Christmas

The last day of class was December 20, and Matt and Sarah arrived at the Minneapolis airport withing an hour of each other on the 21st. It was a lot of fun. Here's a taste:

We had a couple of snow storms while they were here, and I talked them into going for a walk during the "most vigorous" one. It was snowing quite a lot, and the wind was gusting up to 40 MPH. Here they are at the beginning of the walk.

You can see their enthusiasm as we got into the trek.

There was enough spirit left at the end for some snow angels.

We intended to go to a movie on the 24th, but the theater was closed for a private party (?!). We went for a drive around Lake Pepin instead. First from the Minnesota side looking across to Wisconsin.

From the Wisconsin side.

The day before Matt and Sarah flew back we went to a family gathering at Jan's sister's home a little more than an hour's drive into Wisconsin. The fun part of winter....

Vicki and Glenn's "back yard"

Jan and her Mom

Trippin' to the music(al instrument makers)

In early November the class took a two day trip to tour some band instrument manufacturers. It was quite interesting; here's a taste.
This shows various stages in the process; brass plate is cut into forms that are then shaped and brazed to form the bell of a trumpet.

Some trumpet and tuba (I think) pistons.

Plates of brass are cut to form the shape of a trumpet.

This lady is brazing piston casings. It takes a lot of experience and skill to do this.

Piston casings are plated, usually with nickel-silver, silver, or gold.
It took only a couple of seconds in the solution to plate the pieces.
Electricity does the work.

Silver plated casings.

The straight trumpet bells that are formed from flat pieces of brass are bent into the shape you see on the left. They are filled with a solution that freezes but remains malleable enough to allow the brass tube to bend without crimpting it. You can see bells in the freezer waiting their turn.

Finished trumpet bells before being shaped.

Here is a video of how a trombone bell is shaped.
And here is one of finishing a trumpet bell on a mandrel.
Finally, here is one of the wire being inserted into a trumpet bell.

Autumn

Here are a few pictures we took along the Hay Creek bike trail. Colors aren't as vivid as they seemed to the naked eye, but still nice. I wish I'd had the chance to take more.



"Whose woods these are I think I know...." Jan's parents' woods. It had just stopped raining before we left their central Wisconsin farm, and I had to stop the car to take this picture...my favorite.

Hay Creek Trail

Hay Creek and the trail that follows it are about a mile from our house in Red Wing. The total length is about seven or eight miles; we've ridden it quite a few times. Here are a few pictures, no further text is necessary.

A few days in the life...

The classroom for trumpet stuff at SE Minnesota State College (during break time).

The trumpet I will repair. The school has some arrangement with a Minneapolis music store; their stuff is repaired for a set price and we students do the fixing. This one is all shiny after a chem flush, and it has lots of stem and mouthpipe dents plus a bell fold...impressive, ya?

Last Sunday (Sept 16) Linda and Scott came down with their bikes and their two kids; we went for a ride on the Cannon Valley Trail. Here's the start of the trail in Red Wing.

Andrew and Marie on the trail.

Cannon RiverHaving ice cream in Welch, about 10 miles from Red Wing.Cannon River in Welch

A couple of weeks ago we went across the Mississippi then north to Prescott, WI, and back across the river to Hastings, MN. Here's a shot of the Mississippi River from Prescott.A few shots of the old part of Hastings, including the old courthouse built in 1869.

I love this sign at the American Legion hall; check the times for happy hour.

Lake Pepin

Yesterday (temperature in the mid-70s, nice breeze) we drove across the Mississippi at Red Wing and then went south along the river in Wisconsin; at Nelson, WI, we crossed the bridge to Wabasha (that's WAH-bah-sha) then went north back to Red Wing. It was a drive around Lake Pepin. I had assumed that the lake was formed when humans dammed the river, but

...I was wrong.

We stopped at this cool lookin' little Lutheran church after going a short way south on Highway 35.
(We couldn't decide which picture we liked best, so you get two.)

After that we stopped at every scenic overlook and historical marker.


We went through the town of Maiden Rock. I know you're thinking, "I wonder how the town got that name."
Here's your answer:
Yeah, I think a step off this would do the trick.

What's that?? Sounds like a tornado's coming!

Historical marker in Pepin, Wisconsin

Pepin marina

The bridge we crossed to get back to Minnesota.

The Mississippi from Wabasha

In Lake City

Boat people

Windshield shot as we drive north on Highway 61

Pond scum

Flood plain after a flood

Last shot of the lake as we near Red Wing