Edgerton Sterling North Book Festival

A cold northwest wind scattered a few raindrops here and there as Sue and I traveled to Edgerton for their annual book festival. It was the 12th one—I was privileged to be part of their first one as well.

The full title: “Sterling North Book & Film Festival.” Edgerton is of course the hometown for internationally famous children’s book writer, Sterling North. Most of us remember reading his best-selling book, Rascal (published in 1963), at one time or other.

The theme of this year’s festival was “Every Root a Story: Narratives Anchored in Wisconsin Culture.” The theme fit very well with our new book, Old Farm Country Cookbook: Recipes, Menus, and Memories, which Sue and I co-authored.

Together we shared stories and recipe ideas that had their roots in my mother’s little white wooden recipe box. Recipes designed for folks who didn’t yet have electricity or indoor plumbing, and cooked and baked with a wood-burning cook stove.

On a this fall’s day with temps hanging not much above freezing, it was a good time to talk about books, share stories, and meet lots of interesting folks.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Learned this week that Old Farm Country Cookbook hit the Midwest Independent Booksellers “Bestseller List.”

COMING EVENTS:

Sunday, Nov. 5, 1:30 p.m. Mequon Nature Preserve, Mequon, WI. Never Curse the Rain.

Saturday, Nov. 11, Second Saturday, 9:00 a.m. Plymouth Art Center, The Land. Viewing of PBS show with discussion and additional stories.

Thursday, Nov. 16. 1:00 p.m. Berlin Library. Old Farm Country Cookbook.

Tuesday, November 28, Aldo Leopold Nature Center, Madison. Never Curse the Rain.

Saturday, December 2, (10:00 to 2:00) Dregni’s, Westby. Old Farm Country Cookbook, Susie and Jerry.

Thursday, Dec. 7, 6:00 p.m. Waupaca Historical Society, Christmas on the Farm

Saturday, Dec. 9 McFarlane’s, Prairie du Sac. Old Farm Country Cookbook. Jerry and Susie

Sunday, Dec. 17 –Readers Realm Bookstore, Montello 1 p.m. Old Farm Country Cookbook. Jerry and Susie

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,) and Never Curse the Rain, Jerry’s newest DVD based on his book with the same title.
Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also available are Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guide book for those who want to write their own stories.
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






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A Tale of Two Trees

These two trees, different as different can be, stand 100 feet from each other in front of my cabin at Roshara. They are both tall and they each have a story to tell, but that’s about it for similarities. One is a balsam fir, the other an ornamental maple.

The Balsam fir’s story begins at Pine Point Resort on Lake Georgia east of Rhinelander. In 1972, when I was teaching writing at the School of the Arts in Rhinelander, we rented a little cabin at the Resort, and Ruth and our three little kids enjoyed the resort while I was teaching. Susan, then ten years old, found several little trees growing back of our cabin. They apparently had self-seeded. Sue asked the resort owner what kind of trees these were, and he replied, “Balsam Fir.” Sue asked if she could have one of the little trees, they were probably six inches tall at the time. “Sure,” the resort owner, answered.

I helped Sue dig up the little tree and wrap the roots in some wet newspaper. We hauled the little tree back to Madison, where we planted it in our backyard. A couple years later, we transplanted the tree, now about a foot tall at Roshara—it is the only Balsam Fir among the thousands of trees that grow at my farm. Now some 45 years later this little fir has grown into a tall, graceful, beautiful tree.

On my 60th birthday, my three kids surprised me with a beautiful maple tree, which was about ten feet tall when they planted it. It grew rapidly. But alas, in about its third year at Roshara a buck deer, anxious to polish its horns, found the maple and stripped off a huge hunk of bark, nearly killing it.

But it lived, and now it puts on quite the show each fall with its brilliant crimson leaves. Not to go too far with this analogy, but as different as these two trees are and as close as they are together, they appear to be getting along just fine. A model for some of the rest of us?

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: We can learn much from trees—if we’d take time to do so.

COMING EVENTS;

Oct. 25 at Cambridge Public Library – Never Curse the Rain – 12:30 pm
Saturday, October 28, at Edgerton Book Festival 9 a.m.Old Farm Country Cookbook. Jerry and Susie.

Sunday, October 29, 2:00 p.m. at Reed School, Neillsville. Old Farm Country Cookbook. Jerry and Susie..

Sunday, Nov. 5, 1:30 p.m. Mequon Nature Preserve, Mequon, WI. Never Curse the Rain.

Saturday, Nov. 11, Second Saturday, 9:00 a.m. Plymouth Art Center, The Land
Thursday, Nov. 16. 1:00 p.m. Berlin Library. Old Farm Country Cook Book.

Tuesday, November 28, Aldo Leopold Nature Center, Madison. Never Curse the Rain.

Saturday, December 2, (10:00 to 2:00) Dregni’s, Westby. Old Farm Country Cookbook, Susie and Jerry.

Thursday, Dec. 7, 6:00 p.m. Waupaca Historical Society, Christmas on the Farm

Saturday, Dec. 9 McFarlane’s, Prairie du Sac. Old Farm Country Cookbook. Jerry and Susie

Sunday, Dec. 17 –Readers Realm Bookstore, Montello 1 p.m. Old Farm Country Cookbook. Jerry and Susie

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,) and Never Curse the Rain, Jerry’s newest DVD based on his book with the same title.
Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also available are Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guide book for those who want to write their own stories.
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

Fox Valley Book Festival

They named her Nina. She is a pelican. A big tall pelican. She is the Neenah public library pelican. A library with a mascot. My daughter, Sue, and I met Nina yesterday. Cool.

Sue and I attended the Fox Valley Book Festival, where I spoke at eleven o’clock to a room full of folks who were learning about my book “Never Curse the Rain,” as raindrops pounded against the library windows. Never to let a little rain—a lot of rain—slow me down, I motored on with my talk, all the while wondering what was going on in the minds of my listeners. Some of whom I’m sure were at least saying “darn the rain.” A step toward cursing, but only a baby step.

This was the tenth year for the Fox Valley Festival that went on from October 9 through October 15. Their theme, “Connecting writers and readers.” The festival featured 50 authors and 65 events offered at 13 venues throughout the Fox River Valley. As the festival’s catalog stated, “the festival features readings to hear words come alive, to learn about the writing process, and discussions to engage both readers and writers.”

I was more than pleased to be a part of their program.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: It’s my readers that keep me writing.

COMING EVENTS:

Oct. 18 Water Conservation Presentation, Portage, 6:30 p.m. Knights of Columbus Hall, 918 Silver Lake Drive, Portage
.
Oct. 25 at Cambridge Public Library – Never Curse the Rain – 12:30 pm

Saturday, October 28, at Edgerton Book Festival 9 a.m.Old Farm Country Cookbook. Jerry and Susie.

Sunday, October 29, 2:00 p.m. at Reed School, Neillsville. Old Farm Country Cookbook. Jerry and Susie.

Sunday, Nov. 5, 1:30 p.m. Mequon Nature Preserve, Mequon, WI. Never Curse the Rain.

Saturday, Nov. 11, Second Saturday, 9:00 a.m. Plymouth Art Center, The Land

Thursday, Nov. 16. 1:00 p.m. Berlin Library. Old Farm Country Cook Book.

Tuesday, November 28, Aldo Leopold Nature Center, Madison. Never Curse the Rain

Saturday, December 2, Dregni’s, Westby. Old Farm Country Cookbook, Susie and Jerry.

Thursday, Dec. 7, 6:00 p.m. Waupaca Historical Society, Christmas on the Farm

Saturday, Dec. 9 McFarlane’s, Prairie du Sac. Old Farm Country Cookbook. Jerry and Susie

Sunday, Dec. 17 –Readers Realm Bookstore, Montello 1 p.m. Old Farm Country Cookbook. Jerry and Susie.

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,) and Never Curse the Rain, Jerry’s newest DVD based on his book with the same title.
Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also available are Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guide book for those who want to write their own stories.

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

Remembering One-Room Country Schools

Nearly every one-room country school in Wisconsin had closed by the mid-1960s. But the memories and stories from these little schools remain. Last Thursday evening, I had the opportunity to speak at the McMillan Library to a wonderful group of former one-room school students, a couple of teachers and several others interested in what these little country schools were like.

Stories of those days when one teacher and all eight grades learned together in one room were never ending. There was something special about these little schools, Wisconsin boasted more than 6,000 of them at one time.

My wife, Ruth, and I attended a one-room school for eight years. Her school was near Westby in Western Wisconsin, mine was west of Wild Rose. When I begin first grade (these schools had no kindergarten) my school had no electricity, was heated with a wood stove, and had no indoor plumbing. Electricity finally arrived, but the outdoor toilets and woodstove remained until the school closed in 1955.

Beyond the curriculum, and the education provided to several generations of farm kids, the country schools gave rural communities an identity. Not only did the school provide a formal educational opportunity for the community’s kids, it was the social center. The school provided a place for birthday parties, anniversaries, and of course offered the annual Christmas program that everyone in the community attended, whether they had kids in the program or not.

When these little schools closed, and the kids were bused to the consolidated school in a nearby village or city, something may have been gained in academic opportunity for the rural kids, but much was lost in rural communities as well.

For those interested in learning more about these little schools, read my daughter, Sue’s book, One Room Schools: Stories from the Days of 1 Room, 1 Teacher, 8 Grades. Or read my book: One Room Country Schools, History and Recollections.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Those of us who attended one-room country schools had a special education.

COMING EVENTS:


Oct. 14 at Neenah Public Library (Fox Cities Book Festival)– Never Curse the Rain– 11 a.m. .

Oct. 18 Water Conservation Presentation, Portage, 6:30 p.m. Knights of Columbus Hall, 918 Silver Lake Drive, Portage.

Oct. 25 at Cambridge Public Library – Never Curse the Rain – 12:30 pm

Saturday, October 28, at Edgerton Book Festival 9 a.m.Old Farm Country Cookbook. Jerry and Susie..

Sunday, October 29, 2:00 p.m. at Reed School, Neillsville. Old Farm Country Cookbook. Jerry and Susie..

Sunday, Nov. 5, 1:30 p.m. Mequon Nature Preserve, Mequon, WI. Never Curse the Rain.

Saturday, Nov. 11, Second Saturday, 9:00 a.m. Plymouth Art Center, The Land

Thursday, Nov. 16. 1:00 p.m. Berlin Library. Old Farm Country Cook Book.

Tuesday, November 28, Aldo Leopold Nature Center, Madison. Never Curse the Rain.

Saturday, December 2, Dregni’s, Westby. Old Farm Country Cookbook, Susie and Jerry.

Thursday, Dec. 7, 6:00 p.m. Waupaca Historical Society, Christmas on the Farm

Saturday, Dec. 9 McFarlane’s, Prairie du Sac. Old Farm Country Cookbook. Jerry and Susie

Sunday, Dec. 17 –Readers Realm Bookstore, Montello 1 p.m. Old Farm Country Cookbook. Jerry and Susie

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,) and Never Curse the Rain, Jerry’s newest DVD based on his book with the same title.

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also available are Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guide book for those who want to write their own stories.

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