Leopold Week 2020

The first week/weekend of March is set aside each year in Iowa/Wisconsin respectively to honor conservationist Aldo Leopold.  Thanks to my previous training as a Land Ethic Leader through the Aldo Leopold Foundation, I usually host a community reading of essays from his book A Sand County Almanac and public screening of the documentary film of Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time in honor of the occasion.  This was my fourth year hosting at the Brown County Library, and I had the crazy idea this year to add a conservation fair for local conservation groups to share their work, membership details, and educational information with the community. We had 12 local groups sign up to attend, and around 60 people came out to the event!  A great turnout for hopefully the FIRST annual Leopold Conservation Fair in Green Bay!

 Leopold Weekend 2020 at the Brown County Library.  Photos by Scott.

The weekend prior, Scott and I kicked off Aldo Leopold Week by taking a day trip down to  Milwaukee to see a free art exhibit called Sand County Reflections, featuring the work of Wisconsin artists inspired by Leopold's writings.  It was a nice Sunday in early March, so we had to take advantage and get out and about.  We stopped in Mequon (pronounced: MECK wahn) on the way down for lunch at Foxtown Brewery, a recently opened brewery established in a historic building that has been a brewery since 1857.  Delicious food and a cool atmosphere with the historic stone building.  Missed photo opportunity!

Next stop was the Sand County Reflections exhibit at the Schlueter Art Gallery at Wisconsin Lutheran College.  Took a little investigation to find the exhibit location (we actually almost walked into the piano teacher try outs...whoops!), but it was really well done.  Reading the quotes and some comments from the artist about Leopold was a great way to get in the spirit of A Sand County Alamanac.

Sand County Reflections Exhibit at Schluester Art Gallery at Wisconsin Lutheran College, Milwaukee

After the exhibit, it was time to continue the brewery tour in nearby Wauwautosa (pronounced just as it looks: WAH WAH toe sah), a suburb of Milwaukee, at Stock House Brewing Company, Fermentorium Barrel House, and Vennture Brew Co.  Fermentorium was also interesting as they had a lot of beers on the menu and some weird combinations.  I took a chance on a hefeweizen that had a coffee flavor to it, even though I'm not a coffee fan at all.  Hmm.  I especially liked Vennture because I realized when we walked in that it's a beer and coffee brewhouse.  I ordered a chai tea latte to round out the beer tour before heading back to Green Bay, which was perfect! 

A fun late winter weekend getaway for a day!

Located in East Tosa for those in the know.  Now we know!

Yay, brewery that makes chai tea lattes!