin this story out over the next few weeks. 

Back to Vindolanda in May.  The usual stuff.  Dry stones, dry British wit, ale moistened evenings in the pub.

The year going forward will have more of my "Silly Grandpa" schtick, as helping out a two-jobs, daycare is pricey family is useful.  I'm relying more on guile than endurance than five years ago with the first batch of grands, to say nothing of several decades back with our own kids.  

I should go fishing more often.  

I certainly will attend a lot of baseball/soccer/hockey/dance events.  

Probably no Florida this spring.  We bring a curse to areas down there we visit...hurricanes keep clobbering them.  Maybe Alaska this year or some year soon.  The unofficial standard is whether our fishing grandson would be bigger than the fish!

So, Happy New Year a bit early.  We are now past Solstice, the shortest day of the year.  Yes, I know, the increase in daylight is miniscule for a few weeks, but I cherish those few measly photons and enjoy them out of proportion to their actual numbers.  

After all, from now on every day gets brighter.  Enjoy each one.

Baits and Bling - Merry Christmas 2024

Hope you had a swell Christmas and got what you wanted.  I did.  Some time with our adult kids, some hugs, high fives and "knucks" from the grands.  Material things, nah, I have enough of those.

Not that there is anything wrong with the giving or receiving of gifts.  It's another way to show you care.  Of course shopping is hard for some of us, so as a public service I offer this:

Baits and Bling, in beautiful downtown Chetek, Wisconsin.  As the sign says, "Everyone's happy!".  They are closed until Spring, but I can imagine fishermen coming in, buying minnows and night crawlers....realizing they are not being particularly attentive spouses, and buying "bling".  I think they are leaning heavily into ear rings fashioned out of lures.  Stuff like this:

The sign out front looks pretty swanky, upscale and new.  The one on the side has more of a "Bait Shop" vibe to it.  I bet it smells like minnows and night crawlers.  So do their customers, which is why the side line is probably working out pretty well for them.  Everyone's happy.

Takin' the day off.

 Merry Christmas.  No need for the internet this one day of the year.

Christmas Comes Early

"Christmas came early" is a phrase usually used when a bit of unexpected good fortune comes along.  A windfall of some sort.  In actuality having your Christmas occur before December 25th is usually a matter of logistics, and is sort of a mixed affair.

We have three kids, each with their own families.  So we share them with other fams around the hols, and sometimes it works out that we don't get to see them on the 25th.  So, how about on the 21st then?

Stockings hung.  More of them than in years past...

Dog knew something was up, he was extra vigilent.

All visitors piled in within ten minutes of each other.  Dog went crazy.  Piles of boots and such by front and back doors.

Also large quantities of beans.  Ah, it would take a bit of explaining.....

There were plenty of presents which were tuned into happily received new possessions and bags full of torn off wrapping paper.

Unexpected highlight of the afternoon was The Great Dog Escape 2.0.  One of the visiting mutts is always plotting ways to break out of the yard/house, and got a chance when a gate was left ajar.  Off she went at top speed, with full intent to evade all pursuit.  Every able bodied adult suited up and joined the chase, which went on until the dog made the mistake of running into a yard with a partial chain link fence.  This is the same trick she pulled a few years ago and is a good way to run off those Christmas eating calories.

I guess one good thing about the off date celebration is that things are open.  So while some elements of the family have dispersed (one branch has a Solstice Bonfire to attend!) others went bowling before we all sat down to Indian curry.

Yes, some of these are odd family traditions but we are an odd family.

Some Days Nothing Much Happens

It snowed.  Not as much as predicted, but already at morning coffee time everything local had been cancelled due to alarmist reports.  Or heck, maybe the schools all wanted to trim a day off of the minimal learning days that lead up to a major holiday. 

So robotics practice off, and an evening social occasion also cancelled.

Didn't even have enough snow to make a proper job clearing it.  Those eager beaver neighbors got their snow blower out first and did the out front sidewalk.

So, boring day.

Ah well, for logistic reasons our "Christmas" will be over the weekend, so there's that.

That's not today, but from a previous snowfall.  It's more fun when the grandkids are around.

The Stockyard - a rare Business Review

Sometimes you just have to say nice things.

Vojtik's Stockyard is an unusual business enterprise.  Two locations a short distance apart, one is a meat packing business the other a classic Wisconsin bar and grill.  I've enjoyed the work of both.

When we were laboring in the heat of July, building that off grid house, The Stockyard (restaurant) was our go to place.  Food.  A cold beer.  Several glasses of ice water.  We left considerably restored.  That by the way is the base meaning of the word restaurant, and they did a darn good job.

They also have their earlier building just up the road a stretch.  This used to be the restaurant in front, meat packing out back.  Now its all meat, all the time.

And they do wild game processing.  Deer mostly, but I'm sure if you pulled up with a defunct bear or some such they'd rise to the occasion.

As I've mentioned the business side of this is delightful.  When I asked how to get the ball rolling when I had a deer I was told: "First, go to the bar".  Deal.  Paperwork done in five minutes then then up the road to drop off the deer.  I admit, this year's bag was of a rather small critter - which I consider a testament to my skill as an archer! - but the guys who pulled it off the truck were cheerful and enthusiastic.  "Nice deer!"

The process - inadvertent pun - on the other end is also simple.  They call you up.  You go to - you guessed it - the bar.  And they have a refrigerated trailer with everyone's processed steaks, sticks and sausage ready in a marked tub.  

Time did not permit a celebratory beverage at either end of the procedure but you sure could do that.

I have the deer in my freezer now.  I had cleared plenty of space.  More than I needed as it turns out.  And the first venison stick has been sampled.  Mmmm, good stuff.

So, on the off chance you are looking for cheerful, efficient game processing in rural Western Wisconsin, head to the Stockyard.  Or if you are laboring outdoors in 90 degree heat, also highly recommended.

Cheers

All Robots are Buddhists

I've mentioned before that I think all robots are Buddhists.  They are clearly reincarnated time and time again as their parts are recycled into other robots.  In years past we've even had the occasional "Robot Funeral" prior to a machine being dismantled.  The words of institution being:  "Bolts to bolts, widgets to widgets...."  When the world went insane due to Covid we were a bit less enthused about this, as death seemed a poor subject for humor.  And to be more practically sensitive we often have kids on the team who have parents, grandparents etc facing health challenges.

I think this was our last Robot Funeral back in 2021

But the principle remains.  A robot is born, lives its (?) life, then its components are scattered, not like ashes over a body of water, but to the recycling bin, the electronics cart, the far reaches of the various storage spaces....

Sometimes things come back in unexpected ways.  This year there are new rules for the protective bumpers that competition robots must have.  We are being encouraged to experiment with different materials.  This was rather good fun, and we put together a series of videos for other teams to consider.  Worth a minute or two of amusing time spent, and some things you'll see have "histories". 

After figuring out how much squishing various foam types could take and still recover, we got even meaner....

I especially like the unscripted moment where the obsolete "pool noodle" sample went flying off into oblivion.  A suitable exit for this no longer to be used foam.  But a couple of things made "comebacks" in these videos.  In the first one there is a curiously shaped piece of light grey foam lying on the table waiting to be crushed.  We actually found a stash of this when we cleaned out one of the storage closets.  It dates back to when I ran "Machines Behaving Badly", the madcap 3 pound combat robot class where the entire rule set was "No flame throwers, no hand grenades and no live animals".  This foam was stuff I got at Axman Surplus many years ago.  It was used quite a bit for little robot wheels.  It also turns out to be the ideal material for big robot bumpers!

Ah, the good times......  Several of the occupants of Robot Cemetery used the grey foam, and we also had a chunk we made into a tombstone with the traditional Rest in Pieces caption.

And the Hammer of Persuasion seen in the second video?  That is the most ancient robot artifact of all.  Long, long ago, when my second son was 3 years old, he wanted a sledgehammer for his birthday.  Of course we got him one, scaled down to the size he could wield.  He used it for projects of both constructive and destructive nature, and it was gifted to the FIRST team when it was formed in the fall of 2015.  Hey, this was the kid who got me into Robot World!  In our first year we used it not only to hammer recalcitrant parts into alignment, but to actually stress test our initial robot.  We had never built a FIRST robot before and wanted to make sure it was strong enough!

Eventually the team outgrew its initial home, and the H.of.P. was used to knock apart our storage shelves and such.  It then became a ceremonial object which is presented to our student build lead at the start of his or her tenure.  It is only for the persuasion of mechanical objects, and has been used less as a test of mechanical integrity.  We have enthusiastic robot drivers for that now...

I often start to write something silly and find that the Real World is stranger than I imagined it to be.  So....what do actual Buddhists do for Robot Funerals?  Well, as it happens, in Japan they really do have ceremonies for decommissioned Companion Robots.  Who knew?

Hank drags his heels.

My dog Hank regards my wife and I as pretty poor excuses for dogs.  Still, we are the Alphas in this pack and he has to get along with us.  But he seems to think we need a remedial level of education.

Walks are very important to the Dog Unit.  Why can't the bipeds see this?  So he tries to train us.  Everything that is associated with a walk he tries to reproduce.  He'll nudge us towards the front door.  He is very aware of when I set down my coffee cup.  He knows I put on socks and shoes by the front door.  So he brings socks and deposits them there.  Mine, my wife's, clean, dirty.  Surely several pairs will up the odds.  When that does not work he'll try anything that smells like us.  He'll tip over the bathroom trash can and bring down disgusting (to us) used Kleenex.  Recently in an example of going above and beyond, he somehow got a bar of soap out of the shower and hauled it downstairs.  That's dedication....

So he's clever, but his dog brain has its limitations.  When a walk is in the offing he gets very excited and his on board decision tree goes haywire.  Or maybe reverts to how he usually things about trees, as something to lift a leg on, or something to bark furiously at on the chance that there is, was, or someday might be a squirrel in the upper branches.

And when it comes to the final step in the pre-walk algorithm, he glitches.  I want him to pick up the harness/leash combo from the floor and give it to me.  He knows how to do it.  He usually does it and gets the immediate desired result.  But sometimes......

An idle threat of course.  I have no use for a species that considers it their right to defecate in my home and expect me to clean up after them.  Eventually he relented.  But does he look a bit exasperated at the blockheadedness of the Alpha male?

Here he is at the end of a long day.  Asleep with a pair of stolen socks.

Tree Shaped Tombstones - New Richmond Wisconsin

It was the last day of November when I passed through a surprisingly busy town in Western Wisconsin.  It seemed like the sort of place where "Tree Shaped Tombstones" would be found.  So I took a detour to the cemetery where a couple of deer stared at me fearlessly.  Hey, last day of hunting season and besides they were safe in the city limits.

I was not disappointed.

Buy hey, wait a minute.  What's that?

Modern "Trees" are quite rare.  And this one has its own granite bench.  There's gotta be a story here.  This first photo worried me....

This one just confused me.  There seem to be a lot of Alvarezs showing up here....

The explanation is HERE.  This is the memorial for Leona Grace Johnson, who died in 2022 at the age of 100.  Noah and Jonah are just a couple of her many great grandchildren.  So rather than this being a memorial to some tragic death of children it is a monument to a life that seems to have been very well lived indeed.  Cheers Leona.

Back Underground

It has been a while since I took the short drive over to work at "Sand Land", the astonishingly eccentric project some friends of mine have been at for a decade or so.  Not everyone understands Sand Land.  I mean...buy a ravine and bring in volunteers to excavate an underground tunnel system?  With stair cases, a spiral slide, a tavern, and...well I'm not sure what else is in there at the moment because I just came to work, not to take the latest tour.

So, its underground we go...

Hard hat, head lamp, respirator, coveralls.  More kit than most "pit ponies" had.  

It's always important to pay attention to signs..

My job was to load, haul and dump wagons of already excavated sand.  Yes, sand.  Its what you get, and get a lot of, when you excavate sandstone.

Here's a short video clip I took while running the wagon back in.  I don't go so fast when dragging it out.

Always nice to see the light of day at the end of  a day of hauling.  I'm told I set the one person record for loads hauled.  This sounds like flattery but is in keeping with what I usually do at Vindolanda or when working on the Homesteading project.  Digging is mostly just good mechanics and determination.

There is a lot of other eccentric stuff at Sand Land.  Just to the left of the tunnel exit is their rifle range.  This got me into a discussion about deer hunting there.  The property and sight lines at this spot are a bit cramped, but they have more "stuff" on top of the hill.

I could totally see setting up for bow hunting on top of the surplus McDonald's Play Land.  I would have to be careful not to put a hole in the geodesic dome salvaged from a Cold War radar station.....

Exercise and Eccentricity.  I need more of  both.

FIRST Robotics 2025 starts now.

Really good teams are built in the off season.  So for the FIRST time in team history we have continued meeting through the summer on a small scale but focused basis.  We've run the fall pre-season differently too, with the high school team working on a few specific projects while putting major effort into our "farm club", Robot School.

But with that concluded, and with the last of the Thanksgiving left overs consumed, 5826 has started "regular" meetings twice a week in December.  We think we know the roster, although there will always be some add-ons and drop offs as the lives of young people can be complicated.  It should be a strong team this year.

Lots going on.  In no particular order....

In the background, Jeffery the middle school project bot is being taken apart.  In the foreground, various foam samples.  New rules this year allow different options.  And as robots have started taking and dispensing harder hits, they'd better be good.

Our secret weapon?  Foam from a cut up "Cheesehead" hat.  Hey, they saved a plane crash victim from serious injury once!

Some bits left over for stylin'

Software doing software things.  Some of them may have gone beyond the coach's comprehension levels.  I am both pleased and moderately concerned by this....

One month to kickoff.  Until then its practice, test, ponder.....

Tree Shaped Tombstones - Also Cylons!

 Driving down an unfamiliar rural Wisconsin road just as the light was changing from "great for photography" to "watch out for deer".  I have a keenly tuned sense of where small rural cemeteries should be, and when I spot one its time to pull off for a quick peek.  Any "Tree Shaped Tombstones"?

Yep.  A rather nice "Tree and Book" specimen.  Its unusual in that it has a really big book, so honking large it needs a special little cross piece to hold it up.  

I suppose unusual thing number two is the long interval between the husband and wife being reunited at the foot of this tree.  1892 to 1932.  Forty years.

Oddness is not uniformly distributed in the world.  And this location had more than its share.  Check out the name of the cemetery!

I remember Cylons from the cheesy Battlestar Galactica show.  Malevolent tin cans....

Of course the name comes from elsewhere.  Cylon Township was presumably named for Cylon of Athens.  We used to live in a far more literate country.

And the weirdness keeps coming.  There is of course a nice little church adjacent to the cemetery.  Well kept up, there was smoke coming from the chimney so it is not abandoned.

But hey, what's that sign......

Rather nice lighting for the last picture of the day.  The area out back of the church is some kind of dog obstacle course.  Not sure if the hounds have taken over the building too, but as I saw no sign indicating a two legged congregation was still using it one must assume so....  If you have a naughty pup in the general vicinity of New Richmond Wisconsin you might want to check 'em out.

A. I. gets all chatty....

I've been tapping the keyboard here for many years.  Mostly of course just me sending thoughts out into the cluttered void that is the internet.  But I do get the occasional message back.  I have a link where people can send an email.  Usually of course it's just spam, but every few weeks somebody with similar interests drops a line.  Sometimes it is to say one of their relatives was involved in some local history topic I cover.  Back when I started deer hunting there was a vigorous discussion on what I should purchase for a rifle.  That sort of thing.

Mostly you can separate the wheat from the chaff with a quick look before either approving for publication or deep sixing it off into the spam folder.  But lately I've started to see far sneakier things.  Below is an example.  In part it is stealthy because the second line is "below the fold".  It sure seems like somebody with a similar interest in medicine, travel and ancient Egypt.....

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"It's interesting how the Waiting Room experience has evolved over time. From my days in the clinic, I remember the efforts to keep things neutral and avoid the clutter of biased pharmaceutical ads. The idea was to provide a calm and distraction-free environment, but even in places as historic as the Egyptian temple of Kom Ombo, where patients awaited healing, there are traces of this waiting culture. It's a reminder of how medical spaces, whether ancient or modern, share a common purpose: to offer healing, albeit with different approaches."

"########## offers a great opportunity, while those looking to optimize space can consider a ############ to make the most of their area."

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I of course have defaced and disabled the link, which was for some sort of office storage cabinets.  Or really, for Osiris only knows what.....

Clearly this and similar offerings are generated by an AI program that can analyze text, connect the dots regards context, and cook up a response that is clear, concise and well reasoned.  I have to study a few more specimens, but I suspect it is even copying some of my writing quirks.  It is synthesizing the perspective of a slightly nostalgic retired physician who was never fond of pharmaceutical company propaganda.  

If that is what AI can do today, what can it do in a few years?  I already know some smart people - OK, they are engineers - who advocate using this technology for business and other formal communications.

I disapprove.  

I've worked pretty hard to become adept at short form communication.  I find it carries over from written to spoken formats, as it is all just a matter of organizing ideas.  I'd like to think that I have a few distinctive touches....to compensate for my haphazard punctuation.  I'm not about to let some damned machine take over for me.

In Star Trek Captain Kirk went up against Artificial Intelligences pretty often.  Usually with a good talkin' to, supplemented with a phaser blast when necessary, they were defeated.