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DriftlessMode Scenic area of NE Iowa, SW Wisconsin and SE Minnesota that relates to the Upper Mississippi River Va

02/28/2025

SEEMS LIKE ONLY YESTERDAY (at Blackhawk Park near Victory, Wisconsin) - Ice is fast thinning and disappearing on the Mississippi River and its backwaters as temps rise.

02/27/2025

...AND THE BIG THAW BEGINS!

02/26/2025

LOW WINTER SNOWFALL BUT DEEP SOIL FROST DEPTHS AND SPRING RAINS KEYS TO FLOODING - Our trusty contact Jordan Wendt with the National Weather Service recently told WEAU TV (Eau Claire, Wisconsin) in a spring flooding report that one of the ways floods are dangerous is the variety of ways they can happen. “You have your regular river flooding where water starts to exceed its banks and starts overflowing into the land around it. We also have what’s most common in summertime is flash flooding where we have a lot of rain falling down in a short amount of time, and it can’t flow away from the location it fell in time so it starts to collect,” says Wendt. The report added, because there hasn’t been much snowfall, Wendt doesn’t expect as much flooding in the spring, BUT, he says that doesn’t mean nothing will happen. “We do have very deep frost depths in the soil. Any spring rain that does fall before the ground can thaw will likely lead to ponding of water, maybe flooded basements. That water will run off faster into the rivers, leading to higher rises that what you would see in the summertime,” says Wendt. ***As it looks right now in the longer term, Wendt adds, there is no clear signal that would suggest an above-normal spring for precipitation. There is a higher signal for above normal precipitation across the Ohio River Valley (40 to 60% chance), which will be something we will need to monitor if any of the systems that develop along this storm track shift northward. --Photos: Spring snow/ice thaw above a driveway; floodwaters leaving debris around Miss. River dock

02/25/2025

SWEATSHIRT WEATHER (ON ICE) - A trio of fishermen take advantage of the last stretch of good ice fishing weather near Village Creek boat access to the Mississippi River south of Lansing, Iowa.

02/22/2025

NETTING THEIR WAY TO A 'FISH HAUL' - South of Lansing, Iowa, along the main channel of the Mississippi River, commercial fishermen try to catch carp and buffalo that have schooled together just below a buoy which marks an edge of the channel. According to John Verdon, the father of Friends of Pool 9, who has an eagle eye on the activity, "They’ll set a net under the ice at the downstream edge and try to drive the fish into the net, pulling it into a circle and into a landing hole." Verdon remembers back in the 50s and 60s, helping his dad pull winter seine hauls. "It’s a big deal and takes a small army of guys. We didn’t have Humminbird fish locators and it was pretty much hit or miss ... but we did have one haul over 45,000 pounds, one of the larger hauls for that time." Update: The fish appeared to have moved away from the target zone so the catch was likely under 1,000 pounds.

02/20/2025

SOMETHING FISHY AND CHEESY HEADING FOR MCGREGOR, IOWA - After 43 years, longstanding Valley Fish and Cheese in Prairie du Chien is no more after riverman Mike Valley closed its doors on the last day of 2024. But he’s provided help to grateful owners of Jayco Fish and Mobile Fish Fryer to open a new Jayco Fish and Cheese storefront in McGregor. They plan to carry many similar items as the PdC store, aiming to open around April 1, 2025.

02/19/2025

ICEBREAKER, FRONT TO BACK - An ice breaking rig fashioned from a single barge behind a Kraemer construction tow boat, slowly moves forward and backward as it works to keep the Mississippi River open beneath and around the old Black Hawk Bridge at Lansing, Iowa. Keeping the area free of ice allows new bridge work to continue during these frigid winter days.

02/18/2025

JUST WHAT AND WHERE IS THIS DRIFTLESS AREA? - While it has no formal boundaries, the area stretches in the north from St. Croix County, Wisconsin (near the Twin Cities) south to Clinton County, Iowa, and reaches several miles and counties east and west from the Mississippi River into four Midwest states. Never covered by ice during the last ice age, the area lacks the characteristic glacial deposits known as drift (as in, all that good tillable farm land). Its landscape is characterized by steep hills, forested ridges, deeply carved river valleys, and karst geology (soluble bedrock like limestone and dolomite), and landscapes characterized by caves, sinkholes, springs, and other features.

02/17/2025

WALKED THEIR MASTERPIECE - A snow-covered field a couple days ago just east of Churchtown, Iowa, served as a blank canvas for a herd of bovine to step off their art.

02/16/2025

VALENTINE DINNER ON THE RIVER 2025 - Another tasty Valentines Day dinner at Coffee on the River in Lansing, Iowa, is in the tummy. Such a treat it is for this small river town to have such a fine dining offering. Wine poured freely last night and we’re always glad when someone else takes on the necessary steady stirring to make a fine rissoto — and this lobster rissoto was terrific. Recalling comments: My partner loved the lead-off tomato cobbler with black pepper biscuits (which was kinda desert-like). Another diner at our table ooed-and-ahhed at the Panko-crusted soft shell crab. I enjoyed the 4th course crepes and white chocolate sauce and fresh berries. And it’s always a nice touch when sister/owners Wendi and Diana find time to visit tables and touch base with us.

02/14/2025

KEEPING MACHINES (AND MEN) WORKING WELL IN SINGLE DIGIT TEMPS - Workers along the west bank of the Mississippi River at Lansing, Iowa, have a discussion near a chugging diesel machine.

02/11/2025

https://iowadot.gov/lansingbridge/updates/Lansingbridge_update_021125.pdf

01/31/2025

APPROACHING A NEW BRIDGE - Of course it's not finished yet but it's coming along. Here's a view today looking westward from the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River.

01/29/2025

DEER AND CHICKEN ON THE GRILL — OLIVER KNOWS - Good friends Todd and Cindy Kiester hosted a small gathering of folks mostly with a "Rossville" connection to watch the NFL football playoffs. Or so was the excuse for getting together. Oliver their pet Lab was away from the party in a kennel inside their heated garage but seemed to know what was cooking on the other side of the wall.

01/21/2025

NOT A MACHINE WAS STIRRING - This was the scene midday on Monday from 2nd Street / Highway 26 looking eastward across the Mississippi River to Wisconsin. Frigid temperatures yesterday and today may have slowed down work on the new version of Black Hawk Bridge and that's no surprise.

01/16/2025

FLAG AND BALD EAGLE: TWO SYMBOLS OF THE UNITED STATES - But there are more national symbols of the U.S. — like, “The Star Spangled Banner” (anthem), “Stars and Stripes Forever” (march), American bison (mammal), Rose (flower), Oak (tree), “In God We Trust” (motto), Pledge of Allegiance (oath) and the Great Seal of the United States.

Address

1906 Blue Heron Lane
Lansing, IA
52151

Telephone

+5154915326

Website

https://www.pictorem.com/gallery/Bob.Modersohn

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Videos

FULL ON FALL ... NOT BIRDS, THEY'RE LEAVES! - Intermittent gusts of wind fill a sky full of red oak leaves in eastern Alamakee County, Iowa, shown in this in-your-face video.

WELL, IT IS NATIONAL BIRD DAY - A mother loon sings her song with a young one close by on a small lake in the Rice Lake, Wisconsin area during the Covid year.

AND THEN IT WAS GONE - Five, four, three, two, one — you can hear the booming voice count-down prior to detonation and implosion of the “boiler house,” the last structure of the old Alliant Energy coal-fired power plant south of Lansing, Iowa. It happened a minute or two before 8 a.m. this morning. First it looked like a series of firecrackers popping until the concussive explosion crippled the skeletal building. By 8 a.m. the site was reduced to a pile of smokey debris that drifted over the area in a dark gray cloud (See aftermath photo in following comments).