Rankinen Farm at Old World Wisconsin

Old World Wisconsin

Old World Wisconsin

We traveled to Eagle Wisconsin to attend The Spirit of Christmas Past at Old World Wisconsin, a Wisconsin State Historical Society site. Old World Wisconsin is a settlement depicting 19th- and early 20th-century rural Wisconsin located on almost 600 acres of wooded hills in the Kettle Moraine State Forest. The Crossroads Village and the Finnish Settlement were open the past two weekends, and provided a rare opportunity to photograph the outdoor rural museum dressed in a winter cloak.

I liked the way the Rankinen Farmstead was tucked into the landscape. Though I was wishing for blue skies dotted with lots of fluffy clouds, the gray skies seemed to enhance the reflection effect in this photograph. No complaints about the weather – the afternoon was pleasant with mild temperatures in the low 30s and no wind. I used the Olympus Pen’s pinhole art filter to balance all that winter white.

The Rankinen Farm was moved to the museum site from Bayfield County in northern Wisconsin and is depicted as it was in 1897.

Blue Skies

Crispy Cold

Crispy Cold

There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you . . . in spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself.  ~Ruth Stout

Pine Forest

After the Snow Storm

After the Snow Storm


We all travel the milky way together, trees and men… trees are travellers, in the ordinary sense.  They make journeys, not very extensive ones, it is true:  but our own little comes and goes are only little more than tree-wavings – many of them not so much.  ~John Muir, Scribner’s Monthly, November 1878

Wintry Road

Madison Wisconsin

Madison Wisconsin

Not much conversion needed to turn this (slightly) color photograph into a black and white. The road leads into Owen Conservation Park, and the park is always a good bet to visit, even in the midst of a blizzard. Snow plows are stored in sheds in the park, and so its road is one of the first to get plowed.

The last time I stuck my yardstick into the side yard, the snow measured a good 16 inches in depth. So the browns of November are now the whites of December.

Snow Plowing

Unsung Hero in Winter

Unsung Hero in Winter

More to come – more snow, more plowing, more winter. But hey, first off, I’m thanking this guy who’s out there plowing my circle. There are many miles of streets in Madison, don’t know why my circle street got so darn lucky, but it’s only 9 a.m. and we’re already getting plowed out. He watched me taking his picture, I even waved, but I’m not too sure he smiled back. But then…he IS rather busy.

So thanks Mr. Snow Plow Guy. You do a heck of a lot of good for my claustrophobia!