The Dad I Never Knew

There are and have been parts of our parents lives that we know little or nothing about. Regardless of how many times or how far that they walked to get to school..."it was uphill on the way to school and on the way home."

We never heard much of the wild times that our mothers and fathers acted up and behaved badly. It would only have encouraged us to feel that our bad behavior was acceptable...not that I ever misbehaved.

I did not know until a few years ago that my dad was a tribal dancer. He just never talked about it so I never imagined that anything like this could possibly be. But there he is looking just like a little me. We used to hunt on tribal land and visit tribal people and I never knew he or I were Native Americans...now you know.

Dad stands on the far left next to his sister. This photo was taken sometime in the 1930s in northern Wisconsin. Dad went to an Indian school as a young boy.

A Green Christmas???

I do not love winter and I am finding it more difficult every year to tolerate the cold for so long. This year winter may not seem so long as last year, after all last year at this time we had a blizzard in early December and the snow stayed for a very loooong time. This year it appears that we may have a Christmas with very little snow on the ground. Which may make winter seem a little shorter.

We have had snow already but almost all of it has melted away. I know that states south of Wisconsin are used to this sort of thing, but it is very unusual in central Wisconsin, we almost always have white a Christmas.

Here is a snow man that someone built on top of Rib Mountain on the rail of a look-out platform. Merry Christmas little fella...(by the way he has already melted).

Rib Mountain State Park

Like to Ski?...It is also called Granite Peak

Oswald the Good Luck Pig

This little fella is in a small town in southwest Wisconsin called Arcadia. I admit it would be nice if good luck and blessings really did come from rubbing his "snoot". As a matter of fact if the previous statement were true I might consider moving to Arcadia just to be close to Oswald. Sadly, even though it appears that thousands have likely touched his snoot, good fortune does not come from a brass pig.

Much of what we consider luck is often rooted in good choices that have come back to bless us in unexpected ways.

Arcadia has the amazing Memorial Park, with dozens of beautiful monuments; check it out:
Arcadia Wisconsin

You know sometimes it just seems like no one even notices. This is the church of a ministerial friend in a city in central Wisconsin. This little church is only a couple of blocks off of a main road in Plover. The pastor has been holding services and being faithful to what he feels God has called him to do regardless of whether or not the city around him takes notice.

There are things that we do that only God notices; things that only God sees. He sees every sacrifice and every effort made to help others in His name. Keep up the good work Bro. Jim; God sees and knows.