Down on Vine Street

I was surprised to see that the office of the Wheatfield Elevator on Vine Street has been demolished. I noticed the trailer a few days ago, but did not suspect that it heralded the destruction of the office.

In other construction news, the brick exterior is being put on the Farm Credit building on Drexel Drive.

A few days ago some of the columns were being installed in the Steinke Funeral Home renovation.

 Today they were working on the portico roof on the Front Street side of the building.

Rensselaer Adventures needs nine more likes on Facebook to reach 500.

A rite of summer

Before they closed for public picking, we made at least one trip each summer to Spall's Blueberries to fill a few containers with one of the best fruits on the planet (and one of the few fruits from the Americas to make it big). When we had visitors last weekend, we decided we needed to introduce them to the joys of blueberry picking, so we headed up to the DeMotte-Wheatfield area where there still are half a dozen blueberry patches open to the public.

The berries do not all mature at the same time, so every few days people can pick the bushes again. The drawback of the uneven maturing is that machines are less useful in harvesting than they would be if the berries all matured simultaneously.

 We had three young helpers. The oldest says she does not like blueberries but she was a good picker. The middle one probably picked more than she ate. The youngest decided the best way to get blueberries was to eat those already picked and in our storage containers. He had to be watched carefully.

The blueberry farm provided the coffee cans that you can wear around your neck. I recall that back when we went to Spalls, the coffee cans were metal. Has it been that long?

Hidden in some of the rows were irrigation nozzles. I suspect they were as much to protect against last spring frosts as to protect against drought.

U-pick berries were $1.70 per pound in most or all of the DeMotte farms. There is one place near Lake Village that was advertizing berries for $1.00 per pound. You should be able to pick for at least two or three more weeks. If you have never picked blueberries, you really should experience it.

Saturday at the Fair 2013

I was able to spend a couple hours at the Jasper County Fair on Saturday with some guests. We enjoyed seeing the animals.

 The girl washing the steer was not too much older than them.

 What well dressed sheep wear to the fair.

 A cow that even a city girl can lead.

 Fair food--a hot dog with LOTS of ketchup.

 The open class exhibits seemed to be fewer than when I entered some years ago. The lady who made this quilt also has some quilts in the exhibit at the Carnegie Center.

 These flowers made from duck and goose feathers mounted in a tree stump chewed by beavers won a reserve grand champion ribbon.

 Some eggs that I have admired before won both a grand champion ribbon and a best of show. This batch was all decorated since March.

Singin in The Rain

I attended Friday night's sold-out performance of Singin' in The Rain by the Fendig Children's Summer Theater. Before the show they had an ad playing on the screen urging people to support repairs to their warehouse that houses their costumes and props. (It is the small brick building behind the Hanley parking lot. It is not on any street--it is on the alley behind the parking lot.)

 During the play they used this screen to show some movies, which fit because the play is about the transition in Hollywood from silent films to the talkies and how that transition destroyed careers of actors who looked good but sounded bad. They had some very cute film clips.

Of course they also had some great costuming and entertaining group numbers. All the performers are from grades four through eight.

 My favorite performer was the Lina Lamont character who did an excellent job of being irritating and screeching, which is what the part called for.

 In the iconic raining scene the show had what appeared to be real rain. You can maybe get a glimpse of it in the upper left.

 And of course there was a cast of dozens. It was cute how they named one of the stores in the background.

As always, the Fendig Summer Theater put on a very entertaining show. The quality of the set, costumes, and performances are amazing for a little town like Rensselaer.

Accessorizing your child

A new children's clothing store opened this week on Van Rensselaer Street, across from the Court House. Unlike another store on the Court House Square that for a long time had no name, this store has two names, Kids Corner and Unique Finds. I asked about that because it is only one store and was told that originally the name was Kids Corner, but because the owner planned to sell more than just kid's stuff, she was advised to consider a different name. So she did, and now has a store with two names.

 An explosion of color hits you as you enter the store. The building formerly housed two separate stores, but a doorway now connects the two parts. In the part nearest the alley the items are all new and seemed mostly meant for girls from infant to eight or ten years old. There are tutus and all sorts of things that little girls would enjoy dressing up in. I suspect my granddaughters would love the place, but I am not sure I want to find out for sure.

 I have a friend who used to talk about accessorizing her kids. This is the perfect store to accessorize a daughter or granddaughter. One of the target audiences has to be grandmothers who want to buy something fancy for a granddaughter.

 There are even Rensselaer Bomber hair ribbons along with feathery things that also decorate hair.

These necklaces and purses are probably meant for an older audience--the one that the name Unique Finds is aimed at.

In the other half of the store there are toys and some more clothes, items that are less decorative and appropriate for every day wear. Much of the clothing here is lightly used and is priced very reasonably. (Actually the owner says that the fancy stuff is priced very reasonably compared to what similar stores 30 miles to our north charge.)

Kids Corner & Unique Finds not only has a Facebook page. that you can like, but they have one that you can Friend. I suppose that is only logical for a store with two names that combines what used to be two stores.

(Can you tell that I am totally out of place in a store like this? If I knew more about children's clothing, this would be written in a completely different way.)