Spring Clean Up Day

Once per year in the spring, Cottage Grove has it's annual Spring Clean Up Day. You are welcome to bring your unwanted items, have it unloaded from your vehicle by the Public Works Employees and be on your way. There is usually a very long line on this day to drop off your junk as I've seen from experience. It's well worth the wait to get rid of items you cannot throw into your regular garbage. There is of course a small fee for most items, but nothing that wont set you back too much.

From Bad To Worser

Yesterday, I showed you the half eaten semi. Today's redneck photo is a trailer on blocks and wood. Yes, it is from the same location and equally of it's own photo. Pay close attention to the skill used to put this trailer above ground. What else can be said?

Don't Ask Me, I Don't Know

Ummm, yeah....this is photogenic right? A half eaten semi cab. It was just screaming at me to take it's picture. I had to oblige with at least one photo for you. I found this creative semi cab on a very unbeaten path in Cottage Grove. The road was so untraveled, there was no tar, only gravel. Finding a gravel road in Cottage Grove is fairly tough these days.

Dual Bridges

Jumping back south into Hastings for today's photo. It features two of the bridges that cross the Mississippi River, The Milwaukee Road [rail road] bridge, and the Hastings Bridge. The Hastings Bridge is slated to be replaced starting the the fall of 2010. The project will take 3-4 years to complete. I have posted about construction of this bridge in May of 2008. There was some major bridge maintenance work being done to it that essentially prolonged the life of the bridge until State funding was available. Before last years maintenance work, it had one of the lowest bridge ratings scores in the state.

Green, Green, Green

When I look at this photo, I see parsley in the front and a row of head lettuce or cabbage. Neither of which is correct, but that's what it reminds me of.

Gopher Liquors Sign

This is an interesting signs that I'd be interested in finding out about that is located on 7th Street in downtown St Paul. What I can tell you, really only based on my visual detective work, though I'm sure there is a lot more history involved with this location. The sign is a mix of a few different ownerships or partners. The Gopher Liqours sign looks like it was added to the Coney Islands sign with your Hosts: George-Cheri-Keith. Though there is a sign added under it reading: Andy-Phyllis-George. Are these new hosts? Is this the same George from the original grouping of names? Or are there now six different hosts [or owners]. What is the most current name of this business as there are several signs saying there could be many: Gopher Bar, Gopher Liquor, Coney Islands? Or is it several business in the same location? Too many questions right?

Incidentally, a couple blocks and around the corner sits a vacated restaurant called Original Coney Island Cafe which I featured a photo of back in January 2008, are these two locations owned by the same group?

Como Conservatory

We are at the point of the spring season where everything in the Twin Cities will bloom at once. This in turn will send allergy sufferers to medication and combat the pollen. The photo is an outside view of the Como Conservatory in St Paul. The tax payer/local business funded Conservatory is a crowd favorite with hundreds of plants from around the world growing in an ideal area.

All That Remains

Yesterday's photo was of the Xcel Energy smoke stack that has since been destroyed. The power plant has been converted to a greener form of energy, I'm still not sure what exactly. I drove by the old plant last week and snapped a photo between the trees during the tear down phase. I apologize for the crappy photo, but I didn't have time to stop for this one.

Smoke Stack Archive

From my archive folder, originally the NSP smoke stack in St Paul. Which then became the Xcel Energy Center smoke stack. But has since been torn down to make way for a cleaner form of energy of some kind. I honestly do not know what they are using to make energy these days, but it is part of the over hyped "green" technology.

Theme Day: Shadow

With today being Theme Day in the City Daily Photo community, I'm taking a different approach to the theme of 'shadows'. I've decided to post a self portrait photo I took in the fall of last year as the sun was setting. It turned out quite pleasant and better than I was hoping the shot would turn out. So ummmm, hi! It's me!

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants of the 'shadow' theme.