Thursday 19 July - our travels were not quite as easy as usual (kids in row behind us on plane including a queasy one; rental car line) but nothing that affected our schedule. We grab lunch and then head over to Mark & Therese's home - they are great company and in addition to talking with them it's interesting to see progress on the home and its furnishings (esp. Mark-created items), very nice. Including a couple interesting beers.
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| our hosts, hanging out on front porch |
We proceed to a restaurant a few blocks away - Groveland Tap - excellent choice - we four are joined by Steve & Cecilia and Jeremy & Margaret so this makes a very fine evening. Then we make our way up to the House house in New Brighton for further chatting before bedtime.
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| a fine crew at Groveland Tap |
Friday 20 July - back in March we much enjoyed the little breakfast joint inside Byerly's grocery store, so we repeated the experience - the four of us were joined by Angie, Liam, and Tillie, this was quite excellent. After - we drive down to St. Joe - I-35 road construction costs an hour but otherwise quite easy going. PJ goes to Algona grocery store to stock up as EMG stores have run down, plus she wanted to make lasagna and chicken/barley soup and brownies, all of which turned out pretty amazing and held us in good stead the entire visit (and some nice leftovers for EMG after we depart).
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| Friday's breakfast club |
EMG and I head up to the hill farm where we look over some things, don't ever quite get around to working on mowing or trimming, and enjoy pretty amazing weather - cool/NNW winds which prevailed our entire visit, nice. Something I notice: EMG seems more agile than last year, not sure how to account for this. We look over a small trailer he designed for pulling the Farmall C mower behind his pickup (fabricated by Capesius bros and featuring mostly scrap or items purchased on farm sales years ago) - to my untutored eye the design looks simple/elegant and apparently it works. Nice. We (actually EMG on F-20) push around a few items (a couple old planters and an old manure spreader, each worthy of extended discussion which is the best part of all this anyway) to clear a path for the mower, and he even uses the F-20 (my 89yo dad operating tractor purchased by his dad 78 years ago) to lift up an old combine for the same basic purpose. Later: Twins baseball, chatting, dinner, a really fine evening.
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| man and tractor have been an effective working team since circa 1940 |
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| planter, and proprietor, looking good |
Saturday 21 July - we get off to a marvelously slow start. At this wedding a few months ago, we ran into some Luxembourg-heritage folks with western Iowa connections; I had mentioned this to EMG in a phone conversation shortly after; he thought they linked to Alton (a parish for which he has the history book courtesy Rev. David Hogan); we confirmed all this and sent around some information to the folks involved. It was an interesting chain of connections, and rather fun. Lunch, chatting, naps for some of us.
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| me trying to soak up some knowledge |
Around 5p we visited Caroline at the farm. These are pretty amazing experiences. Yes, she's slipping. Yes, she has been an important part of my growing-up years and our (PJ, our kids, me) St. Joe experiences ever since - in both cases for as long as we remember (and of course including
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| with Caroline; ach |
Back to St. Joe; the three of us swing by the cemetery and visit the family gravesites on an utterly lovely evening, this was nice. A bit later PJ and I head over to visit Mark & Sue Bormann - their farm looks great - we much enjoyed catching up with them, nice to have a chance to visit. Back to St. Joe again for late dinner, chatting with EMG, watching a bit of baseball, etc.
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| early evening with my dad at St. Joe cemetery (Mom's gravestone was installed just a few days later); for these Iowa farmers, the rows-of-crops seem to continue into the rows-of-gravestones . . . |
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| much enjoyed catching up with these folks |
Sunday 22 July - the three of us attend 10:30am Mass in Livermore; discussions after with Eugene Mertz and Tom Berte.
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| Eugene Mertz (and EMG) are much unchanged . . . |
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| . . . by comparison this has taken a turn for the worse, even since our March visit |
Then EMG drives us around a bit, starting with the place where I grew up - significant deterioration of the house; we check out some of the equipment in the machine shed, drive around the grove a bit. Then some driving around the area - Spring Valley; Kohlhaas-Bormann lands; south from the West Bend blacktop on the half-mile road that overlooks St. Joe and always seems rather lovely.
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| Discussing many things, including the F-12 tractor (it's hidden behind the Super M; F-12 was purchased 1936, horses were still used for many tasks thereafter). |
Below: driving that half-mile road just west of St. Joe (with lovely views) while EMG explains some of the changes -
Lazy afternoon; we watch end of British Open and some baseball, rest a bit. Timing didn't work out for a Cullen visit, but at least we had the chance for a fine phone chat with Dolores. In the evening we three go to Algona to meet up with Mary Lou, Daryl & Kathy, also Sue Baker who was in town - very enjoyable to have a chance to catch up with these folks. Back to St. Joe for dinner and chatting and 10pm news etc.
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| pleasant Sunday evening get-together |
Monday 23 July - the three of us attend 8am Mass in St. Joe, Fr. Kollasch presiding and a nice crowd in attendance; the usual enjoyable conversations after in the back of church. We have an hour or so to discuss various and then EMG leaves for a doctor appointment and we head out moments later. Caught up with Steve & Liz for lunch in Mason City, they had been traveling over the weekend so we were happy they could work this in. We even got a tour of their new lakeside home - with fellow new homeowners Nick & Maeve (with Beau and Jude) swinging by (well, it's a very short distance). This was quite fun. Easy trip up to the Twin Cities; we meet Cecilia at a TGI Friday's near the airport - this ended up working out perfectly for our purposes, we have a chance for more chatting. Then an easy flight home
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| I kind of love this photo actually. Unfortunately missing SEG. |
We had a lot to think about and to be grateful for as we returned home - Caroline's situation; all of the folks who were able to make themselves available; all the continuing interesting conversations with EMG; even simple things like the chance to see rural Iowa in perfect summer weather conditions; all of it was quite lovely.
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We had put together some photos for Caroline:
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