Open Season

My spouse has been somewhat negligent on doing something to give me blog material, but she occasionally makes suggestions One suggestion she had last week involved an editorial cartoon in the Wisconsin State Journal with an eleven point buck talking to Wisconsin football head coach, Luke Fickell. The issue of football is larger than Luke Fickell and the deer in the bar. With the changes in college football there is an open season on coaches. 

On Saturday December 6, 2025 Indiana University defeated perennial power house THE Ohio State University in the Big Ten Championship game. OSU was ranked #1 in the nation and is the defending national champion, while Indiana was ranked #2. It was a close game, decided by a field goal. Curt Cignetti, the Indiana coach was hired in 2023 and has coached the Hoosiers for only two years. Until his arrival, the program had been mediocre at best having only three winning seasons in the past twenty years--7-6 in 2007; 8-5 in 2029 and 6-2 in 2020 (Covid). Cignetti was hired by Indiana from James Madison, a rather nondescript school. So far this year he is 13-0. Play will continue for the Hoosiers in the National Championship tournament which will have 12 teams, they are a #1 seed with a first round bye.

From WI State Journal, 3 Dec 2025

I am sure when Wisconsin's then new AD Chris McIntosh hired Luke Fickell away from Cincinnati, he had dreams of being where Indiana is today. Fickell had Cincinnati as a four seed for the National Championship in 2021, when the team undefeated until the playoff game, ending the season at 13-1. He was 9-3 in his last season with the Bearcats, before being hired by the UW. He was considered by many to be a candidate for the Notre Dame job which opened up with Brian Kelly's departure for LSU at the end of the 2021 regular season.  However, ND chose to go with Marcus Freeman, its then young defensive coordinator.

Many top tier coaching jobs opened during the season, Penn State, UCLA, LSU, among others. ESPN talking heads viewed the LSU job as the premier coaching position in the nation. While the talking heads were complaining about Lane Kiffin of Ole Miss leaving for LSU, and how he hung Ole Miss out to dry for the upcoming playoffs, they were dissing Penn State for what they thought was too long of a search. The Penn State search ended this past week by their hire of Dan Campbell from Iowa State. Penn State had been spurned by at least one candidate, if not more. The talking heads felt that Penn State viewed their head coach position as more important than it actually is, they placed it fifth among teams in the Big Ten after Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan and USC. 

Luke Fickell
 He had a lot of sad expressions this season

There is a problem with transferability of coaches in sports. A good, if not very good coach at one place, is not necessarily successful with another place. Sometimes it has to do with academics, other times not a good fit with the culture of the program. When Luke Fickell came to Wisconsin he was proud of his passing attack, and hired an offensive coordinator who was to bring Air Longo (last name of the O-Coordinator was Longo) to the UW. He had many of the fans giddy to over the prospect of a passing oriented team. The passing game failed to live to expectations and Longo was fired last season. The culture at UW is with an emphasis on the running game, not a passing game, McIntosh seemed overly thrilled with the pass attack of Fickell. Brian Kelly's CEO approach as head coach did not fit with the SEC where they demand more of a hands-on head coach. Brett Bielema was a good coach at the UW, succeeding Barry Alvarez, but he lacked success at Arkansas of the SEC. He is finding some success with Illinois, another down program who had been coached by Lovie Smith for a while. Lovie had measured success with da Bears, but could not beat the Packers.

When WI started the season with middling wins against two middling teams (Middle Tennessee State as one) followed by six consecutive losses, many were calling for Luke's head. The UW has stuck with him for another year, perhaps because of the large buyout clause in effect. As one former head coach, Urban Meyer, said, WI lacks the money for that large of a buyout. The contract was on McIntosh, who if they fire Fickell this coming season should also be fired. I think that McIntosh firing Luke Fickell would be an admittance that he failed in his first major hire as UW AD. 

Chris McIntosh (2024)
UW Athletic Director

The larger issue is the change in college athletics over the past few years--Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL), have colleges paying players. For example, it is rumored that THE Ohio State paid over $20 million for certain players last season, when they won the National Foot ball College Championship. With NFL first contract players not earning as much as veterans, by the fact that veterans negotiate the collective bargaining agreement, some may make more in college ball than first years of the NFL. College programs now have people that all they do is look for free agent transfers. It used to be an athlete sat out a year, but no more. Programs can now bid, that is pay, for their services. Yet, football games are still won and lost on the field.

We don't know what will happen at the UW next season, they did end the season with a loss to Minnesota, but at home near the end of the season beat two ranked teams Washington and Illinois, with a loss to Indiana sandwiched between. They played Oregon well, as they did last year, but are not able to compete with top 10 teams a full four quarters. 

The game of football has changed a great deal from when my dad played at Marquette, which included playing in the first Cotton Bowl. When the Marquette team traveled to Dallas, it was by train, and no practice field was provided down in Texas, or on the way down, for them, but they were fortunate to find a farmer who had a pasture in which they could practice. Yet, one thing seldom talked about is how the game is played, and certain fundamentals make or break the play. Some men are so good they rely on their athleticism, but will tackle or block poorly. My brother Steve, who coached high school ball for many years said that the best fundamentals he learned were from my Dad who played, and learned football at Campion and Marquette in the 1930's. That is a testament to the way football was played. 

1936 Marquette Football Team, played in 1937 Cotton Bowl
My dad is front row, fourth from left

The best coaches, in my mind are those that take the three and some four star recruits and make them compete with the teams with higher ranked recruits. The success of Alabama was not so much Nick Saban, as perhaps all the five star recruits he was able to get. Curt Cignetti is likely the best coach in college football right now haven taken a low level Indiana team to one of the best teams in the nation in a short time span. What I do know is that the changes in college football have made it open season on coaches, perhaps more than bucks.

Agricultural Congruence, the Immigrant

The Hovel family followed the history of the United States and its socio-economic changes with the decline of human power in farming (and other industries) and the move to the specialization of labor which started in the late 19th century. I refer to this as agricultural congruence. Of the nine children born to my parents who lived to adulthood one farmed, one was a builder, and the others were mainly in varied professional, education, and managerial/administrative endeavors. The Hovel family was swept up in the waves of history, following its crests and troughs, which mark good and not so good points. Martin Hovel (Havel), my great grandfather, arrived in the US in with his parents and siblings in July 1868. He established his own farm on the unbroken plains of north central Iowa on land he purchased in Dec 1877, a few months after making his way west from Wisconsin. His son Rudy, my grandfather, bought that farm and then moved to Sun Prairie in 1930. An earlier post focused on Martin and Rudy, but this post will focus on Martin's father, Joseph (Josef) with a look at the congruence and dissidence to which Josef and his wife Anna and children their family from immigration and setting up a farm in the New World. 

Josef Havel transcribed and translated birth certificate, 1808
Completed for author by Richard D'Amelio

The Havel family emigrated from southwestern Bohemia to the United States by departing Bremen, Germany and they arrived at the Port of Baltimore on July 18, 1868. They were part of the large wave of immigrants, mainly from from Europe to the United States. Bohemia, was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in which the formal language and education was in German. In varied US Census records we have them reported as from Germany or from Austria. The family's hometown at time of immigration was Dolni Chrastany, which was part of the German ethnic settlement of Bohemia often referred to as the Sudetenland. The Sudetenland became famous with the Munich Accords in the fall of 1938 when Britain allowed Germany to take over the area without so much a consult with its then home country Czechoslovakia. The Havel family ancestral village, as far back as can be traced, however, is not part of the Sudetenland, even though it is closer to the German border than Dolni Chrastany. That village is Ratiborova Lhota. By 1870, almost 13 percent of the US population was foreign born, the peak of near 15% would be reached in 1890. The Hovel family was part of a move of 30 million persons that departed Europe in a 100 year period between 1815 and 1915. First from nations that identified as White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, to later migrants being Slavs from Eastern Europe and Catholics from southern Europe. It was a diaspora of people seeking a better life for themselves and their family. The influx of Irish and Catholic immigrants led to the Know-Nothing Party and even violent activities against the immigrant groups.

To Help with the Ancestry
Hovel Line

All told, one family member, Catherine Hovel Popp recalled a journey of over 16 weeks for the family. They departed Dolni Chrastany, went to Bremen Germany, departed Bremen, arrived in Baltimore, left Baltimore and arrived at Jefferson, WI. The family sailed on the ship Baltimore which was inaugurated on March 1, 1868, so they travelled on a new ship, but yet one better than the Titanic which sunk in the North Atlantic 44 years after the Havel voyage. In 1870, The German Lloyd line ships averaged the  transatlantic crossing from Bremen to Baltimore in 11 days and 13 hours, one way. While cost is not necessarily precise, some have estimated the journey to be about $30 per person in 1868 for steerage, or about $685 in today's dollars. Hence, the ten Havel family members from 60 year old Josef to infant Wenzel cost about $6,850 in today's currency. Not a small amount today, and probably an even greater amount to the family.

SS Baltimore Passenger Log, Left bracket marks Havel Line
Arrival at Baltimore, MD, 18 Jul l868      

It did not take them long to get back to farming. Less than ten days after disembarking in Baltimore, Josef Hovel had purchased an 80 acre farm between Jefferson and Fort Atkinson for $3,000 from William Behrend and his wife. A few weeks later, on August 9, they sold had sold their farm in Dolni Chrastany to Johann Reindl and his wife for 5,000 flö.W.(österreichischer Währung/ Austrian Gulden currency), which in a roundabout, but not necessarily correct calculation, equates to about $4,000 in 1868. It likely included the meager farm supplies, as they would depart with few household belongings. The benefit of the US was land to be had at lower price. The approximate 45 acre Dolni Chrastany farm sale value would be about $89/acre, while the farm near Jefferson would be $37.50/acre. 

Josef Havel Immigration Arrival Form

The family migration in 1868 is an example of chain migration. First, they came as a family, and second, a person from the home village already lived in the Jefferson area. Jakob Fitzl from the same Bohemian village had arrived in this area in late fall in 1866. The oldest Havel daughter, Anna, was born in 1848, and would marry Jakob in 1869 at St John the Baptist Catholic Church in Jefferson. It turns out they were second cousins. Jakob's grandmother was Marie Havel Fitzl, Joseph's aunt a sister to Josef's father, Frantisek. (We will meet up with Wenzel Fitzl again, who seemingly had a proclivity to marry widows.) While many commentators place political or religious measures as the means for migration, I believe it was purely economic for the Havel family. Economic opportunity for the children to start their own farms on the plentiful land in the US would have been easier to accomplish than to find a farm for the children in the poor soils of the old country. The children ranged in age from less than 10 months of age to 21 years of age at time of arrival in Baltimore.  All of the children were married in the US. All eight of the children would at some point would farm. One child born in Bohemia in July 1853 died less than seven months later. One son of Josef and Anna Havel would move from farming into other endeavors, not successfully, which in part led to a tragedy, which I storied in 2017. 

Farming was the chosen occupation of the Havel (Hovel came into use later in time by two sons, Martin and John), and the expansive land in the US would have drawn them as it did many other immigrants. The search for good and available farmland took all but one daughter to northcentral Iowa. The daughter who remained in Wisconsin was Rose who had married a man from the Jefferson area, George Kachel; they acquired Josef's farm in 1882 for $3,000, plus $200 of debt in March 1882. The sale price included all farm equipment and all but a few pieces of household furnishings, a downsizing methodology that involves little effort. The Kachel family would later sell this farm and move to a farm just west of Whitewater, WI. 

Joseph Havel Farm between Jefferson and Ft Atkinson, WI
1872 Plat Map (Identified as Haffell on the plat map)

Josef passed away at aged 74 in Sept 1882. The 1885 Iowa Census shows his wife Anna and the youngest son, Wenzel (b Sep 1867) living with  daughter/sibling Marie Havel Hofmeister and her husband Anton. The Hofmeister family lived and farmed in Union Township, Worth Co, south of Manly at the time. Also farming in Union Township was John Hovel and his family and Jakub and Anna Havel Fitzl, as was Joseph and his wife who would later move a bit south to adjoining Cerro Gordo Co, and then move to Minnesota. Martin was in nearby Lincoln Township. One daughter, Katherine, married Emil Popp and farmed to the east of Worth County in Mitchell County. 

The Havel family arrived in the US while the nation was in the throes of reconstruction from the Civil War. It was also five years before the major 1873 recession. Josef farmed his acreage in Jefferson, with the respective agricultural census records reported that he tilled 35 acres tilled in 1870 (which would be land tilled in 1869) and 50 acres tilled in 1880 (which would be tilled land in 1879). Oats, rye, Indian corn, and wheat were the main grains grown, but he also grew a good number of potatoes. He had three milk cows from which he made 300 pounds of butter in 1880. Three milk cows were reported in 1870 but with a production of 90 lbs of butter. He has two horses. He raised a few swine in both years, and reported a similar value of livestock for both census'--about $400. While Josef was growing wheat, the pesky cinch bug became prevalent in Wisconsin. It was this pest which led Wisconsin from one of the top wheat producing states to become the dairy state. Here again, a diversified operation may have been helpful to the small farmer at a time when agriculture was about to dramatically change as explained in the first post.

Josef Havel Declaration for Citizenship, 2 Nov 1869

Josef began his farming career in the foothills of the Bohemian Mountains in the Village of Dolni Chrastany. Plots of land were often scattered, and were generally long narrow strips. In the US he had one large contiguous piece of land. Hence, the simple act of cultivation was completely different for him in the US, than what he had in Bohemia. Further, the foothills of the mountains were notorious for  poor soil. Even with conservation practices the years of cultivation would have depleted the soil, and such soil would lack the natural fertility of what the family would find in the fertile prairies of the Midwest, particularly the virgin prairie soil farmed in Iowa which Martin farmed. In Bohemia, the agricultural settlements were in small villages. Each farm home would have a small garden area and generally an courtyard with house on one side and outbuildings surrounding. In many places there was a village herder who watched the livestock, and a person would also watch the fowl out prancing around the village pond. I certainly hope such pond was not used for drinking water. 

Joseph and his family would have experienced some culture shock in the transformation from the backwater of Southwest Bohemia to the US. New language and customs, different methods of farming, more travel to basic items like a blacksmith. No wonder, many recent immigrants congregated with persons of similar nature in which they established ethnic enclaves whether in cities or in rural areas. Jefferson, WI was settled by many Germans, and the Havel family would have felt at home at least language wise, and perhaps with some customs. One can also think of the Lanskroner Bohemians (Eastern Bohemians who were mostly ethnic Germans in the Sudetenland) who settled first in the in the Waterloo area to Watertown, and later spread west to Sun Prairie (along the Hwy 19 corridor), sharing language and customs with the German population of Watertown. Growing up in Sun Prairie, the city was home to many surnames from the Landskron region: Motl, Skalitzky, Blaska, Freidel, Langer, Schuster, Benisch just to name a few, The Duscheck family who was from the Landskron region, Martin's spouse was Amelia Duscheck, is a prime example, first settling in Jefferson County southwest of Watertown and later moving to a farm just northeast of Sun Prairie. 

Joseph Grave Marker, Bohemian Catholic Cemetery
Plymouth, IA (Findagrave)

I have to think that the simple act of travel from Baltimore to Chicago and then likely to Milwaukee would have given my Havel ancestors a view of the immense size and variety of cultures and geography of which America was comprised. They would have experienced the miasma of humanity on the ship and particularly at port where many varied cultures and languages collided. On their way to Wisconsin, they would have traveled through cities that comprised the burgeoning industrial heartland of the US (and later become the noted Rustbelt); their arrival in Chicago, may have taken them past the massive stockyards which had been established in 1865. Martin likely speculated that his grandson, Roy would marry a woman from Chicago whose paternal grandfather left the mines of rural Pennsylvania and worked in the stockyards of Chicago in about 1900. The broad expanse of the Iowa prairies would have been daunting to Joseph and the older children who were used to being encapsulated by the rolling hills and forests of Southwest Bohemia. All but one of the eight Havel children, at some point in their lives, farmed the rich prairie soil of northern Iowa. The youngest, Wenzel first farmed in Iowa's Mitchell County before moving just across the border to Mower Co, MN. The one who did not move to Iowa farmed in Wisconsin The sheer sense of scale would have been daunting to Josef who perhaps wondered what he was getting himself into.

Deed from Behrend to Joseph Havel
17 Jul 1868, Jefferson Co Courthouse

I wonder if Joseph realized how much the decision he and his wife made affected the lives of their descendants? Their move allowed his descendants to advance in chosen fields, avoid being under Nazi and later Communist suppression. Although, I am sure some people in Fitchburg thought I may have well been a planner in the Eastern bloc. As I have long said, if the Fitchburg Days Festival had a dunk tank and I was in it, the line would have been long. 

Up next, on Agricultural Congruence I will look at the taxing and tedious time and incongruent aspects of agriculture and peasant life in in the Old Country. For peasant serfs it was an era of great difficulty with most of the known history of the family spanning much of the second serfdom. Serfdom was in effect for most all generations of the Havel family until 1848, although some restrictions were lessened in the latter part of the 18th century. My peasant serf ancestors were not dominated not so much by the Hapsburg Crown, but by the Lords of the Domain, the seigneurs, and their overseers, the wealthy absentee landlords who demanded much and gave nothing in return. It was just above slavery on the economic ladder. The family owned a farm for several generations in Ratiborova Lhota, under the Krumlov domain. Most famous of the Krumlov domain is the city Cesky Krumlov which is a United Nations World Heritage Site. The robot labor of the Havel family helped give the domain its wealth to build and maintain such a city.

Agricultural Congruence, the Fertile Prairies

My father was born in 1918, an era markedly different from the one in which we now live. He was born in the family farm house southeast of Manly, Iowa near a small town established about 40 years prior to his birth. His father Rudy, purchased the land from his father (My dad's grandfather) Martin. Martin was born in 1850 in Bohemia, and his paternal line as far back as can be traced, to mid 1500's, were peasant-serf farmers. This post (and a later post) is about the congruity of the Hovel family in agriculture to the socioeconomic and cultural trends at the time. This post will concentrate on the congruity of agriculture regarding my grandfather, Rudy Hovel and his father Martin Hovel who farmed the fertile prairies of Iowa and southern Wisconsin.

Rudy, and Ida with son Roy 

These posts, instead of going from past to more recent will go from more recent to past. One aspect of congruence is the adoption of new agricultural techniques. When my grandfather prepared to move from the farm he purchased from his father, Martin in Manly, IA, to Sun Prairie, WI  he held an auction. This  December 1929 auction included much farm equipment, animals and some household items. He took some items with him, as a news report indicates that Rudy rode on the train to Sun Prairie with his load of items. He had a diversity of milking cows, including Red Milking Shorthorns, Roan Northern, and black milk cows. It was a diverse group of cows. My brother Mike, who was a dairy farmer himself made this comment via email when I inquired of the diverse animal group: 

The herd of milking cows is quite diverse and I wouldn't doubt that Rudy was crossbreeding animals much like some farms are today to get more vigor as  opposed to strictly purebreds witch would have a "limited gene pool".. would suspect he had good test weights with such a mix of cows.. no small feat to feed that number of cattle , sheep and pigs plus the 50 hens !! (Author note: beyond milk cows he had many head of beef cattle.)

Auction notice, Dec 5, 1912 Manly Signal

Rudy was farming in an era of significant technological innovation, particularly in terms of equipment, and power. His auction included varied equipment, but it is difficult for me to tell which was horse vs tractor pulled, if it mattered. I have written before about changes in farming during that crucial era. At a broad scale, the mechanized and technological changes in agriculture can best be represented by persons employed in agriculture in the United States as shown in the following table: 

Rudy purchased the home farm of about 80 acres and an additional 42 acres from his father in December 1912 for $8,400. Rudy grew the operation as evidenced between the Iowa 1915 census to what is recorded for his 1929 auction sale. In 1915 he reported as having 11 milk cows, an additional eight calves less than one year old, and five steer of varied ages. But, he also had 160 fowl and four pigs. In total his 1929 auction included over 64 large animals, including 54 head of cattle, as well as 50 chickens. Showing the older method of farming, in 1915 Rudy had five horses and one colt. Technology likely helped him grow and harvest the feed for his expanding livestock based farm. Farm advancement was taking hold and production was increasing during this era. 

Lower part of auction notice

As the Gilded age took hold after 1865, and the end of the Civil War, and within a few years the nation began its rapid industrialization, and this can be seen in the continued reduction in persons employed in agriculture. In its place, the specialization of labor started to take hold as accounts, teachers, lawyers, and other managerial and professional classes advanced the nation. The change to an increasing specialized economy also required education. The below graph shows years percent of high school graduates, percent who attended college and the percent illiterate:

My grandfather, born in 1887, was in high school through 10 grade. Realizing the importance of education, he and his wife, Ida, sent their two children to private boarding high schools in Prairie du Chien. My dad was born in September 1918 and graduated from high school in spring 1935. He then graduated from Marquette University in 1939 and followed that with Law School at the University of Wisconsin matriculating in 194. A couple months later he began his service in WWII.

Roy with his parents, graduation
Likely Campion High School 

My mom and dad had nine children that lived into adulthood, with Mike being the farmer, one a builder, and the others involved in a variety of professions: teachers, lawyer, dentist, accountant, manager/administrator. The Hovel family was part of the congruence with larger societal trends of movement to specialization in occupations. It mirrors the outcomes of the national socio-economic culture.

While the industrial revolution began in the late 18th century in the United States, certain inventions, think if the steel plow in 1837, were crucial to breaking the prairie sod of the Midwest, it took time and of course money for farms to afford such equipment. 

My great grandfather, Martin and his wife Amelia purchased his first 80 acres of land southeast of Manly, IA from a man named Joseph Brohm who was an absentee owner. The purchase of the 80 acres cost Martin and Amelia $970.00 with the purchase signed on Dec 21, 1877, or eighty years to the date prior to the birth of my twin brother. The deed was recorded the following month. News accounts seem to indicate that Martin broke the sod and established his farm. It is said he hauled rock for the house foundation, and Amelia helped lay the rock. One account, from 1976, indicates they moved to a farm 1.5 miles southeast of Manly in the fall of 1877. I suppose it is possible he was renting the land until the purchase was finalized. This would be the home in which both my grandpa and my dad would be born. Martin likely had a steel plow. It would take time to break the prairie sod. His purchase in late 1877 left two years to break the sod and the 1880 US Agriculture census he reported having tilled 45 acres in 1879 (reported 1880). Martin had only one milk cow, with six pigs, and 25 barnyard poultry from which he produced 60 dozen eggs. His main crops were Indian corn, oats and wheat, although her harvested 30 bushels of Irish potatoes from 1/8th of an acre. Having learned to use oxen in the old country, he had one ox and two horses.

Martin Hovel Family, c1893
Rudy is to left

In the US census, Martin and Amelia are reported as literate. Martin was born in Bohemia, but Amelia was born to immigrant parents in the town of Milford, Jefferson Co. The only item I have of a great grandfather is a book in German owned by Martin in the extraordinarily difficult to read Kurrent script. The book is dated 1890, so it was acquired while he was in the US. I am sure he spoke English, but this shows German may well have been his language of choice. In a dissonance to the common culture, Martin and Amelia, as well as their children were Roman Catholic. While Bohemians did not have the same level of animus expressed to them as the Irish, they still likely felt some discrimination.

 A brother recalls Rudy, and his brother Ed discussing the KKK activity that occurred in Iowa, popularized in the Netflix  show Damnation. The advance of the second KKK in Iowa may have been one reason why Rudy migrated to Sun Prairie. He and Ida were very devote, with their first date to Vespers. KKK members were known to have taken control of the Manly school board. Today as then, Manly continues to be the only community in Worth County with a Catholic Church, which shows the domination of Protestants. The KKK certainly caused turbulence in the nation, and it may have done so for my grandparents. I also tend to think issues and actions related to KKK action were underreported given the number of middle class merchants, news, and in some places police and sheriffs were involved with the KKK. 

Turbulence in the socio-economic portion of society was seen in more than just the KKK. The rapid industrialization of the nation (which began in 1870) was the lead cause of a rural to urban migration as specialization took hold in the realm of business and government. It was followed by the Great War which would yield to the farm depression of the early 1920's, and later the better known Great Depression would arrive. Internationally, starting in 1939, the world would be amazed at the speed of the German blitzkrieg, and with concern over Germany's desire for domination. Grandpa Rudy helped organize a peace rally held at St Joseph's Church in East Bristol in Sept 1939. United States entry into World War II would forever change the map of the world. For all the political upheaval, there was also tension caused by greater mechanization in farming and life in general. 

Martin and Amelia

Historian John L. Shover, in his work First Majority-Last Minority, an agricultural history over time in the United States, comments that farms of this era, particularly in the Midwest, were "diversified units producing a little bit of most everything to meet the family's subsistence requirements, with a little surplus left over for cash marketing." Given the US Census Agricultural schedules reviewed in 1870 and 1880, the Iowa 1915 census and the 1929 auction items, Rudy followed a the standard diversification of what is today a small farm.  A practice today that is highly thought of and which form pleasant nostalgic stories if not memories emanate. I believe, the diversification was necessary, as large profits were not the norm. Diversification would not be putting all your eggs in one basket, and would be a hedge against disease or weather. In fact if one looks at the writings of Agricultural Economist, Curtis Stadtfeld, who was a generation younger than my father, but wrote about his parents livelihood on the Michigan farm on which he was raised, one gets a different take of the melancholic view often described today for that era of farming. Just one example of Stadtfield, who grew up on a farm in the Midwest can suffice:

In fact, the barn was never painted at all. The good potato crop never came. It always rained too little to make good beans, or too much to harvest them. We never had so many heifer calves that the herd grew large and made us wealthy. We were always just getting by. And then came the war [reference to WWII], and so many things were pulled apart that were never put back together again. The fabric of that life tore, and we looked back from the other side of the rent and wondered how it ever worked in the first place how it ever held together.

This shows that sustenance of the family came first, and hence diversification was necessary to provide the meat, dairy, eggs, and other products common to living. A garden would have also raised vegetables with food preserved through canning, or in root cellars. Specialization would have meant dependence on one or two crops or animals, and with no diversity a failure in one could have been catastrophic to family well being. The move to dairy in Wisconsin occurred, in part, due the cinch bug having become problematic for the wheat crop. I surmise that Rudy, who was a very hard worker, was generally successful, and that his farm was not in the dire situation noted by Shover. Rudy continued to own his Iowa farm for twelve years after moving to Wisconsin, selling it in 1942. He purchased his Sun Prairie farm on March 4, 1929, seven months the Great Depression would occur. Yet, he did not move to teh farm until January of 1930. Rudy's skill, tenacity and perseverance, along with diversification likely helped him and his family survive through such difficult times. 

Rudy Hovel Farm, near Manly, IA 1913
42 acres north of road and original 80 acres south of road

Life on the farm was never easy. Tilling at a time of pre-tractor would have been not only time consuming, but hard work behind a horse drawn plow. Of all the work, tilling of the land for corn and other related row crops was, as reported by Shover, the most difficult chore. Shover referred to the work as: "a stern regime of daily tasks and unyielding seasonal requirements" which determined the pace of activity.

Rudy also benefitted from earnings of stock in then growing companies. His investments included Standard Oil, Maytag, Montgomery Ward and Sears, among others. He benefitted by the industrialization of the nation in both farming and with stock, likely on the belief he could be left behind.

Rudy's Sun Prairie, WI Farm, 1937 air photo

The Hovel family mirrored the economic changes of the time. It moved as advancements were made in farming, whether equipment or breeding. We can see then, that from 1880 to 1915 and then to 1929 there was a great increase in what was able to accomplish in growth of livestock and likely income on the Hovel farm fist owned by Martin and then taken over by Rudy. Rudy undertook an additional purchase of land from his father near the home farm, first joint with his brother in 1917 whom he later bought out in 1922. Martin and Amelia would retire from farming and finish out their years at a house in Manly, IA, purchased from a family friend. The house would stay in the family for decades. After Amelia's wake, the candles were still burning when some temporary tenants moved in until later occupied by a member of the Joseph Hovell (Martin's brother, wo added an additional L) family.

My dad was in the professional class, breaking my direct line with farming, although my brother Mike carried on agriculture until his retirement from dairy farming. The family was congruent with the national activity. 

The next post will explore how the Hovel family congruence in immigration, followed by a third post about duties and obligations imposed and altered during their stay in the old world. Bohemia. It is a chapter of extreme toil of their work as peasants and serfs, with little advancement in techniques or methods of agriculture during most all of that time frame. The world is much different now than when my father was born 107 years ago, and in the world in which he grew up and served his country in WWII. The Hovel family, now seeing some of my dad's great grandchildren enter the workforce, has continued to follow the waves of history as we move into the second quarter of the 21st century.

Of Land and Sponges

Funny how we can be so similar to the past. I have spoken a few times at Village meetings regarding the water and sewer rate increases the village saw, and will once again see, with the coming construction of  new well #5. Having watched the first episode of "The American Revolution" I find myself not as enamored with the founding fathers as I once was. Two issues, beyond the slavery issue of many, made me question their motives. First, is the idea that the war was not so much about the principles of freedom and liberty as about land, which jogged my memory of a book I read a few years ago. Second, the episode made me wonder if the colonists did not like some of the actions imposed on them because they were sponges. In this sense, they relate to my comments on McFarland Utility bill increases. This post ties both the land speculation and then about whether the colonies sponged off the home nation as the surrounding towns sponge off McFarland.

Land

One historian quoted in the episode commented that the Revolutionary War was essentially about land rather than the principles of liberty and freedom, or really taxation without representation. He noted that many of the founding father's were large land speculators including George Washington, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. Land speculation was in  jeopardy after the French and Indian War because the Brits banned colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains. This was not due to keeping the Native Americans in their home territory, but rather over the cost to maintain peace in the dispersed settlements due to the likelihood of further conflict with Native Americans. The Crown simply recognized it was too costly to provide safety to such dispersed frontiersmen. Certain colonial leaders did not like not being able to obtain, speculate and profit off the sale of land west of the mountains. This jogged my memory of a book I read which intimated this was one of the causes of the Revolutionary War. Follow the money is a phrase today, but it seems it was also applicable more than 250 years ago.

Thomas Jefferson, Wikipedia

Jefferson was a large speculator throughout his life, which was contrary to many of his public speeches in which he praised small farmers and the agrarian way of life. Evidence comes from the book Mr Jefferson's Lost Cause, authored by Roger Kennedy who noted that Jefferson and his neighbors were large land owners. He went on to say that Jefferson received 2,650 acres from his mother in 1757, and by 1782 his farm had grown to 4,125 acres, with over 200 slaves. One neighbor farmed 7,500 acres and another 9,700. Well, lets be real, they did not farm themselves as they were the Gentlemen Planters who employed many slaves to do the dirty work. Further, Kennedy reported that Jefferson's kinfolk in another Virginia county, the Cole's, "assembled 15,000 acres into one vast land imperium." However, the kicker is that Kennedy reports that "All of them, Jefferson included, planted in the east and speculated in the west." Jefferson's father was also a land speculator with involvement in the Greenbrier Company, a satellite of the Loyal Company, and Jefferson kept in contact and did business with one of his father's partners (see p 64). On the following page Kennedy goes on to say that "Speculation in Western land led many planters into rebellion against a British government that had twice sought to cut them off from the West." As noted, the show jogged my memory of this aspect. Was the cry "Give Me liberty or give me death", really a euphemism for "Give me land and money?"

Another proximate cause to the Revolution was the Quebec Acts, which instituted certain civil liberties in French and Catholic Quebec, in order to assimilate the province into the British Empire. Many of the Colonial leaders, the documentary reports, were against the Quebec Act, possibly due to dealing with the French Catholics. There was but one Catholic who signed the Declaration of Independence. A student of history, or the National Treasure movie would note that man as being Charles Carrol. This of course, did not mean that the same persons would be against French assistance in the war, as  it played to the dictum "an enemy of my enemy is my friend." The French assistance of the US Revolutionary War was a partial cause, due to  incurred debt, for the French Revolution and the resulting Reign of Terror.

Sponges

While a good many of the acts passed by British Parliament to raise money due to debt incurred with the French and Indian War were intolerable, some may have been appropriate to fund a war that retained the colonies under British rule, which they preferred, which allowed the Anglophiles, slaves and all, to flourish. But, the colonies would have none of that. The Colonial government had established Safe Committees to watchdog against imports or exports to Britain. The PBS documentary noted that such committees and their actions were more intolerable and egregious than any act undertaken by parliament and imposed on the colonies. For the same group to desire liberty, and then to work against it, shows how the ends justified the means and principles could be easily set aside. The documentary did not note if any of the colonial leaders had heart burn over the hypocrisy. The colonies, it seems desired services, but did not wish to pay for them. In that sense they were sponging off others, in their case Britain. They not only wanted to land speculate west of the mountains, but they wanted the British to safeguard them and move the Native Americans out. They did not wish the Stamp Act to pay for colonial judges. Of the British colonies in the Americas, the documentary states that the Caribbean was really the economic power house, likely with its crops of sugar and rum produced slaves. Of the 13 colonies in North America, Virginia was the economic engine with its productivity. At this time, all of the colonies had some slaves, although southern states had much higher populations. At this time, Virginia's population was 40% slaves. Economics always matter.

1770 Slaves in American Colonies,
actual and percent of population
Wikipedia

This gets us to McFarland. I have spoken out a few times, to deaf ears, about how we village residents for property tax and ratepayers are subsidizing the towns in the area. Let me use two examples. First, early this year the village moved the Fire Protection Charge (FPC) from the village tax base to the utility district (water, and sewer collection). This near $500,000 shift caused rates to increase rather dramatically. (The tax shift was not used to lower property taxes but to put to fund new expenses.) The FPC essentially is a payment to the utility for the necessity of having to oversize facilities for fire protection. For example, hydrants, and storage (think water towers) fall partly into this. We ratepayers are now paying this charge. The towns are not in the utility and hence are not ratepayers. They benefit from this because hydrants and storage are used to fight fires in the rural area, and since fires double every 30-60 seconds, and it takes longer to get to a rural fire, more water is needed. And the water, due to no fire hydrants, has to come by tanker. More personnel and equipment is required. Yet, the only charge the towns served by McFarland pay is a bulk water rate. Second, they do not pay for upcharge in equipment, much less help share the capital, finance, and operating costs for the fire station. They did not even pay for the high capacity pump at the fire station to fill a tanker truck. Our utility rates will take another big jump for a $4.2 million well #5, and I am sure even though the towns will benefit by a new high capacity well, they will not pay. Heck, The water impact fee in the village is based on only a $1 million project and when depreciation is taken into account (by PSC rules), the payments are rather minuscule. One can see that largess is not just to towns but to new construction. (Some policy makers in the village wish to get rid of impact fees altogether, but their share of a new $500,000 home is rather minor, and I doubt they will sell for less, just make more profit for the developer.) Developers today are, in a way, similar to the land speculators among our founding fathers.

Simeon Goff, Rosters of Revolutionary War Service, Family Search

Fire is only one aspect, most towns are served by the Dane County Sheriff whose budget is spread over the whole county, and the towns pay no more or less (unless the contract for additional protection), even though municipalities have their own police forces. Or, let us take a senior center, funded fully by the village, but used by the sponges in the rural area. They get lower taxes since they do not have to fund such services, and we the McFarland tax payer pay for their share. In the 250 years since the battle of Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775) just as the colonists were sponges, so too are many towns in Dane County. They sponge off the services and goodwill of the neighboring municipality. Small municipalities may sponge off Madison, using certain Madison services, but not paying property taxes for such service. One example, is the Overture center, in which the city of Madison is contributing over $2 million in 2025, but yet, I am not aware that a city of Madison resident gets a reduced ticket price. There are many other ways urban areas subsidize rural areas such as electricity and internet. It is much cheaper to lay such lines in an urban area, since there is a lineal cost per foot, but we subsize the long line construction in the rural area. I pay the same price as for internet as a rural home that required perhaps a couple thousand more feet of fiber than I required.

Wife's 4th Great Grandfather, in Muster Roll
Family search

The Nine Springs Sewer Treatment Plant is required by state law to allow sewer trucks (Honey Wagons) to dump at the plant, but only are allowed to charge actual cost. Well, even though I have been pressing for 33 years, they have yet to charge the millions of dollars spent in the headworks facility to handle the truck discharge of the waste they haul. They should pay the capital and debt cost for such a facility and not have it continued to be born by the MMSD ratepayers.

McFarland Public Safety Building 2025, Bray Architects

Many like to be a sponge and being so was not unique. Simeon Goff, my wife's fourth great grandfather, a patriot, whose first tour of duty in the Revolutionary War started nine days after Lexington and Concord was the opposite of Thomas Jefferson. A small Massachusetts farmer, he probably was part of the movement that spread over Massachusetts for the ideals of liberty and freedom, and likely knew nothing about the land speculators among the founding fathers at the Continental Congress. We see sponges today, particularly by rural landowners in Dane County who sponge off the largess of a nearby municipality. As I was told in answer to my query about getting the towns to pay their fair share for capital and operating expenses: "But, that is the way it has always been done." Well, that is not a good answer. The problem with the nation as a whole is most everybody wants services, but they do not wish to pay for them. 

Some say to study history because it repeats itself, perhaps not exactly, but in tone. Looking at the land speculation aspect, allows one to question the overall movement toward the war that started in April 1775. Were the ideals and principles of "Live Free or Die", Liberty, or Freedom, secondary to land speculation? Then we get to the colonial sponges and can compare them to the town sponges who receive service from McFarland. The inchoate nation 250 years past was perhaps in a land of sponges, but it soon was on its way to becoming an economic powerhouse. The founding fathers, as flawed as they may have been with mixed messaging of land and sponges, still had some great ideas. 

Sources: 2025 "The American Revolution: In Order to be Free," Episode 1 of 6,  Ken Burns et al, PBS 

              2003 Kennedy, Roger G, Mr. Jefferson's Lost Cause: Land Farmers, Slavery and the Louisiana Purchase, Oxford University Press, NY NY.

Don't Get Hurt

It was one of the last nice days before the cold was to set in, so I was outside Wednesday morning doing some various chores in the yard, in preparation for the upcoming cold weather. The brown leaves are hanging on the Hickory trees, and if like other years they will slowly fall off after the yard is all cleaned up well into the winter.  One Locust and a Maple still had leaves, with the Maple having just changed to a vibrant yellow a few days earlier. I was not doing anything major in the yard, just those small chores that are easy to overlook. The wife was going to go grocery shopping, and before departing she says to me: "Don't get hurt."  

Don't Get Hurt? I don't know why that tends to come up, like she must think I am accident prone. I am not sure what she expected me to do, get up on the roof and fall off? Come to think of it, that may not be the best example. Why? Because I had been known for going up on the roof while she has been away from the house. Generally, to clean gutters, or branches off the roof from storms. For years she has told me to not go on the roof when she is not home. I still think, now many years ago, a former neighbor tattled on me. Now we have gutter guards so my forays to the roof are lessened. It has been years since I have been on the roof of the two story part, as even I know that it is not safe to put a ladder on the peak and balance it while climbing to the upper roof from the lower, since I don't have long extension ladder. 

I guess there are ways I could get hurt in the yard, perhaps trying to haul to much. Even though I have a compost area (two actually) I sometimes take garden waste to the drop off site, and haul it down to the driveway by hand. She is often concerned that it becomes too heavy. The main way to get hurt would be falling down the hill I have to carry, or pull it down. I also haul brush down from our storage pile by the large compost area, to the street or sometimes to the drop off site.

I did not plan on biking that day, since it was a swim day, although I biked to swim. Speaking of biking, I got an earful, actually much more, from the wife after she read my blog post of 22 Oct titled Just Plain Stupid since I did not go into the fact that bike accidents area major cause of injury to seasoned citizens. I responded that I well knew that additional information could have gone in the post, but as the writer I made conscious choice to not place it in the post. It made me wonder if she used that tone of voice with her patients when they may have gotten out of line. I could see that voice being used in a classroom. 

Maple Tree Leaves blown over the backyard

I seem to get injured more doing something plain, like some simple exercises I have been doing for months, and then all of a sudden a tear sound is heard and felt in my foot, as happened Sunday evening. 

Her other go to phrase, particularly when I am going to bike, is "Be careful." Sometimes she says it and sometimes not. The thing is, it is not like a person looks to get hurt, it just happens. Elton Jenkins of the Packers broke is ankle Monday night, when a player on his team ran into a pile and his ankle got bent in a weird sort of way. Or, me pulling whatever I did in my foot. This week, we will need to clean up the leaves blown off the maple and the locust tree in the backyard. That maple tree color did not last long with the cold and snow that arrived Saturday night. Anyway, she can be happy because that Wednesday, I took her advice to heart and did not get hurt.

Daylight

As we all know, daylight savings time ended this past weekend. Clocks were turned back one hour on Saturday night, or if you are a night owl Sunday morning, as the official change took effect in the wee hours of Sunday morning. At Saturday evening mass, the priest paid for people who had to work the overnight shift, with an extra hour of work, to which my wife, a former nurse, shook her head in agreement. We will stay in standard time until March 8, 2026, or four months. There are calls from varied people, over the past few years, to end standard time and to have daylight savings time all year long. It is easy to look at your own situation and figure out what the effect would be, and perhaps many large population areas, such as the east coast, but the effect is different over the whole country.

The idea in changing to our current dates occurred through passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which was intended to save energy, but later daylight had people moving around more in the evening, which may save electricity, but used more gasoline. The prior dates of last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October was established in 1966. Health care professionals seem to say that the change in time affects our body clock, which I am not going to disagree with, and can lead to varied health issues such as cardiac arrest. 

Daylight hours for a place are related to its geographic relationship. For example, northern regions have more daylight hours for the summer than in the winter. The "24 hours" of daylight in the Nordic countries and Alaska are famous, but less talked about is the long winter night. Many years ago we camped at Pattison State Park, south of Superior, near the Fourth of July Holiday. Fireworks were that weekend night in Superior, and they started at 10:00 pm, which compared to a start of fireworks in the Madison area at 9:15 pm. Daylight savings time provides long summer nights, and makes sunrise more reasonable to the typical American. Those are the reasons Daylight savings time was instituted. Over the years, the time of start and end has changed.

People have changed as modernity has advanced. Most Americans, with the specialization of labor wake up between 6:00 and 6:30 am, but agrarian societies often work starting at sunrise. The industrial-professional economy has office hours often going to 5 pm. When working in Monona, I left for work before 7:30 am, and got home about 5:30 pm, hence except for weekends. My morning began as the sun had just risen, and would set well before I got home. I seldom would be able to peruse the yard in daylight hours for part of the winter. 

Our timing of when daylight arrives is also affected by our relation to the time zone in which we are located. Eastern Wisconsin is near the eastern edge of the Central zone, while Michigan and Indiana are near the western edge of the Eastern time zone. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, so the sun rise in the western part of a time zone is later than in areas due east. Hence, this effect of longitude and latitude interplay to affect sun rise. Much of the UP of Michigan is in the Eastern time zone, including its most northern and western part--Isle Royale. Can you imagine a heavy cloud day and how dark it would feel in Houghton at almost 10:00 am in the morning if daylight savings time lasted all year?  You may wonder when the day will brighten. 

The following map indicates, to the half hour, when the latest the sun would rise if the nation went to all year Daylight savings time.

The table below has  latest sun rise for McFarland, WI, where I live, Conover, WI, where a brother lives, and Minneapolis, MN were a son lives. I also added Houghton, MI to show the variation. 

There seem to always be unintended consequences to varied actions. For example, take the reduction in standard time in 2005, in which electric energy reduction was offset by people using their cars more and gas consumption increased. More daylight meant that people felt more comfortable moving around and going places in the evening. Hence, I wonder what the unintended consequences of using DST all year would mean, particularly in places with sunrise showing up in midmorning? People tend to think of the locale they are in, and disregard other locations and how a time change may effect them. For some reason, people do not wish to go with standard time all year, which was in effect for all but a blip of history. 

Met a Red Head

Over 36 years ago, I met a red head. We were married thirty-five years ago today, on October 27, 1990. I am sure that my life did not go wrong the day I met a red head as Charlie Brown intimates the the cartoon below. In many ways, I feel like Charlie Brown. We both fell in love with red heads, we are both average people . Neither of us are exactly intellectually endowed or athletically gifted, but we persevere. However, meeting a red head sure changed the trajectory of my life.

As I look back, meeting the red head was perhaps the biggest moment of my life, as we fell in love, got engaged, got married, for thirty five years now, and have two children, each of whom have a child of their own. If I had not met the red head in my life, my life would be different. A relationship with someone else would have been different than what I have today. Now I look, and feel like an old man. I noticed it in a photo when I was playing with a Lionel train with our grandson, Howie. I am not sure I always act like an old man (see last week's blog post).

Funny thing is reading the paper Sunday, October 26, I happened to notice four stars by the Leo horoscope, which is, appropriately so, in which my spouse's birthdate falls. Seldom do I read the horoscopes but with the four stars catching my eye, I just had to read it. It read: "Your creative vies are hot this morning, later in the day you will suddenly decide to work hard and be productive. Your might also have ideas on how to improve your health. Tonight: work."  Well, she likes to work mostly in the morning, but yesterday did work later in the day doing her favorite activity reorganizing and downsizing.  She was so successful on reorganizing our food pantry a few days ago she could not find an item. She is the energizer bunny on steroids. My horoscope today ended with "Maintain your possessions."  It is not my possessions I am worried about with her reorganizing, it is me.  She is such a whirlwind of activity, that it cannot be stopped. One would risk their life getting in the way. I am most concerned about getting packed up, or put on the front porch for pickup, more so than my possessions.  I will be downsized out of the house. Perhaps at some point she will wonder what happened to me. She may find me on the porch awaiting pickup, at the curb for free, or in the car waiting for delivery to Goodwill or St Vinnies. If I was at the curb, I may take longer to get picked up than the old ceiling fan a neighbor has sitting at the curb. 

She did have some benefit for the reorganization of the pantry. First, the extra jars of peanut butter are not upstairs, rather than in the basement. It also freed up space downstairs on shelves where we used to keep food (now in the pantry like peanut butter) and opened up space for other things. In using that extra space, she found an item we had been looking for since last winter or early spring. She thinks Somebody put it there. Somebody is that little ghost, like I Dunno and Not Me, that are Family Circus characters. After finding it, she wondered if my son would find the bike shoes that seemingly had been lost in his move from Sun Prairie to Appleton earlier this year. About two hours later my son texted her that he found the shoes in a box with some cookbooks. When you near the end of a move, stuff just gets packed in an open box that has room, rather than another box. My son suggested, with such coincidence, which she sometimes refers to as Godincidences, that she buy a lottery ticket. We did stop at Kwik Trip to pick up some milk, but she stayed in the car instead of buying a lottery ticket.

Fall was the appropriate season for our wedding, as I wrote in the anniversary card I made for my wife, "I keep falling for you." This statement would not have been used if we had a summer wedding, because it would not be relevant. I could probably come up with something to use for another season. Further, with her red hair she would blend right in with the colored foliage. It is like my wife could be camouflaged in the fall. Red heads are rare, less than 2% of the world's population. When on our honeymoon in November 1990 we saw a number of women in Italy who were dying their hair red, so at least then, it must have been something of a fashion statement. 

My wife is one of the most down to earth woman I know. One reason why one of her nicknames is Land Girl. As she said in her card to me, we make a great team. Yes, the damned red head altered the trajectory of my life, and I am glad she did.

"Just Plain Stupid!"

My wife was doing an exercise the other day with one foot against a wall and the other out front, but with the knees bent about 90 degrees. I commented on how difficult that looked. I tried the exercise and found it rather easy. She then said shift your weight to the front of your foot, and at that point it became much more difficult. No, this exercise was not just plain stupid, that is a comment she made to me when discussing core strength.

I noted that when one has planter fasciitis, tears in the tendons of their feet and ankles getting such support on the foot is difficult. The wife noted that it is not so much the foot as the core muscles. She intimated that my core muscles must not be where they should be. I disagreed. 

Bike bridge where I do most of my
hands free biking

I have been doing varied core exercises as part of my bad feet routine for almost five years now, and one given to me early this year involves what is like, so I was told by PT, a reverse plank. I think that has helped my core. I used to do bird dog, but PT told me stop that. In response to my wife and her intimation that I need to do more core work, I said I can ride my bike more than a quarter mile without having my hands on the handle bar. She seemed incredulous that a 67 year old man would ride his bike as if he were a fifteen year old, and commented how I knew I could not have done it last year. I said, I tried and could not get near as far. She then said, "Well, that is just plain stupid!"  I am pretty sure that she shook her head in disapproval, a mannerism with which I am familiar. I am not sure which part she was referring to as stupid, that I tried to ride without hands last year but did noy get too far, was riding without hands, or doing it for a quarter mile? Maybe it is both of the latter. But, I chose not to ask. Better to let it be. 

Now the frequency of when I ride without hands is dependent on a variety of factors, where on the bike path I am, how crowded or busy the path is, the wind and even temperature, and how my feet and ankles are feeling that particular day. I could probably go longer, but a curve, or people get me to put my hands back on the handle bars. I like to think I am rather safe riding my bike. Seldom do I ride in the street without hands, but I have done it on Exchange Street coming back from swim. In fact, last Friday it was a nice day and after crossing the street from the pool drive and getting some speed, I biked hands free most of the way from the pool drive to Farwell St, a distance of just under a quarter mile. When there is a fellow swimmer coming by in their car, then I keep the hands on the handlebar and pedal faster, as if I could beat a car. My favorite place to bike hands free is on the Lower Yahara River Trail, mainly the bike bridge, but also portions of the trail west of the bridge. In fact, on Tuesday, with a strong wind and cool temperature, on my way back from Lussier, I rode hands free, according to Google Maps measurements, just under a half mile (2,300 ft). I would have gone longer but came upon a mom with a stroller. When I come upon people, I grab the handle bars. Most of my distance is limited not by me, but by coming upon someone else. Yesterday, likely due to weather from McDaniel Park to Lussier and back, I only say 8 walkers and 2 other bicyclists.

Part of .9 mi bike bridge

The wife may not have remembered, but earlier in the summer, perhaps August, we were on the front porch and for some reason a similar topic came up and I mentioned that I have ridden my bike for over a quarter mile without hands. I was the recipient of a different statement: "That is not something you should be telling your spouse." I guess it was an overshare in August, but in October it became "just plain stupid." Now, I know that certain things, what they are I am not fully sure, I should not tell my wife. And, in her mind, some of the things I do are just plain stupid!