Blue River Autumn Fest

Welcome to our morning show today.

Okay.

There we got it figured out after 40 years, you know, starting to figure things out around here.

We have some info to get you on the note today on the morning show.

We're going to talk to the scenic hills, a wild turkey federation.

We're going to talk about an upcoming event they have here, including president Derek goblin.

Fuzz Macaulay who is here today.

I don't know.

Do you have a title fuzz or not?

Not even close to a title.

Okay.

We don't want it.

I

do handle

the checkbook, but that's about it.

Well, that's a good task.

So you have a big event coming up.

Derek, tell me about what's happening this Friday in the area.

Yes, this Friday we have our Scenic Hills Guns and Bingo event.

So we'll play some bingo.

We'll hand out some guns with the raffle.

And it should be a good time.

It's usually pretty enjoyable.

People love bingo, I think.

I hear they do.

So give us a little bit of the soup and nuts of it.

You're going to be playing bingo.

What time does it all start?

Yeah.

So doors open at five dinners at 6 30.

We'll have a nice meal that's included with your dinner ticket.

Most people have bought in advance, but we do have plenty of seats available.

So please stop on down at the Phoenix center at five o'clock.

You can buy your tickets at the door.

They are $80 a piece that includes the good dinner there.

And then if you are interested, we do have a sponsorship table.

It's $1,200 that gets you eight seats and your own raffle with that table.

So

pretty good deal.

What about the meal?

What are you serving?

What are we serving?

Turkey, beef and turkey.

All right.

There we go.

Beef and turkey, the potatoes.

You know, vegetable bread, it's the full meal.

It's not a, you know, it's not just a partial.

It's full meal.

Come hungry.

So you've been a part of this

organization for a little alphas.

Yeah, I have.

I've been for a while.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Good group of people.

And that's what, that's why I'm in it.

I, in fact, I didn't even turkey hunt when I started being a part of this group, but just great people to be around, you know, outdoors people.

So therefore, you know, when we talk about it being a Turkey Federation banquet or group, uh, this, this is a national group.

So it extends quite a ways.

So you start talking about, okay, what does this money go for that people are, you know, buying into and stuff.

And, uh, locally we do a Jake's day, for example, where we include youth and we try to do youth with a lot of stuff.

Uh, but when you kind of extend it outside of our local chapter, you know, state chapter has events and conferences and conventions.

And then nationally, uh, a lot of times it involves like biologists that are dealing with turkeys, uh, turkey habitat, uh, and then they do a lot of land leasing.

you know, it's getting kind of to where it's difficult for people to find a place to enjoy the outdoors and conservation and the hunting.

So therefore, uh, it extends into the national level, you know, for people that want to be a part

of that outdoors group.

So it's been a learning experience for you.

And I was thinking about when, when we were young, I didn't know there was such a thing as a wild turkey, right?

You know, I wish I was, uh,

more attuned to dates and years, but turkeys began here because we made a swap with the state of Missouri and we're talking about before your time in my time and we gave them a gross from Wisconsin and they gave us turkeys from Missouri and we can see now you drive down the road and it's not too unusual to find turkeys around.

So it's been a great, great hit for us here in the state of

Wisconsin.

I know you're an enthusiast of the outdoors, Derek, but, uh, hunting turkey, is that one of the more challenging things to hunt?

Uh, yeah, I would say so, um, without looking at the data, I mean, when I was growing up, they said the success rate was like 20, 25%.

So they can be pretty challenging.

They see very well.

Um, and it's just overall, it's pretty hard.

Why are you a member of this organization?

I'm, I'm a member because I enjoy the outdoors.

you know, well versed with the archery club and some of the other outdoor communities.

So this is just the way to help give back and make sure that we have, we have something moving forward as well.

Are there some highlights maybe from the last year or so since the last time we saw you or some accomplishments for the club?

Well,

I think one of the things that we try to promote with our committee

And committee, by the way, can be anybody that wants to be involved.

But we do some fishing.

We do some deer hunting events.

We do some turkey events, obviously.

And we try to do things that would involve

spouses because quite often these are men, but not always, but we do some, some things that involve the spouses as well.

So we actually have as a committee and again, that can be anybody that wants to be involved locally.

Um, we do something every month that, uh, promotes basically, uh, you know, outdoor education and just getting out there and having fun.

Is there an effort to try and get younger people involved,

Derek?

Yeah, absolutely.

How do you do that?

We do a lot of like learn to hunt stuff every spring with the turkeys.

I know a lot of members are involved with hunter education as well.

And then on the archery club side, we're always open to bringing new people in.

It's, you know, we welcome everyone to come up there and be a part of that community.

How often do you get together for the archery

club?

Yeah, so the archery club meets every Wednesday evening around five o'clock or so.

So if you're not a member, come up then, talk to us.

We'll show you around.

Memberships are 40 bucks for a single person, 50 for a family, and then you can come shoot any day of the week.

You don't have to just come up there on a Wednesday.

That's good to know.

So no appointment is needed if you're a member then.

Correct.

But Fuzz, have you learned to call turkeys?

Have you, have you worked on that or not?

You

know, that's kind of part of the, uh, you know, like I said, I didn't even hunt turkeys when I started, but what I ended up doing was I have a brother that really loved to hunt turkeys.

And so I asked him to call for me for several years and he did.

And he must have done a pretty good job because there was some success.

Uh, then one of my sons kind of picked up on calling turkeys.

And so he would call for me.

I have never called a turkey in and nor have I really attempted.

I've just, uh, you know, like even some of the committee members, as Derek mentioned, like, um, when you have a youth hunt, uh, like Jerry Lynch, for example, has taken me out.

He's a member of our committee and, uh,

And so he called for me and stuff like that.

So it's not like you got to be the caller.

You just got to know somebody that's good at it.

So I've been very blessed with that.

It's like a lot of things surround yourself with good people, right?

That's right.

That's right.

I thought of that this morning coming in, you know, we're going to talk about more things than turkeys here today.

But I'm just blessed to have good people around that I can enjoy and you get a lot of stuff done.

Good camaraderie.

Yeah.

So you're going to have a busy weekend because you have this event on Friday night.

What's going on on Saturday?

Well,

Saturday is another hat that I've been privileged to wear.

Uh, it's, uh, the wrestling club is having a golf outing on Saturday and.

I'm not a main wheel with that at all.

Kyle Kayeski would be somebody that was in touch with me.

I think Aaron Ewing is also kind of part of that wheel that turns, but I thought it would be a good time for me to kind of mention the fact that if you like to golf or if you like to support sports or any of that, it's a fundraiser at Quail Run.

And I think they have like a couple of, um, you know, the scrambles and I think they have a couple of starting times.

I know that I start in the afternoon, somebody else, you know, other groups start in the morning.

So, um, I would be in touch with, if you can, uh, I'm sure it's, I know it's on Facebook stuff, but, uh, Kyle Kayeski here and Ewing, um, I think like the first start is like 10 in the morning.

So if it fits in.

You know, show up.

It includes a meal.

I think that it's like $50 to be involved individually, which includes a meal at Quill Run.

And I'm sure, you know, for me, it's just a blast to run into people and talk to them and, you know, people you haven't seen for a long time.

A lot of people that you coached.

Yeah, right.

And, but you just don't, you know, you just don't see enough people often enough.

And so that's what makes it a good time.

And they're raising money.

Do they have a certain cause?

Well, it's to promote the elementary wrestling, basically, because there's a lot of involved there when it comes to costs for mats, when it comes to for officials and stuff you might have at your tournaments.

That's always an ongoing thing, you know, to raise money and try and make it happen.

So how many times will you say four?

Well,

I don't yell it because I usually don't know where my ball is

going to

go.

So, so I hit it and then watch it and then maybe I might yell for, but by the time I would know where it's going, uh, four is too late.

Sure.

That's true.

Yeah.

Should be fun.

So again, a few shifts on sun on Saturday, it sounds like.

Yeah.

And Kyle Kayski is the one to talk to.

I would say he would be a good guy and you get on, like I say, you get on all the social media, you'll find it.

And, um,

There'll be prizes.

They do raffles that kind of stuff.

So I think it's kind of like an all day event there at coil run.

Good wonderful Saturday.

Yeah, and then the other hat you wear is the FFA alumni, right?

Yes, and they have some events coming

up.

Yeah, we do.

Yeah, we have an annual event We call it FFA alumni day Richland FFA alumni day And that's in September September 12th, and it's a Saturday

And so kind of what we do there.

And if you ever kind of wanted to get on to that social media, if you looked up Richland FFA alumni, believe it or not, Phil, there's more than one Richland FFA alumni in the United States.

Oh, sure.

That was the first thing that I like.

That's not our, there's Facebook.

Ohio, I think.

Yeah, right.

Washington state.

Right.

So look for the American flag.

The American flag is kinda, okay, that's it.

And so that's our Facebook page.

We try to push old pictures of FFA stuff, agriculture stuff.

We got some stuff going on 4-H right now, some old 4-H pictures.

So anyway, but the point is that you can see this event.

On the 12th on there being advertised and so we start with golfing at one o'clock It's not a pre-register.

You know talk to your friends get there show up.

We match up with a scramble Best ball kind of thing and then we go from there To the American Legion where we do we have bags bag contest cornhole whatever you want to call it and We have a kind of you know

competition with that.

I think we had last year, I think we had like 10 sets of bag boards there.

So a lot of people do come especially for that.

And we'll have the Richland locker brats there being cooked and just having a good time.

You're going to be quite the golfer.

You're going to go twice this year then, right?

And

that will probably be my limit.

In fact, I think when Dennis Welch sees me show up out there, he knows he's going to be busy the few days after probably patching holes, and the holes will not be right by the pin either.

Okay.

Yeah, right.

The divots won't be right by the pin.

What are some things the FFA alumni raised this money for?

Well, we, we, we're just

So blessed to have Alan acres, which is some property that Bob Allen many years ago donated to us.

It's on covered bridge road.

And so, uh, so not only promoting the local FFA chapter, uh, we, you know, have up keeping things to take care of with that property, which is very available for FFAs to use and stuff.

But our main goal is to support our FFA chapter when they are doing events that they need a financial support for or professional help, you know, to be able to come in and assist with the classroom stuff or shop stuff or.

or events outside.

I know sometimes even the contests cost extra money for the FFA students to attend.

Absolutely, you go to these contests, you pay a fee and of course there's state convention, national convention, those are all things that are just super events and experiences but sometimes you know you got to come up with some extra cash to make that all happen.

I think you guys did a tractor a year or so.

Yep.

Yep.

We've been, we've been doing tractor, uh, you know, renovation and raffles and stuff.

Yeah.

So over the timeframe, um, you know, we've done some big things, but brats have been a big deal for us over the years, uh, brought sales and cookouts and things like that.

Indeed.

And you're going to be serving up some hot dogs on October 3rd

as well.

I cannot wait for this event, Phil.

Tell us, you tell us Phil, first of all, what it's about.

Well, we're going to be celebrating our 40th, those were the days, 40th, not the 40th overall, but the 40th year.

Yes.

On October 3rd at the, at the Richland Center City Auditorium on the Betty Hayes Legacy Stage.

Absolutely.

And you're going to be there serving hot dogs that night as

well.

Yeah.

This, you know, this was something I just thought was, was very necessary.

because they're, you know, they're going to be celebrating you and what you've done.

And I think I said, we've got to have some hot dogs there.

Is it a correlation, the hot dog, celebrating a hot dog in the air or

something?

I'm glad you brought that up though because, because it's been mentioned that that night we may be calling them fill dogs.

Oh.

Okay.

So if you want to push filled dogs, that's fine, but people probably need to understand that they're richland locker hot dogs.

And so we're going to be outside of the doors of the auditorium, cooking these hot dogs, taking them inside.

So when people come inside to see you, I think the times may not perfect six to nine,

maybe that's great

in the evening.

Uh, when they come in, uh, part of their entrance, they're going to be an admission fee of some sort of small fee, I think.

And

part of it's going to be a free hot dog.

Oh, that's a good deal.

And of course the night parade is going on, the Canyon of Lights parade at the same time.

Right.

So there'll be a lot of big do-ins in that

tone.

So we are, I have talked to Craig, we're talking like a lot of fill dogs.

I hope so.

Yes.

Just our staff alone will probably polish off a few of them.

So we're going to have a lot of fill dogs there.

uh, for that event.

So our alumni will be helping out with that.

Yeah.

That's a lot of fun.

We appreciate you guys doing that.

Well, one other touch with that, I think it would be, uh, people will get excited about this.

And that is that, uh, because this is celebrating you and because we've had the Betty Hayes stage, um, stuff going, they're thinking about this maybe being a Phil knee latrine.

Oh, possible beginning.

I'm

starting to get teary eyed here.

I will not say that I came up with this idea, but somebody did.

They thought the Phil Nealatrine would be an awesome thing to start getting resources toward making that happen.

Well, it sounds really, it rhymes for one thing.

It's got a nice ring to it.

Yeah.

Well,

that's kind of what I thought.

The person that came up with that idea thought that

that's a good one.

That's good.

I'm speechless for once.

We appreciate that, Fuzz, and appreciate you guys coming out to do that then.

So kind of circling back to where we started.

Derek, anything you want to add about this weekend and your big event on Friday night?

Yeah, so if you're wondering where you can find our flyers at, one, you can stop in at the event, like we mentioned.

We're going to get it on the WRCO Facebook page.

It sounds like there's a QR code on the flyer.

Um, you can go to the NWTF's websites.

There should be an event, uh, button you can click on.

You can just search, uh, scenic hills, uh, guns and bingo.

It should come up or, um, I know there's flyers down at open season in town.

So you can stop in there and, and grab one.

It's just inside the door.

Wonderful.

And, uh, what do you look forward to the most with the, with the, uh, upcoming band quit on Friday night?

I look forward to winning bingo myself.

Really?

Guaranteed winner.

Hopefully I have enough time to play.

We'll see if I'm running around.

How many cards do you anticipate that you'll have

four or six games?

Yeah.

And you get different cards,

but you can get different cards.

And I think you can, are we letting people buy more cards?

No, the cards are free with your entrance.

So you get, you get the bingo cards when you come in.

And so, yeah.

So you, you play those games and.

See what happens.

Yeah.

Wonderful.

And it's, it's a kind of thing where, you know, the selection of what you win can be something dealing with Turkey and outdoor or it can be cash.

And I think it's like $400 cash per game.

So it's not like, you know, that you have to, you know, if you're not a Turkey person, outdoor person, if you just come and you're playing bingo with us,

You know, you

walk out of there with cash.

Right.

And then you've had some nice donations too.

I'm guessing for the event.

Absolutely.

So some door prizes that people can win.

Yeah.

In fact,

Randy Olson just donated a truckload of gravel for us.

Wonderful.

To give as part of our silent auction.

So a big thanks to Randy.

Great.

You know, you get good support from the community.

Anything you want to add about your chapter, Derek, here in Richland Center?

Yeah.

I mean, we're always looking for more people, especially

younger individuals that want to be involved in the outdoors.

It can be a good stepping stone into some other organizations.

It's an exciting time too with the fall seasons

coming in.

It is, yeah.

We're finally kind of turning over into the better weather and it's not 95 and 90% humidity anymore.

True.

You ever have any contests, the calling contests or anything like that?

If we did, I would not win.

You wouldn't win either.

We did and we had years ago.

We did.

We had some con some calling contest.

Maybe we'll have a pop-up contest someday.

Yeah.

That would be interesting.

Keep us posted, we'll broadcast that maybe.

Thanks guys, appreciate you coming in.

Derek Goplin and Fuzz McCauley, don't forget that event's coming up on Friday night, August 28th.

Also the upcoming wrestling outing for golf benefiting the wrestling club that's coming up on Saturday as well at Quail Run.

Thanks to Fuzz McCauley and Derek Goplin for being our guests on the first part of the show.

Thank you, Phil.

Welcome back to our morning show visit today on WRCO.

We're talking next about the Blue River Autumn Fest, which is happening this very weekend.

Amazing that this time has gone by so fast summer time, but this is always kind of the sign of school starting again.

So joining us in the studio, Justin Dagenhart, and we're also going to be talking a little bit about Jason's smoke.

Jason is in the studio with us to talk a little bit about them.

They'll be in the action in Blue River this coming weekend.

But first of all, Justin, let's talk a little bit about what's, what's happening.

It looks like new and improved autumn fest this weekend.

Yeah, it's kind of the same old,

we had a Shassan in there this weekend.

Hopefully everything kind of works out together.

Um, for the crowd, everybody kind of come in the park at the same time and be busy.

Hopefully.

No doubt.

So it kicks off on Friday.

Maybe you could kind of tell about Friday events, first of all,

uh, so Friday night, uh, our men's fast pitch tournament starts, um, that's a staple and at autumn fest for 40 some years.

Um, that's, uh, I believe the first game starts six.

Um,

And then we have our, uh, Uker tournament in the park starts at seven.

Uh, and then our water fights under the lights, uh, fireman water fight starts at seven also.

You ever combine the two and get the water fights going with the Uker tournament, you know, somebody gets too hot with the cards or something.

Or do you ever do it?

Oh, no, I don't think they'd like that role.

Well, but when I think of blue river fast pitch softball has kind of been a staple there at the park over the years.

It has been, it's been fast

pitch

as

long as I can remember.

And so that tournament is coming in.

Any idea of number of teams and where they're coming from?

I believe they're at 10 to 12 right now.

There's a couple that are not totally committed yet, but it's always 10 to 12 usually.

Talk about to all of the people that helped put this on.

It takes an army to put on a festival of this size, doesn't it?

It does.

I mean, there's 38 members on the department and everybody is doing something at least two weeks ahead of time.

Um, and then the gentlemen that are like doing this, uh, fast pitch tournament, Matt Anderson and Stan Grimm, they've been working on this all summer long, going to tournaments, getting teams lined up to come in.

So it doesn't just start in August.

We started in January planning.

And those guys will get it going.

I'm guessing there's going to be some really good action for people to watch.

Isn't there?

There is.

And there's been, you know, years in the past, I don't, not a hundred percent on this year, but there, there's been teams in the past that have been, uh, Olympic.

quality teams.

I mean, literally Olympic quality teams playing in a blue river, which you're not going to see that this area of the state.

So

that tournament continues until Sunday then, just

correct Saturday and Sunday.

Um, I believe the last game, they'll try and have it four to six o'clock Sunday, depending on how all that rolls around.

But

well, so far we're reading you a good forecast.

Hopefully it stays that way.

Yeah.

Not real hot during the day, cool temperature at night.

It seems like it's going to be a really good weekend.

You've had all kinds of weather for the fest over the years.

We've had floods to 100 degrees.

Yeah, you certainly have.

This is a big fundraiser for the department as well.

It is.

It's the largest fundraiser that the fire department does.

We have a couple smaller ones throughout the year, but this is our main event.

And we're kind of looking into new gear for a few of the guys.

Our requirements say they're 10 years old.

They need to be replaced.

We've got quite a few that are 11, 12, 13 years old.

We're working on a couple every year trying to get it, which are three to $4,000 a set.

So we just try to keep up on it every year.

And this is.

pretty much where the money's going to go this year.

Yeah, it takes a lot of money to outfit the whole department,

doesn't it?

Well, 38 guys and $3,000 a piece, and that's quite a chunk.

No doubt.

Well, let's look ahead at Saturday at the Autumn Fest.

What's going on that day?

So Saturday, 10 a.m., the Friends of Blue River have sponsored some talks in the community building.

Chassan's back rib carp petition will start at 11.

We have a bean bag tournament, sign up at 1230, all starts rolling at one.

Then Saturday afternoon at two, we start our antique tractor pull, roll that in at six o'clock into the farm tractor pull.

Five PM at the gazebo above the park there, we're just right in with the tractor pull.

We'll have our scavenger hunt around town.

And then eight PM, high mileage starts.

How many years have you had high mileage at the park there?

I believe this will be

the fourth.

They draw a big crowd, don't they?

They do.

They fill in and the way they have everything set up.

If you want to be at the tractor pole and don't want to hear the music, you can kind of hear it.

but it's not super loud.

I've talked to the people that live across the street from the park and they really don't hear it.

It's just the way it lays in there and the way they've got everything angled.

It all kind of stays in the park.

So we're not upset in the whole town.

As we're talking about Saturday, maybe we need to talk about the backyard rib competition in a little bit.

That'd be a good idea.

How about it?

Let's put Jason on the spot.

Hey, good to have you.

Thanks for having me.

Tell us about your business if you would.

We're a small metal shop.

Our business started building custom smokers.

The business escalated.

Our has grown into a e-commerce business.

Most of our sales are online.

We manufacture everything right there in Bosqueville.

But we live in Blue River and this is our third annual backyard rib competition and the whole idea behind it was to help Blue River kind of raise some money our local fire department and

who doesn't like good barbecue.

So tell us a little bit about the idea for the smokers and where did that idea come from?

They say every man reaches a point in life and I had reached that point in life where I was either going to get into motorcycles or barbecue and I chose a barbecue and I built my own smoker.

So I built up my first offset at home in the shop and a

it was actually my brother-in-law that said, man, build me one.

And then before you know it, I was building smokers for a few people and we started putting our content online and on social media and the business just kind of grew from that.

That's how it all started as far as building smokers.

And do you ship them all over the country?

Yep, all over, all over the United States.

We also make other products as well.

We make rocket stoves and

Uh, collapsible fire pits and, um, hand rails and anything else.

You know, we do a lot of custom metal fab work.

How many people do you employ?

Uh, right now there's 12 full-time employees and my wife, Miranda and myself.

Yeah.

Miranda chose, she's kind of the silent part.

Oh

yeah.

Yeah.

Miranda rules the rules, the roost for sure.

But, uh, yeah, we've been.

We've been doing this since 2019 and it just we moved to Wisconsin I'm originally not from Wisconsin if you can tell y'all have accents Yeah, we moved here in 2018 and yeah hit that midlife crisis I guess and build a barbecue smoker and it's turned into our Our current business and that's and that's what we do

Um, currently,

there are worse things you could do with a midlife crisis.

Yeah.

Motorcycles.

I'll say either one of those.

They're probably safe.

Right?

Right,

Miranda?

Yeah.

No, I'm good with the barbecue stuff, but for the competition, we do have 22 teams competing.

We have a people's choice, um, where people can, um, bring in non-perishable foods or $10 and you get to participate and vote on your favorite.

They have appetizers and things they offer.

So that's a new thing we added this year for our third year.

And all the money goes to the Blue River Fire Department as well as we also do a rocket stove toss where we have a six inch rocket stove which is one of our staple products.

And they

throw beanbags.

They throw beanbags and see if they can get it into the rock.

So they

buy, buy bags and then they

win

the stove.

I think last year it was like 10 bucks, gives you five throws or something like that.

It's going to

say you're

not throwing a stove.

That would

be.

No,

no, no, you're throwing

the bags.

Throwing it into the stove.

Yeah.

So what have you learned about good barbecue over the years, Miranda?

It takes time.

It gets it gets better and better.

Let's put it that way It starts out kind of rough, but then he gets better and better at it and

every year every year Yeah, but

good barbecue is hard to beat.

Yeah, is there a secret Jason?

I can't tell you.

Oh,

there is a secret to it rest

time You gotta let the meat rest

trust me on this one the key to a great

brisket is at minimum a four-hour rest.

If you can give it at minimum a four-hour rest, it will change your whole brisket experience.

But that's so hard to do because you want to

eat it.

You want to eat it, right?

The timing is always off because you cook your brisket and then everybody's waiting to eat, so you cut it right away.

And if you would just let it rest for four hours at minimum.

It's a long day.

If you can go longer, even better.

But yeah, basically you got to stay up all night though, right, to get it good.

Yeah.

If your pit, if your pit's designed well and is efficient,

Um, you can usually get an hour or so sleep in every now and then, but, um, no, you got to keep the fire fed or, um, you know, you can do like some and get a pellet smoker and just,

you

know, let the easy bake oven work for you.

Did you have one Miranda when you were young, an easy bake oven?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Of course.

That's where it all started.

Yeah.

So we're encouraging people to come out here for the, for the Shayson smoke third annual backyard rib competition.

Um, can people still enter the competition?

The

competition is full.

We

have 22 teams, but we're asking for everyone to come out and join the, the autumn festival be going on this year.

Uh, there's a

lot to do.

And there's the people's choice.

So basically like Miranda has spoke,

you buy your tickets you have two tickets and you walk around and you try the the teams appetizers maybe try their ribs whatever they're offering and you vote on you know that team had a really nice display they were really nice their food was great i'm gonna give them one of my tickets and at the end of the competition they win

some cash

they'll win some cash as far as who wins the the people's choice award it's not the same as

the competition itself for the competition.

There's six judges that are judging all the ribs, but the people's choice will be fun and allows everyone a chance to participate and allows us to help Blue River help Justin and those guys buy a $3,000 new uniform.

I know if we can.

Right.

How far did the teams come from?

It was pretty much in the vicinity, Miranda.

We have them coming from all over Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri.

So.

They come, they come up here.

They've been, we have several team players that have been coming every year.

So they really enjoy

it.

I know we have one team that they travel like six hours.

So like a six hour drive for them to come up here.

It's just good fun.

It's

good.

It's

good fun.

It's that, um,

What do you call it?

You know when it's your buddy, but you there's you're still competitive So there's a little bit of poking

friendly friendly competition.

Yeah, my ribs are better than yours Well, not quite but you know, it's friendly competition and doing everything that we enjoy which is Barbecue and hanging around our friends and family

I'm wondering these people that come from different locations regionally.

Does the ribs to the barbecue, does it, does it vary like where you live sometimes or not?

So I've only been, I've only actually judged once.

It was the first year, but I will say there's a variety of ribs.

You're going to have spicy ribs.

You're going to have sweet ribs.

There's definitely a variety.

And it just whoever the judges are, you know, it's one of those games, right?

And if the judges like spicy, they like spicy.

If they like sweet, they like sweet.

It's just part of the competition.

And you get to experience a little bit of variety from everyone's, uh, I guess neck of the woods.

Sure.

People attending Blue River Autumn Festival, and though you can do the people's choice and you can pick whatever you want, right?

Yeah.

whether you like spicy or sweet or whatever.

Yeah,

you can decide what you want to try.

There's

bad too.

There's bad.

Sometimes you have bad ribs.

I've overdone my ribs before.

It's a fun

thing we added.

In the fall we do a chili cook-off and we did people's choice then and everybody loved it.

We got so much donated non-perishable foods so we're doing

it

again this year.

Um, it seemed to be a hit.

So we're doing it for our barbecue comp this year.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Good.

Sounds like a Friday on Saturday or action pack, but Justin, let's go to Sunday and let us know what's going on now that day at Blue River.

We start Sunday morning.

Um, we'll start off our chicken barbecue.

That starts at four AM Saturday morning.

We start cooking that, um, that'll serve at 11, but at nine of money burger and his cowboy church in the park, um, to go along with our chicken barbecue.

We have the pie and ice cream.

Um,

And then at two, we have a parade, rain or shine.

This year's parade theme is red, white and blue honoring our hometown veterans.

That starts, like I said, at two o'clock, one o'clock is lineup.

And if there is any veterans out there that would like to be part of that, because we don't have a parade marshal, a single parade marshal this year, it's the veterans.

So the parade marshals, the veterans are all going to be in the front of the parade.

They're going to be the marshals of the parade.

If anybody wants to come, we've got a couple people movers, wagons to put them on, we'll pull them through the parade, and that was kind of our whole theme there.

That's good to know that they'll be riding then, if somebody can't walk the distance then

too.

Right, right.

If they want to walk, they can walk or they can ride, but we're going to put everything, everything to do with the veterans is going to be in the front of the parade this year.

And your parade is usually many units long, isn't it?

Just somewhere

between 60 and 75 usually.

So it probably

takes about an hour or so.

Yeah, a little hour, a little less.

Somewhere in that area.

So the parade starts at two rain or shine.

What else is happening on Sunday?

Right after the parade, we have the sawdust money hunt, which is a good staple for the kids.

They really like doing that.

We have the kitty tractor pole put on by the Riverdale FFA in the park.

After the sawdust dig, kids walk right down and do the tractor pole.

And then while they're doing that,

We set up for the kitty water fights, uh, which would be in the same spot right where the parade was at and saw us, uh, money hunt was that.

Um, and then we'll kind of go through that, put the kids together and let them, let them do what the big kid do on Friday night.

Um, and then, uh, we have music in the park again on Sunday from three to six.

It's the JR brink dual.

Um, they're new this year.

The last band we've had for probably six, seven years, um, retired.

So we're onto a,

a different group there

live music on saturday night and sunday and

sunday up sunday afternoon three to six so like kind of last they kind of get done about the same time the ball games get done there we may have a game after that depending on how competitive the ball teams are but

so your fire department puts it on is there a backup plan for heaven forbid if you if you go on call somewhere during that

time there's a few people we have in town for

They're there if we need them inside the stands.

So there's, there's a few other people that are in them besides fire department members, but yeah, it'll get real slow real quick.

We have a call.

Well, let's hope that doesn't happen then.

You said 38 members then.

Do you have some younger members that have joined?

We

do actually.

We have a couple of 18 year olds, some older guys that have just got it on.

They're just going through the classes.

We've got a seven people going through the

emergency first responders class right now.

Um, so I mean, we're, we're building up and building, trying to keep everything going.

You still have the 100 year plus truck?

Yes, we do.

How's that doing?

Good.

It's sitting in the firehouse behind our brand new one.

They're 100 years apart, 24 and 19, 24 and the 20, 24, they sit right next to one another.

So,

I don't know that it'll be driving through the parade, but we'll have it out.

We'll put it on a trailer and haul it through the parade.

I remember when you got it back for the 100th anniversary, that was, that was really something.

Yeah.

And that's older gentlemen that were on the department.

They knew that we had had it at one time.

They never knew where it went.

And it was, they were just a static that we were able to get it back.

Good deal.

Uh, goals for the department this year, Justin, uh, for the, uh, coming year, other than outfitting more members, uh, what are some other things you're looking at?

Um, well, we've really got into the radio system, the Richland County, um, Grant County is in the same boat going through that, getting everything changed over.

So we have some radio stuff we had to do.

Um, just keeping that all up to date.

And biggest thing is getting the gear.

We did end up getting a, um, FEMA grant.

this year.

So we had new airpacks purchased in this year, which the old ones were almost 16 years old.

So that was good there.

I mean, that's another was the grant total was $360,000.

We split that up with us in a Volca fire, and we both got new airpacks and air compressors.

And so we've done fairly well that way with grant writing.

And you stay busy because you're also on call for accidents.

Everything

here.

Yeah.

We have the boat for the river and car wrecks and fires and EMS calls.

And yeah, we're, we're all on call 24 seven.

Indeed.

So certainly there, there is a need.

And the other thing is that sometimes overlooked is how often you assist other departments in the area too.

Don't you?

Oh,

correct.

Um, last year, I believe we had.

89 or 90 calls, and I'd say 70-ish of them were mutual aid calls, helping somebody else.

So that's what it's all about.

And that's a good point.

When people attend Bluer Rotem Fest, you're not just helping you guys in Blue River, you're helping the whole area.

And

we go, I've been as far as south of Cobb on a fire call.

So it's not, you know, just Boscoville, Blue River, Muscaday, Richland Center.

big area.

I mean, we could go as far as arena.

I mean, we go out a long ways.

I mean, they get the mutual aid systems the way they're set up now and everybody's in the same boat.

You don't have a lot of guys all the time during the day.

Cause like for us, my son and myself, I have my business in town.

We work in town.

So we're around the village employees are there, but other than that, we've got a few farmers that are

round during the day, but most everybody else has a job that's not in Bluiver.

So they're not round during the day.

So you have to count on people in the same boat.

Musketeers, you know, some of their village employees are, or basketball, their village employees are on the fire department.

So we come together and we can have enough together to make it work.

But by

ourselves, we're really short.

Right.

So certainly there is a need for that as well.

It's safe to say you probably go on most of the calls then.

I've missed a few this year.

Have you?

Between working and stuff,

I bet I get most of them, yeah.

Good.

Well, we hope for a good weather.

We'll continue promoting the Blue River Autumn Fest.

And it's really nice to meet you guys because we've talked about Chase on Smoke for quite some time in our area.

Good to see you guys.

Thanks for having us.

We're glad to be part of the community.

Listen to Justin talk right now is really interesting of how it all works and how it all comes together and we're glad to be part of it for sure

indeed and You have any future plans for your business to expand or anything you'd like to see down the road?

If Miranda lets me but yeah We bought three acres in basketball and

that shop.

There's room for

expansion is what he's trying to say.

It

would be nice to add a finishing department onto that shop or something so we could do in-house painting and powder coating.

Sure.

What about a motorcycle division?

No.

I skipped that part, I

guess.

People locally though, you know, not only do you help out at the community fest, but if somebody's interested in one of your smokers, you can ship them locally too, can't

you?

Oh, absolutely.

We'll deliver them locally.

Yeah, awesome.

Yeah,

we'll maybe help you cook your first ribs or your brisket.

Wow.

Wow, service.

That's

a

good deal.

Do

you have a showroom that people can go see?

We don't.

It's something we're working on, something we plan on having in the future, but we're

We're basically just a shop, a manufacturing facility is what we started off as a welding repair shop is how it all started, but we don't even do that anymore.

So

this is more fun.

Yeah, way more

fun.

Well, thanks.

It's so nice to meet you guys.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Chase on smoke will be there.

The third annual backyard rib competition right during the day in Blue River 11 until six on Saturday.

And anything else you'd like to add here today, Justin, wrap it up here.

But.

Just the whole, if there's any veterans that would like to ride through the parade and

be

honored for it and just be there, the old school in Tallinn era,

round one.

Okay.

And the parade steps off at two.

Correct.

Good deal.

Well, here's to a good safe weekend and good to see you again.

Thanks Phil.

You bet.

Justin Dagenhart joining us from Blue River Autumn Fest and also Miranda and Jason from Shaysan Smoke.

And we'll have more coming up tomorrow on the morning show.

Welcome back to our morning show visit today on WRCO.

We're talking next about the Blue River Autumn Fest, which is happening this very weekend.

Um,

amazing that this time has gone by so fast summer time, but this is always kind of the sign of school starting again.

So joining us in the studio, Justin Dagenhart, and we're also going to be talking a little bit about Jason's smoke.

Jason is in the studio with us to talk a little bit about them.

They'll be in the action in Blue River this coming weekend.

But first of all, Justin, let's talk a little bit about what's, what's happening.

It looks like new and improved autumn fest this weekend.

Yeah, it's kind of the same old,

we had a Shassan in there this weekend.

We're

Hopefully everything kind of works out together.

Um, for the crowd, everybody kind of come in the park at the same time and be busy.

Hopefully.

No doubt.

So it kicks off on Friday.

Maybe you could kind of tell about Friday events, first of all,

uh, so Friday night, uh, men's fast pitch tournament starts, um, that's a staple and at autumn fest for 40 some years.

Um, that's, uh, I believe the first game starts at six.

Um,

And then we have our Uker tournament in the park starts at seven and then our water fights under the lights.

Fireman water fight starts at seven also.

You ever combine the two and get the water fights going with the Uker tournament, you know, somebody gets too hot with the cards or something?

Or do you ever do it?

Oh, no, I don't think they'd like that real well.

But when I think of Blue River, fast pitch softball has kind of been a staple there at the park over the years.

It has been.

It's been fast pitch as long as I can remember.

And so that tournament is coming in.

Any idea of number of teams and where they're coming from?

I believe they're at 10 to 12 right now.

There's a couple that aren't totally committed yet, but it's always 10 to 12 usually.

Talk about to all of the people that helped put this on.

It takes an army to put on a festival of this size, doesn't it?

It does.

There's 38 members on the department and everybody is doing something at least two weeks ahead of time.

And then the gentlemen that are like doing this fast pitch tournament, Matt Anderson and Stan Grimm, they've been working on this all summer long, going to tournaments, getting teams lined up to come in.

So it doesn't just start in August.

We started in January planning.

And those guys will get it going.