Growing up on a Family Farm...

Nora recently completed her reflections on growing up on a farm near East Troy, WI.  The complete document, including pictures and accounts written by her aunt and uncle about the preceeding era are available by clicking on the link below. It's a large document so may take awhile to download.

Growing up on a Family Farm in the 1940's and 50's: A personal Perspective
By Nora Stute Fuller
Copyright June 2010

Winter Greetings 2010

For an account of our past year click on the
Winter Greetings 2010

Day One and Day two AM

We left Eau Claire at 7:30 am.  First stop was the Rochester Gold Rush where Nora managed to find a couple of much needed items during her 60 minutes of exploring.  Bob found two geocaches.  Then we headed to Omaha via I90 to I35.  At Hwy 105 Bob got his first of two geocaches in Iowa.  The wind picked up and buffeted us all the way to Omaha.  We had a very nice visit with Bill and Mary Beth (Bob's cousin).  They took us on a driving tour of Omaha.  Lots of downtown renewal and a special walking bridge from Omaha across the river to Iowa.   We also toured Boy's Town but it got dark and we got lost on all the twisting roads.  Bill managed to weave around and finally we ended up on a street he recognized.  After breakfast they headed to Lincoln to their grandson's college graduation and we headed west on I80.  Bob picked up two quick geocaches at an exit we stopped at to ID the caches along I80 - a lucky stop.  While logging on a back road, two park rangers stopped and asked if we needed help.  We told them we were geocaching but we couldn't show them the cache.  They were curious as it was a dead end road and they don't see many people there, especially with Wisconsin license plates.   Five miles down the road we had to stop for Nora to get her day's fix of antiquing and a huge, very nice antique mall.  They have free wi-fi, so here I am posting while she checks out. Gotta go it's 10 am and we don't know what's next...

New Adventure Begins

Tomorrow morning we'll begin a 3-4 week driving adventure through the southwest and a series of National Parks as we head to San Jose, CA for a May 22 wedding.  We hope to post regularly and share some photos of our activities.  Our first stop will be Rochester, MN for the Spring Rochester Antique Show.  Nora needs a quick fix and Bob will find a couple of geocaches. First stop - Omaha and a visit with a Conlon cousin.

Stay tuned...

Prairie Home Companion

On Saturday, September 26 Nora and I and our friends Bob & Norma attended the season opening of the Prairie Home Companion at the Fitzgerald Theatre in St Paul. Marc and Amy and her father Tom also attended. This was Garrison Keillor's first show since suffering a mild stroke on Labor Day. He was in rare form with performances that moved quickly and entertained constantly. The theatre was packed by an appreciative crowd. It was fun to see what really happens during the live radio program. We sat in the second balcony nose bleed section. We had greet seats only one row back from the front. Following the show was the annual street dance and meat loaf dinner.

Gate Makers

Today I returned from a fun and rewarding weekend working with Brian building an Erin designed gate for their fenced yard. ...and Roger came along and joined in the fun as well. Now Willem and the Hayden have a more secure play area.

Brian surveys the project.

Brian and Roger prepare to attach the hinges.

Brian assembles one side of the door "sandwich".


The finished door and fence.



Brian, Erin and Willem check out the finished project from their front sidewalk.

Recent Geocaching

Geocaching has proven to be a fun experience and I've been doing quite a bit lately. In late August brother Charlie and I were joined by Roger and Bob for an afternoon at Phillips Park outside of Eau Claire. Labor Day weekend Nora was quite patient with me as I cached our way from Eau Claire to Appleton, stopping numerous times to hunt for caches. Then Grace, Charlie, their granddaughters and I cached around Kaukauna. Later, Bob, Charlie and I were joined by Rich for some interesting caches in Door County. Roger and I cached our way to Spring Green and back this past weekend.

Caching at Phillips park near Eau Claire

Cachers in Kaukauna. Charlie and Grace cache under the name IMFULR2 while the three granddaughters are IMFULR3. I'm IMFULR! Coletta had found a geocache in the woods behind her home while attending a workshop this summer. She knew what it was from our June caching session. she left it alone without looking inside. We found it together during our recent session. We're all pretty proud of her for not disturbing it and not telling her friends where it was located.

Caching at the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal.

Roger found a beautiful Army Geocoin that he will move to another location. Seemed appropriate as he found it on 9/11. The cache is called On the Summit and is on Hwy 58 south of Mauston.

These are some iron crosses at a cemetery near Plain, WI. The cache is called WSQ Saint Lukes Iron Crosses.