Another post on murals

On Tuesday afternoon Shawn Bullen was finishing his mural on the wall of Janet's Kitchen. The last element is a bee on a flower.

 Below is the mural as it appeared on Monday. I heard that the artist had been working at night. New in this one are the car and the duck.

Below is the finished result as of Wednesday morning. It is impossible to take a good picture of the entire mural with the equipment I have because the alley is so narrow at this point and the mural is so long.

The alley continues to attract tourists, some of them very young.

 On of the murals by Cameron Moberg is inside the Station at eMbers. It was done a couple years ago and will probably never be listed on the mural walk, but you have not seen all the murals unless you see it. You can contemplate it as you enjoy a pizza baked in the wood-fired oven.

 I do not know the story behind the painted shoes that are hanging over the alley.

There are seven of these little icons along the alley between Front Street and Van Rensselaer Street. Can you find them all?

 I found eight, but I do not think this one painted on wood in the discard pile is supposed to count. The others are all on buildings.

 On Monday evening dark clouds approached from the northwest and we got some rain. The light was very strange and I could not resist a picture. The picture would have been better if taken over farm fields.

This is the 22nd post for July. I have not had that many posts in a month since September of 2015. I blame the murals. (Five of the months in 2019 had less than ten posts.)

Blogger keeps a variety of statistics for this blog. One set that is kind of interesting is what operating system people are using to view these posts. Below are the data for July with a day left in the month.


Android and iPhone are both operating systems for phones, so about 1/2 of visits are done on mobile devices. With a mobile device the viewer sees the posts but does not see the right sidebar that has a variety of information visible to someone accessing the site on a computer. One of the things you can see in the sidebar is how many posts were made in each month (and also a calendar and a lot of links.)

The start of school is fast approaching. (See sidebar for the date.)

County Fair finished, muralists continue

There were some changes in the alley murals over the weekend. There is a new mural on the back of eMbers Station. The artist signs his name @JohnnyTrasho. His Instagram account is private but I found a video on Facebook of him signing this work. He is from Rensselaer.

 I like how the pipe in the wall is incorporated into the picture.

I could not read the final letters of the other signature because the last letters were written on a drain pipe. It is @artistrya??.

Update: The signature is @artistryanp, another local artist. He did the elephant and the flowers, @JohnnyTrasho did the lettering. See the Instagram post here.

The mural on Janet's Kitchen had additions as of Sunday morning. Everything to the right of the ice cream cone is new.

 The Rensselaer Art Walk now has a website, www.renartwlk.org. It contains information on the various artists, though not yet @JohnnyTrasho, and a map of where the various murals are. (As I write this, it is missing the Moberg "Rensselaer" on the side of the Rensselaer Republican.) Check it out.

The Fair ended on Saturday. I went out in the evening mostly to see how the biplane rides had gone. The pilots said Friday was rather slow, but they had a steady stream of customers on Saturday. When I arrived both planes were on the ground, but while I was there two women took a ride in the blue plane. The pilots said that the winds on Saturday made flying a bit bumpy and the airport manager said that they had used the grass east-west runway.

By Saturday evening the tractors had left the retired iron building and the two exhibit halls were empty and locked.

 The animals were gone and the buildings had been cleaned up. For most of the week the building below had poultry.

 However, there were a lot of people at the fair. The line for Farm Bureau milkshakes was impressive. It will be a long wait until they can buy another.

 I was given a look at the new conference room in the Fair Office Building. The building was framed by Farm Builder and the room partitions and some of the dry wall were installed by the building trades class at RCHS. I was told that they are no longer building houses. Much of the work was done by volunteers and it still needs some finishing touches.

 This room will be used for Fair Board meetings. Before this room was built, the meetings took place in the north end of the Community Building, but there were often conflicts when the Community Building was rented. Now there will be no more conflicts. In addition, the building adds storage space.

Saturday was the last chance for carnival rides. It was also the last grandstand show, the Monster Truck event. I think most of the crowd at the fair was there to attend the grandstand show.

 I am too old to understand the attraction of this ride.

 The same is true for this ride, which flips people upside down.

The fair ended with a bang, or rather a long series of bangs as a fireworks show followed the Monster Truck event.

It has been a while since I posted wild flower pictures. Below is cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum). I found it growing in my back yard and I am not sure how it got there. My guess it is from a mixture of wildflower seeds that I had collected and tossed in what had been garden space.

 In the same genus is Rosen Weed (Silphium integrifolium). I grew this from seed that I found along Matheson Avenue several years ago. It did not flower in its first years.

 The purple flowers are wild bergamot. The butterfly is an eastern tiger swallowtail. The yellow flower is a false sunflower. The plant spreads aggressively.

Paving etc

The walking trail and the basketball courts in the Staddon-Monnett Park were paved on Friday.

 I checked back in the evening and the entire trail that was marked out was paved. (The trail will be extended once the soccer fields are finished.)

 Also on Friday,  paving crew was finishing up at Autumn Trace. Also, the light pole was not up two days ago.

In addition to the paving workers, there was a crew from Clarks in Remington landscaping. Two trucks were delivering furniture and two dumpsters were full of the cardboard boxes in which the furniture came. In one week Autumn Trace will have it grand opening with tours for the public from 11 till 2.

CSX has paved and opened the last two rail crossings that they had closed, those at Scott Street and Melville Street.

There has been no work on the Janet's Kitchen mural this week. The manhole cover below was decorated with a monster face at the beginning of the month. All that is left are traces of the blue and white paint.

 I have not gotten out to the fair much this year, but did go on Wednesday. I stopped at the horse arena to take a few pictures because horses make good pictures.

 The rides were doing a good business.  I cannot imagine paying to go on this ride, but maybe when I was young I might have.

 There are a number of kiddie rides and another torture ride that you can see in the distance.

I talked to several people in the Commercial tent at the Fair. The most interesting conversation was with Ivy Tech. I told them that they should offer classes in Rensselaer and was told that they are working on that. They may have a class or two in January on the Saint Joe campus. Time will tell if it pans out.

 On the way home I saw a deer in the field north of the new dog park. It started moving when I stopped to take a picture.

 Not far away, on the side of the road along the newest section of Weston Cemetery was another deer and this one did not move when I took its picture.

It was not there when I had passed the spot a couple hours earlier. As I was stopped, a police car came by, turned around, and the officer told me that all the appropriate authorities had been notified about the animal.

The quarry people are again pumping water from the Babcock Quarry. They will not let it fill and several years ago I was told that the pumping keeps some options open.

Biplane adventure

I have enjoyed blogging not because I earn money (the earnings from ads might total $100 a year) but because it takes me places I would otherwise never go and allows me to do things that I would otherwise never do. What happened on Thursday is an example.

On Thursday morning I opened my rensselaeradventures mail and found a message from the Airport Manager Ray Seif that he sent to seven people with media connections. The message said that the biplane operators who will be offering biplane rides this weekend were due in a few hours and were offering rides to media people to help publicize these rides. I thought about it for a while and replied that I was open to the experience. (For me the Ferris Wheel is a thrill ride.)

A few hours later I got a second message saying that the planes would soon be arriving. I drove out to the airport and saw the two planes that will be offering the rides. The blue plane is a 1928 Travel Air. It carries two passengers in addition to the pilot. The red plane is a 1930 New Standard. We were told that there are only eight of these still in operation. It can carry four people in addition to the pilot.

 The pilot of the red plane is Dewey Davenport. He has a youtube channel and you can see him flying the New Standard here. (There is an ad you might want to skip before the video plays.)

After some waiting, three of us got into the plane. I was in one of the front two seats and the other two were behind me. The pilot was in the very back. Below is the view from the plane before takeoff.

 We took off to the south and quickly passed over the fairgrounds. The Fair is the reason that the biplane rides are available this weekend. Each year there is a huge airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  Planes from all over the United States fly to the airshow and some of them stop at the Jasper County Airport to refuel. (The JC Airport has the cheapest gas prices in the surrounding area.) The two pilots learned that the Fair is next to the Airport and that the Fair attracts a large crowd. In days gone by, barnstormers would look for county fairs as a place to go to sell rides and these two pilots are following in these footsteps.

 We headed south and then turned to the east, passing over the Saint Joseph's College campus. Very visible in the picture below is the road to the new water well.

 Soon we were passing over the hospital and high school.

 We turned back to the west and below you can see the downtown. The sun is shining on the side of the Court House we cannot see, so you may have to look carefully to make out the Court House.

 I turned around to take a picture of my fellow passengers, Nick from the Republican and Johnny from Brothers Broadcasting. You can see only the top of the pilot's head. Note the goggles. I am very nearsighted and must wear glasses to see anything in the distance. I found that the goggles pushed my glasses so that I had double vision. I closed one eye for most of the ride. Also note that we had ear muffs for noise reduction.

 We passed over the Jasper County Airport but did not land.

 As we circled around, we flew side-by-side with the other biplane that is giving rides.

Then we came in for a landing.

 When we landed we saw two other biplanes that had been at the airport getting ready to take off. They apparently had stopped to refuel.

Taking a biplane ride was not on my bucket list and I was not sure I wanted the experience. However, I am glad I went. It was not scary as I had feared (though I kept a firm grip on the wooden bar that was in front of me). I enjoyed the air blowing through my hair, something you can only get in an open cockpit ride.

For more information about these two companies, see here and here. They will be offering rides Friday and Saturday and possibly on Sunday. The price is $80 for an adult and $60 for a child under 12 but there must be at least two passengers. The rides are 15 minutes long. There are no reservations—it is first come, first served. Flights start at either 9:00 or 9:30 and continue until sunset.

While on the topic of the airplanes, the Jasper County Airport Authority Board held an special meeting on Wednesday evening. In it Ray Seif pitched the idea of starting a flight school sponsored by the Airport. He argued that it is an essential component of the Airport's growth strategy. Apparently this idea had been discussed at the regular July meeting (which I did not attend) but there was skepticism and some Board members did not attend.

Seif argued that more local pilots would mean more airport activity and that there would be spinoffs from that activity that would have a positive impact on the Airport and the community. He reviewed a number of objections and answered them. He outlined a plan of action that included purchase of a used Cessna, a plane easy to fly. He reviewed the market of potential renters because this plane would not only be used as a trainer but would also be available for rental by qualified pilots. Currently the nearest place to rent a plane is Lafayette.  Instructors for flight training would be part-timers at first and he identified several who were interested. He said that the plan would lose money in its first year or two and that the risk of failure was low relative to the potential. If the plan did not work out, the plane could be sold, recouping most of the expense. He has been researching this for two years.

The Board agreed to establish a flight-school fund and to make an additional appropriation of $75,000 for this fund. $60,000 would be used to purchase the plane and $15,000 would be for maintenance.  $62,000 would be used to purchase the plane and the rest would be for fuel, maintenance, and additional insurance. It did not appear that all the board members were enthusiastic about this plan, but one of them stated that if anyone could pull this off, that person was Ray Seif. (I do not know if the additional appropriation needs County Council approval.)

In addition to the Oshkosh traffic, a crop duster is using the airport this week.

New restaurant and City Council notes

The Mexican restaurant located where Martins used to be opened on Monday. The building was remodeled over a year ago.

 I stopped by mid morning on Tuesday and there were no guests as it was too early for lunch. The staff said that they had been busy for lunch and dinner on Monday. The restaurant is open from nine to nine.

 The owner works full time as Sealy Springs. His wife will manage the restaurant most of the time.

 It is good to see another business starting up.

The Fair came to town today with the annual Tractor Parade to the Tuesday Farmers Market.

 On Monday evening the City Council met. It approved the decision of the Advisory Planning Commission to deny a zoning change in the Madison Subdivision that would have allowed more apartment buildings to be built. There were only three of the five Councilmen present but they all voted to deny the zoning change. (See here for a report on the Planning Commission meeting.) The unusually large crowd at the meeting had come to see what the Council did on this matter but they stayed for the rest of the meeting.

Steven Miller, Electric Manager of Operations and Engineering, received permission to seek quotes for upgrading the existing relays and some other changes at the Eger substation. He also announced that this would be his last Council meeting as he is retiring. He joined the City workforce in early 2017.

The City had sought three bids for replacing two one-ton dump trucks and received two. The Council awarded the bid to the low bidder, Gutwein Motors for $88,305 plus a trade-in. The City will have to add plows and lights to the trucks. The Police Chief received permission to seek quotes for two squad cars. One is an older car that will be traded in and the other was in an accident. The Police Chief also reported that a new officer will probably be sworn in at the next Council meeting. The department will still have one vacancy.

The City is replacing some sidewalks that were damaged in tree removal or by the trees that were removed. As the meeting ended, there was mention that Rein Bontrager was interested in decorating a tank at the water treatment plant. The Council thought this was a good idea. I am not sure what structure was being discussed, but it may be this one in Iroquois Park.

 The rail crossing at Franklin Street opened Tuesday morning. The Melville and Scott Street crossing remain closed.  In the next few days or weeks the rail crossing at Pleasant Ridge will be closed for several days.

Some of the corn is now as high as it should be on the fourth of July. The picture below was taken along Melville Street.

There is other corn that is now only reaching knee high. The picture below was taken along Mattheson Street.

There has been no change in the mural on Janet's Kitchen for several days but that should change on Wednesday.