This barn looks as sad as I feel when the weatherman mentioned more snow. I don’t think this barn can handle anymore snow and I’m not sure other buildings can either. I know I can’t throw the snow up over the piles anymore so waiting for spring to arrive and as the one weatherman said, spring will arrive sometime in 2014.
More Sad
Although I have another shot without people in my landscape picture, I did decide to use this one so one could get the scale of rocks, cliffs and caves. On the far left there are two people walking aside the cliffs, one wearing red and the other in black.
It was this cave opening which I wanted to get back to when the sun was going down to catch the golden glow. For the picture I posted on February 13, I was inside looking out towards the direction where I was standing to take this picture looking into it earlier in the afternoon. And since there was so many caves and ice formations to see, I had to hustle back to this spot when the sun was setting. But by staying at the cave until the sun went down, it meant a mile and half hike across the frozen Lake Superior in sub-zero temps in quickly fading twilight but it was worth it.
The Photographer’s Cave
I try, when I can, find information on the subjects I photograph and the first thing I found about this church once I knew its name was that the church had a 1928 Hinners Organ. St. Katherine Evangelical Lutheran Church, near Rusk, Wisconsin, was organized on February 9, 1878 and the church was completed in August of that year. Its original name was The Evangelical Lutheran St. Katherine Church of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession.
But the more interesting story is the company that made the organ. The Hinners Organ was dedicated to the manufacture of pipe organs for smaller churches and enjoyed much success from its conception in May 1879. It depended entirely on a catalog as the company employed no salesmen, and therefore it was able to sell its organs at a very reasonable price.
The Great Depression played a big part in the company’s demise, but with the lack of salesmen, the company lost contact with its market developments and the need of larger organs for city churches and theaters. Disagreements among the owners about building bigger organs spelled doom for the Hinners Company and the company dissolved in October 1942.
St. Katherine Church
Since yesterday I referenced the opening which I walked through, I figured I post the tunnel which cut through to the other side of the rock cliff.
Through the Ice Tunnel
I love the golden glow which appears when the sun begins to set but the golden moment doesn’t last long and I’m not always in the spot I want to be when that moment arrives. And when I shoot landscape photos, I try not to have man-made objects in them or people, but photographs don’t always give you the scale without a reference or more views. This cave went very deep which isn’t seen in this view and with a very high ceiling. The little, icy opening on the left side was big enough for me to walk through so it would have been a long drop if I fell off the top when I hiked on the ridge of the caves in the summer. But then I didn’t know I wasn’t walking on solid ground so not sure I will feel so safe to walk on top again since I saw recent slabs that have fallen from the ceiling and sides.
Golden Cave
This cute little barn is starting to feel its age which a few boards weathering away and the windows looking a little sad. It probably heard the cold forecast as the arctic air is making me sad too.
A Little Sad
Today is another cold, crispy day with some snow blowing across the fields and the snow can really blow across the surface of Lake Superior with very few things to slow the snow down. When I was inside this ice cave, my glasses and camera fogged up since it was warmer near the ice than being in the open air so you know it was cold outside.
I enjoyed the view from here and took several pictures, but I was really delaying getting down out of the cave since I was trying to figure out how to gracefully get down on my butt and slide out. At least the snow pants were slippery and so I slide out easy, but maybe too easy and too quickly!
Mouth of an Ice Cave
I saw this pheasant fly up to the trees and he is smart to get up off the frozen snow, but he probably is wishing he would have migrated south this winter as it has been a long, snowy, cold one. Ring-necked Pheasants sometimes cope with extreme cold by simply remaining dormant for days at a time.
The powerful breast muscles deliver bursts of power that allow the birds to escape trouble in a hurry, flushing nearly vertically into the air and reaching speeds of nearly 40 miles per hour.
Ring-necked Pheasant
I much more prefer seeing ice on these cave walls than on the roads I have been driving on. The ice formations on the caves of the south shore of Lake Superior are various colors including clear ice several inches thick.
And some of the cave tunnels reminded me of the Olympic luge track except I didn’t have a sled so in some of the tunnels, I just had to sit on my butt to slide out, but the caves were memorable to see.
Icy Tunnels
The two common events of this winter seems to be cloudy and snowy or sunny and frigid. And I don’t know which is the greater evil since one means messy roads and lots of shoveling and the other means high energy bills and frozen pipes. It might be pretty to some but I’m ready to see some pretty spring flowers.
The cold sun is shining above Norton Lutheran Church between Wheeler and Colfax, Wisconsin, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in September 2011.
Norton Lutheran Church
