Tag Archives: wisconsin

day 3074: a doubleheader in onalaska!

day 3074: a doubleheader in onalaska!

coming off their exciting first tie game in black river falls, odin’s hockey team played a doubleheader in onalaska, wisconsin today. if you’ve ever skated up and down “full ice” a few times, you might have a sense of how exhausting two games can be so a doubleheader is a good way to see how well the team can play while tired ( incidentally, odin almost never played in the game because he/we forgot to put his skates in his hockey bag and the arena is an hour away from home. luckily and unusually, the arena has a pro shop with rental skates that was open on a sunday so he played in skates that seemed to have never been sharpened 🙂

the first game was against the onalaska squirt “b” team which means they were playing against mostly older and more skilled players ( although the official designation doesn’t exist, odin’s team would be considered squirt “c” since it has a few new 8 year old squirts, including odin, who moved up to fill out the roster in lieu of having enough 9 and 10 year olds ).

odin played defenceman which is his comfortable position and he did a fine job. here he is coming up behind the net going after the puck in the defense zone.

not unexpectedly, they lost but only 2 to 0 which is an awesome score for such a young team.

in the second game againt the onalaska squirt “c” team, odin played the offensive right winger position for the first time! every so often, he had a little trouble remembering exactly where he was supposed to be on the ice but that’s certainly to be expected when you’ve never played ( or practiced! ) the position before. still, he made some great plays and even had a shot on goal! he claims he loves playing offense way more than defense now so it’ll be interesting to see what he settles into over time.

even though it was their second game, the team played well and controlled the ice through all three periods and won 2 to 1!

so, three games into the season they’ve tied 1, won 1 and lost 1 which is an excellent start against some great teams.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. I.

it’s the holiday season which means it’s time for another trip to snowy ridge our favorite christmas tree farm! only there wasn’t any snow. boo. at least it wasn’t muddy.

odin picked out a fine looking white pine for our family tree.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. II.

he’s holding the tree while i lay in the ground with the saw after he gave up trying to cut it down himself. maybe next year! of course he’s totally used to me saying, “oh hey, wait, let me take a picture!”

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. III.

haulin’ the tree out…

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. IV.

time to start the process over again with the second smaller tree that will go in odin’s room.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. V.

he gave another go at cutting down the tree and almost made it through before running out of steam. i bet he’ll do it next year and this will actually end up being the last year i cut down a tree for a while 🙂

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. VI.

happy to be haulin’ both trees out…

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. VII.

it’s a long walk back to the car so i guess i should lend a hand. but just one. the other one is for the camera.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. VIII.

then it’s finally time to ride the zipline! they took the tree down and built a bigger platform.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. IX.

we’ve been doing this for six years and i still marvel at the genious of combining a christmas tree farm and a zipline. it’s a magical memory maker.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. X.

seeing this treehouse every winter partially inspired our wanting to build a treehouse with a zipline.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. XI.

as we do every year, we ended our visit in a cabin warmed with a wood fire and enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate and more than a couple of cookies.

thanks once again to the folks who run snowy ridge for all the great memories.

day 3067: odin’s first game as a squirt!

day 3067: odin's first game as a squirt! I.

after making the cut to move up to the squirts and a a few practices running plays odin and his new teammates played their first game today against black river falls.

and whooboy, what a game! viroqua played well through the first two periods and maintained a commanding 4-1 lead. they looked awesome for their first game!

odin struggled a little in the beginning to remember exactly where he needed to be on the ice, but he caught on quickly and made several great defensive plays ( here he’s in blue swatting the puck away from the net after a face-off ).

day 3067: odin's first game as a squirt! II.

as viroqua got tired in the third period, black river falls scored three goals and with literally seconds left in regular play scored a fourth goal to tie the game and sent the game into over time! it was all almost too exciting ( i totally lose cred as an amateur sports photographer by missing the game tying shot )!

day 3067: odin's first game as a squirt! III.

after several heart stopping moments, where it looked liked black river falls was going to win in overtime, virouqa held on with excellent ( albeit somewhat tired ) defense and the game ended a tie.

it was a great game played by both teams. i can’t wait to see how odin’s team progresses through the season. although hopefully not all the games are this exciting!

viroqua fire department training fire.

viroqua fire department training fire. I.

i was out on a evening run and i happened up a training for the viroqua fire department on the 200 block of north center avenue across the street from nelson’s agricenter.

at first i didn’t know it was a training fire and couldn’t figure out why there weren’t any sirens on and everyone seemed so calm.

it started out slowly…

viroqua fire department training fire. II.

but even though they were putting plenty of water on the fire, it got roaring pretty quickly which makes it all the more frightening to think about how fast it would have gone had they not been there.

viroqua fire department training fire. III.

nelson’s has a warehouse filled with lumber right across the alley so they were making sure it didn’t get to hot on the north side ( on the right ) of the fire.

viroqua fire department training fire. IV.

the second story of the building starts to collapse…

viroqua fire department training fire. V.

the building, which i believe had been boarded up and abandoned for awhile, collapsing with a spray of sparks and flying embers. a fairly spectacular event to watch up close.

viroqua fire department training fire. VI.

now there’s something, thankfully, you don’t see every day. i’m getting a brief glimpse of the adrenalin rush firefighters must get when putting out a blaze.

viroqua fire department training fire. VII.

they started really dumping the water on it after it collapsed and i got a good dose of vapor from the evaporating water mixed with flaming soot and decided it was time to move along!

i hope everyone stayed safe while keeping it under control!

earth, wind and fire. or, the sunnier side of biodiesel re-re-visited.

earth, wind and fire. or, the sunnier side of biodiesel re-re-visited.

it’s august which means it’s time for yet another photo of the high-oil sunflowers that are pressed for biodiesel for an organic valley sustainability program. some might recall my photos from last year and a few might even recall the original, popular sunnier side of biodiessel photo from five(?!) years ago.

this year is extra exciting because nestled amongst the sunflowers you can now see the two wind turbines that are part of wisconsin’s first community wind farm that were put up in a partnership between organic valley and gundersen health system.

the two wind turbines are expected to generate about 5 megawatts of energy which more than offsets organic valley’s cashton distribution center and our la farge headquarters.