August–December 2006
April–June 2005
January–March 2005
Joe Helfert, my dad wrote a column in the Beaver Dam Daily Citizen for many years under the title? Open Eye Club? Column. Many people have told me over the years how much they enjoyed reading his column and following his adventures around the state of Wisconsin. His main theme was always on Safety, especially children’s safety. He would add articles about his travels around the state and this seem to have the greatest interest for many of his readers. I loved the format he used and will try a little of my own in the internet version of his column. I don’t have any illusions that I will be half as good as he was but would like to have you join me in the many adventures I will make around the state.

Wisconsin Up North is based out of Beaver Dam Wisconsin but will mainly be about my wife JoAnn and my travels to our Mobile home in Woodruff Wisconsin. We are in the Hiawatha Travel Trailer Park just outside Woodruff on Old Highway 51. We spend May through Mid October in this wonderful place which is truly Up North to us. I hope you will enjoy my site and welcome comments to the staff. We will be adding e commerce business’s to the site sometime in the future and ask you to patronize them so we can continue to bring you the site.
August 2010

Time goes by really fast the older you get. I looked at my website and found that it has been a year since my last addition to the blog. Pretty much find myself in the same position I was last time I wrote. I am back to unemployed. I found a job after six weeks of looking. I had to decide between two and I chose the wrong one. I have been out of work for about a month and it is slim pickings out there for jobs.
 
During the past year, I started a photo club in Beaver Dam under the name Lightcatchers. We started off in September 2009 with ten people and have had over 30 at some of the meetings. I was elected President and have really enjoyed the club. I have learned a great deal from the other members. We are part of the Beaver Dam Area Arts Association. I was also chosen to be on the board of directors for the Association.
 
Up north has been a wonderful thing to get my mind off unemployment. Jo Ann has been spending every other week up there during July and August. I have been coming back and job searching.
 
I have a picture of my Photo Group attached to this story. The picture was taken the night our members did photos of the garden in back of the Seipple Center were we meet on the last Tuesday of the month.
 
With more time on my hands, I hope to add some new items to the website. Keep coming back to check on whats new.  
June 2009

Bob Dylan said it best. The times they are a changing. For the first time in 62 to years on this earth, I was let go from a job. I last collected unemployment for two week in 1971. I finally have a chance to just sit in my office at home and enjoy not having to go to work. My new work is really proving to be interesting. Looking for a job.

Since I was let go a week ago, I have had more great phone calls from fellow workers and past co-workers. Last Sunday I was surprised to here my cell phone in my briefcase go off. It never rings. It was one of my customers, Chong from Singapore wondering what happened. I really had a lot of great business friends I developed over the past ten years. I also had a chance to go back to visit at my old job Associate Engineering and that proved to be very enjoyable. So while many others are down in the dumps about their being laid off, I think I am quit enjoying mine. Of course I hope to have a new job shortly.

I have a couple of pictures to share with you. First is my grand daughter Arianna with the newest addition to our family. We got Kona, a one-year-old Yorkie a few months ago. We also got the purse in the deal. Seems some girls in college liked the idea of a dog so they could carry it around like some other famous stars do. Of course there is the training of a puppy the apparently didn't take into consideration. The dog ended up with one of the girls’ folks. They could not take care of it because they worked so wanted a good home. We now have four dogs. Kona is a male and very much the head of this pack including us. I will try and get a picture of all four but that is much to ask.

The second picture is of my being captured by an eagle up north. He kept me hostage in the nest for days. Just kidding. This is part of an interpretive art display in the walking trail we take up north. It is great to be back in the North Country and I am looking forward to having some extra time up there this year. Hope this finds all my readers well and hope to hear from may of you this summer.  
18 October 2008

This is the first Saturday morning I have spent at home in forever. We finished off our "Up North" for this year last weekend. Lots to catch up on in the northern prospectives section.

My  photography career continues to grow. My work was selected for one of the eight rooms at the Beaver Dam Area Arts Associaton "Rooms With New Views" that was featured at the Seippel Homestead & Center for the Arts. My works ended up in the formal living room at the Center. The exhibit is currently runing from August 24th through October 26th. This is the first time that I have been able to have a good selection of my work in an exhibit. I do have six of my matted and framed photos at he Conney Safety Products building. Nice to see them every time I go to work. I did have my sisters, Mary Jo and Jean both over to see the exhibit along with many friends.

Back to up north. JoAnn spend every other week up at our mobile home from June through mid September. I took many long weekends and the time spent was wonderful. Such a nice place to relax. JoAnn got more into her making cards and loves the challenge of making really good ones. Look out Hallmark. Our new dog Timmy who was featured in a previous article is making great strides. We didn't know how he would adapt but is getting better by the day. Even sat on my lap in my chair for the first time. Just can't imagine someone wanting to kill him because he wasn't producing the right color puppies.

We did have bad news coming out of the summer. Our good friend Bruce Jensen died after a short illness. Bruce was our next door neighbor and we had many great evening together around the campfire. He had a quaint up north cottage near Hazelhurst and I was fortunate enough to have had a chance to take photos of it for him. Many stories of deer camp and other fishing and hunting events at that cabin were told over the last five years that we knew Bruce. He loved to go to Canada fishing and will miss hearing those stories. He was a hard working salesmen in his earlier years and on the County Fair board for many years in Wausau. He was also a ginseng farmer and I learned a lot about how to grow it and his trips to the far east selling it.

I have been really taking lots of pictures since JoAnn got me a new camera for Christmas. The Canon Rebel is a digital camera that really lets me take great photos. It lets me do the same things with a camera that I did with my old film 35mm.. I have also joined a photo club that works out of the Arboretum in Madison and meets monthly. I have learned a lot about phothgraphy there and have had one of my photos selected to be judged by the other 13 photo groups in the state. I will hear more about how my photo stacked up against the rest later this year.

I will continue to work on making this web site the best it can be. Please feel free to send me an e mail if you have suggestions on things you would like to see on this site. I continue to thank my son-in-law John Vatne for the work on the site. He has been very helpful in taking care of the site. More stories next year when we start heading back "Up North" in early May. Have a great rest of 2008 and a wonderful Holiday season coming up.
February 2008

The ninth of February was an interesting day for the Helfert family. Over the past three years we went from four dogs to two dogs with the passing of Annie and Tootsie. The week before the 9th, JoAnn took our remaining two dogs Bailey and Molly to the groomer. She found out that a Yorkshire rescue lady in Beaver Dam had snatched a dog away from a puppy mill and needed a new home.

JoAnn has always said that she could not work for the Humane Society because we would have 50 dogs if she did. After debating what to do for several days she called on Saturday. We found out that the rescue lady had driven three and one half hours to the Puppy mill. Another rescue lady told her of the small dog she thought was a Yorky. Turns out to be a Pomeranian-Maltese mix. The two year old dog was not producing the right color puppies so it was to be put to sleep on Sunday. She rescued the dog and began the long hard work of training him. She called him Timmy because he is so small. Four pounds. His first two years of life were as a number and kept in a cage in the barn. She said he was just wild when she first let him down.

After the first week as a Helfert, he is adapting well., He loves Bailey and is usally found following behind her. He sleeps on the bed with his masters and the other dogs and lets us pet him when he is there. Otherwise he is impossible to catch when he is on foot.

I guess I need to get on my soap box and ask why we allow puppy mills to florish in our state. Seems we should be able to have some minimum guidelines on what is humane for the animals. Thanks heaven there are puppy rescue people to save the Timmys' of the world. We lost our last two dogs at 19 and 16. We hope Timmy will have a long  fun life now that he is away from the puppy mill.

We have had record snows in Southern Wisconsin this year and we can't wait for spring and our return to our up north trailer. I made the rungs of the fence around the deck both here and up north so the dogs could not get through it. Didn't consider a four pound dog. He went right thought the rungs the first day we had him. Thank goodness there was a lot of snow that stopped him. Had to put netting all around the deck to keep him in. The deck up north is twice as big and will be twice as much fun putting netting up. That will be the first item of business when we get up there in ten weeks. Hope your winter is going well.
October 2007

Back to making sauerkraut. Mickey and Bonnie got us involved for a second straight year for making Sauerkraut. This year we were treated to some real professional kraut makers. We gathered on a week night in the garage of Carl and Noreen Kircher. You can see the Orchard sign in the back of the picture. Don and Judy have helped the Orchard street gang make their kraut for many of the 25 years they have been gatheriing for this event. Past year have netted up to 2500 pounds in a night

These are professional people at kraut making having made between 400 and 500 pounds in under three hours this October evening. The half empty cart in the picture was nearly full when it arrrived. Everything was sanitized before starting. Chopping and weighting the 25 pound batches was first. Three Hovel stations were available for shredding the cabbage into the bags like the one you see in the picture. A wheelbarrow with plastic liner was where the shredded cabbage was "Fluffed" by several ladies including my wife JoAnn. She could feel the activity the next day in her back. Next the fluffed cabbage was sent to the "bruiser" Jim Phillips who pounded the cabbage into submission and kraut for the entire time we worked.

It seemed like everybody in the neighborhood showed up at one time or another to either help or give support to the workers. Most everybody brought along a crock and all were filled at the end of the evening. Ours is down in the basement awaiting fermenting until it is just right in late December or early January. I am sure JoAnn will take a few samples over the next month to see how it is doing. Carl's crock was so big, it took two gentlemen to carry it down in his basement.

Of course a good German evening could not be without a few bottles of brew. We also had a variety of great food to keep our strength up. So while many people sat and watched their television for the evening, The Orchard street gang made Kraut to good old German music.  Great fun for everyone there and great kraut awaits us in the months to come. Thank you to Mickey, Bonnie, Don and Judy for inviting us. Thanks to Carl and Noreen for putting the show together.