End of a busy week

There has been so much going on this week that I am struggling to post about all of it. (In February I will be trying to find things to write about.)

On Friday the Gutwein-Risner Insurance Agency had an open house. They are the new owners of what was Lyons Insurance. Lyons insured crops; the new owners had added most other kinds of insurance. The radio station was broadcasting from in front of the building.

 The event was also a retirement party.

 The building stretches all the way to the alley and in the back room was this sign. It looks old.

 They were serving hamburgers and hot dogs to visitors and had closed the alley for the mobile grilling station.

 (Do you remember the Art in the Alley events that used the interesting surfaces in this alley as a backdrop for the display of art?)

I was curious about how crop insurance worked and found that a representative from the crop insurance company was at the event. The company has an appropriate name, Rain and Hail. It is the largest crop insurer serving the whole U.S. The division offices serving Indiana is in Peoria, IL.

The insurance is based on the average yield over the past ten years. A farmer can buy insurance on various percentages of that yield. So if he averages 150 bushels per acre and buys insurance at 50%, he will get paid for the difference between his yield and 75 bushels if his yield is below 75. The higher the yield that he protects, the more the insurance will cost him. Rain and Hail was anticipating paying out a lot this year to Jasper County farmers.

On the way to the event, I noticed that the building on Front Street nest to CTS Tires had been reduced to a pile of rubble.

 It appeared that the brick walls were load bearing and not just decorative. Today (Saturday) a little backhoe was moving the rubble around and getting it into the dumpsters. The land is owned by the people who own CTS Tires.

 I was frustrated this week as I am almost every month because on Tuesday of the third week of the month there are three meetings all scheduled at the same time. This month and next month the Rensselaer School Board moves its meetings back two hours so that a representative can attend the County Council meeting, but otherwise the two groups meet at the same time. The Jasper County Historical Society also meets on the same Tuesday, though a bit earlier. This month Mayor Wood was the featured speaker. I attended the start of the meeting but left before he began speaking to attend the "Best Meeting Ever."

This weekend also had two homecoming football games. The high school game on Friday was called because of the heavy rain and resumed today. The SJC game was scheduled for this afternoon. So we had two homecoming games, high school and college, going on at the same time. I suspect that there were some people who wanted to attend both. (RCHS won its homecoming game with a lopsided score.)

I briefly stopped by the SJC game when the game was in the fourth quarter. SJC held a small lead, but shortly after I arrived, they scored a touchdown.  A group of fans celebrated by lifting one of their buddies 19 or 20 times, whatever the SJC score was after the touchdown.

Last weekend I was passing by the Marathon station by the railroad tracks and noticed an unusual vehicle by the gas pump. I knew one of the people in the carriage, so maybe I will find out what it was doing there.

The Pulaski County Community Development Commission has had a couple of interesting posts on its Facebook page. Meadow Springs, which apparently will be a bread and breakfast, had a ground breaking south of Francesville. And there is a place near Winamac called Rugged Adventures that has built a large tower. It looks interesting but I think I am too old to enjoy whatever they are doing there. (Here is a newspaper article about it.)