I’m at my farm these waning days of winter. The snow is piled high around the buildings, as high as I can remember. It took me more than two hours with my tractor to plow out my driveway after the most recent snowstorm.
I watched a deer last night; a little doe with a thick coat of fur. She was feeding on the brush growing under the windbreak not twenty yards from the cabin. Although she was up to her belly in deep snow, she appeared healthy. Even with deep snow, she appeared to move easily, albeit very slowly.
This morning, as the late February sun begins to crawl above the horizon to the east, I pull on my parka and head for the woodshed, a several times a day task in winter, as my wood stove has a never ending appetite. The thermometer reads 15 degrees. What I notice these chilly late winter mornings is the quiet—oh so quiet. The only sound is that of my boots creaking on the snow. I stop and listen to the silence—a real treat as most of my life is filled with sound.
As the first rays of sun appear, I hear it, off to the east, a cardinal shattering the silence, welcoming the new day, and welcoming the seasonal change as well.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Change and progress are not the same thing.
CHECK THIS OUT:
My newest book, CAMPFIRES AND LOON CALLS: TRAVELS IN THE BOUNDARY WATERS is in the bookstores. My son, Steve and I have canoed in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota for 25 years. This is our story. Go to: http://fulcrumpublishing.wordpress.com for more information, including an interview.
COMING EVENTS:
March 2, 7:00 p.m. River Falls Library. Smithsonian’s “Key Ingredients: America By Food.” (Farming History).
March 5, 3:00 p.m. City Hall, Platteville (Old Farm).
March 5, 7:00 p.m. Mining Museum-405 E. Main, Platteville: (Horse Drawn Days).
March 6, 2:00 p.m. Pioneer Dinner, Milton House Museum, Seventh Day Baptist Church, Milton (Remembering our Rural Heritage).
March 9, 11:45-12:30 Larry Meiller Show, Wisconsin Public Radio (Campfires and Loon Calls).
March 11, 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 12, 3:30 p.m. Canoecopia, Alliant Center, Madison:. (Campfires and Loon Calls).
March 15, 10:30 a.m. Eager Free Library, Evansville, WI.
March 15, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. (Launch for Campfires and Loon Calls).
March 17, 2:00-4:00. Monroe Arts Center, Monroe. Memories into Memoirs—Writers’ Workshop.
March 17, 7:00 p.m. Monroe Arts Center. (Our Rural Heritage).
March 20, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society, Fire Station, New Lebanon. (Horse Drawn Days).
March 26, 9:30 a.m., Richland County Electric Co-op, Richland Center High School.
March 29, 7:00 p.m. Manawa Public Library. (In a Pickle).
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Ice Skating
We’ve had a week of above freezing weather, the temperature climbing into the low 50s one day. The snow is in fast retreat. When I was a kid we looked forward to these winter thaws, not only because warmer weather made doing farm chores a little easier, but because the hollows on the farm filled with melt water. When winter returned, and it always did, the ponds in the hollows froze and we had ice skating ponds.
When I was eleven years old or so, I was introduced to ice skating after one of these winter thaws created a couple acre pond in the big hayfield across the road from our farmstead. When the pond froze, Pa asked my brothers and me one Saturday morning whether we’d be interesting in learning how to ice skate. We had no ice skates at the time, so were a bit perplexed by Pa’s question.
That Saturday afternoon, while Ma was trading for groceries (she traded eggs for groceries at the Mercantile in Wild Rose), Pa, my brothers and I walked down the street to Hotz’s Hardware. Pa inquired about ice skates, the kind that you clamp on the bottom of your shoes with a little key. He bought three pair, fifty cents a pair.
Later that afternoon, when we were back home, my brothers and I trekked down to the pond, clamped on our shiny new skates and quickly discovered that there was nothing easy about ice skating. We were on our backsides more often than we were upright. At suppertime, Pa inquired about our skating success and we told him we’d probably go back to sledding. The next day Pa came with us to the pond, we wondered why. Once there, he said he’d like to try skating. As an old man, he was in his forties, we thought he’d probably fall and break something. And we’d have more chores to do.
We shouldn’t have worried. Pa made a couple swings around the pond, his hands behind his back, a smile spreading across his face. He slid to a stop,commenced skating backwards, and then cross stepped going backwards. Not once did he fall. Not once. My brothers and I just stood there with our mouths hanging open. “Not much to ice skating,” he said. “Does take a little practice, though.”
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: The only way to lose is to quit.
CHECK THIS OUT:
My newest book, CAMPFIRES AND LOON CALLS: TRAVELS IN THE BOUNDARY WATERS is in the bookstores. My son, Steve and I have canoed in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota for 25 years. This is our story. Go to: http://fulcrumpublishing.wordpress.com for more information, including an interview.
COMING EVENTS:
March 2, 7:00 p.m. River Falls Library. Smithsonian’s “Key Ingredients: America By Food.” Farming History.
March 5, 3:00 p.m. City Hall, Platteville (Old Farm).
March 5, 7:00 p.m. Mining Museum-405 E. Main, Platteville: (Horse Drawn Days.)
March 6, 2:00 p.m. Pioneer Dinner, Milton House Museum, Milton: Remembering our Rural Heritage.
March 9, 11:45-12:30 Larry Meiller Show, Wisconsin Public Radio: Campfires and Loon Calls.
March 11, 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 12, 3:30 p.m. Canoecopia, Alliant Center, Madison: Campfires and Loon Calls.
March 15, 10:30 a.m. Eager Free Library, Evansville, WI.
March 15, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. Launch for Campfires and Loon Calls.
March 17, 2:00-4:00. Monroe Arts Center, Monroe. Memories into Memoirs—Writers’ Workshop.
March 17, 7:00 p.m. Monroe Arts Center. Our Rural Heritage.
March 20, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society, Fire Station, New Lebanon. Horse Drawn Days.
March 29, 7:00 p.m. Manawa Public Library, In a Pickle.
When I was eleven years old or so, I was introduced to ice skating after one of these winter thaws created a couple acre pond in the big hayfield across the road from our farmstead. When the pond froze, Pa asked my brothers and me one Saturday morning whether we’d be interesting in learning how to ice skate. We had no ice skates at the time, so were a bit perplexed by Pa’s question.
That Saturday afternoon, while Ma was trading for groceries (she traded eggs for groceries at the Mercantile in Wild Rose), Pa, my brothers and I walked down the street to Hotz’s Hardware. Pa inquired about ice skates, the kind that you clamp on the bottom of your shoes with a little key. He bought three pair, fifty cents a pair.
Later that afternoon, when we were back home, my brothers and I trekked down to the pond, clamped on our shiny new skates and quickly discovered that there was nothing easy about ice skating. We were on our backsides more often than we were upright. At suppertime, Pa inquired about our skating success and we told him we’d probably go back to sledding. The next day Pa came with us to the pond, we wondered why. Once there, he said he’d like to try skating. As an old man, he was in his forties, we thought he’d probably fall and break something. And we’d have more chores to do.
We shouldn’t have worried. Pa made a couple swings around the pond, his hands behind his back, a smile spreading across his face. He slid to a stop,commenced skating backwards, and then cross stepped going backwards. Not once did he fall. Not once. My brothers and I just stood there with our mouths hanging open. “Not much to ice skating,” he said. “Does take a little practice, though.”
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: The only way to lose is to quit.
CHECK THIS OUT:
My newest book, CAMPFIRES AND LOON CALLS: TRAVELS IN THE BOUNDARY WATERS is in the bookstores. My son, Steve and I have canoed in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota for 25 years. This is our story. Go to: http://fulcrumpublishing.wordpress.com for more information, including an interview.
COMING EVENTS:
March 2, 7:00 p.m. River Falls Library. Smithsonian’s “Key Ingredients: America By Food.” Farming History.
March 5, 3:00 p.m. City Hall, Platteville (Old Farm).
March 5, 7:00 p.m. Mining Museum-405 E. Main, Platteville: (Horse Drawn Days.)
March 6, 2:00 p.m. Pioneer Dinner, Milton House Museum, Milton: Remembering our Rural Heritage.
March 9, 11:45-12:30 Larry Meiller Show, Wisconsin Public Radio: Campfires and Loon Calls.
March 11, 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 12, 3:30 p.m. Canoecopia, Alliant Center, Madison: Campfires and Loon Calls.
March 15, 10:30 a.m. Eager Free Library, Evansville, WI.
March 15, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. Launch for Campfires and Loon Calls.
March 17, 2:00-4:00. Monroe Arts Center, Monroe. Memories into Memoirs—Writers’ Workshop.
March 17, 7:00 p.m. Monroe Arts Center. Our Rural Heritage.
March 20, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society, Fire Station, New Lebanon. Horse Drawn Days.
March 29, 7:00 p.m. Manawa Public Library, In a Pickle.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Cook Stove
I spent some time at my farm last week, where the snow is piled high and spring seems a long way in the future. I heat my shack with a wood stove, a cook stove that not only provides a place to fry some eggs and heat up a pot of beans, but provides a wonderfully warm heat for the little building.
The temperature dipped to minus twelve one morning, and minus fifteen another. And yet, with these challenging temperatures the cook stove, with sticks of oak and black cherry wood, soon warmed the place to a comfortable level.
I sat near it, in my old rocking chair, and remembered when I was a kid how my dad sat near our old cook stove on cold mornings. And when a neighbor came to visit on a cold winter day, my dad and he would sit by the cook stove and spin stories and reminisce about earlier times when winters were more fierce and the cold more treacherous, at least in their memories. So the wood burning cook stove not only warmed the room, provided a place to cook and bake, but provided a center piece for socializing and being neighborly.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: There is something special about the heat from a wood burning stove.
CHECK THIS OUT:
My newest book, CAMPFIRES AND LOON CALLS: TRAVELS IN THE BOUNDARY WATERS is in the bookstores. My son, Steve and I have canoed in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota for 25 years. This is our story. Go to: http://fulcrumpublishing.wordpress.com for more information, including an interview.
COMING EVENTS:
March 2, 7:00 p.m. River Falls Library. Smithsonian’s “Key Ingredients: America By Food.” Farming History.
March 5, 3:00 p.m. City Hall, Platteville (Old Farm). 7:00 p.m. Museum-405 E. Main: (Horse Drawn Days.)
March 6, 2:00 p.m. Pioneer Dinner, Milton House Museum, Milton: Remembering our Rural Heritage.
March 9, 11:45-12:30 Larry Meiller Show, Wisconsin Public Radio: Campfires and Loon Calls.
March 11, 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 12, 3:30 p.m. Canoecopia, Alliant Center, Madison: Campfires and Loon Calls.
March 15, 10:30 a.m. Eager Free Library, Evansville, WI.
March 15, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. Launch for Campfires and Loon Calls.
March 17, 2:00-4:00. Monroe Arts Center, Monroe. Memories into Memoirs—Writers’ Workshop.
March 17, 7:00 p.m. Monroe Arts Center. Our Rural Heritage.
March 20, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society, Fire Station, New Lebanon. Horse Drawn Days.
March 29, 7:00 p.m. Manawa Public Library, In a Pickle.
The temperature dipped to minus twelve one morning, and minus fifteen another. And yet, with these challenging temperatures the cook stove, with sticks of oak and black cherry wood, soon warmed the place to a comfortable level.
I sat near it, in my old rocking chair, and remembered when I was a kid how my dad sat near our old cook stove on cold mornings. And when a neighbor came to visit on a cold winter day, my dad and he would sit by the cook stove and spin stories and reminisce about earlier times when winters were more fierce and the cold more treacherous, at least in their memories. So the wood burning cook stove not only warmed the room, provided a place to cook and bake, but provided a center piece for socializing and being neighborly.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: There is something special about the heat from a wood burning stove.
CHECK THIS OUT:
My newest book, CAMPFIRES AND LOON CALLS: TRAVELS IN THE BOUNDARY WATERS is in the bookstores. My son, Steve and I have canoed in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota for 25 years. This is our story. Go to: http://fulcrumpublishing.wordpress.com for more information, including an interview.
COMING EVENTS:
March 2, 7:00 p.m. River Falls Library. Smithsonian’s “Key Ingredients: America By Food.” Farming History.
March 5, 3:00 p.m. City Hall, Platteville (Old Farm). 7:00 p.m. Museum-405 E. Main: (Horse Drawn Days.)
March 6, 2:00 p.m. Pioneer Dinner, Milton House Museum, Milton: Remembering our Rural Heritage.
March 9, 11:45-12:30 Larry Meiller Show, Wisconsin Public Radio: Campfires and Loon Calls.
March 11, 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 12, 3:30 p.m. Canoecopia, Alliant Center, Madison: Campfires and Loon Calls.
March 15, 10:30 a.m. Eager Free Library, Evansville, WI.
March 15, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. Launch for Campfires and Loon Calls.
March 17, 2:00-4:00. Monroe Arts Center, Monroe. Memories into Memoirs—Writers’ Workshop.
March 17, 7:00 p.m. Monroe Arts Center. Our Rural Heritage.
March 20, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society, Fire Station, New Lebanon. Horse Drawn Days.
March 29, 7:00 p.m. Manawa Public Library, In a Pickle.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Back Home
Back home again after a couple weeks in the sunny south. Back to the land of snow banks and icicles, slippery roads and yes, the beauty of a good old-fashioned winter.
We were in Florida for a couple weeks, visiting places like the John and Mable Ringling Museum in Sarasota, and watching the surf roll in from the Gulf of Mexico (no traces of oil by the way).
We drove the near 1,400 hundreds miles so had a chance to see what winter was like in Illinois, in Kentucky, in Tennessee, in Georgia and of course in Florida. Winter is rather bleak and unappealing in these states. Drab and dull until we got to south Georgia and began to see some green grass.
Good to be home, even though my arms ache from shoveling and my back reminds me I’m not thirty years old anymore. Back home in time to watch the Super Bowl. Little talk of this great event in Florida, except for a chuckle or two that Dallas has snow and ice. “The cheeseheads must have brought their weather with them to Texas,” was the common comment.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: The Eskimos had 52 names for snow. One name seems sufficient when you have to shovel it.
CHECK THIS OUT: My newest book, CAMPFIRES AND LOON CALLS: TRAVELS IN THE BOUNDARY WATERS is in the bookstores. My son, Steve and I have canoed in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota for 25 years. This is our story.
COMING EVENTS:
February 12, 2:00 p.m., Richland Center City Auditorium. Film: County Schools—One Room—One Nation, followed by panel discussion.
March 2, 7:00 p.m. River Falls Library. Smithsonian’s “Key Ingredients: America By Food.” Farming History.
March 5, 3:00 p.m. City Hall, Platteville: Old Farm. 7:00 p.m. Museum-405 E. Main: Horse Drawn Days.
March 6, 2:00 p.m. Pioneer Dinner, Milton House Museum, Milton: Remembering our Rural Heritage.
March 9, 11:45-12:30 Larry Meiller Show, Wisconsin Public Radio: Campfires and Loon Calls.
March 11, Presentations: Friday, 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 12, 3:30 p.m. Canoecopia, Alliant Center, Madison: Campfires and Loon Calls.
March 15, 10:30 a.m. Eager Free Library, Evansville, WI.
March 15, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. Launch for Campfires and Loon Calls.
March 17, 2:00-4:00. Monroe Arts Center, Monroe. Memories into Memoirs—Writers’ Workshop.
March 17, 7:00 p.m. Monroe Arts Center. Our Rural Heritage.
March 20, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society, Fire Station, New Lebanon. Horse Drawn Days.
March 29, 7:00 p.m. Manawa Public Library, In a Pickle.
We were in Florida for a couple weeks, visiting places like the John and Mable Ringling Museum in Sarasota, and watching the surf roll in from the Gulf of Mexico (no traces of oil by the way).
We drove the near 1,400 hundreds miles so had a chance to see what winter was like in Illinois, in Kentucky, in Tennessee, in Georgia and of course in Florida. Winter is rather bleak and unappealing in these states. Drab and dull until we got to south Georgia and began to see some green grass.
Good to be home, even though my arms ache from shoveling and my back reminds me I’m not thirty years old anymore. Back home in time to watch the Super Bowl. Little talk of this great event in Florida, except for a chuckle or two that Dallas has snow and ice. “The cheeseheads must have brought their weather with them to Texas,” was the common comment.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: The Eskimos had 52 names for snow. One name seems sufficient when you have to shovel it.
CHECK THIS OUT: My newest book, CAMPFIRES AND LOON CALLS: TRAVELS IN THE BOUNDARY WATERS is in the bookstores. My son, Steve and I have canoed in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota for 25 years. This is our story.
COMING EVENTS:
February 12, 2:00 p.m., Richland Center City Auditorium. Film: County Schools—One Room—One Nation, followed by panel discussion.
March 2, 7:00 p.m. River Falls Library. Smithsonian’s “Key Ingredients: America By Food.” Farming History.
March 5, 3:00 p.m. City Hall, Platteville: Old Farm. 7:00 p.m. Museum-405 E. Main: Horse Drawn Days.
March 6, 2:00 p.m. Pioneer Dinner, Milton House Museum, Milton: Remembering our Rural Heritage.
March 9, 11:45-12:30 Larry Meiller Show, Wisconsin Public Radio: Campfires and Loon Calls.
March 11, Presentations: Friday, 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 12, 3:30 p.m. Canoecopia, Alliant Center, Madison: Campfires and Loon Calls.
March 15, 10:30 a.m. Eager Free Library, Evansville, WI.
March 15, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. Launch for Campfires and Loon Calls.
March 17, 2:00-4:00. Monroe Arts Center, Monroe. Memories into Memoirs—Writers’ Workshop.
March 17, 7:00 p.m. Monroe Arts Center. Our Rural Heritage.
March 20, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society, Fire Station, New Lebanon. Horse Drawn Days.
March 29, 7:00 p.m. Manawa Public Library, In a Pickle.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)