This Weekend: Man and Dog and Nature

Ted Waldbillig |

You've all seen this on television at some point. I know you have, because I don't watch any TV, but I've still seen it. It's the outdoor games, of course. This weekend at the Eau Claire Rod & Gun club, we'll have our very own Chippewa Valley Outdoor Games, each competition testing skills of varying on-the-job practicality. The competitions include: The Lumberjack Competition, 5-Stand Shooting, Archery, Big Splash Dogs, Retrieving Series, Flyball (what is it?), Agility Dogs, and Speed Balls. Yep, you read that right.

As you can see, many events involve dogs. These require no pre-registration, so if you've only just discovered the Outdoor Games, you can certainly still compete! Find more information about the festival in our calendar entry.

Also on Saturday: Family Fun Day in Menomonie, LBGT Pride Picnic, Midwest Music Fest, balladeer Brian Bethke, Cheap Antics Sketch Comedy, Saved (LBGT movie), Dorf Kapelle (traditional European village music), and metal acts Kaptivating Kate + Entropy + Novus Inceptum.

And on Sunday: Jason O'Dea and His Barefoot Symphony, Taste of Harmony music festival, Big Backyard Menomonie music fest, Howard "Guitar" Luedtke and drummer Jim Schuh, and Christian rocker Phil Wickham.

Art Show: Art & the Blues, Roger Adams, August Artists: Suzanne Schroeder and Peg Breitzman, Drawings by Geta Otto, Roger Adams, Landscape Photography by Tim Burns and Scott Wuerch, Let's Go to the Circus!, Story Lines: Narrative and Sequential Images, and Watercolors Plus by Tere Hering.