out on the first 7 mile leg of a 14 mile run in coolish temperature and fog while listening to breathe by minnesota and i had a thought that if it was on infinite jukebox i could possibly maybe have just forrest gumped it and just kept going and going and going…
over the years odin has learned a lot of things in the employee garden we tend at organic valley. we’ve been kite flying and planting and hoeing and weeding since he was barely old enough to push a wheelbarrow and it’s neat to know he thinks it’s normal that people grow food where they work and lots of folks we work with care about where there food comes from.
and now, since we joined The Cosmos Organicos Garden Collective, he gets to see how great it is when a group of people get together to share in the effort.
holy cow we have a whole lotta of food! the plot is on the right and goes all the way back to where the guy is watering in the background. and we’ve started take over another plot across the path that he’s watering in photo.
and i have to say another fun part of the story of The Cosmos Organicos Garden Collective is the nice man in the background is our vice president of sales, eric newman and the woman in front is theresa marquez our chief mission executive ( so now i don’t have steal theresa’s green beans because they’re our green beens 🙂 ). i don’t know about you but other companies i’ve worked for the “c-suite” executives didn’t hang out with employees and certainly didn’t get their hands dirty in the garden!
odin doesn’t know it yet, but he’s also learning that working at organic valley really is quite different than many other companies in a lot of ways.
who knows maybe someday he’ll have his own employee plot and join the garden collective.
side note, i can’t even begin to describe how gorgeous a day it was in the rolling hills of the driftless region.
every day i run by the growing corn and today it occurs to me. why is the left side of the road tassled and the other not?
perhaps you recognize the leaning electrical pole from a more wintry view of this scene.
the kickapoo river is a 126-mile-long twisty turny tributary of the wisconsin river and gets its name from an algonquian word meaning “one who goes here, then there”. rolling down the river the low and slow river is one of the many highlights of the driftless region. because the region didn’t get razed flat by the advancing glaciers then dumped with drift they receded the river offers some spectacular views.
and it’s all the more fun when you roll down the river when family are visiting.
between intentionally goofing around and actually accidentally running into each there was a lot of contact on the river. i’m surprised one of them didn’t dump it. nope, that honor went to their mothers 🙂
it was absolutely gorgeous day. sunny, light breeze, warm but not hot and no bugs!
the ancient geography throws off a serious Enchanted Land where Faeries might Play vibe.
this here is what is known locally as river beer. i think not so much because it tastes like a river but because if you take a spill it’s not the end of the world if you lose a few in the river. but we don’t do that, leave no beer behind is my motto.
on the ride back from the landing in a packed bus of merry ( and tipsy ) river goers, odin notices the sign on the bus has the same number for the half a dozen services on emergency services sign. he thinks someone was trying to make an joke that he doesn’t get. i tell him there was a day when 911 didn’t exist and you had to call a different number for all the different services and the numbers were different from town to town. he gave me the man-the-olden-days-were-crazy look.
we drove back from madison and just missed what looked like an impressive hailstorm about 10 miles from home. “phew!” we thought, only to discover we arrived just before quarter sized hail was to start falling in viroqua.
and fall it did! it’s hard to tell because it’s dark out but i think damage was minimal to cars on the street, but i’m glad we got the car in the garage!
as many of you know, odin has been playing hockey for years. and for all those years, he has played defenseman and quite enjoyed it. but for whatever reason during a tournament in la crosse odin’s coach asked if he wanted to play right wing which is an offense position. he gladly accepted.
all the game play is different for a winger and i thought he’d spend a lot of time making mistakes and being a little discombobulated with the change. but he proved me wrong ( not uncommon ) and did a great job picking up passes from defense and moving the puck down the ice and passing to other teammates, disrupting the opponents and working the boards.
and he was at the right place at the right time in front of the net and scooped in his first goal ever against a tough goalie.
First time playing offense AND ODIN JUST SCORED HIS FIRST GGGGOOOAAALLLL!!!!!
— Eric C Snowdeal III (@snowdeal) January 12, 2014
even sitting up in the stands, i could see the look of surprise on his face. quite a moment. i don’t know if it was coincidence or not but his goal seemed to rally the team and they scored several more before losing in a close game.
i doubt he’ll soon forget his goal on his first playing offense against the formidable la crosse team.
i should add that his team came in last place in the tournament. they played four games and lost all four. they weren’t going to play in the tournament because it was against teams that aren’t in their conference. they were all teams from bigger markets with larger pools of players to select from who play on ice all year round. but one team dropped out and the organizers needed another team to play on short notice so we went. they lost handily to the best team from sheboygan, wisconsin but played well against sun prairie and la crosse. the viroqua underdogs were evenly matched with both teams having similar shots on goal and could have one those games if they could figure out how to get more shots past their ace goalies.
they’ve lost most games they’ve played this year. but that obscures the fact that they are a solid team who is playing with a ton of heart and have lost many games by just a goal or two or in overtime.
odin's team lost both games today. really fun to watch them play their hearts out against the odds,come close &be happy they did their best.
— Eric C Snowdeal III (@snowdeal) January 12, 2014
when the pieces come together they’ll be formidable.