My World Tuesday - Ft. Atkinson, Iowa

*

*

One day last autumn---it was October 30, to be exact---my husband asked me to drive to the town of Fort Atkinson, Iowa, to buy two rolls of netwrap for making cornstalk bales. I dropped what I was doing, grabbed the camera, and headed down the road.......for about forty miles.

I was so excited, its a wonder I even remembered to pick up the netwrap here at this farm implement store:

My excitement was due to the fact that I would able to visit the historic fort which overlooks the town of Fort Atkinson. And, the weather was just perfect for traipsing around and taking pictures.



Click this next photo to read historical information about Fort Atkinson. The fort was built to protect a Native American tribe---The Winnebago---from other tribes.


You can click on the photos to enlarge and read the explanatory signs:

The interior of the powder magazine:

Cannon House - 1842:

Cannon House:

Interior of the cannon house:

The drop-off behind the next sign is where the limestone was quarried for the construction of the fort buildings:

The two-story north barracks building houses the fort museum. It is open on Saturday and Sunday afternoons from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Several years ago, I toured the museum with a school group. One tidbit of interest I recall is that Jefferson Davis was once stationed here at Fort Atkinson.

*

OK.....that's it. I hope you enjoyed this tour of Fort Atkinson from my world here in northeast Iowa, U.S.A.

*

Visit the official My World Tuesday website to find links to many other places of beauty and interest.

*

MyWorld - Corn Harvest

Welcome to MY WORLD Tuesday, Issue V!! Visit the official MY WORLD site to find links to other participants from all around the world!

First an Iowa dairy farm reality check photo.......including: MUD; a roof needing repairs; a random chicken (can you find it); MUD; a bovine escapee from the cowyard; and, did I mention MUD?!

In reality, the MyWorld scenes I want to show you today are there way in the background of the above photo.

*

The combine at work, harvesting in the neighbor's cornfield today---1/2 mile away--- caught my eye in the morning light. ZO-O-OM went my little Canon's lens!

You'll probably need to click the photo below to enlarge it to see the combine way on the left. Then follow the horizon line over to the right and notice the semi-truck waiting to be loaded with shelled corn from the combine's hopper. Near the center of the photo, another semi is partially visible. (Also.......further in the distance, between the near horizon and the far horizon is the Crane Creek valley neighborhood where the F5 tornado went through last May.......some of the stripped trees are visible.)


Semi-trucks sitting in farm fields have become a common autumn sight in Iowa in recent years. Who'd a thunk it?! I could have never envisioned such a thing years ago.......in the olden days, when we drove tractors pulling gravity box wagons into the fields to retrieve the grain from the combine or cornpicker. Back then, a semi out in a farm field would have meant its driver must have gotten drunk and taken a really wrong turn!! This neighbor of ours owns two semi-trucks for hauling grain from his fields.......to storage bins on his farm, or at the local cooperative, or to a local ethanol plant. I would guess he farms several hundred acres of owned and rented land.

Next is a side view of the John Deere combine. I just love dust flying in photos!!

Actually, this combine is not an overly big one........it harvests six rows of corn at a time. Other farmers around here have twelve-row or larger harvesting machines. Do Husband and I own a combine? Not anymore. We hire another neighbor to do our combining. A $100,000 combine is out of our price range, thank you very much.......and, isn't needed for the relatively few acres that need combined on our farm every fall. Much of our farm's land is planted in forage crops each year, anyhow---hay, oats, rye (the green field in the foreground in the above photos)---which are chopped or baled for the cows to eat.


*
Thanks so much for stopping by MY WORLD!
*

MyWorld - Wapsipinicon River

Hey, kids......guess what.......its time for MyWorldTuesday, where bloggers showcase sights from their own local worlds! This weekly event is brought to you by the talented SkyWatch team of Tom, Sandy, IMAC, Klaus, Ivar, Wren, and Fishing Guy.

*

About five miles from our northeast Iowa farm flows the Wapsipinicon River.......known by locals as simply "The Wapsi" (whop-see). The Wikipedia link in the previous sentence shows a map of the Wapsi's course and offers the following information about the origin of the river's unusual name:

"The name of the river in the Ojibwe language is Waabizipinikaan-ziibi ("river abundant in swan-potatoes"), on account of the large quantity of arrowheads or wild artichokes, known as "swan-potatoes" (waabizipiniin, singular waabizipin), once found near its banks." That meshes quite well with another source I once found which said that Wapsipinicon means "white potato water". When I was a kid, the story was going around that the name came from the romantic legend of two star-crossed lovers from warring native tribes who lost their lives in the river. I did once write that into a story for an English assignment back in high school.

*

At any rate........let's take a look at the Wapsi. These photos were taken two days ago, Sunday afternoon, around 2 p.m.

This bridge over the Wapsi is on a lonely gravel road northeast of Dunkerton, Iowa.



The next scene is looking south from the bridge........the sun cooperated for a few minutes, peeking bashfully through the gray clouds. If you would climb up the riverbank on the left (east), you would reach some farmfields where people have found many Native American arrowheads and other artifacts over the years. I had a friend back in grade school whose father had a display case full of arrowheads he had found in this area.

The next photo looks north from the bridge, towards a railroad bridge in the distance. Looks like someone's had some fun with an ATV on the sandbar! In the foreground are autumn leaves floating on the water.

Here's looking at you, X!

Leaves on the water.........as I typed that phrase the song Smoke on the Water came to mind. Yes, my mind wanders too easily!

More of the bridge structure:

Well, we can't stay here all afternoon.......so, around the bend in the road we'll go. Good-bye, Wapsi River!!

*

Here's another interesting tidbit from the Wapsipinicon Wikipedia page:

"It (the river) defines the western boundary of the Driftless Area. While the Wapsi has a soft, recent catchment, the Driftless, to the east and north, tumbles down to the Mississippi in rugged canyons."

*

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to travel to other MyWorldTuesday sites!! Its a great, inexpensive way to see the world!

*

*