Wisconsin…there we were.

I  took a trip to Wisconsin the last weekend in May. There were 2 main reasons for this trip: Inter my father’s ashes, and help my mother and siblings (brother Jon and sisters Kitt and Sienna) clean out my father’s 24 by 60 foot storage shed.

The first part, interring my father’s ashes, came off well. My mother had invited a small group of people to attend, and we had lunch in a local restaraunt after leaving the cemetery. Here are a few photos of that event:

My sister Kitt setting up a photo shot.

Dad's sisters Helen and Gina with my sister-in-law Diane.

This photo was taken at the restaraunt where we ate lunch:

My sister Sienna with her grandchild, Marisela.

I had taken my Flip video recorder, but the light wind blowing that morning caused the sound track to be very poor. Lots of microphone “whistle” is present. I was disappointed, as I took fewer stills and tried to get more video. I am sure my sibblings will send me more photos from the ceremony.

That night we had a cook-out and took a couple more family photos:

Mom, niece Molly, my brother Jon, and Malia, one of Sienna's grandchildren.

Jon helps Molly's Jaiden and Malia rost hot dogs.

The clean-out of Dad’s shed went well. We ended up with 4 piles of stuff: metal and recycleables, garbage, wood, and stuff Mom will try to sell at a garage sale.

Jon and I dealt mostly with the attic, and most of the stuff up there had few emotional ties. Jon did find a suitcase of my late-’60s and early ’70s car magazines, which I brought home. They will be fun to go through. We found odd bits of stuff, like the tops (no bottoms) of old chicken feeders.  Dad had kept around 50 coffee ground cans, and we figured he was going to use them to sort “stuff” into and never got around to it. The cans went to recycle.

Down below it was a bit more difficult, as all of us had memories of Dad using his tools to build things like our swing sets and picnic tables. He had collected old insulators, and all of us remember him telling us the history and source of these items. Dad enjoyed this hobby, and it was hard for Mom and my sisters to sort through his collection. In the end we had quite a few items for the garage sale, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Mom took a few things off the sale tables to keep.

There were odd things down stairs as well, such as the Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer lawn ornament that was missing a rear leg. I guess Dad had always planned to fix it. Rudy ended up in the wood pile. That pile, by the way, eventually reached up about 12 feet and was about 30 – 35 feet around. Mom had to get a burn permit to torch it, and the fire department sent out a pumper to stand by, just in case. Apparently Dad had never thrown away even the smaller pieces of wood he ever had. Jon and I were amazed at how much he had accumulated over the last 50 years.

All of us had plenty of opportunity to talk, remember, and catch up on family news. At one point we 4 children were sitting in the kitchen and playing cards. I can’t even remember the last time that happened, if it ever had. We  passed around some wine and had some good conversations. All-in-all the weekend went better than I had expected.

While I still need to get Dad’s old Ford 8N tractor out here to Colorado, cleaning out this shed was a major accomplishment and all of us were satisfied with the work done.

My next post will be about Kitt’s visit to Colorado. Kitt had visited us back  in  ’83 or ’84, but had little chance to see much of Colorado that trip. This time we visited a few favorite spots. Here is just a sample:

Kitt poses with a metal horse. Quirky, yes?

Thanks for stopping in!