"Unable to read or write, he taught himself to form these sculptures using wooden structures at their core wrapped in mink or barbed wire, covered in layers of cement..."
I want to understand how in the world did this man come to the decision process of using either mink or barbed wire? Seems like concrete must adhere to them both quite well?
So very much so. I lived my teenage years in the northwoods of Wisconsin. I absolutely loved it but it is not for everyone. It is beautiful, and there is so much to do if you are an outdoorsy person. But you need to be prepared for below zero Fahrenheit temperatures every year. Sometimes it can be for weeks straight, at some points reaching as cold as -20F, -30F or colder. I used to joke that it wasn’t cold until you feel your nose hairs freeze together when you inhale.
Also, unfortunately in recent years the deer tick and Lyme disease prevalence have greatly increased, though vigilant checking and washing are very effective at mitigating that risk.
Another fond memory I have from there is that the view of the stars and the auroras are an incredible sight to behold. The light pollution is near zero.
It isn't really cold until you need two pairs of long underwear and snow pants or two pairs of jeans. And you wear your cool weather coat under your winter coat.
Cold depends on what you are doing. When lumber jacking you need about the same amount of clothing at -25F as you would sitting in a chair outside at 60F - your safety gear alone is close to too hot (though when this guy was lumber jacking they didn't have modern safety gear and would have considered themselves "too manly" to wear it anyway).
You definitely don't. I've lived in Wisconsin my whole life.
Internet is going to be poor or non-existent, as will be cell service. You'll have to study the coverage maps and get a line with the appropriate carrier. There will be dead spots everywhere, you will never have guaranteed coverage. Starlink will probably be your best bet for internet. Fiber is non existent. Forget about speeds over 50Mb otherwise.
It's a food desert unless you live in one of the run down and dilapidated "cities". Where you probably will want to be, would be 45 minutes to an hour away from any of these. That's where the housing is. You will likely have to buy 40 acres of land and build if you want anything other than a hunting cabin.
The people there will not like you. You are not one of them. They all know each other and you are an outsider. They do not like progressive limbral woke people (anyone who isn't conservative, Christian, and white). You will not make any friends unless you are an avid hunter, fisherman, or a drunk.
Alcoholism is rampant. There are no "third spaces" other than bars. If you aren't always drinking, you are weird. Meth and heroin are huge problems. Poverty is the norm. People will hate you if you look at all wealthy. Do you know what a FIB is? Fuckin Illinois Bastard, ie, the tourists that flood money into their terrible little towns in the summer. The entire economy is based on tourism and arguably logging maybe.
If you don't like the Packers, you may as well be a hostile alien.
Winter lasts from mid-late October through mid April. October and November is brown and gray. Snow doesn't hit until late Novemeber or later these days, so it will be cloudy and gray and windy. It will frequently be below 0F up to -30F in mid winter. You will need a truck or 4wd at least and will be dealing with unplowed country roads when snow finally hits. Your car will be eaten by salt. Your car/truck will hate the winter and will be a giant pain in the ass. There will be days it's too cold to go outside unless you have proper gear.
"Spring" is the brown and gray mud season from March through May. Leaves don't start popping until late April, and temps don't hit consistent 70s until late June. It will snow in April.
Then mosquito, horsefly, and tick season starts. There will be days it's hard to be outside. You'll have to get used to spraying yourself with DEET, it's the only thing that's effective. If you are in the woods, you will want to wear pants tucked into your socks so you don't get ticks climbing up your legs into your ass crack and balls. It's hot and uncomfortable, but the alternative isn't great.
In July, temperatures will hit 90s and it will be very humid. There are days when it's going to be difficult to be outside unless you're swimming. It's similar to Florida.
In late August and early September it will start to cool down as the leaves start turning and shedding.
So weatherwise, you've got about 6-8 weeks of nice weather in the summer. Outside of that it's either miserably hot, cold, or just ugly and dead. The people are poor, uneducated, racist and backwards, internet sucks, and there is zero culture. But it's fun to visit if you like camping for a few weeks.
I've lived in Wisconsin my whole life as well, minus 5 years in NC for a job.
The parent specifically mentioned _northwoods_ wisconsin, which is a different beast than Madison, Milwaukee, or some of the other cities.
So not sure how much of this hyperbolic reply to even take issue with, but it sounds like you've had a really rough go of it in WI. Sorry.
The rural / urban divide is real, though I think that is an America problem more than a WI problem.
Winter can suck, this is true. Though its changing a lot with climate change...and turns out the midwest may be one of the best places to be over the next 50 years w/ water shortages, fires, and hurricanes becoming more and more common everywhere else.
- Madison, Milwaukee, and surrounding areas both have fantastic restaurant and foodie scenes
- We have some of the best farmer's markets and local produce of anywhere, so if you like to cook you are in luck. There are great restaurants that will surprise you, even in smaller towns.
- I get gigabit fiber in Madison - I'm sure the situation is harder up north. I wouldn't expect getting fiber four hours north of SF would be easy, either.
- The people here are generally friendly, hard-working, and solid...even if they vote or support politicians I find abhorrent. I don't think that is unique to rural WI.
- WI definitely has the drinking culture, but I find with most of my younger friends that habit is *much* less common. The drinking culture for kids now compared to the 1990s is massively improved and healthier.
- the music scene is alive and well, for both techno/house and underground punk/indie/whatever, which are the two scenes I've been in over the past 25+ years.
so yeah, wisconsin is a mixed bag (hell, so is cali and new york), but I think it still has a lot going for it.
I can tell you whenever I head home from yet another bay area trip, I may be dreading the WI winter but I'm definitely _not_ dreading the endless tech-babble you can't escape in any coffeeshop or restaurant around SF or LA. I'll take small talk around sports, fishing, or even the weather over crypto/VC/AI babble anyday.
Nobody is fleeing Minnesota for Wisconsin, trust me. Electricians earn $15 an hour less in western WI than they do in Minnesota, and most jobs have similar pay cuts for crossing a river into WI from MN.
> I get gigabit fiber in Madison - I'm sure the situation is harder up north. I wouldn't expect getting fiber four hours north of SF would be easy, either.
I would guess there's availability in towns like Redding and Mount Shasta.
Lake of the Woods in northeastern Minnesota is probably nice two months per year. It's where Moosylvania is located, and there are Canadians for neighbors. Wikipedia says "conditions are said to be harsh and unpleasant.".
Most Canadians live in nicer conditions - a lot of them live south of lake of the woods, and most of the rest are living near the ocean. Though there are a number living in worse places.
I'll second the mosquito, horsefly, and tick season... Also the weather. I'm not sure the people are thaaat bad so YMMV but then again I could be wrong.
Where in the world do you live? Racine? I grew up in very much small town, northern WI (Ashland, right on Lake Superior) and stayed until my late 20s. My experience of WI could not be more different from yours.
People for the most part are very friendly and welcoming (yes, including of people who aren’t like them).
WI is traditionally a working-class blue state — not incredibly progressive, but probably better than average (it did, unfortunately, go for Trump both times though).
Madison is a lovely (and very liberal) city with good cycling infrastructure. Maybe people aren’t flocking to Milwaukee, but it’s a nice enough city.
I grew up in the country, at the end of a quarter mile gravel road, and have had mostly front-wheel drive cars. 4WD is not a prerequisite to living in Wisconsin.
We got fiber in our rural neighborhood in 2009. I’m not a football fan (I do, however, own a few guns). Yes, the bugs suck.
There’s the superficial “friendly and welcoming” that applies to everybody. You’ll wave at everyone you see and lend a hand if their car is stuck in a snowbank.
But there’s also a very insular clannishness where you will never get beyond a surface level unless you’re “one of them”.
However this is less of a “Wisconsin thing” and more of an “every northern rural area” thing
My Grandma from Norway had the exact same experience growing up on an island of 100 in the fjords where the 50 fisher folks didn’t talk to the 50 farmer folks on the other side of the hill.
People who complain about tribalism are typically under-informed about the human condition and haven’t traveled enough.
I’ve lived in 5 states and two countries. I’ve been to 10 other countries. I’ve now moved back to SW Wisconsin 4-5 times and will not leave again. I am very far left and not religious. I do not like sportsball. The best friendships I’ve made in my life outside of school are in Wisconsin. It’s the only place that’s ever felt like home for me and I’m not from here.
Admittedly Madison is different than a lot of the Midwest - though I live in a rural area south of the city.
Wait. You’re right. It totally sucks here and you will all hate it. Don’t come. Please, I beg you. Listen to the other guy.
Off-topic but this is one of my pet peeves of the modern web; some of the images on the page are ridiculously gigantic. We've had awesome publishing software for two decades with the very basic feature of optimizing published images but somehow nowadays it's totally acceptable to publish an article with several 10+ Mb images.
"Unable to read or write, he taught himself to form these sculptures using wooden structures at their core wrapped in mink or barbed wire, covered in layers of cement..."
I want to understand how in the world did this man come to the decision process of using either mink or barbed wire? Seems like concrete must adhere to them both quite well?
It’s aluminum/zinc wire or wire mesh from the Illinois Mink Wire company. Not made of minks.
Thank you! I wonder how many people read this and have the correct context.
This explains... a lot. I thought he hunted them and used their carcasses.
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I had a 100s of Beavers moment, there. Thanks!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebar
Someone should add the word "mink" to that page lol
I have never heard of the Wisonsin Northwoods until now, but I think I now know where I will want to live if I ever secure a remote position again.
That place is beautiful...
It is very pretty but it it gets VERY cold in the winter!
So very much so. I lived my teenage years in the northwoods of Wisconsin. I absolutely loved it but it is not for everyone. It is beautiful, and there is so much to do if you are an outdoorsy person. But you need to be prepared for below zero Fahrenheit temperatures every year. Sometimes it can be for weeks straight, at some points reaching as cold as -20F, -30F or colder. I used to joke that it wasn’t cold until you feel your nose hairs freeze together when you inhale. Also, unfortunately in recent years the deer tick and Lyme disease prevalence have greatly increased, though vigilant checking and washing are very effective at mitigating that risk.
Another fond memory I have from there is that the view of the stars and the auroras are an incredible sight to behold. The light pollution is near zero.
This is the best weather for sauna. You can sit outside in a towel and enjoy your beer and chill out/down while your hair freezes.
It isn't really cold until you need two pairs of long underwear and snow pants or two pairs of jeans. And you wear your cool weather coat under your winter coat.
Cold depends on what you are doing. When lumber jacking you need about the same amount of clothing at -25F as you would sitting in a chair outside at 60F - your safety gear alone is close to too hot (though when this guy was lumber jacking they didn't have modern safety gear and would have considered themselves "too manly" to wear it anyway).
I grew up living near Chicago, I think I would be fine with it!
You definitely don't. I've lived in Wisconsin my whole life.
Internet is going to be poor or non-existent, as will be cell service. You'll have to study the coverage maps and get a line with the appropriate carrier. There will be dead spots everywhere, you will never have guaranteed coverage. Starlink will probably be your best bet for internet. Fiber is non existent. Forget about speeds over 50Mb otherwise.
It's a food desert unless you live in one of the run down and dilapidated "cities". Where you probably will want to be, would be 45 minutes to an hour away from any of these. That's where the housing is. You will likely have to buy 40 acres of land and build if you want anything other than a hunting cabin.
The people there will not like you. You are not one of them. They all know each other and you are an outsider. They do not like progressive limbral woke people (anyone who isn't conservative, Christian, and white). You will not make any friends unless you are an avid hunter, fisherman, or a drunk.
Alcoholism is rampant. There are no "third spaces" other than bars. If you aren't always drinking, you are weird. Meth and heroin are huge problems. Poverty is the norm. People will hate you if you look at all wealthy. Do you know what a FIB is? Fuckin Illinois Bastard, ie, the tourists that flood money into their terrible little towns in the summer. The entire economy is based on tourism and arguably logging maybe.
If you don't like the Packers, you may as well be a hostile alien.
Winter lasts from mid-late October through mid April. October and November is brown and gray. Snow doesn't hit until late Novemeber or later these days, so it will be cloudy and gray and windy. It will frequently be below 0F up to -30F in mid winter. You will need a truck or 4wd at least and will be dealing with unplowed country roads when snow finally hits. Your car will be eaten by salt. Your car/truck will hate the winter and will be a giant pain in the ass. There will be days it's too cold to go outside unless you have proper gear.
"Spring" is the brown and gray mud season from March through May. Leaves don't start popping until late April, and temps don't hit consistent 70s until late June. It will snow in April.
Then mosquito, horsefly, and tick season starts. There will be days it's hard to be outside. You'll have to get used to spraying yourself with DEET, it's the only thing that's effective. If you are in the woods, you will want to wear pants tucked into your socks so you don't get ticks climbing up your legs into your ass crack and balls. It's hot and uncomfortable, but the alternative isn't great.
In July, temperatures will hit 90s and it will be very humid. There are days when it's going to be difficult to be outside unless you're swimming. It's similar to Florida.
In late August and early September it will start to cool down as the leaves start turning and shedding.
So weatherwise, you've got about 6-8 weeks of nice weather in the summer. Outside of that it's either miserably hot, cold, or just ugly and dead. The people are poor, uneducated, racist and backwards, internet sucks, and there is zero culture. But it's fun to visit if you like camping for a few weeks.
I've lived in Wisconsin my whole life as well, minus 5 years in NC for a job.
The parent specifically mentioned _northwoods_ wisconsin, which is a different beast than Madison, Milwaukee, or some of the other cities.
So not sure how much of this hyperbolic reply to even take issue with, but it sounds like you've had a really rough go of it in WI. Sorry.
The rural / urban divide is real, though I think that is an America problem more than a WI problem.
Winter can suck, this is true. Though its changing a lot with climate change...and turns out the midwest may be one of the best places to be over the next 50 years w/ water shortages, fires, and hurricanes becoming more and more common everywhere else.
- Madison, Milwaukee, and surrounding areas both have fantastic restaurant and foodie scenes
- We have some of the best farmer's markets and local produce of anywhere, so if you like to cook you are in luck. There are great restaurants that will surprise you, even in smaller towns.
- I get gigabit fiber in Madison - I'm sure the situation is harder up north. I wouldn't expect getting fiber four hours north of SF would be easy, either. - The people here are generally friendly, hard-working, and solid...even if they vote or support politicians I find abhorrent. I don't think that is unique to rural WI.
- WI definitely has the drinking culture, but I find with most of my younger friends that habit is *much* less common. The drinking culture for kids now compared to the 1990s is massively improved and healthier.
- the music scene is alive and well, for both techno/house and underground punk/indie/whatever, which are the two scenes I've been in over the past 25+ years.
so yeah, wisconsin is a mixed bag (hell, so is cali and new york), but I think it still has a lot going for it.
I can tell you whenever I head home from yet another bay area trip, I may be dreading the WI winter but I'm definitely _not_ dreading the endless tech-babble you can't escape in any coffeeshop or restaurant around SF or LA. I'll take small talk around sports, fishing, or even the weather over crypto/VC/AI babble anyday.
>So not sure how much of this hyperbolic reply to even take issue with, but it sounds like you've had a really rough go of it in WI. Sorry.
Maybe he just wants to phrase things in a manner that doesn't get him new neighbors who are "fleeing" MN or CA or whatever.
As someone who grew up in MN this sounds like something we would write to put down WI
Nobody is fleeing Minnesota for Wisconsin, trust me. Electricians earn $15 an hour less in western WI than they do in Minnesota, and most jobs have similar pay cuts for crossing a river into WI from MN.
> I get gigabit fiber in Madison - I'm sure the situation is harder up north. I wouldn't expect getting fiber four hours north of SF would be easy, either.
I would guess there's availability in towns like Redding and Mount Shasta.
Yeah, I'm talking about the Northwoods, not Madison or Milwaukee. That's pretty fuckin clear in my response.
Lake of the Woods in northeastern Minnesota is probably nice two months per year. It's where Moosylvania is located, and there are Canadians for neighbors. Wikipedia says "conditions are said to be harsh and unpleasant.".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moosylvania
Most Canadians live in nicer conditions - a lot of them live south of lake of the woods, and most of the rest are living near the ocean. Though there are a number living in worse places.
I'll second the mosquito, horsefly, and tick season... Also the weather. I'm not sure the people are thaaat bad so YMMV but then again I could be wrong.
Where in the world do you live? Racine? I grew up in very much small town, northern WI (Ashland, right on Lake Superior) and stayed until my late 20s. My experience of WI could not be more different from yours.
People for the most part are very friendly and welcoming (yes, including of people who aren’t like them).
WI is traditionally a working-class blue state — not incredibly progressive, but probably better than average (it did, unfortunately, go for Trump both times though).
Madison is a lovely (and very liberal) city with good cycling infrastructure. Maybe people aren’t flocking to Milwaukee, but it’s a nice enough city.
I grew up in the country, at the end of a quarter mile gravel road, and have had mostly front-wheel drive cars. 4WD is not a prerequisite to living in Wisconsin.
We got fiber in our rural neighborhood in 2009. I’m not a football fan (I do, however, own a few guns). Yes, the bugs suck.
I’m sorry for your experience.
As another born and raised Wisconsinite:
There’s the superficial “friendly and welcoming” that applies to everybody. You’ll wave at everyone you see and lend a hand if their car is stuck in a snowbank.
But there’s also a very insular clannishness where you will never get beyond a surface level unless you’re “one of them”.
However this is less of a “Wisconsin thing” and more of an “every northern rural area” thing
My Grandma from Norway had the exact same experience growing up on an island of 100 in the fjords where the 50 fisher folks didn’t talk to the 50 farmer folks on the other side of the hill.
People who complain about tribalism are typically under-informed about the human condition and haven’t traveled enough.
Maybe the fish people just smelled fishy all the time?
I’ve lived in 5 states and two countries. I’ve been to 10 other countries. I’ve now moved back to SW Wisconsin 4-5 times and will not leave again. I am very far left and not religious. I do not like sportsball. The best friendships I’ve made in my life outside of school are in Wisconsin. It’s the only place that’s ever felt like home for me and I’m not from here.
Admittedly Madison is different than a lot of the Midwest - though I live in a rural area south of the city.
Wait. You’re right. It totally sucks here and you will all hate it. Don’t come. Please, I beg you. Listen to the other guy.
SW Wisconsin is not the Northwoods.
Found the Bears fan.
That’s one view, I’ve had the opposite experience, lol.
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A neighborhood favorite: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mary-nohl-house
Nature isn't good enough, so he had to vandalise it.
I always forget how terrible the modern ad supported web is until I travel without a dns ad blocker..
And this is the Smithsonian, one of the most traditionally prestigious museums in the world.
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That skin surface bothers me, trypophobia vibes
What a wonderful legacy.
I'm using this as a reminder to continue to purge the useless and focus on things that matter.
I second this sentiment. Life is just too short for the useless...though sometimes that's hard to remember / know.
The danger with this is that you might change your mind about what matters later in life, only to find that you've long since "purged" it.
That's what experience and growing is all about.
It's good to change.
I had a thought in the same vein while I was driving home; would I miss youtube if I never watched it again?
There are creators on there that I thoroughly enjoy.
Dunno.
Off-topic but this is one of my pet peeves of the modern web; some of the images on the page are ridiculously gigantic. We've had awesome publishing software for two decades with the very basic feature of optimizing published images but somehow nowadays it's totally acceptable to publish an article with several 10+ Mb images.
Especially egregious given how web standards and software make it pretty easy to make images show the ideal size always
I am here for the pictures
Shut the fuck up, compression is bad
Calm down. Compression lowers data requirements. That's a good thing.
It's always exciting to see my state come up in a quirky but warm story like this!
I love this man's face!!
This is my favorite type of art.
He's a lumberjack and he's okay... (sorry, i couldn't hold myself back)