Art, Jesse, Road Trip, Town Sign Project, WPC - Reminder

Town Sign Project: Cerro Gordo County

September 10, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 7 Comments

This Saturday from 8-12 we are going to have the final sale at my Mom’s house. There is still lots of glassware and collectibles for sale. A few tools. Many decorations. Maybe some furniture. Some other stuff will be added this week as well I’m sure. The address is 111 South Benton Street. The sale is in the garage and in the garage only. The garage is on the alley. The alley is a dead end, so don’t come down the alley and try to park. I’ll let you know if any of the details change.

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The Thursday before Pufferbilly Days, Jesse and I cruised around north Iowa and harvested the town signs of Cerro Gordo County.

Here are some facts about Cerro Gordo County:
+ Population is 42,834, making it the 14th most populous county in Iowa. Behind Muscatine County and above Marshall County.
+ The largest town and county seat is Mason City.
+ Was formed in 1851.
+ Named after the Battle of Cerro Gordo from the Mexican-American War where General Winfield Scott defeated General Santa Anna.
+ Site of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and their pilot Roger A. Peterson.
+ Location of Music Man Square.
+ Major highways are: I-35, US-18, US-65, IA-27, and IA-122.
+ Adjacent Counties are: Worth, Mitchell, Floyd, Franklin, and Hancock.
+ Peak population was 49,894 in 1960.

The Cerro Gordo Courthouse is hideous:

The Cerro Gordo Courthouse in Mason City, Iowa.

The Cerro Gordo County Courthouse is located in Clear Lake, Iowa:

With Cerro Gordo County conquered, this is the updated Photography 139 Conquest Map:

PURPLE=COMPLETED

35 counties completed. 35.4% of the Cyclone State conquered.

Here are the town signs of Cerro Gordo County:

Mason City, Iowa
Welcome to Mason City
Population: 27,338 (-747)

Clear Lake, Iowa
WELCOME TO Clear Lake
EST. 1871
Population: 7,687 (-90)

Rockwell, Iowa
WELCOME TO ROCKEWELL
Population: 1,071 (+32)

Ventura, Iowa
VENtURA
SPORTSMAN’S PARADIS
Population: 711 (-6)

Thornton, Iowa
WELCOME TO THORNTON
Population: 400 (-22)

Plymouth, Iowa
WELCOME TO PLYMOUTH
Population: 375 (-7)

Meservey, Iowa
Welcome To Meservey
Est. 1886
Population: 222 (-34)

Swaledale, Iowa
WELCOME TO SWALEDALE
Population: 144 (-19)

Rock Falls, Iowa
WELCOME TO ROCK FALLS
Population: 150 (-5)

Dougherty, Iowa
WELCOME TO DOUGHERTY
LIL’ IRELAND
Population: 62 (+4)

Cartersville, Iowa (Unincorporated)
CARTERSVILLE ELEVATOR

I don’t know that there is an absolutely terrible sign in this collection. However, I’m going to have to give the worst sign in Cerro Gordo County to Plymouth.

But what gets Best in Show? I’m normally not a big fan of rock signs. They look like tombstones. However, I actually like Ventura’s sign, although I can’t figure out why all the letters are capitalized except the “t”. I love how Rock Falls clearly turned an old DX sign into their town sign. However, it loses some of the luster because Grafton (future post) did the same thing. I have to give Best in Show to Dougherty.

Dougherty – Best in Show – Cerro Gordo County

Here are the alternate signs of Cerro Gordo County:

Ventura – Alternate

Rockwell – Alternate

Thornton – Alternate

Swaledale – Alternate

Here is the current list of Best in Shows:

Best in Show – Adair County

Best in Show – Audubon County

Best in Show – Benton County

Best in Show – Boone County

Best in Show – Butler County

Best in Show – Calhoun County

Best in Show – Carroll County

Best in Show – Cerro Gordo County

Best in Show – Clarke County

Best in Show – Crawford County

Best in Show – Dallas County

Best in Show – Franklin County

Best in Show – Greene County

Best in Show – Grundy County

Best in Show – Guthrie County

Best in Show – Hamilton County

Best in Show – Hancock County

Best in Show – Hardin County

Best in Show – Humboldt County

Best in Show – Ida County

Best in Show – Jasper County

Best in Show – Lucas County

Best in Show – Madison County

Best in Show – Marion County

Best in Show – Marshall County

Best in Show – Pocahontas County

Best in Show – Polk County

Best in Show – Poweshiek County

Best in Show – Sac County

Best in Show – Story County

Best in Show – Tama County

Best in Show – Union County

Best in Show – Warren County

Best in Show – Webster County

Best in Show – Wright County

The next time we visit THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT, we will visit Worth County.

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is JUNK:

JUNK

JUNK! What a great theme for Week 8 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what exactly is a JUNK photo. JUNK isn’t necessarily garbage, but it could be. JUNK is defined as things that are useless or of little value. But that doesn’t mean JUNK has no value. Just like the theme reveal image, I bet everybody reading these words has a JUNK drawer. Off the top of my head, I have at least 9 of them and several JUNK bins. So go out and find something that has been set aside because it has little value and give it some value by turning it into art.

And don’t forget that some food is considered JUNK as well. And of course, there are other definitions for the word JUNK. Some more safe for work than others.

Happy photo harvesting.

Elainie, Flowers, Football, Iowa State, Logan, Macro, Mom

Mississippi Cotton Picking Delta Town

September 9, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

On Tuesday when I opened up the Twitters looking for any new Iowa State or Big 12 expansion news, I saw this post from Nick Bassett that made me smile so big:

For those of you that don’t follow sports, College GameDay is a pregame show on ESPN on Saturday mornings for college football. It is a huge deal when they come to your town and they are in Ames for Iowa State’s game this Saturday. It is awesome that they are interviewing Nick.

If you don’t know Nick, you are missing out. He did Speech stuff with Logan in high school and Elainie used to go out to his place for their bonfires. He is a great guy that sits a section from me at the Iowa State games. The Des Moines Register recently ran a story on him. You can read it by clicking on the link below:

Inspired by Iowa State coach Matt Campbell, Cyclones fan to return to Jack Trice Stadium after having legs amputated

I will share just a small chunk of the story:

Bassett was given about an hour to mull over the biggest decision of his life: Whether to amputate his legs or keep them and risk further infections. Both of Bassett’s legs had sores caused by poor circulation. If Bassett opted against amputation, he’d have to go through skin grafts and operations. After discussing the options, his doctor left the room and told him he’d be back in an hour.

Bassett didn’t need that long.

Bassett called his parents and told them to come to the hospital. He was going to have his legs amputated. His doctor scheduled an operation to remove them just above the knee for later in the week.

After making the decision, Bassett logged on his Twitter account and announced it, along with a plan for the future to followers.

He wrote that there was “no clear line on recovery but my goal is to be healthy enough to watch” Campbell and the Iowa State football team at Jack Trice Stadium this fall.

He ended it with this: “Two words keep racing through my mind…”I Will.”

Once again, here is the picture I took of Nick at the game on Saturday:

College GameDay is on ESPN from 8 AM to 11 AM, in case you want to watch.

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Here is another collection of pictures of flowers from my Mom’s yard. These pictures were taken on May 16, 2021.

Many more flower pictures to share. Many more!

Andy, Football

Boone at Nevada

September 8, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

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A couple of Fridays back Andy asked me to come over to Nevada to take some pictures of Kyle playing football against the Nevada footballers. The match was a bit one-sided, but we don’t need to get into the talks of score or anything like that. I will say that I was impressed with Nevada’s facilities. They have a very nice stadium and concession stands. On the other hand, the food that comes out of that concession stand is trash, well at least the pork sandwich was trash, but other than that, it was an interesting experience.

Here are some of the pictures from the night:

The one thing that didn’t go well for me on this night was that I was going to hit Starbuck’s for supper and by the time I got there, it was closed. That was disappointing!

Animals, Flowers, Lensbaby, Macro, Mom, Teresa

Painted Without Instruction – 2021

September 7, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

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On the Saturday of Pufferbilly Days, Teresa and I went out to Rinehart’s for breakfast. At that time their sunflower patch was in its final throes. We still drove out there and I took a few pictures of it. Here are some of those pictures:

I wish I would have cracked out Rodan139, but it being Pufferbilly Days, there were some time constraints. I did crack out the Lensbaby Velvet 85. Any time I get to crack that out in a flower patch is a great day.

Andy, Bill, Carla, Drone, Elizabeth, Jesse, Kim, Kio, Panorama, Teresa, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 312 – ‘SCAPE

September 6, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

Despite it being Labor Day, there was still a decent, but not overwhelming number of submissions for ‘SCAPE.

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates. You came to see the submissions:

Andy Sharp

Teresa Kahler

Kim Barker

Elizabeth Nordeen

Jesse Howard

Carla Stensland

Jesse Howard

Bill Wentworth

Kio Dettman

Christopher D. Bennett

Kio Dettman

Lori Backous

Tamara Peterson

Lori Backous

Micky Augustin

But enough dwelling on the past. Time to look to the future. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future! This week’s theme:

JUNK

JUNK! What a great theme for Week 8 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

And don’t forget that some food is considered JUNK as well. And of course, there are other definitions for the word JUNK. Some more safe for work than others.

When you thinking about creating your JUNK image, think about this quote:

Buy, buy says the sign in the show window;
Why why, says the junk in the yard.
– Paul McCartney

RULES

The picture has to be taken between 12:01 PM today and 11 AM next Monday. This isn’t a curate your photos project. This is a get your butt off the couch (unless you are taking your picture from the couch) and take pictures challenge.

You can send your images to either bennett@photography139.com OR you may text them to my Pixel 5.

That is all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will all be sharing our idea of JUNK in this place that is little more than the place I leave much of my psychological junk next Monday.

WPC - Reminder

Week 313 Theme Reveal

September 6, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

If you are reading this, then I am out on the open road harvesting some town signs. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be able to get started on this week’s theme at the appropriate time.

Here is the theme for Week 313:

JUNK

I will reveal the submissions for ‘SCAPE later tonight. Hopefully.

Football, Iowa State, Music

#7 Iowa State Cyclones 16 Northern Iowa Panthers 10

September 5, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

I did take my camera in for Iowa State’s embarrassing, pathetic performance/victory against UNI yesterday. There is a limit of 6 inches on the length of lenses that you are allowed to bring in, so the lens I brought in was definitely a wide angle lens, sorta. You don’t want to here the technical details on all of that. Therefore the pictures aren’t exactly in the action. But thought I would share them anyways.

Here are some of my favorites from yesterday:

If you haven’t read the Des Moines Register article on Nick Bassett, you really should.

Next Saturday Iowa State hosts Iowa. It is the biggest (maybe second biggest) game of the week in all of college football. ESPN is broadcasting College GameDay from Ames. It is only the second that GameDay has come to Ames, so it should be pretty exciting!

If you want to peruse the rest of the pictures from the game, click on the link below:

Iowa State Football – 2021

It is mostly band/cheerleader type pictures. It is hard for me to take pictures of the game when it is close and we are playing poorly. Both of those things happened on Saturday.

Art, Baier, Black & White, Formal Portrait, Iowa State

2010-11-22

September 4, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

Most of the pictures from the folder 2010-11-22 are from when I took some pictures of the Baiers around Iowa State’s beautiful campus.

WEEK 46 - SPIRITUAL - CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entry to its original glory:

RWPE #46 – SPIRITUAL

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a youth group fundraiser.

Animals, Art, Basketball, Football, Iowa State, Jesse, Shannon, State Fair, WPC - Reminder

Last Day of the Fair

September 3, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

On the last day of the Iowa State Fair, Jesse and I went down there and spent several hours down there before picking up my pictures from the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. I barely made it in to the Cultural Center to get my photos because they started closing the building down at 7, which is when you were supposed to be able to go in and get your photos. I was one of the few people that let in and got my photos. I was lucky.

Here are some pictures from the day:

I’m already looking forward to the 2022 Iowa State Fair. I hope we are completely through this pandemic by then so I can enjoy the Fair more freely.

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is ‘SCAPE.

‘SCAPE

REMINDER: NEXT MONDAY IS LABOR DAY. WHILE THE BANK MAY TAKE A DAY OFF AND THE SCHOOLS MIGHT TAKE THE DAY OFF AND MOST OF THE GOVERNMENT MIGHT TAKE THE DAY OFF AND THE COMPUTER MINE MIGHT TAKE THE DAY OFF… PHOTOGRAPHY 139 DOES NOT TAKE THE DAY OFF. EVERY DAY I’M HUSTLING. PLAN WHEN YOU SUBMIT YOUR PHOTO ACCORDINGLY!

‘SCAPE! What a great theme for Year 8 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is a ‘SCAPE picture? Do you mean landscape? Don’t worry, I’m about to feed you baby bird.

Yes, a landscape picture could be a ‘SCAPE picture, but a ‘SCAPE picture isn’t necessarily a landscape picture. The theme reveal picture is a picture of a landscape that I took high up in the Loess Hills on Saturday. However it is the apostrophe before the SCAPE that is key here. You don’t have to limit your possibilities to a landscape. There are other types of ‘SCAPEs. There are citySCAPEs. There are also waterSCAPES and skySCAPEs and even inSCAPEs.

And if you don’t know what a landSCAPE is, it is this:

“all the visible features of an area of countryside or land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.”

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Elainie, Flowers, Macro, Mom

Amazing Love

September 2, 2021 Christopher D. Bennett

Well over a year ago my Mom paid for a brick to honor her Dad for his military service that was to be placed around the Boone County Freedom Rock. I believe that she ended up splitting that cost with her brothers and sisters. Then she purchased a brick to honor Elainie. It took well over a year and she never got to see the bricks, but they are finally in place. Well they are sorta in place:

If you look at the brick that honors Elainie’s military service, you will notice that they misspelled her name. This is supposedly going to be fixed and replaced with a brick that spells her name correctly. Sooner rather than later, so I guess we will wait and see.