L & P Miles : Day of Granddaughter's baby shower!

77 degrees and bright sunshine, no wind, in Marengo, IA at 11:00 am Sunday.

Drove from Marquoketa to St. Donatus, Iowa through the countryside. Different kind of farming in that corner of the state; literally no terraces and they farm right up and down steep hills. They do skip over waterways.

This town is considered "Little Luxembourg", but there were no really touristy places.

Well, here I am already, 3:30 pm Tuesday afternoon in Clarinda - 85º and bright sunshine. Rain was forecast, but it went south of us, maybe some later today. I had a hard time writing in the blog while we were traveling. Did a couple with the phone and that is really difficult as I couldn't find the pen we have with the soft nose for writing on phone, so was using chubby fingers. When started this, was at son's, but had my older computer and not best setup for seeing the screen. Well, anyway, will try to finish this.

Near the Maquoketa Caves we listened to a presentation on the caves and the fact that there had been a scare for several years about a virus that was deadly to the bats. It is no longer quite as severe and you don't have to wear cloth booties now, but you are requested to not go near any other caves with the clothes you are wearing for a period of 6 months.

I guess it was a way to get attention, but they did have on display and talk about a few species of snakes.

We drove to just north of the city of Maquoketa to the Hurstville Interpretive Center which is run jointly by the Jackson County people and the Iowa NRD.

Many displays of all the creatures
and vegetation of the area.

Just to the north of this area there used to be, many years ago, a large kiln that reduced ground lime to a very fine powder that was used in masonry. It was quite an industry Hurstville Lime Kilns

We did not drive out to the reconstructed site.

The process started in the limestone rock quarry. The men would get the rock into a manageable size so that it could be loaded into mule or horse-drawn rail carts and hauled to the kilns. The limestone was then unloaded into the top of the kiln where a fire was burning. The fires burned at 900 degrees Celsius (1650 F). They kept the fire burning around the clock - 24 hours a day 7 days a week – for most of the year. Workers were well compensated for their hard work. In 1899 many workers earned $1.35 a day and rent was only $3 a month.
- See more at: http://www.mycountyparks.com/County/Jackson/Park/Hurstville-Lime-Kilns.aspx#sthash.e0CHr9h9.dpuf

This and the photo below show a model

of the plant. It was all hand labor. The process started in the limestone rock quarry. The men would get the rock into a manageable size so that it could be loaded into mule or horse-drawn rail carts and hauled to the kilns. The limestone was then unloaded into the top of the kiln where a wood fire was burning.

The fires burned at 900 degrees Celsius (1650 F). They kept the fire burning around the clock - 24 hours a day 7 days a week – for most of the year. Workers were well compensated for their hard work. In 1899 many workers earned $1.35 a day and rent was only $3 a month.

This drawing shows how the lime rock was brought to the top and then dumped down into the area above the fire. 1650 degrees made it a very hot place to work in the summers.