Early Morning Light

 

 

 

 

i thank you god for most this amazing

day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

                                e e cummings, American poet

'Let Us Be Grateful for a Land So Fair'

 

 

You don't have to have a calendar to know today is the Fourth of July!  

My  neighbors started shooting fireworks at 4:30 a.m., loud window-rattling ones. 

 

The roadsides are bursting with wildflowers.

Red, white, and blue . . .

 

 

The house is filled with bouquets from the country roads.

 

 

  The corn is "knee high by the Fourth of July."  Farmers are pleased.

 

 

Picnics, parades, fireworks,  it's hot, it's exhausting, it's loud, it's fun! 
 I'm going to have a nap so I can stay awake for the fireworks.

I hope you enjoy this unusual rendition of "God Bless America". 

 

Meow

"Yes those are my back legs in front.  Whatchoo lookin' at?"

Valkommen Hem to Minnesota

   After a series of poor harvests in the 1850s, Swedes began to join the wave of immigrants coming to Minnesota.  Cheap travel was available on ships carrying iron ore to New York -- only $12 for a trip that took about 7 weeks. Seventy-five percent were unemployed farmers and some found homes in a fertile area of Minnesota, naming their town Vasa after the Swedish royal family.

   The town is mostly gone, but an old schoolhouse and one residence have been made into a small museum where you can imagine what life was like for these brave families.

    All items in the museum are from homes in Vasa.  They are explained with sweet handwritten tags, many in old and shaky handwriting.

Wood stoves for cooking and heating

 

 How many buckets would you have to heat on the stove to fill the tub for the family's Saturday night bath?

 

Tall, steep stairs

 

to the family bedroom.

 

Hmmm . . . I think these would have been hidden away under the bed.

Tak sa mycket for reading my blog! 

 

Prairie Storms

The skies are wide on the prairie.  As a storm rolls and roils in, you can see it coming for miles.

 

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to DANCE in the RAIN."

 

Celebrating Summer, Small Town Style

  Summer is so precious Up North because it's so short and we wait for it for so long.  So, we take every opportunity we can to celebrate outdoors. Every little town, it seems, can find something that sets them apart from the others, get together a committee, and put on a festival.
   Ellsworth, Wisconsin, has a cheese factory that has become well known for its delicious cheese curds and their festival is called -- you guessed it! -- the Cheese Curd Festival.

Here are the ladies getting those curds ready for sale.  Fresh from the vat, still warm, and soooo squeeky when you bite them.  You have to make someone else hold the bag for awhile in order to stop eating them.

So, how do you turn everyday cheese into a celebration?

 

You need booths of people selling those things they have been making all winter.  Best if you can market to the local sports fans!

 

Something fun for the kids to do

Artists . . .

 

. . . making yard art

 

Fried food with lots of calories and cholesterol 

 

Local music, and of course, dessert -- a maple ice cream cone from the Wisconsin maple syrup people, who bring you everything maple including maple milk shakes and maple root beer floats!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Swedish Vasa

   Vasa, Minnesota, was one of the first Swedish settlements in Minnesota.  A group of them came from Indiana in 1855, searching for a better climate as they believed Indiana was too warm and people needed a more sensible six months of winter to be healthy.  They certainly found that here!

   Led by Lutheran minister Eric Norelius's group to an area reminiscent of their lives in Sweden, most Swedish immigrants to America would soon choose Minnesota as their new home. 
 

Today, like so many small towns in America, the highway bypasses Vasa and it isn't even a town anymore.  There are no photos of its earliest days, but this is one artist's view.

 The church still rides the tallest hill, and near it are the  school and grave digger/church janitor's old home, both a museum today.

 

 

The early settlers traveled by oxcart, and amazingly, this one has been preserved and is on display in the museum.

 

Most walked much of the distance  to Minnesota in their homemade shoes to save the strength of the oxen.  They were sturdy people -- look at the size of these shoes!  Behind is a photo of the man who made and wore these.

 

I was intrigued that such a small settlement of a couple hundred could muster a community band with uniforms, concerts, and a little bandstand between church and school. 

 

 

Of the old town itself, nothing remains today except the old Vasa creamery and a handful of the beautiful old houses.

Thank you for visiting my blog today.  I love to your comments and I will visit you in return.