Photo by Wanda Hanson
Holly Wieser is an energetic, caring woman who wears many hats in her various occupations. At Wieser Septic, Holly runs the office, answers the phone, does the payroll and scheduling, pulls permits, helps with sewer design and is a licensed sewer installer.
Wieser Septic was begun in 1963 by Leonard Wieser; in 2006, his son Jake (Holly’s husband) took over the business and moved it to the ranch. Wieser Septic designs, installs, inspects, sewer systems as well as installing and repairing water lines, doing work for cities, demolition, digging basements, building retaining walls and graveling roads. Commercial work such as demolishing St. Stan’s in Winona has been keeping the company busy recently.
One of the more unusual jobs at Wieser Septic is digging graves at local cemeteries.
Along with regular graves, they also dig cremation graves. Holly explained that in addition they dig graves for green burials at a cemetery in Wisconsin. Green burials are done with the unembalmed body simply wrapped in a white sheet, placed on a board and lowered into a grave. She noted that new workers are often taken aback at first when asked to be involved in these.
In the future, Holly and Jake’s sons, Wyatt, age 24, and Easton, age 14, plan to take over the business; they already are experienced in operating the equipment.
Contrasting with the work at Wieser Septic, Holly also wears many hats as she works to run Outback Ranch. At Outback Ranch, Holly and her daughter Madeline, age 22, care for the 75 campsites, the three cabins, the wedding venue with its groom’s den and bridal suite, and the newly built chapel. Weed eating, tending the flowers and cleaning cabins and the venue keep the duo busy. Holly takes care of check-ins and scheduling as well as often working as an unofficial wedding coordinator the day of weddings.
The first wedding at the farm which the couple bought in 1997 was 25 years ago. For the last 10 to 15 years, Outback Ranch has been the site of many weddings each year.
Couples have come from as far away as Alaska, South Dakota, and Chicago for destination weddings; locally couples from Plainview, Eyota and Red Wing have also used the venue.
The venue is also used for other events such as local proms, celebrations of life, music festivals, grad parties and builders’ continuing ed classes; the Bluff Country Hidden Heroes plan an upcoming gala at the ranch.
Every year, improvements are added, such as an outdoor bar made from a grain bin with antique tractor seats on the stools, more concrete to help people attending events at the venue and recently, an indoor chapel.
Outback has 40 miles of private trails and is connected to Wet Bark Recreation Area with its 10 miles of trails. The ranch hosts guests with horses at the campgrounds; people from Michigan often stop to camp on their way to South Dakota.
A third business run by Holly and her husband Jake is Outback Entertainment. This company was started by Jake while he was in high school. Outback Entertainment does stage, sound and light productions for national and regional acts. Jake also DJs weddings while Holly schedules and talks to managers and occasionally helps Jake with setups.
Holly enjoys the wide variety of her many jobs. She likes to help people come up with solutions when they come in with septic system issues or water leaks. Often the customers are unhappy and emotional at first.
Weddings at Outback Ranch bring a lot of emotional people too as they work to have a perfect wedding. Holly enjoys helping them make that happen and loves to see the happy couples as their weddings come together.
Holly’s favorite thing about Outback Entertainment is her whole family getting to meet some great artists. Weather and storms are the biggest challenges for Outback Entertainment, often causing delays.
Hobbies that Holly enjoys are working with her flowers around the ranch and reading when she has some rare downtime. When asked what motivates her to work so hard, Holly replied, “I enjoy helping people and watching them have fun!” Holly certainly gets to see that on a daily basis!
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