Gardening in the Rain

Sunday, April 24.  Garden planting day at Roshara.  Cloudy. 50 degrees.  Good day for working.  Great day for planting the early crops at our Waushara County farm.

First came the row marking, using a wooden, hand-pulled marker that my father made some 35 years ago.  Thirty-inch rows.  Lots of room for the rototiller to maneuver.

The crew was of two minds—one the optimist: the sun will come out and the temp will climb into the 70s.  The other a realist: no sun, and by 10:00 a.m. it will rain and keep raining.

Ready to plant—a big pail of Kennebec seed potatoes, enough for a dozen long rows.  A small pail of Red Norland red potatoes—a row and a half.  Red onion sets, white onion sets: enough for a row of each.  Snap peas—a couple of long rows.  Spinach, carrots, radishes, Swiss chard, lettuce.  Short rows of each.

First row of potatoes planted.  All going well.  Second row—first rain drops.  Third row—a steady rain.  Not a pouring down, cat and dog down pour, but a cold, ornery, wet spring rain.  Sometimes heavier, sometimes lighter—but never stopping.  And we didn’t stop either, but continuing planting until the work was done.  One of the advantages of sandy soil—no mud.  Just inconvenience.

The realist doesn’t let up on the poor optimist who continues to believe that the sun will eventually shine.  And it will of course.  But not likely on this day.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: When it’s time to plant the garden, plant the garden.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Writing Workshops for 2016

Telling Your Story Workshop at Wild Rose Library, Saturday June 11, 9-4. Call 920-622-3835 to get your name on the list as enrollment is limited. (Class is filled)

Telling Your Story Workshop at The Clearing in Door County.  Friday, August 12, 9-4.  Call 920-854-4088 to get your name on the list. (Still Room)

UPCOMING EVENTS.

May 14, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Booksigning, Dregne’s, Westby.

May 26, 7:00 p.m. Richfield Historical Society, 4128 Hubertus Road, Richfield, WI  Whispers and Shadows.

June 7, 7:00 p.m. Cambria Library. Cambria Fire Dept. Community Center, Cambria.

June 11, 9-4 Writing Workshop, Wild Rose Library.  Telling Your Story

June 14, 9:00 a.m. Keynote speech. Country Heritage Day, St. John the Baptist Church, Montello. Barns of Wisconsin.

July 19, 11:00 a.m., Farm Technology Days, Snudden Farms, Lake Geneva, Walworth County. History of Wisconsin Agriculture.

August 9, 6:30 p.m.. Evening. Winnebago County Historical Society.  Oshkosh Library.  History of Wisconsin Agriculture.

August 12 9-4, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.

August 20, 10:30-11:30 am.  Waupaca Annual Arts on the Square. 

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

The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs:

 Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)

 Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)

 The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows.)

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. and Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.

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

50 Years of Tree Planting at Roshara

We planted 2,000 trees at Roshara in 1966, the year we purchased the place.   By hand. We did the same in 1967 and 1968.  Also by hand.  And we have planted trees at Roshara every year since.  Sometimes only 25, one year 7,500 (not by hand).

This year marked 50 years of tree planting—and we planted 300 of them.  Over the years we have planted in the rain, during sleet storms, during snow storms, and when the wind was so cold we were dressed for winter.  This year it was sunny and in the seventies.  Almost too warm for tree planting.

The tree planting crew consisted of Natasha and Steve, Sue and Paul, and grandson, Josh with his friend, Collin. I had the dubious title of Senior Supervisor—which meant I did a little demonstration on how to correctly plant a tree, which I do every year.  “Dad we know how to plant a tree,” I hear every year.  But I repeat the instructions anyway.   I also had the difficult job of keeping the little trees, they are only about eight to ten inches tall, from drying out.  Which meant I made sure that the little trees roots remained immersed in a pail of water. We were planting red pine, jack pine, and Norway spruce—a hundred of each.

The crew was inter-planting to fill in the places where last year’s trees had died.  Not an easy task because it meant shoveling away sod before slicing a hole in the soil and putting a new tree in place.  It was a hot and sweaty project—but little complaining.  Although Sue claimed the last bunch of trees in the pail increased in size from 25 to 50.

By mid-afternoon the last little tree went into the ground, near a clump of trees we had planted in 1968.  I reminded Steve and Sue that they had help planted those trees, which now stand fifty feet tall.  The were just little kids then, but Ruth and I had them helping out, along with their brother Jeff, who, I’m sure misses our annual tree planting—he lives in Colorado.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Plant a tree—what better way to assure a green future.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Writing Workshops for 2016

Telling Your Story Workshop at Wild Rose Library, Saturday June 11, 9-4. Call 920-622-3835 to get your name on the list as enrollment is limited. (Class is filled)

Telling Your Story Workshop at The Clearing in Door County.  Friday, August 12, 9-4.  Call 920-854-4088 to get your name on the list. (Still Room)

UPCOMING EVENTS.

April 19, 6:00 p.m.  Union Grove Library.  Wisconsin Agriculture: A History

May 14, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Book signing, Dregne’s, Westby.

May 26, 7:00 p.m. Richfield Historical Society, 4128 Hubertus Road, Richfield, WI  Whispers and Shadows.

June 7, 7:00 p.m. Cambria Library. Cambria Fire Dept. Community Center, Cambria.

June 11, 9-4 Writing Workshop, Wild Rose Library.  Telling Your Story

June 14, 9:00 a.m. Keynote speech. Country Heritage Day, St. John the Baptist Church, Montello. Barns of Wisconsin.

July 19, 11:00 a.m., Farm Technology Days, Snudden Farms, Lake Geneva, Walworth County. History of Wisconsin Agriculture.

August 9, 6:30 p.m.. Evening. Winnebago County Historical Society.  Oshkosh Library.  History of Wisconsin Agriculture.

August 12 9-4, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.

August 20, 10:30-11:30 am.  Waupaca Annual Arts on the Square. 

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

The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs:

 Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)

 Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)

 The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows.)

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. and Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.

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

National Library Week

About a decade or so ago, I remember reading how libraries were on their way out and would soon be replaced by the computer and the internet.  I’m reminded of Mark Twain, who, when reading about his death in a newspaper, said, “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”   

   

 Libraries—public, school, academic and special--the big ones and the little ones are flourishing.  This week (April 10-16) we honor them.  We applaud these places where books are special—and made available to everyone. We reflect on the theme “Libraries Transform.”

 I remember the eight years I attended a one-room country school, where our library was but four shelves of books in the back of the school room, next to the big rusty wood burning stove.  By the time I was in fifth grade I read every book and began reading them over again.  In those days, I did not have access to the village library.  But I loved books, loved holding them, and so much appreciated what I was reading.  Books took me to far places in the world, got me thinking about things I never thought about, and learning about people so different from those in my rural community.

  Arnol Roberts owned the Mercantile in Wild Rose.  In the basement, Mr. Roberts had a table of new books.  When he knew of my interest in reading, and after I had saved money from picking potatoes or cucumbers, he took me to the basement and told me about the books he thought I’d like to read: Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss, Hans Brinker by Mary Mapes Dodge, The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson and more.  They were forty-nine cents, in hardcover, and I have them on my shelf today.

One of the reasons I’m a writer is my great love for books. And today’s libraries make them available to everyone.  Over the past several years, I have spoken at 121 Wisconsin libraries, from north to south, from east to west, from the tiniest of the tiny to the biggest of the big.

 So my hat is off to libraries, they are the community centers in many state’s villages and cities, places where people gather, read books, and chat with each other.  As the theme for National Library Week suggests, “Libraries Transform.”

THE OLD TIMER SAYS:     Read a good book lately?  Stop by your local library and check one out.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Writing Workshops for 2016

Telling Your Story Workshop at Wild Rose Library, Saturday June 11, 9-4. Call 920-622-3835 to get your name on the list as enrollment is limited.

Telling Your Story Workshop at The Clearing in Door County.  Friday, August 12, 9-4.  Call 920-854-4088 to get your name on the list.

UPCOMING EVENTS.

April 14, 12:00 p.m. Wild Rose Hospital Auxiliary Luncheon speaker. Farm Stories

April 17,   7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society and Dodge County Geological Group, Watertown Senior and Community Center, 514 South First Street, Watertown. Whispers and Shadows. 

April 19, 6:00 p.m.  Union Grove Library.  Wisconsin Agriculture: A History

May 26, 7:00 p.m. Richfield Historical Society, 4128 Hubertus Road, Richfield, WI  Whispers and Shadows.

June 7, Cambria Library. 

June 11, 9-4 Writing Workshop, Wild Rose Library.  Telling Your Story

June 14.9:00 a.m. Keynote speech. Country Heritage Day, St. John the Baptist Church, Montello. Barns of Wisconsin.

August 9, 6:30 p.m.. Evening. Winnebago County Historical Society.  Oshkosh Library.  Ag. History

August 12 9-4, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.

August 20, 10:30-11:30 am.  Waupaca Annual Arts on the Square. 

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

The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs:

 Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)

 Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)

 The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows.)

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. and Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.

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

Soldiers Grove Book Talk

It was April 2 and a couple inches of new, wet, not wanted snow covered everything.  My Grandson, Josh, and I were in the car headed west, on our way to the Soldiers Grove Library where I was to speak in the early afternoon.  As we drove we moved from spring to winter every few miles, with a strong, cold, miserable wind rocking the car every mile of the way.

Josh is driving, not too concerned about the alternating seasons—where else but in Wisconsin—maybe Minnesota—can you see the seasons change every few minutes?  I am fretting.  I’m always fretting before a presentation.  But with this miserable weather will anyone come to Soldier’s Grove to hear me?  I know I wouldn’t be keen to travel on a day like this to hear me talk.

We drove on, across the Wisconsin River that was flooding, through Spring Green and  Richland Center, through Bosstown and Readstown, and then to Soldier’s Grove snuggled up against the Kickapoo River. 

The Kickapoo had caused havoc to the town over the years, especially in 1978 when it flooded and  ruined the business district along with many homes.  So the village moved to higher ground—a gutsy, historical move.  But that wasn’t all; they built an energy conserving solar heated business district—the first of its kind in the country.

Soon we met Cele Wolf, librarian.   I prepared my notes while Josh set up our book display.  I continued to wonder if anyone would come for my 1:30 talk.  But the librarian and I were totally surprised.  By 1:30 the room was full,  50 to 60 people in every chair and standing.  People from as far away as Oxford, but also from Ferryvile, Onalaska, Viroqua, Richland Center. and of course Soldier’s Grove.

I talked about one-room schools.  I asked how many had attended one.  Nearly every hand went up.  So it was an afternoon of story-telling, and remembering the days of one teacher in one little building teaching all eight grades. 

I introduced the new edition of my book One-Room Schools, newly published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.  And Josh and I continued to listen to one-room school stories long after my talk ended.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: No matter what the weather, people will come.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

 Writing Workshops for 2016

Telling Your Story Workshop at Wild Rose Library, Saturday June 11, 9-4. Call 920-622-3835 to get your name on the list as enrollment is limited.

Telling Your Story Workshop at The Clearing in Door County.  Friday, August 12, 9-4.  Call 920-854-4088 to get your name on the list.

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UPCOMING EVENTS.

April 5, 6:30 Heritage Hill State Park, Green Bay.  Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.

April 9, Fort Atkinson Library, 1-3:00 p.m.  Whispers and Shadows. 

April 14, 12:00 p.m. Wild Rose Hospital Auxiliary Luncheon speaker. Farm Stories

April 17,   7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society and Dodge County Geological Group, Watertown Senior and Community Center, 514 South First Street, Watertown. Whispers and Shadows. 

April 19, 6:00 p.m.  Union Grove Library.  Wisconsin Agriculture: A History

May 26, 7:00 p.m. Richfield Historical Society, 4128 Hubertus Road, Richfield, WI  Whispers and Shadows.

June 7, Cambria Library. 

June 11, 9-4 Writing Workshop, Wild Rose Library.  Telling Your Story

June 14.9:00 a.m. Keynote speech. Country Heritage Day, St. John the Baptist Church, Montello. Barns of Wisconsin.

August 9, 6:30 p.m.. Evening. Winnebago County Historical Society.  Oshkosh Library.  Ag. History

August 12 9-4, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.

August 20, 10:30-11:30 am.  Waupaca Annual Arts on the Square. 

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

The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs:

 Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)

 Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)

 The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows.)

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. and Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.

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