Early September

O.K., so it's been a while. So sue me..... anyway, Peg and I went Madison August 17 to meet some people from our Madison office. We bussed over to Milwaukee to Miller park, where we tailgaited (in catered sort of way).



We saw this guy traveling to his tailgait spot on his motorized cooler!! Now that's traveling in style... or would that be on Style. Hmmm.. I guess it would have to be Miller.











Let's see. What would Tim say? "The house that Miller built"?? Anyway it a huge building with a ton of people pouring into it.... it looks even bigger


once you get inside! I mean this thing is big enough to play baseball inside, for cryin' out loud! I went to a Brewers game in about 1972, again now in 2006 so I think I'm good for a few years now.




Hey, Tim, you're not the only one that can drink way expensive beer! I guess that to feel like you're at a game, you need to buy at least one from the vendor guy. I sure don't envy him his job.









And it's not like we didn't have access to pleny before we got there.... but what the heck. Seems like you can only get Miller products there. Go figure......













A friend from Ladysmith and I went to Wild Rose on August 25th and 26th for the light plane fly-in. Jim flew to Abbotsford to meet up with me there. We landed on a private turf strip and Jim used the guy's mowing tractor for a ladder. You can see him here pouring gas into his plane....







Next stop, Stevens Point. We landed there and Jim poured more gas into his plane. Then we went in and used the "rest"rooms before starting the final leg of the trip.




Wild Rose is a nice, quiet little airport with two turf runways. There were quite a few small planes there to look at, lots of folks to talk to, a good supper and a nice evening around the campfire.




Here is my instructor's son, Brian, flying in formation with us in his Dad's Mini-Max. He's a cool kid with one year of college done, his private pilot, multi-engine, commercial and instructor permits in place. I don't know why he's dragging his feet on this aviation stuff???




Here are the 'facilities' at Wild Rose. They are actual mobile military latrines that have been permanently installed there. They smell way worse than any County Park or wayside latrines and are to be avoided at all cost. I'm not kidding, either!





Here is the terminal at Wild Rose. It's kind of homey and not at all pretentious like some bigger airports, like Phillips International..




This 1930's vintage Stearman bi-plane flew in on Saturday evening. I have been seeing a few planes of this nature lately and wondered if I would ever be able to get a flight in one of them. Next morning the pilot and my friend Carl Greene were talking about giving a few rides. I chipped in for the trip for petrol....



and before I knew it, I was getting set for a trip aloft in this blue and yellow beauty!








A nice view out over the left wing. This plane was simply amazing to fly in.






These trainers all had a mirror mounted in the bottom of the upper wing so that the training guy could see the student and the other way aroung as well. I caught the pilot looking out the side instead of where we were going!!




Here is a good front view of the 7 cylinder Continental radial engine. It sounded even better than it looked!!







Now this guy just looks like he must drive around in a 1930's bi-plane, wouldn't you say???








Here I am practing my inner tube patching technique. Yes, it's from the plane again!!! But this is the last patching I anticipate, as I have installed a "rim strip" in each tire now.



Up on blocks..... not a good thing. But it's fixed and flyin' again!








The old Ford 9N tractor is getting a bit of a workout. Not to mention Carlo and Peg!! We have been trying to clear away tops and limbs left from the pulp cutting process. We managed to clear quite a lot of them....


but then Chuck showed up with the bulldozer and swept the rest of it into big piles of brush and limbs that will be burned sometime in the near future. I'll have to admit that the bulldozer approach was much easier.




This is how things looked from the mailbox area last week. I have since finished cutting all the small stuff in the area that will be cleared. Chuck has taken out and buried most of the stumps.


A few weeks ago I took Russ Mattson for a jaunt around Southern Price County. It was a nice evening, no bumps, and Russ had to get used to looking at all the usual things and places from a new perspective!! We had a good time.










The field to the north looks really different and I'll try to get a couple of comparison photos posted here soon.

I gotta go, Carlo

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I nearly forgot!! Would someone please carve the melon???