Another Garden Update

Time for another garden update.  March-planted vegetables  are doing well, except for a few hills of potatoes, which I replanted last week.  Everything ahead by a few weeks.  Radishes ready to eat, lettuce soon.

This coming week I’ll set out tomato plants—fingers crossed that frosty mornings will hold off until fall.  I’ll also plant green beans, more sweet corn, cucumbers, zucchini, winter squash, pumpkins, gourds, everything that’s not yet in the ground.

Alas, this is the first year that potato bugs have appeared before the entire garden is planted.  On Saturday Steve sprayed the potatoes with a new concoction we found last year called  “Potato Beetle Beater.”  Can’t beat that for a name.  You spray it on the potato plants when the first orange egg clusters appear on the underside of the potato plants.  The newly hatched and hungry potato beetles eat the treated leaves and that’s it.  No more beetles.  Unless the rain washes off the spray.  Unless this year’s crop of beetles is even tougher than last year.  We’ll see.  Old fashioned way of picking off the mature beetles and drowning them in a pail of water still works when all else fails.

NO BLOG ON MAY 27.  In Colorado until May 31.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS:  This year’s gardening season is beginning to look like the most unusual ever.

CHECK THIS OUT:  My one day workshop: “Writing From Your Life,” October 13, 8-4. The Clearing, Door County. For more information go to. http://theclearing.org/current/index.shtml

UPCOMING EVENTS:

May 24-31. Avon, Colorado. Writing and researching.

June 3, 1-3 p.m., Pendarvis, Mineral Point.  Garden Wisdom

June 6, 10:30. College Week, UW-Madison Campus, Ames County Novels

June 13, 6:00 p.m.  Wisconsin Public TV Major Donors Meeting, Center For Discovery, UW-Madison Campus.  Early history of Agricultural Education in Wisconsin including farm stories.

June 15, 1-2:00 p.m. S.E. Wisconsin Book Festival, UW-Waukesha campus, Waukesha.

Remembering a Friend

I lost a friend this week.  Barbara Fitz Vroman, an author, writing teacher, editor, and much more passed away on Monday, May 7.

I first met Barb in 1966, when she was News Editor at the Waushara Argus, and I was freelancing a weekly column called “Outdoor Notebook.” At the time she was my boss, the one who worked on my mangled attempts at selecting appropriate words and stringing them together in ways that made sense.

I wrote the column for ten years, until I moved on to book writing.  In the meantime Barb wrote award winning novels such as Tomorrow is a River, Sons of Thunder and more.  Along the way she began her own publishing house; Pearl-Win she named it. I was privileged to help her select manuscripts for publication, and have her publish my book Skiing into Wisconsin.

For many years, Barb and I taught writing at The School of Arts in Rhinelander.  She was soon well known for her caring, encouraging approach to teaching, and for her legions of student- followers.  She also began teaching writing workshops at The Clearing in Door County, where she was scheduled to teach this summer.

Shy, quiet and unassuming, Barb was often in the background.  But her writing surely wasn’t, nor was her teaching.  She will be missed, but also long remembered.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Sad though it may be sometimes; it’s important to take some time to remember our friends.

CHECK THIS OUT:  My one day workshop: “Writing From Your Life,” October 13, 8-4. The Clearing, Door County. For more information go to. http://theclearing.org/current/index.shtml

UPCOMING EVENTS:

May 19, 1-4:00 p.m. Old World Wisconsin. Eagle,  Book signing. Garden Wisdom, Barns  of Wisconsin, Horse Drawn Days.

May 20, 9:15 a.m. Midvale Community Lutheran Church, Madison.  Adult Education Hour.  Garden Wisdom.

May 20, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society, Lebanon, WI. Barns of Wisconsin.

May 24-31. Avon, Colorado. Writing and researching.

June 3, 1-3 p.m., Pendarvis, Mineral Point.  Garden Wisdom

June 6, 10:30. College Week, UW-Madison Campus, Ames County Novels

June 13, 6:00p.m.  Wisconsin Public TV Major Donors Meeting, Center For Discovery, UW-Madison Campus.  Farm stories and more.

Special Days

Two dates take precedence over all others for many Wisconsinites.  When the calendars are put in place each January, these dates are circled.  No weddings, no anniversary celebrations, no birthday parties, even funerals are avoided on these special, historic dates that have been so very important for so very long in our state.

What are the dates?  The opening day of deer season in November and the first day of fishing season in May.  All else, no matter how important it may seem, is put aside as hunters and anglers return to what their fathers,  grandfathers and great-grandfathers did on these dates.

Much to the surprise and sometimes even astonishment of my non-outdoor sports relatives and friends, these dates are carefully marked and saved on my usually cluttered calendar.

On Saturday, my brother Don, an equally strong advocate of protecting these dates, and I hitched my old Sears 12-foot aluminum boat to his truck and we launched the fishing season at the Wild Rose Millpond.  Alas, not one trout did we hook in two hours.  And that with fresh minnows purchased not two hours earlier from Lauritizen's on Main Street.

We loaded the boat back on my primitive trailer and we drove a a few miles to Little Silver Lake where a stiff eastern wind and the threat of rain boded ill for our effort.  In spite of the negative odds, we managed to pull in a  fine meal of bluegills.  It was a good opening day of the 2012 fishing season.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Fishing is always good.  Catching often less so.

COMING EVENTS:

May 7, 7:00 p.m. Cultural Center, Cedarburg, Ozaukee County Historical Society.  Barns of Wisconsin.

May 19, 1-4:00 p.m. Old World Wisconsin. Eagle,  Book signing. Garden Wisdom, Barns  of Wisconsin, Horse Drawn Days.

May 20, 9:15 a.m. Midvale Community Lutheran Church, Madison.  Adult Education Hour. Madison, Garden Wisdom.

May 20, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society, Lebanon, WI. Barns of Wisconsin.

May 24-31. Avon, Colorado. Writing and researching.