Finding the Galloways and Community Band begins!

Sometime recently we ate lunch at the Village Inn in Cornucopia, seventeen miles east of here.  A couple new items on their menu involved using locally-raised Galloway beef for the hamburger and, of all things, kimchee produced locally at Spirit Creek Farm.  The hamburger would have had goat cheese, too, but the goats were all having babies so no milk for cheese right then.

So, we knew the people who raise the Galloways had sold meat at our farmer's market in the summer, but now sell right out of their shop on their farm.  We made a stop there today, to Siskiwit Galloways Farm on our way home from Ashland.

They have a very trusting business model.  You go in their shop, open the big freezer and pick out what you want to buy.  They have all types of beef--steaks, roasts, ground beef, hamburger patties, and some pork and lamb.  And fresh farm eggs!  There is no attendant, so you take an envelope, write down what you picked out, and then leave cash or a check in the envelope.  I think maybe they usually have forms to fill out, but we didn't see any.

Eggs are in the case on the left, meat in the freezer on the right.  Notes tell you all you need to know.

And a side line of aprons and Corny sweatshirts!

And right outside the door was a fenced-in area with several Galloways in person, source of all the meat.  I would have gone closer but it had just rained and it was kind of a puddly mess.

I love that all these businesses are in operation up here in the woods, and that their products are being promoted by other businesses.  We signed up for a half-share in the local Chequamegon CSA  (Community Supported Agriculture) again this summer, so those deliveries should be starting soon.  Five different area farms contribute a variety of garden produce that goes into the boxes delivered every week.

Maybe this year we'll be able to bring our own produce to our Saturday Market!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First night of Community Band tonight.  We were missing some key instruments, but we should be a full group next week.  Fun!

The Gallery is open, now bring on summer!

Port Wing is usually a pretty quiet place in the winter.  This year was the exception during January, February & March when we had all the ice cave visitors passing through our town. But in a typical year, it's a good sign that summer is coming when the summer businesses start opening up.  And today was opening day for the Hoth-Lee Art Gallery.

The Hoth-Lee Art Gallery is run by our friends, Sandy & Nancy, and back in 1999 they came up here from Iowa and bought this building that was once a church.  They put in a lot of work to fix it up into a beautiful showplace for the art created by various artists living in our area.  I'm not sure if it was intentional, but deciding to make it yellow with a blue roof fits in perfectly with this community settled by Swedish immigrants.

Sandy and Nancy are both artists themselves.  Nancy does beautiful work with fused glass and she also paints with water colors.  Sandy is the photographer and is always finding new ways to reproduce her photos, most of area scenes, in everything from greeting cards to beautifully mounted artwork for your walls.  

Nancy is standing by one of their jewelry displays, but you can also see some pottery by Gregory & Terese Melis and one of the new infinity scarves by an area weaver.

The old church windows let in some cheery light on a sunny day.  Add to that some soothing background music sung by folksinger Sara Thomsen of Duluth, and you have a perfect shopping experience.

On this shelf are several smaller metal scultpure pieces by Sara Balbin who has a studio nearby in Drummond, Wisconsin, as well as pottery from a couple different potters.  Also on the top is a new line of photos that Sandy started last year, "The World According to Emily," featuring their little cat, Emily...of course.  Very cute and so timely with the current Internet cat fascination.

This is their library corner where they feature books by area authors or authors of books about our area and Lake Superior.  New this year in the library corner are jigsaw puzzles with a lake theme.  And notice all of Sandy's photographs!

Greeting cards, wood carvings, pottery and more

One of the larger Sara Balbin metal sculptures

More mounted photographs & metal sculptures occupy what used to be the altar area of the church.  And once a year in the fall, they move everything out of the way, set up chairs for about 50 guests, and put on a house concert featuring Sara Thomsen and her guitar.

They have a beautiful gallery and their success shows in all of the customers who come back year after year to see what's new in the Hoth-Lee Art Gallery.  Come and visit the Gallery!

Mary's Motley Minutiae

Today I'm celebrating 32 consecutive blog posts!  Yay me!

So perhaps that's why I calling today's blog "Mary's Motley Minutiae."  And to me that means this is a mixed group of small, trivial topics that I'm gathering into one post.  Here goes!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This afternoon I sat down to read in the living room.  The sun was streaming in the windows and everything was perfect for reading.  And then I heard a sound - a ticking, clacking sound that I couldn't identify but yet couldn't ignore.  And this is all pretty unusual since I'm pretty much deaf in my right ear. (I blame the Army!)  But my left ear was taking up the slack, so I went in search of "the sound."  I didn't have to go far because this is what I found basking in the sunny windowsill:

It's a little solar-powered cute thing that Leann's sister, Sandy, sent her for her birthday.  Leann says just looking at it makes her happy!  So that was the sound!  Mystery solved!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A couple weeks ago our church here in town asked me and another member to create a Facebook page for our church.  And now here it is:

So, do a search on "First Lutheran Church in Port Wing" and then "Like" us so we can spread the word!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And finally, one of our favorite out-of-town restaurants to go to in our area is The Pizza Parlor in Iron River, Wisconsin.  The decor is so comfortably "northern Wisconsin" and the pizza is really good.  We send guests there as a dinner choice and they often mention it in our guest books.

And we went there this afternoon for a late lunch.  We learned one thing though - ordering a pizza with half "Pizza Parlor Deluxe" doesn't really go with the other half as "Mediterranean Pizza."  Feta and artichokes don't go with sausage and tomato sauce, even if they are on their own sides!

Note to self!