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This cow was in a Quonset on the southeast edge of Rolfe on the way to the cemetery. I took the photo from the road, so it is cropped and I wish it was more crisp. But still a very fun sight!
Clicking on the photo will enlarge it.
(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)
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Mother (Marion Gunderson) made this sun god part of the Okoboji cottage she purchased in 1975. She passed away in 2004, leaving Gunderlakke behind as a gift to her family. Thank you, Mother.
(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)
I’ve received inquiries about the status of the Celebration Barn.
The Celebration Barn of Cumming, Iowa, is where daughter Katie and her husband Joe had their wedding reception in 2008. As the name implies, the Celebration Barn was an actual country-setting barn with a luxuriously rustic interior.
Because I was asked again today about the venue, I called the woman who was one of the owners at the time of Katie’s and Joe’s 2008 reception. The woman said that because of the downturn in the economy, she and her husband were “unable to go forward” with the barn. They honored all of their 2009 bookings, even though they had so many cancellations occur in December 2008 and January 2009. (Over 50% of their 2009 reservations were cancelled in those two months.) She and her husband didn’t want any of the brides and others involved with bookings to be unhappy, so they honored all of the 2009 reservations by keeping the barn open through 2009.
At the end of 2009, after the then owners had operated the Celebration Barn for 2 1/2 years (after someone else had previously operated it for ~6 years) the Celebration Barn was no longer available for bookings. With much sadness for the owners (because they truly enjoyed providing a beautiful setting for joyous occasions), the venue was eventually sold. At present, the Celebration Barn is not operational as a public venue.
(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)
Click on photo to enlarge.
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DATE: April 16, 2011
EVENT: Celebration of Rolfe’s road to the 1971 Iowa girls’ state basketball tournament
ACTION: 5 of the 8 returning teammates and local women scrimmaging in the former Rolfe gym, now known as the RAM Event Center
IN THE PHOTO: Foreground L to R — Julie Brinkman Mintz, Lori Pedersen, Joanne Brinkman, Laurie Brinkman Jensen; Background L to R — Tammy Shimon Pederson, Carol Hohensee, Wendy Bennett Panbecker, Sue Feldman Reigelsberger
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Julie and Laurie played on Rolfe’s 1971 Iowa girls’ state tournament team. Lori and Joanne attended high school elsewhere. Tammy and Wendy played for Rolfe in the ’80s. Carol is from Pocahontas. Sue played for Terril, Iowa, including at the Iowa girls’ state tournament.
BTW, a couple of people thought it looked like Julie had a tattoo on her arm. Nope. Just a shadow.
Click here to go to more information about Rolfe girls’ basketball.
Click here to go to information about prints of Marion Gunderson’s watercolors. (All profits go to the Rolfe Public Library. These profits combined with private donations will fund the digitization of 101 years of Rolfe newspapers.)
Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.
The Year: 1967
The Moment: The first time I set eyes on Bill Shimon
The Location: DMT gym
At the end of this post: The Rolfe RAM 1967 yearbook
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In an earlier post I wrote about Rolfe girls’basketball and DMT. I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention that it was at DMT where, as an 11-year-old in 1967, I first set eyes on Bill. We were married in 1975.
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Bill in 8th grade (Fall 1966)
Me in 6th grade (Fall 1966)
It was awards assembly time at the end of the 1966-67 school year…Bill’s 8th-grade year, my sixth-grade year. The DMT gym had three rows of bleachers (along just one side of the gym?). The junior high student body, actually grades 6 through 8, was sitting on those bleachers.
Our beloved principal, Lyle Foster, was standing in the middle of the gym floor announcing the names of award recipients. It came time for him to announce what I recall as the “good guy” award (because I can’t remember the exact name Mr. Foster gave to it). Lyle described the award and then announced that the recipient of this award “is Bill Shimon.”
I remember Bill’s butch haircut and husky frame as he stepped onto the gym floor to receive the award. To this day, each and every day I think of Bill as still deserving a “good guy” award. Sigh.
Click once on any of the following to enlarge. Twice for even more magnification.** A heads-up for anyone unaware is that in the yearbook some of the names are misspelled.
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*”DMT” was the rural Des Moines Township school building ~5 miles northeast of Rolfe, Iowa.
**I have these files saved in larger sizes. If you have a need for any of them, please feel free to let me know. mariongundersonart@gmail.com
(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)
The photos below are of Dave Harland and/or his crew. Dave is the owner of Harland Concrete & Construction* out of Perry, Iowa. Bill and I found that Dave and his crew are exceptionally reliable in all aspects of the job: workmanship, efficiency and timeliness (even with the wet, cold spring), safety, communication and confidentiality.
In the first photo, Dave is at the left. The third and fourth photos also include Dave. In the fifth and sixth photos, Dave is in the middle.
To enlarge the photos, click on them once. Click twice for even more magnification. Camera setting/lens info is at the bottom of this post.**
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POURING FOOTINGS
April 21, 2011
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FINISHING the PAD
May 17, 2011
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Hamilton Redi-Mix of Jefferson and Boone supplied the concrete.
*At the “Gallery” link at the Harland Concrete & Construction web site, you’ll see photos related to not only concrete work and construction but also their snow removal and metal fabrication.
**The first two photos were taken with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens. While I wish these two photos were more crisp, I’ll take them! The last six photos were taken with a Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM lens. For one or two of the photos I slightly adjusted the levels in Photoshop.
Photo #1: Focal Length 50mm; Shutter Speed 1/1600; Aperture f/3.2; ISO 400.
Photo #2: Focal Length 50mm; Shutter Speed 1/500; Aperture f/3.5; ISO 400
Photo #3: Focal Length 135mm; Shutter Speed 1/1250; Aperture f/6.3; ISO 200
Photo #4: Focal Length 135mm; Shutter Speed 1/1000; Aperture f/5.6; ISO 200
Photo #5: Focal Length 135mm; Shutter Speed 1/1250; Aperture f/6.3; ISO 200
Photo #6: Focal Length 135mm; Shutter Speed 1/1250; Aperture f/7.1; ISO 200
Photo #7: Focal Length 135mm; Shutter Speed 1/1000; Aperture f/5.6; ISO 200
Photo #8: Focal Length 135mm; Shutter Speed 1/1000; Aperture f/5.6; ISO 200
(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)
review recommendation
A corn plant in the VE (emergence) stage. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
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The central-Iowa cornfield in these photos was planted on April 30th or May 1st, later than normal due to this spring’s wet, cold weather. The photos were taken Sunday, May 15th.
In the photo above, Jackson is pointing to a corn plant in the VE (emergence) stage. The first leaf collar is not yet visible; it is below the soil surface.
In the middle photo, the two little green spikes toward the top of the photo (you can see them by clicking on the photo) are also in the VE stage. Closer to the bottom of the same photo, the plants are in a more advanced stage. (The early stages are determined by the number of visible leaf collars.)
An explanation of corn growth stages, including leaf collars, is here. Photos, with explanatory captions, of corn plants at varying stages are here.
Corn plants in varying growth stages. (Click twice on photo to enlarge.)
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Jackson, Grandpa Bill and the neighbor's cornfield two weeks after it was planted. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
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The article excerpt below offers an explanation of early corn plant growth. The article makes reference to growing degree units/heat energy.
An explanation of GDUs is at this site. Included is a comparison of the average daily accumulation of GDUs in Spencer, Decorah, Boone, Atlantic, and Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, from 1996-2010 at key times during the growing season.
Click on this excerpt to magnify the text and photo. Note that the photo title includes the word "Pre-emergence." (I.e., this entire seedling was covered by soil until it was removed from the soil for the purpose of this photo.) Posted, with permission, from Field Connection, a newsletter of the Farnhamville, Iowa, Farmers Cooperative Co.
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(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)
Bill and our curious grandson Jackson during Jackson's trip to Iowa. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
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Another make-me-a-kid-again time with Jackson has come to a close. With family times involving different combinations of family members and a combination of being in Iowa and Texas, I got to be with Jackson from May 6th until today.
On the way to the airport Jackson asked me why I paint my hair brown. (Sometime within the past few days the topic of painting hair was discussed.) I told him I “paint” it because I’m not ready to have gray hairs. He told me that little kids have brown hair so they don’t need to paint their hair. Then he informed me that in order for me to have brown hair without painting it, “Nanna, you need to go back in birthdays.”
Hmmm. That made me wonder. If I could “go back in birthdays” to any time in my life and stay there temporarily, what age would I choose? Glimpses of younger stages of my life flitted through my brain. While I don’t like wrinkles, nor the fact that my joints will never creak any less, I just couldn’t think of any stage I’d prefer over how my life is now. How thankful I am.
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I’ll soon get back to posting more frequently, including a sprinkling of Rolfe-related posts. I’ll also post more within the next month about Mother’s (Marion Gunderson) watercolors.
(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)
The HoodLoupe 3.0 is sandwiched between my camera’s LCD panel and my eyeglasses. While I take photographs, the HoodLoupe hangs lightly on a lanyard around my neck; it is out of the way yet readily accessible. The purpose of the HoodLoup is explained below. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
I’m a little late for Mother’s Day and quite early for Father’s Day. Whatever the occasion, I think the HoodLoupe is a great gift idea for treating yourself or someone else.
This photo was taken on a snowy winter day. However, the HoodLoupe I’m using in the photo is intended for bright situations in all seasons.
The purpose of the HoodLoupe is to, no matter how bright the setting, allow for glare-free viewing of the LCD panel on a digital camera. No more bending over at the waist tucking the camera — with my eyes glued to it and my hand over it — to my chest in an effort to shade the LCD panel.
For about $75, Santa purchased for me the HoodLoupe at B&H Photo. It fits easily in my camera bag and seems weightless when I wear it, on the included lanyard, around my neck.
I’m extremely nearsighted. I like that the HoodLoupe has a +/-3 diopter to adjust for my vision.
The first 70 seconds of the video below illustrate how the HoodLoupe 3.0 from Hoodman is used.
Update 4-14-13: The original video I posted here is no longer available. Today I added a different explanatory video (below) that I think is even better.
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The front and back of the packaging are below.
Front of HoodLoupe packaging. Click on image to enlarge.
Back of HoodLoupe packaging. Click on image to enlarge.
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(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)
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Yesterday I was blessed to be with Abby, Jackson, Bill, Katie and Joe. We celebrated Jackson’s birthday with several of his little friends and their parents. I highly recommend the octopus float!
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(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)
Marion Gunderson Art (and the Farmer's Daughter) 