Ho Ho Ho Siouxland, It’s almost Christmas, and Winter in Already Here, Clay County Fair

at the Clay County Fair in Spencer Iowa, Tuesday, September 10, 2019. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

Well, Christmas is more than a month away, with Halloween barely behind us and Thanksgiving meals not yet begun cooking in the oven. But winter is definitely here. Unseasonable temperatures in the 20 and 30’s. Weather folk saying the Siouxland area is 20 degrees below a “normal” fall day for this time of year.

A model train display at the Clay County Fair in Spencer, Iowa, Friday, Sept. 18, 2015. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

At the Clay County Fair in Spencer there is a large model train exhibit with working tracks. Various scenes and seasons are depicted within the display and they are set within different types of communities.

at the Clay County Fair in Spencer Iowa, Tuesday, September 10, 2019. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

One exhibit I enjoy the most is the Christmas season display at the fair. Lights twinkling, a Santa whose sleigh glides over a small town bringing gifts, all seen at a county fair where some days the temperatures are in the 80’s along with the humidity and the pleasant thought of changing seasons yet to come. But somehow those season didn’t materialize this year as winter stretched into a very short spring, then summer and soaring temps appeared and now it seems that fall was a brief one-week period with temperatures overnight next week to dip into the teens. Snow has already dusted the area around Siouxland. Nothing like the heavy storms out west in the mountain regions, but still, a fleeting fall passed in the blink of an eye this year.

at the Clay County Fair in Spencer Iowa, Tuesday, September 10, 2019. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

I like the Christmas season and the music that always seems to get short shrift being played on the radio. Most times people are a bit kinder but no less harried as they prepare for the holidays, gift shopping, plans to visit relatives and putting up decorations. As well as taking some time to think about what Christmas should mean and taking a break to just enjoy the moment and holiday cheer and friends. But with winter already here, it may seem like a very long season this year.

Jerry Mennenga

Sioux City, Iowa

at the Clay County Fair in Spencer Iowa, Tuesday, September 10, 2019. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

Making Tracks in Siouxland, Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, NE

On a recent trip with a south of Siouxland I visited the Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, Nebraska. Although it was a very hot day, the gardens visit was truly wonderful. A few different gardens, some formal and others not, with a variety of plants. But what truly caught my eye was a model train setup in the gardens with tracks and wooden trestles made from twigs and branches with plants growing around and within the train tracks.

People watch a model train cross a trestle bridge overhead at the model train exhibit at the Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, NE Saturday June 9, 2018. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

 

There are a number of trestle bridge configurations for the several running trains at the model train exhibit at the Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, NE Saturday June 9, 2018. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

The train master Bill Willis explained that the setup was commissioned and built by Paul Busse, a model railroad enthusiast, who has built other such models in other cities. Willis maintains and sees that repairs as needed are done as well as checking tracks for overgrown plants.

A plaque at the explains how the train exhibit originated at the Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, NE Saturday June 9, 2018. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

 

Bill Willis oversees the model train exhibit set up at the Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, NE Saturday June 9, 2018. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

 

Bill Wilis, trainmaster and dispatcher clears a track area of debris at the model train exhibit at the Lauritzen Gardensin Omaha, NE Saturday June 9, 2018. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

Such a setup was thing I never really imagined finding in a garden setting. But it is so beautifully entrenched and appears almost out of nowhere until you walk right up on it. It was just a delight.

Jerry Mennenga

Sioux City, Iowa

Visitors wait for one of several running model trains in an exhibit at the Lauritzen Gardensin Omaha, NE Saturday June 9, 2018. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

 

There are various trestle bridge configurations set up for the model train exhibit at the Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, NE Saturday June 9, 2018. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

One of several running model trains crosses a trestle bridge at the Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, NE Saturday June 9, 2018. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

 

There are numerous trestle bridge configurations at the model train exhibit at the Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, NE Saturday June 9, 2018. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

 

Besides the wooden branch and twig train track configurations, there are also a number of buildings representing different aspects of the city of Omaha built of wood at the model train exhibit display at the Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, NE Saturday June 9, 2018. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)