Driving home from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan yesterday, I began to think about the north woods and northern Wisconsin dairy country. My brother lives in a town called Iron River in Michigan, population around 3,000. That makes it a sizable town in the Upper Peninsula, where towns with populations in the hundreds are common. How does this countryside compare to the areas I’ll see in Mongolia in a few days?
A dairy farm in Wisconsin. 
Original settler log cabin 
Wabeno, Wisconsin, population 1,000 
Logging 
Our house, Iron River, Michigan, population 3,000 
Your mystery: What are we doing in the picture below? Hint: We are in the north woods in Michigan. We are doing something that has to do with food.
Comment below if you think you know what we are doing! If you have an idea, describe what you think that the two logs sticking out in front of me are there for and explain why.
My mystery: In the small towns of Michigan and Wisconsin we just about always have bowling, bars, some sort of food store and restaurant, and a library. What about Mongolia? Are there even small towns of this size or would this look big?
I’ll tell you what I find out as I travel!
Explore Mongolia 