River Valley

The Allamakee County Conservation Board will be hosting Captain Ted Peck Thursday, March 8 at 7 p.m. at the Driftless Area Education and Visitors Center in Lansing. Captain Ted Peck will be speaking on walleye fishing techniques and presentations throughout the year on the Upper Mississippi River.

Peck has been fishing the Mississippi River for over 50 years and has been guiding for over 30 years. This has earned him sponsorships from numerous manufacturers including Evinrude Outboards, Lund Boats, Johnson Fishing and Northland Tackle. When not on the river, Peck writes outdoors stories for a number of national, regional and local outlets.

The Ferryville Farmers Market is holding an organizational meeting Monday, March 5 from 9-11:30 a.m. at the Ferryville Village Hall, State Hwy. 35, Ferryville WI. Anyone interested in being a vendor, as well as all present vendors at Ferryville Farmers Market, may attend.

Market Manager Robert Jelinek has organized the meeting to begin working together to launch another successful 2018 market season. This meeting is for those who have ever thought about growing some extra produce in their garden, wanted to try being a vendor or need help getting started with either.

Larry and Mary Wilson of Richard’s Orchards will talk about “Getting started with a Gangbuster Garden”.  A member of the Crawford County Master Gardeners will be present to participate in this discussion as well.

The Kee High School Speech Department will be hosting its annual Speech Dinner Theatre Sunday, March 4, beginning at 5 p.m. at TJ’s Banquet Hall in Lansing. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. for the annual fundraising event that showcases the Kee High School Large Group Speech teams while also providing a full buffet of beef brisket/barbeque chicken, cheesy potatoes, corn, dinner roll, and the traditional endless table of desserts. Tickets are on sale only this week through Friday, February 23 and may be purchased from any speech member or by calling the Kee High School office at 563-538-4201. No tickets will be sold at the door or the week before the event due to ordering the right amount of food for the evening. The event is a fundraiser for the Speech organization to help offset contest fees and All-State trip costs. Submitted photo.
 

Lloyd Erickson (left) and Gladys Heitman (right) were crowned Valentine King and Queen for 2018 at Thornton Manor Care Center in Lansing. Bingo, music and sweets were enjoyed by many during the celebration of Valentine's Day at Thornton Manor Care Center Wednesday, February 14. Submitted photo.
 

by Susan Cantine-Maxson

Monday, February 19, the Board of Directors of the Eastern Allamakee Community School District (EACSD) met in its regular monthly session  at  Kee High School in Lansing beginning at 3 p.m., with several participants attending the meeting through Zoom. The meeting was scheduled for earlier in the day with the anticipation of the Kee girls basketball team playing in its regional championship game later that same Monday night in New Hampton, but that game ended up being postponed due to the icy weather forecasted for the area.

A hunter-harvested adult doe taken in southeast Wayne County in south central Iowa along the Missouri border during the first shotgun deer season has tested positive for the presence of chronic wasting disease (CWD). This is the first hunter-harvested wild deer outside of northeast Iowa to test positive for the always fatal disease. The deer was shot December 5.

“We contacted the hunter once it was confirmed,” said Terry Haindfield, wildlife biologist and coordinator for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) chronic wasting disease monitoring effort. “The test results are disappointing but not surprising. We are seeing an increasing number of CWD positive deer in northeast Iowa and from our neighboring states."

The Harpers Ferry Booster Club and the Allamakee County Conservation Board will be hosting the Harpers Ferry Youth Ice Fishing Clinic at Nobles Island Boat Access, 645 Hwy. 364, Harpers Ferry this Sunday, February 18. Registration for youth age 16 and under will begin at 11a.m. and fishing will continue until 2 p.m.

Youth participating in the clinic may use their own equipment, but ice fishing equipment will be available to youth who do not have their own. Food and drink will be available for those participating in the clinic. Prizes will be awarded to participants in each of three age groups.

In case of inclement weather, all cancellations and delays will be posted on the Allamakee County Conservation Board Facebook page the day of the event. For more information on this program or any program offered by the Allamakee County Conservation Board, contact the office at 563-538-0403 or follow on Facebook.
 

Several dozen people stood on the icy shore at the Village Creek State Boat Landing in Lansing Saturday, February 10 to watch river history re-enacted during the Lansing Ice Harvest, hosted by Allamakee County Conservation. Local residents demonstrated the process used from the beginning of the 1900s until the 1960s to harvest ice for local ice houses. The event was conducted by Gary and Karen Galema of Lansing, who own the ice saws and equipment.

Ask any second grader from New Albin Elementary School what algorithm means and they become a coding expert following a recent program held in New Albin. Algorithm, bug, debugging and program are the basic vocabulary to begin coding. Youth learned what an algorithm is by planting seeds. First, they had to come up with a set of rules or instructions, and then follow those instructions to correctly plant the seed. To further explain the concept, one partner wrote an algorithm using arrows for the directions. The second partner became the robot and stacked cups according to the algorithm (pictured above). Bugs could be found in this process and students worked hard to debug (fix) it. Students received hands-on learning when coding on code.org and investigating the many robots supplied by Keystone Area Education Agency. Code-a-pillar, Lumi, Cublets, MiP, Coji and the bee-bots (pictured below) were just a few robots made available.

Iowa award-winning nature photographer Ty Smedes will present pictures and stories from his current book “The Return of Iowa’s Bald Eagles” Thursday, February 22 at 6:30 p.m. at the Driftless Area Education and Visitors Center in Lansing. Anyone who is interested may attend the program free of charge. “The Return of Iowa's Bald Eagles” and other books and photographs by Smedes will be available the night of the program.

Smedes has been photographing Iowa’s nature since 1980 when he bought his first 35mm camera. His photography work was first published by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources in 1983 and now can frequently be seen across several publications in Iowa and the United States. He has photographed nature in seven different African countries, South America, The Falkland Islands and Antarctica. Pictures, stories and more information on Smede’s photography adventures may be found at www.smedesphoto.com.