DriftlessMode

04/01/2025

BRIDGING THE GAP - Foot by foot, the space over the great Mississippi River at Lansing, iowa, is being spanned by a new bridge replacing the iconic Black Hawk Bridge. One photo shows workmen on the east side (facing west). Other photo looks eastward through the old bridge's archway at a new one built on the Wisconsin side.

03/25/2025

GRAIN LINES - Chutes connecting grain storage bins stand out against a clear blue sky near Churchville in NE Iowa.

03/15/2025

IRISH BUT ‘FOLKSY’ DINNER NIGHT ON THE RIVER - Coffee on the River held a pre-St. Pat’s Day event Friday night in Lansing, Iowa, to the tunes of local musician Amanda Fahey, from New Albin. Amanda strummed and sang familiar and original tunes while diners sipped beverages and enjoyed salad, mashed taters and chef Wendi's version of a patty (paddy?) melt . . . No green beer but plenty of other libations. It was noted by Diana that a few years back Amanda was the first employee hired at this much appreciated restaurant. Diners joined Amanda in song to old favorite — “You Are My Sunshine.” You can hear a few bars here.

03/11/2025

A WOW-ZA NATURE SCENE - Longtime photo friend, Jeff Carney Photography // Midwest Drone Photographer does it again. Sunrise over the Platte River in Nebraska... Brilliant. Those silhouettes of snow geese (dark and light ones) make an otherwise lava-like abstraction become a real nature scene.

UNIQUE WATERFOWL PERSPECTIVE -- Snow geese fly over the Platte River and a large roost of sandhill cranes as the sun starts to rise early Saturday morning. Our small plane kept a safe distance away from the activity. But the skies were crowded.

03/11/2025

BUILDING A NEW BRIDGE, ONE SUPPORT AT A TIME - From certain vantage points, new bridge construction connecting Wisconsin with Iowa over the Mississippi River at Lansing looks like a tangle of steel between cranes and the "retiring" Black Hawk Bridge. Glowing in direct sunlight is one of the completed bridge supports on the Wisconsin side.

03/06/2025

SKIPPING INTO SPRING - At least here in the not-too-upper Midwest. Temps predicted to reach the mid-60s early next week!

03/04/2025

GRAIN STORAGE GLOW - Grain bins and tubular chutes on the Roger/Lynn Ellefson farm near Waterville reflect mostly shadows against a twilight sky.

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.