Trees Have Personalities

A tree is a tree, is a tree.  Yes, but let’s also consider that trees have personalities like so many other living creatures.  And thus they may all be trees, but they are also different from one another.

Take the white pine, the tree that graced the northern regions of Wisconsin before the loggers arrived.  The white pine, with long soft needles, five of them in a cluster, grows tall and makes a majestic statement on a landscape. I have about five acres of them at Roshara, all self-seeded.

The red pine or Norway pine as it is sometimes called, with two long needles in a cluster, is less graceful, but will grow many inches a year on the worst possible soil. I've planted thousands of them on my farm.  They are not as graceful as the white pine but they, too make a statement.

 The jack pine is scraggly with branches that grow this way and that.  It is the toughest of the conifers that grow on my farm-- a survivor of frigid winters and dry hot summers. I have considerable respect for this native tree.

The white oaks that grow in my oak woodlot are tall and strong and powerful to look at it. Their soft gray bark contrasts with the deep furrowed bark of the black oaks.  Even in winter, when their leaves are down, white oaks are a sight to behold offering a dominant presence in my woodlot.

Not to forget the burr oak, sometimes spelled bur oak, in some ways the toughest of the oaks for they will grow two-hundred years and more.  They command respect if nothing more than for their long lives. 

I have a few trees that are a nuisance and have interfering personalities.  They want to take over Roshara and have an attitude that suggests they are more important than their cousins.  Black locust and box elder quickly come to mind.

What fun it is, at least for me, to think about all the different kinds of trees that grow at Roshara and how they manage to live together and mostly get along with each other. 

If we humans could do as well.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Get a acquainted with a tree.  You’ll be surprised what you might learn.

LOOKING FOR INFORMATION

I am working on the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in Wisconsin, which will be published as a book by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.  The CCC operated throughout the country from 1933 to 1942, and had a strong presence in Wisconsin.  CCC boys planted trees, helped with soil conservation, improved state and national parks, fought forest fires and much more.

I am looking for photos, letters, diaries, and stories told by and about Wisconsin CCC members—the work they did, what they did in their free time, how they related to the communities in which they worked, and whatever else someone might have.  Many Wisconsin families were involved with the CCC and their story has not been told.

If anyone has such information, please get in touch with me at: jerryappsauthor@gmail.com

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Thursday, January 29, 2015 7:00 p.m. Stoughton Opera House.  A Farm Winter. 

Go to: http://stoughtonoperahouse.ticketforce.com/orderticketsarea.asp?p=86&a=1 for further information.

Wednesday, February 4, 6:30 p.m..  Mt. Horeb Library (The Quiet Season and The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County.

Saturday, February 14, 2:30 p.m.  Garden Expo Madison.  Garden Wisdom

Tuesday, February 24, 7:00 p.m. River Falls Library, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County

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 signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs, Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps and Jerry Apps A Farm Story.

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books 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). Also available is Jerry’s new novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County.

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.

Patterson Memorial Library

500 Division Street

Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835

Ordering Trees

I ordered trees this past week, 250 of them that we will  plant at Roshara in April.  We have planted trees every year since we've owned the place, which goes back to 1966.  Some years only twenty-five.  Some years several thousand.  But every year we plant some.  The earliest trees we planted are fifty feet tall, the ones we planted last year are less than a foot high. So we have big trees and little trees, and every size in between.

Tree planting is a family affair; I have photos of my children helping plant trees when they were toddlers. I have photos of my grandchildren planting trees when they were toddlers.  It’s something the family looks forward to, and no matter if the day is sunny, rainy or even snowing, when the tree planting day rolls around, we plant trees.  It’s an event that helps tie a family together.

And as the years pass, we walk among the trees we planted. We remember when we planted them, and the good times we had even though the weather may have been miserable on that particular day. 

Tree planting like so many events at Roshara is filled with stories and running over with memories.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: When you are older you don’t plant a tree for yourself, you plant it for posterity.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Thursday, January 29, 2015 7:00 p.m. Stoughton Opera House.  A Farm Winter. 

Go to: http://stoughtonoperahouse.ticketforce.com/orderticketsarea.asp?p=86&a=1 for further information.

Wednesday, February 4, 6:30 p.m..  Mt. Horeb Library (The Quiet Season and The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County.

Saturday, February 14, 2:30 p.m.  Garden Expo Madison.  Garden Wisdom

Tuesday, February 24, 7:00 p.m. River Falls Library, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County

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 signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs, Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps and Jerry Apps A Farm Story.

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books 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). Also available is Jerry’s new novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County.

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.

Patterson Memorial Library

500 Division Street

Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835

Talking Snow

It is ten below zero at Roshara this morning.  The snow is talking to me as I make my early morning walk from the cabin to the country road that trails by our place.  The snow is speaking of days past when I made my way on frosty mornings like this to the warm barn where our small herd of Holsteins waited to be milked.

The crunching snow reminds me of the days when I walked to the woodpile to carry wood to our ever-hungry wood stoves in our drafty old farmhouse.  And to carry wood from the woodpile to the stove in the pump house that kept our pump functioning, and from the woodpile to the stove in the potato cellar, which kept the potatoes from freezing.

The crunching snow reminds me of the mile-long walk to our country school, which remained open every day of the winter because everyone walked, including our teacher.

The talking snow also reminds me of the fun times we had in winter, sledding, skiing, ice skating, ice fishing with its story telling, walking to the neighbors on frigid winter nights to play cards, and gathering around the wood stove at the grist mill while Pa waited for the cow feed to be ground.

The talking snow has many messages for me these days, taking me back to the days of my youth when people mostly didn't complain about the cold, but made the most of it for cold was a part of winter, and talking snow was something to be enjoyed.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Listen to the snow.

COMING EVENTS:

Thursday, January 29, 2015 7:00 p.m. Stoughton Opera House.  A Farm Winter. 

Go to: http://stoughtonoperahouse.ticketforce.com/orderticketsarea.asp?p=86&a=1 for further information.

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 signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs, Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps and Jerry Apps A Farm Story.

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books 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). Also available is Jerry’s new novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County.

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.

Patterson Memorial Library

500 Division Street

Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835

Black Willows

A row of black willow trees stands just to the west of the cabin at Roshara.  John Coombes, who owned the farm before us, planted them in 1912, which makes them 103 years old.  The same age as our cabin.

Black willow trees prefer low ground; stream banks and pond shores are favorite sites.  But they have thrived on our sandy, high ground—they were planted as a windbreak.  Oh, how important are windbreaks in this sometimes bitterly cold climate when the northwest wind comes roaring out of the northwest and the temperature sinks well below zero.

The old willows are bent and twisted; several have their tops smashed off, more have broken branches, but they continue to protect the cabin, provide summer shade, and offer a home to squirrels, rabbits, grouse and songbirds of every color and tune.

When the kids were little, they built a tree house in one of them, and put up a swing in another.  Today, these old trees, like so much at Roshara, are filled with stories and memories, and are often unappreciated for the good they have done as a windbreak and much more for these many years.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Remember to appreciate that which is so often unappreciated.

COMING EVENTS:

January 28, 2015 7:00 p.m. Stoughton Opera House.  A Farm Winter.

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 signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs, Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps and Jerry Apps A Farm Story.

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books 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). Also available is Jerry’s new novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County.

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.

Patterson Memorial Library

50 Division St.

Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835