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(2008/07/04)
Now that the children are out of school, it won’t be long — if it hasn’t happened already — before they are complaining they are bored. Just in time, SimplyFun party planners are hosting game parties for kids and their parents to try out new games together.
(2008/07/04)
The Tennis Industry Association, U.S. Tennis Association and the trade magazine Racquet Sports Industry have recognized the La Crosse Country Club in Onalaska as one of the top 50 tennis welcome centers in the United States.
(2008/07/04)
Two Onalaska homes were winners in the La Crosse Area Builders Association’s 2008 Parade of Homes.
(2008/07/04)
Two area students, Elizabeth Justice of Holmen and Mark Trautmann of the town of Onalaska, have won prizes in the Kohl’s Kids Who Care contest that recognizes youths for their volunteer efforts.
(2008/07/04)
Employees of the county’s sheltered workshop for people with disabilities at the Lakeview Health Center in West Salem are hoping they will get the chance to help out area businesses in the Coulee Region this summer — and maybe earn some spending money in the process.
(2008/07/04)
If you have walked outdoors much lately you might have seen some frothy masses of bubbles that resemble spit attached to the stems and leaves of a number of plants. In fact, the creatures that make them are called spittlebugs. Out of curiosity, I inspected a juicy wad of the foam to see what was inside.
(2008/07/04)
Popular media creates the notion of instant and romantic relationships. Even though we all know they don’t happen that quickly, most people hope for satisfying relationships in their lives.
(2008/07/04)
In the coming weeks, I will report about an eating experiment my husband, Dave, and I and four friends are trying. We have jointly purchased a half-time share in a CSA or community supported agriculture.
(2008/07/04)
Air travel is not what it used to be. In years past, airline travel was considered a luxury with thoughtful flight attendants looking after sophisticated passengers. Today, airline travel conjures images of cramped cabins, delayed flights, lost luggage and correspondingly grumpy travelers.
(2008/07/04)
Wisconsin is an outdoor lover’s paradise, with rivers, lakes, forests, prairies and beaches around every corner. The book “50 Hikes in Wisconsin” by John and Ellen Morgan is just the book you need to find the trail that is suited to your needs.
(2008/07/04)
Since its discovery, fire has had a mesmerizing effect on humankind. Fire has a powerful emotional impact and meaning for most people. Any force so wonderful yet so destructive can easily be misunderstood and therefore misused.
(2008/07/04)
Wisconsin consumers need to be prepared for a new twist on a phone scam, warned the Wisconsin Bankers Association. The current scheme involves an offer to lower interest rates rather than previous scams that warned of compromised accounts.
(2008/07/04)
Jon Sheehy and I often talked about playing tennis together sometime. He would be making a deft adjustment to my glasses while we talked about tennis and other topics. Sometimes he would ask about something I had written in my column, a question, perhaps, about how my son was doing in Colorado or something about our mutual connection to eastern Wisconsin: Both he and his wife of 30 years, Cheri, grew up in the Reedsville area and Gretchen grew up in Brillion a few miles away.
(2008/07/02)
With 116 teenagers signed up, Bethany Evangelical Free Church might have the largest teen Bible study group around. How did the church get that many teenagers motivated to study the Bible over their summer break? Take them water skiing.
(2008/07/02)
The high waters on the Mississippi and Black rivers aren’t keeping water skiers from enjoying the sport. The River City Water Ski Club has been practicing for their five summer shows scheduled during Riverfest in La Crosse this year at Riverside Park.
(2008/07/02)
I have expressed disappointment at times that Pettibone Park on the Mississippi River near La Crosse hasn’t been utilized more as a wildlife observation area as it was originally intended. I should note, however, that I have noticed lately that a few areas on the western side have indeed been left uncut and more natural plant growth has been allowed to grow.
(2008/07/02)
When I saw the comment by an Iowa scientist last week that the recent floods are man-made rather than natural disasters, I immediately thought of a thick report about flooding done in 1995 by Vierbicher Associates for the town of Onalaska.
(2008/07/02)
So by now you must be wondering what to do with the summer heat setting in and gas prices too high to consider jumping in the car for a cross-country trip. Of course, I’m a little biased, but I can’t think of any better answer than to visit a La Crosse County Library location in Bangor, Campbell, Holmen, Onalaska or West Salem for a change of pace.
(2008/07/02)
If you put your garden in early and it was not affected by the rains earlier this month, you are fortunate. Or if you are still putting in plants, now is the time to plan for preserving your harvest.
(2008/07/02)
“Bad things happen to others, not me.” Have you ever had that thought? Unfortunately, bad things have the potential to happen to everyone.
(2008/06/24)
If you wander into the front yard of Deen and Jon Layland, there is little indication what lurks behind the house.
(2008/06/24)
I don’t do reality television. It used to be because most of the early programs were catty, staged and over-the-top, but even I have to admit that reality TV’s been getting better: “Dirty Jobs,” “Mythbusters” and “30 Days” are all shows that have earned my respect.
(2008/06/24)
Recently you might have noticed a bushy, thorny plant growing along shorelines and roadsides with one- to one-and-a-half-inch, pink five-petaled blossoms. It’s most likely a wild rose, possibly the Virginia rose, and the blossoms give promise of a nutritious treat to follow. When the blossoms fade the fruits that follow, called rose hips, will be a good source of vitamin C and other nutrients.
(2008/06/24)
Pat Schildhauer and her husband, Marvin, battled blizzards last winter to protect their 500 head of Black Angus cattle from the elements. On horseback, they towed calves on sleds through the wind-driven snow to the protection of windbreaks.
(2008/06/24)
Peter Greenberg, best-selling author and “Today Show” travel editor, has traveled more than 18 million miles in his lifetime. Not only has he traveled by plane, train, and car, but also by motorcycle in Jordan, donkeys in the Grand Canyon, bicycles in China, and elephants in Botswana.
(2008/06/18)
When people are confounded by life, they often ask the big, sometimes unanswerable question: why? Many need to find the answer to give events meaning. For some, the question “why are we here” translates to what is the meaning of life.
(2008/06/18)
Ever since cameras were invented, people have been vexed over what to do with snapshots. After those favorite ones go into a frame on a wall or a desk, what about the rest of them? And what about all those Super 8 movies of old, the VHS tapes or even the digital movies of today? What to do with all those memories?
(2008/06/18)
For Sandra Bartel, it is soft pinks, lavenders and whites that decorate her garden. She likes the soft colors and the gentle waves of repeating clumps of flowers.
(2008/06/18)
If you have enough patience, it’s always fun to watch a great blue heron in action, or inaction as it turns out much of the time. They can stand in one position for an amazing length of time as they wait for prey. But once they pinpoint a potential meal, they go after it. If the prey is close, they might strike quickly, but if it is some distance away they stalk more cautiously.
(2008/06/18)
“Our first $50 fill,” Gretchen said looking at the gas pump where we had stopped in Murdo, S.D. on our trip to Colorado.
(2008/06/18)
More than 60 people from throughout La Crosse County attended the 2008 June Dairy Days recipe contest sponsored by the La Crosse County Association for Home & Community Education on Friday, May 30.
(2008/06/18)
Popular media creates the notion of instant romantic relationships. Though we all know they don’t happen that quickly, most people hope for satisfying relationships in their lives.
(2008/06/18)
Many famous people have said many memorable things about reading, libraries and books. (Of course, many NON famous people have done so too, but, when you get right down to it, no one cares much about what non-famous people say.)
(2008/06/11)
An ancient Chinese proverb says a journey of 1,000 miles starts with one step. The same goes for a journey of 26.2 miles, and for Allison Jensen, most likely the youngest marathon runner in town, that step was deciding to go out for cross country at Onalaska Middle School last year.
(2008/06/11)
Irene Radcliffe has lived through World War I, the Great Depression, World War II and every war since. Irene Radcliffe has seen a lot in her lifetime, and she’s not done yet.
(2008/06/11)
All during the week after Onalaska’s annual Sunfish Days, I heard bait dealers and anglers lament that the sunfish spawn had not actually begun yet. It seems that the chilly weather had delayed the usual start of spawning activity.
(2008/06/11)
Last weekend, Indiana Jones got his butt kicked by a girl. Well, four girls, really.
(2008/06/11)
One of the guys in a noon tennis group I play with once a week said after a recent match that his Honda hybrid gets 55 miles to a gallon of gasoline. The topic came up when I commented on the rising cost of driving a dozen miles to play tennis at UW-La Crosse.
(2008/06/11)
Summer’s almost here, the kids will be home from school, and who is going to prepare their lunch? In some cases, young children can handle food preparation, but their abilities and experience in the kitchen greatly influence kitchen safety.
(2008/06/11)
Chances are that you have a vegetable garden plotted out already. Why not add a berry patch as well? Most of us are aware by now what the health benefits of berries are.
(2008/06/03)
Summer’s almost here and the time is right for thinking about things to do with the extra leisure time that often comes with the summer season.
(2008/06/03)
For a dance school owner, there’s probably nothing more stressful than the end-of-the-year recital. There’s a hundred little details to attend to, from costumes and music to lighting and programs. For Julie Austin, though, this year there’s a bit of sadness thrown in with the stress.
(2008/06/03)
The La Crosse County Library System’s summer reading program will have an international flavor this year, with a wide variety of special programs that go along with the theme: “Go Global: Read.”
(2008/06/03)
As a kid, I avoided it and called it itchweed. When I got a little older, I learned that the proper name was stinging nettle. Botanists call it Urtica dioica. But Nicholas Gale, the Vernon County outdoor expert, calls it food.
(2008/06/03)
Former Onalaska residents Dan and Irene Hellie were among some 500 volunteers who planted pine seedlings along the Gunflint Trail earlier this month in the area affected by the Ham Lake forest fire last May. The fire raged through nearly 120 square miles in and along the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota.
(2008/06/03)
At 18 months, Carson McCormick appeared to be a happy, healthy and extremely intelligent little boy. He already knew his numbers, colors and shapes and could repeat everything his parents, Jaine and Mike, said.
(2008/06/03)
Have you looked at those gas prices lately? Whew! And they just keep going up. The good weather is luring many people to ride bicycles to work or to the store. Walking is a great way to cut back on gas consumption. Car pooling becomes more inviting for trips to work or taking the kids to their activities.
(2008/06/03)
Do you remember the childhood chant “sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me!” After all these years, we now have come to find out that we had it wrong. It seems that hurtful words can cause profound emotional harm — especially when parents do the name-calling.
(2008/05/27)
It was almost 11 years ago, when Donna Mrowka looked in the rearview and saw something kind of weird. Her 6-month-old daughter Charissa was moving her tiny fingers and feet in perfect time to the music on the radio, no matter what kind of music was playing.
(2008/05/27)
Pity the band that must go head-to-head in musical battle against Zetus Deamos. The hard rocking quartet played its first live gig at the 2005 Oktoberfest Gong Show in La Crosse and won with an original song, just a month after forming. Six months later, the band won the regional Launchpad competition, and then a year ago they triumphed in a local battle of the bands to open a concert at the La Crosse Center headlined by Buckcherry.
(2008/05/27)
Being editor of a community newspaper has a few perks. I’m never bored, for example, as there’s always something that needs to be done. Plus there’s the universal admiration and affection of the community ... what? I thought that was in the contract. Oh, never mind that last part, but I do get to write an annual column at graduation time, giving advice to the young graduates like some nutty uncle.
(2008/05/27)
A couple weeks ago when timber rattlesnake researcher Chris Hamilton found some of his subjects still hibernating in their dens, he did find one snake sunning on the rocky hillside. An adult female yellow-bellied racer (Coluber constrictor), another of Wisconsin’s protected species of reptiles, was warming up in the sun.
(2008/05/27)
First rays of the sun warmed our backs as Gretchen and I sat on folding chairs, steaming coffee mugs in hand waiting for the show to begin. We were in our meadow near Lodi facing the sunlit leafy backdrop of hickory, elm, oak, maple, basswood and box elder trees that make up the woods edge.
(2008/05/27)
People love movies and television. It is a fact of the human condition that we enjoy hearing — or watching — great stories, and movies and TV are the best and most accessible way to find them. And we can get pretty obsessed with our stories, too, especially with the Internet now allowing fans all over the world to unite and discuss, say, the newest comic book installment of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” or the best in British sitcoms, or what’s going to happen to Jorja Fox on “CSI.”
(2008/05/27)
A Memorial Day weekend tradition of folk singing and picnicking is set to fire up at Bangor Village Park once again this Sunday. As always, there will be no charge for admission, although donations for beer and pop will be accepted.
(2008/05/27)
If you haven’t seen them, you will soon — the promotions and ads identifying ways for you to spend your economic stimulus rebate. A recent poll shows six out of 10 Americans plan to save their money or use it to pay bills. Retailers are doing everything they can to get you to spend.
(2008/05/27)
ST. LOUIS — It wasn’t until the Rev. Jaroslav Vajda was nearly 50 that he began to pursue the craft that would leave his name etched in history. Or at least the hymnal.
(2008/05/27)
Summertime is on its way. For me summertime has always conjured thoughts of travel, and getting away from the normal everyday grind. But this year, I have heard many complaints of high travel costs, and how they are affecting summer travel plans.
(2008/05/19)
Hometown fans of Shane Mauss, an Onalaska High School graduate making a name for himself as a standup comic, will get a chance to see him on cable TV in his June 20 debut on Comedy Central’s “Live at Gotham.” Can’t wait until then? Well, then, catch him live on stage in La Crosse next week.
(2008/05/19)
Jessica Pehl has heard enough. Enough people have died. More than 40,000 will lose their lives each year from breast cancer. More than 200,000 will be diagnosed with the disease.
(2008/05/19)
It was a rare warm and sunny day a couple weeks ago and Luther High School physical education teacher Kari Rosenberg was unloading a trailer full of kayaks at the Black River waterfront area in Onalaska long known as Sias Isles.
(2008/05/19)
Two commemorative quilts honoring women who served their country as pilots during World War II are winging their way toward Texas from Holmen.
(2008/05/19)
During the first week of May, the scenery around here changed dramatically. The last vestiges of brown, gray and tan were quickly overwhelmed by rich greens in the fields and a pleasant flush of green in the trees. After several frustrating teasers and setbacks in April, including the late surprise snowfall, it finally seems that spring has sprung for real.
(2008/05/19)
Never before had I felt so out of it, so far behind the curve. We were billions of minutes behind by the time we finally began to catch up last weekend when we had our first Skype connection with our new granddaughter, Ella, who lives in Colorado.
(2008/05/19)
In April, I shared ways you can lower your grocery bill, and a few weeks later, I wrote about increased food and fuel costs. I recently read an article from Tufts University, “Can You Afford to Eat Right?” This article points out that individuals and families find themselves in a dilemma when they try to eat right for their health.
(2008/05/19)
In phone visits with my 81-year-old sister in South Dakota, I’m often reminded of the good times she has as a member of her Lutheran church’s quilting group.
(2008/05/19)
In any given year, one in 10 American adults will suffer with depression, and estimates suggest that 30 percent of all people suffer from depression at some point in their lives. Such prevalence suggests that you, or others you know, are suffering.
(2008/05/19)
Wrinkles, gray hair and bifocals. Past a certain age, evidence of aging is all too obvious. But so far, no single theory explains how or why aging occurs.
(2008/05/19)
If you read a lot of blogs (or Web journals), you’re likely to encounter some negative and even mean-spirited debate at times. With some of the badmouthing that finds its way onto many blogs and chatrooms, one wonders what sort of things the gatekeepers refuse.
(2008/05/14)
I delayed renewing my fishing license this year because I was having so much fun observing and photographing wildlife that I almost forgot about fishing. But last week as I was taking pictures of egrets on Goose Island something changed all that. An egret was perched in a tree very close to me when it launched from the branch and swooped towards the water. Instead of landing as I expected, it opened its beak and scooped up a nice bluegill as it flew by, something I’d never heard of before.
(2008/05/14)
There is no question Dan Novak was way ahead of all the other half-marathon runners at Saturday’s St. Clare Health Mission Half Marathon and 5K Run/Walk and it is equally clear Peter Schaettle finished dead last in the event. Yet both Onalaska men received no medal and no recognition for their efforts.
(2008/05/14)
Don’t get me wrong, I love movies all the time. I love movies in the fall, when everything that comes out is artsy and awards-oriented, and I love the big-budget movies that come out right before Christmas.
(2008/05/14)
This Saturday’s Wausau Dance Theatre production of “Alice in Wonderland” might be the most elaborate ever to grace West Salem’s Heider Theater stage.
(2008/05/14)
A wail drifted up the slope from where I could see that Gretchen was on her knees. I knew the family members were all well, so it couldn’t be that we’d lost a loved one. Then what was the reason for the keening?
(2008/05/14)
Due to a recent series of unfortunate events, I have discovered some quite pleasant side effects of pain control medication. Reading and watching movies, as I have for the past few weeks, always provide a breathtaking array of possibilities for learning new words and concepts.
(2008/05/14)
What is it when parents and their children are engaged in a very important interaction, one in which the child is learning, doing and growing, and the parent is trying to help the child learn, behave and grow in appropriate ways?
(2008/05/09)
This Saturday’s Wausau Dance Theatre production of “Alice in Wonderland” might be the most elaborate ever to grace West Salem’s Heider Theater stage.
(2008/05/07)
Quicker than Indy Jones cracks a whip, the summer movie season is here. Better than ever? Maybe. Bigger than ever? Probably. Earlier than ever? Definitely.
(2008/05/07)
The TLC Center in Holmen can feel a bit crowded even on a slow day, but at the open house Sunday to celebrate a year in business, it was bursting at the seams.
(2008/05/07)
Several La Crosse County residents were visited by a hungry black bear over the first week of April, so I checked with Ron Lichtie, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist and DeWayne Snobl, USDA wildlife specialist to see what was going on. Both confirmed that a few black bears have indeed taken up residence in the area in the last few years.
(2008/05/07)
A cool breeze rustled hand-written papers posted on a white board in the Valley View Mall parking lot next to a trailer where Gretchen was giving her opinions on improving health care.
(2008/05/07)
The first day of spring was March 20 this year. It sure didn’t seem like it when you looked outside or listened to the weatherman. In fact, this month didn’t seem much like spring until just lately.
(2008/05/07)
This past week I participated in the La Crosse County Collaboration Conference and the focus was on a sustainable La Crosse and energy conservation. More specifically, the Natural Step movement which emphasizes the long-term, sustainable manner to operate within the Earth’s natural cycles.
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