Octogenarian

Octogenarian.  There’s a mouthful of a word.  Six syllables: oc-to-ge-nar-i-an.  Hard to pronounce. Worse to spell.  Sounds like it might have something to do with October.

But the word has nothing to do with a month of year and everything to do with people who are in their 80s.  It means older person.  A person with years of experience.  A person with stories to tell and adventures to share.

“Eighty, it’s the new 60,” someone told me the other day.  And yet another person reminded me that a 80 year old can have a forty-year old mind.  Sounds encouraging. Hopeful.  Optimistic.  But true??

Oh, I by the way, I am now an octogenarian.  It happened last Friday, which was my birthday.  I had imagined bells would ring and there would be loud shouting.  Maybe there was, one thing about 80, one’s hearing is not quite as sharp as it once was.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS:  Age is a state of mind.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:  It’s time to sign up for my writing class at The Clearing (Saturday, November 1). It’s all about writing stories from your life—to be shared with families, friends and more. Go to this link for further information. http://theclearing.org/current/classes_workshop_description.php?id=3

If that doesn’t work, write or call The Clearing:
12171 Garrett Bay Rd, Ellison Bay, WI 54210
(920) 854-4088.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

July 29, Ephraim Historical Foundation. 7:00 p.m. Barns of Wisconsin.

August 2, Neillsville Library, 10:30 a.m.  Stories From the Land

August 20, Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. Madison. 5-7 p.m. Stories From the Land.  For more information: elindell@wisconsinacademy.org

Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fund raiser for them):

The library now has available both of Jerry’s DVDs, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps and Jerry Apps A Farm Story.

Also available are several of Jerry’s book including The Quiet Season (on which the DVD A Farm Winter is based), as well as Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm, (which are related to the DVD Jerry Apps a Farm Story).

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.

Rain

I felt a fine mist in the air as I began my morning walk on a cool, almost October-like early morning.  We were in the Northwoods, in a cabin on Lake George a few miles from Rhinelander.  A gloomy, cloudy morning.  Nothing stirring, not even the resident loons on the lake.

As I walked the mist became heavier, and colder.  I pulled up the collar on my jacket, pulled down my cap and continued on, thinking it would soon stop, the clouds would part and the morning sun would greet me.

The opposite happened.  The clouds thickened and the mist turned to a light and then a heavier, very cold rain.  I continued walking.  I had no choice; I was a half mile from where we were staying.

Wet and uncomfortable when I finally plodded up the hill to the cabin, I thought about my growing up years on the farm.  No matter what we were doing: making hay, cutting the oat crop, picking cucumbers, the rain prevented us from doing it, but Pa didn't complain. When the rain came it was welcome on our sandy, droughty central Wisconsin farm.

As I sat by the cabin window, drinking a cup of coffee and looking at the falling rain over the lake, I remembered about how Pa always appreciated the rain, no matter when it came, and how inconvenient it may have seemed at the time.  While I was grumbling, Pa was smiling.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Never curse the rain.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:  It’s time to sign up for my writing class at The Clearing (Saturday, November 1). It’s all about writing stories from your life—to be shared with families, friends and more. Go to this link for further information. http://theclearing.org/current/classes_workshop_description.php?id=3

If that doesn't work, write or call The Clearing:
12171 Garrett Bay Rd, Ellison Bay, WI 54210
(920) 854-4088.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

July 23, Jacksonport Historical Society, Mr. G’s, 6:00 p.m. Jacksonport, WI. Horse Drawn Days

July 26, Wild Rose Historical Society, Book signing, 10:00-2:00.  Part of Wild Rose Days.

July 29, Ephraim Historical Foundation. 7:00 p.m. Barns of Wisconsin.

August 2, Neillsville Library, 10:30 a.m.  Stories From the Land

August 20, Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. Madison. 5-7 p.m. Stories From the Land.  For more information: elindell@wisconsinacademy.org

Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fund raiser for them):

The library now has available both of Jerry’s DVDs, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps and Jerry Apps A Farm Story.

Also available are several of Jerry’s book including The Quiet Season (on which the DVD A Farm Winter is based), as well as Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm, (which are related to the DVD Jerry Apps a Farm Story).

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.

Writer's Retreat

Jerry Apps is at a Writer’s Retreat.  Back soon.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Remember to take time to re-charge your batteries.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:  It’s time to sign up for my writing class at The Clearing (Saturday, November 1). It’s all about writing stories from your life—to be shared with families, friends and more. Go to this link for further information. http://theclearing.org/current/classes_workshop_description.php?id=3

If that doesn’t work, write or call The Clearing:
12171 Garrett Bay Rd, Ellison Bay, WI 54210
(920) 854-4088.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

July 12-19, Writing Retreat, Rhinelander, WI.

July 23, Jacksonport Historical Society, Mr. G’s, 6:00 p.m. Jacksonport, WI. Horse Drawn Days

July 26, Wild Rose Historical Society,  Book signing, 10:00-12:00.  Part of Wild Rose Days.

July 29, Ephraim Historical Foundation. 7:00 p.m. Barns of Wisconsin.

August 2, Neillsville Library, 10:30 a.m.  Stories From the Land

August 20, Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. Madison. 5-7 p.m. Stories From the Land.

Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fund raiser for them):

The library now has available both of Jerry’s DVDs, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps and Jerry Apps A Farm Story.

Also available are several of Jerry’s book including The Quiet Season (on which the DVD A Farm Winter is based), as well as Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm, (which are related to the DVD Jerry Apps a Farm Story).

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.

Woodshed

My woodshed at Roshara is 102 years old this year, and what a story that old building has to tell.  The Coombes family, who owned my farm before us, built the building as a pump house with a windmill driven pump. The building is 12 feet wide, 16 feet long and 12 feet tall at the peak of its gable roof.  It has a poured concrete wall, which is a bit unusual for farm buildings of that era.  Farmers mostly piled some fieldstones to provide support for buildings, or constructed a wall with fieldstones. 

When the farm house burned on a cold winter night in 1959, one side of the pump house caught on fire.  The neighbors called to help put out the fire could not save the farm house, but they did manage to toss enough water on the pump house to put out the flames.  I've not replaced the charred boards on the south side of the building.  They are a reminder of that terrible night in when the Coombes home burned and they left their farm to live in Wild Rose.

We've done little to improve the building, outside of putting on a new roof, and replacing a few rotted boards.  It is the one building on the farm that looks just as it did 102 years ago. Today, we use the old pump house as a woodshed and storage place, and where little brown bats roost during the daytime.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Every old building has a story to tell.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:  It’s time to sign up for my writing class at The Clearing (Saturday, November 1). It’s all about writing stories from your life—to be shared with families, friends and more. Go to this link for further information. http://theclearing.org/current/classes_workshop_description.php?id=3

If that doesn’t work, write or call The Clearing:
12171 Garrett Bay Rd, Ellison Bay, WI 54210
(920) 854-4088.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

July 12-19, Writing Retreat, Rhinelander, WI.

July 23,  Jacksonport Historical Society, Mr. G’s, 6:00 p.m. Jacksonport, WI. Horse Drawn Days

July 26, Wild Rose Historical Society, After the parade, Book signing.  Part of Wild Rose Days.

July 29, Ephraim Historical Foundation. 7:00 p.m. Barns of Wisconsin.

August 2, Neillsville Library, 10:30 a.m.  Stories From the Land

August 20, Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. Madison. 5-7 p.m. Stories From the Land.

Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fund raiser for them):

The library now has available both of Jerry’s DVDs, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps and Jerry Apps A Farm Story.

Also available are several of Jerry’s book including The Quiet Season (on which the DVD A Farm Winter is based), as well as Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm, (which are related to the DVD Jerry Apps a Farm Story).

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.