Baby don’t you wanna go!
Every other early October, the Head Groundskeeper and the Lovely Lisa take a break from our increasingly ugly politics to put the top down, turn talk radio off, and put the FIAT 500C’s drive into Sport Mode for a low-speed road trip through Sauk County’s rustic splendor.
Our neighbor to the northwest is always worth a visit in any season but fall colors are beginning to dapple the knobby hillside forests. Each dip and turn of the well maintained county roads reveals a new vista: a pioneer church here, a derelict one-room country schoolhouse there, a lazy stream or placid millpond — handsome farmsteads everywhere.
I'm gonna leave this city, got to get away
I'm gonna leave this city, got to get away
All this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure can't stay.
— Canned Heat
Stopped on Irish Valley Road west of Leland (just three days after invaded by motorcycles for the Slimey Crud) to gaze at longhorn cattle lazing in the tall grass. Sauk County has its share of large confinement dairy operations but the steep hillsides here lend themselves to outdoor pastures. Nothing as soothing as cows in clover. This time of year, farmers were busy in the fields harvesting what looks to be a bumper crop of golden field corn, air-dried by nature. The straw residue from recently harvested soybeans painted tawny geometric patterns offset by brilliant green strips of alfalfa hugging the contours.
Add to that eclectic artwork in the biennial Farm d’Art Tour sponsored by the delightfully named Wormfarm Institute out of Reedsburg WI — up through Monday 10-14-24. From Madison WI, just head up Hwy 12 to Sauk City, turn right through town to next-door Prairie du Sac and take County PF west. The excellent signage will guide you through the 50-mile loop. But here’s the on-line map.
Somehow, after taking the Farm d’Art Tour we feel we are better people (as if that were possible).
Our favorite this year was called “Preserve” (on the map it’s #21 on Mill Road). Created by Cathy McCauley, Pamela Self, and Shari Gullo of Arlington Heights and Lake Zurich IL. Resembles a small farm building but composed entirely of rows of identical home preserves jars, walled in by chicken wire. Each jar contains a translucent image of a bird, insect, or plant. This is immersive art. Folks lingered to soak it in, engaging at a distance and up close, going inside and peering from the rear to enjoy the jars illuminated by the sun to the west.
Began the tour with a wonderful meal overlooking the Wisconsin River at Sauk City’s Vintage restaurant and brewery.
→ Another blast of solar wind expected to bounce off planet Earth tonight and Friday 10-11-24 to create the aurora borealis. (Without the earth’s gravitational field, this stuff would kill us all. We’d be as barren as Mars. So kwitcherbitchin.) We’re wearing a helmet just to be on the safe side.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Going to engage our non-hallucinogenic Timothy Leary: Get out of the city! Get back to the land, at least for an afternoon! Look up at the sky tonight! Pour yourself a Wisconsin craft brew and dream yourself to sleep!
7 responses to “Going up the country”
Sauk County is (IMO) one of the purdiest (sic) damn counties in this nape of the neck.
Next time you’re out that way, take ‘er a step further and stop by Carr Valley Cheese Factory, west of Reedsburg & just north of Lime Ridge on C.T.H. G.
The Gotch’s pal, World Champion Cheese Maker Sid Cook, will hook you up with the squeakiest curds and tastiest salt-crystal crunchy Seven Year Cheddar you could ever hope for.
Not to leave the lovely Lisa out of the loop, but that quadrant of Sauk County (Franklin, Bear Creek, Westfield, Washington, Ironton, & Reedsburg TWSPs) was shaped by the hands of God Himself, with Harley Davidson Softail Slim riders in mind.
The Gotch
ERRATUM: Carr Valley Cheese Factory
Medicare card at the ready, I took a 20-mile bicycle jaunt with some college friends this summer in Door County. It was splendid.
Planning to leave tomorrow to visit family up in Merrill (Lincoln County). I expect to see lots of colorful foliage and plenty of Trump/Vance signs along the highway, once the Dane County line has been crossed.
Plenty of both in Sauk County.
I finally see the attraction people have with Dumbld trump. No one will have to pay taxes. No tax on tips, overtime, when buying a car, when buying a plane, booze, cigs, hookers, lottery winnings, gold toilets. No more red states sucking more money out than they put in. YIPPIE SKIPPY Hurry and put that on paper.
41.6 % of bLack Americans receive government assistance in an average month (and) 36.4 percent of Hispanics […] contrasted with 13.2 % of whites.
Must be an AWFUL lot of bLacks and Hispanics, and not too many EVIL Whiteys, in Red States, am I right?
Anywho, sigh; many STOOPID (sic) theories, proposed by idiots, are slain by ugly FACTS
The Gotch