MINERAL POINT

HIDDEN ART GEM UNCOVERED!!! Travels with Tom & Betsy

On our way to Chicago for the Frankfort Fall Fest, we uncovered a hidden gem this year...Mineral Point, WI. It was an old mining town that had been pretty near shuttered in the 1950's and 60's. The a few artists discovered it and began to build studios. Shops followed. Now it's an amazing array of galleries and artist studios.

Down towrds the bottom of the main street hill we were attracted by something on the 'balcony' of one shop. (You're going to have to click on this to figure it out).

It's the home of Howdle Gallery and Bruce Howdle. Bruce is most famous for his large ceramic wall sculptures (here he is working on one), but one of his fascinations is pigs.

He has done wonderful sculptures, mugs, wall pieces, you name it, with pig themes. Ask him how he came to have this old building and out comes the picture album. He's done much of the work himself over more than 20 years. The character of the building is wonderful. We'd strongly recommend Clyde and Carolyn stop in....you too!

Mineral Pt. is about 1-1/2 hours SW of Madison...a bit out of the way, but well worth the trip. Look at their website for special celebrations during the year. For Chicagoans it's an easy day trip. If you're headed north or south along I-94, plan a few extra hours.

Swallows, Hummers and the Marking of the Seasons

This summer was unusual here, as it was in many places. Birds came back early, the ice was out late. The early birds had no food because of the cold spring, and then the summer was dead dry. We always get some barn swallows in the shed and this year they hatched in July. There were 4 little ones in the nest. By the time they're ready to fledge, they are pretty much crowded out.

Then late the next day, the second pair came out. They all sat in the shed for a day getting waited on by the adults. Normally they'd be here for the rest of the summer. This year because of the dry, they were gone almost immediately so we missed their aerobatic hi-jinks all summer.

We had more hummers this year than ever and , with feeders, they stuck around. By september we'd put up 4 feeders and at times had up to 12 birds by teh front porch scrapping over who got next turn. Activity mountied, and then one day, Sept 20th, all but 2 or 3 were gone.
Living out here, we really do mark the seasons by the weather, the birds and animals and the planting and harvest. Most of the beans have been taken, with yields about 1/3 to 1/2 lower than normal because of the dry summer. Corn should be started any day now, although a lot was harvested for silage because the ears were so small and many stalks have only one ear.
Now the geese start coming over in their big 'V's" practicing for the migration (and avoiding getting shot at). Outside the downstairs bedroom window they often come off the lake at an elevation below where you're standing. It's quite a site.

The Final Show

I've gotten a little behind here with fall production and development of a new line of pots for you.

The last shows were Frankfort (IL) over Labor Day weekend and our local Hutchinson show 2 weeks later.
Frankfort is a blast. It's the first show we ever did back in 1992. Amazingly, we still have some customers who saw us at that first show come by. Since both Betsy and I worked right near by old neighbors stop by, too (well they're not any older than we are).

And last year we came across a photo taken the next summer. This is what we looked like back then. A lot of pots, a lot of good friends and customers. We really do appreciate your support over the years.

Seems like we spent half the summer in rain....setting up or tearing down. At Edina we had the big hailstorm, Highland half a day rain, Evanston set up, Duluth set up, and finally Hutchinson. The first day was perfect, then came the second day....

Packing up wet is no fun. But all in all it was a great year. Thank you!