Memories of Ice Fishing

The “try to keep warm” approach to ice fishing. Photo by Steve Apps

With deer season and Thanksgiving over, when I was a kid, thoughts on the home farm, turned to ice fishing. It was about this time that Waushara County’s lakes had two or three inches of ice, enough for us to try our luck. With the barn chores finished by late Saturday morning, my two brothers, dad and I piled into our 1936 Plymouth on our way to Mt. Morris Lake, our favorite ice fishing spot.

In those days we mainly fished with tip-ups, a device designed so that when a fish took the bait—a minnow—a little flag flew up. Arriving at the lake, we punched several holes through the ice with an ice chisel, which the blacksmith in Wild Rose had made for us from the rear axle of a Model T Ford. We fished for northern pike, always optimistic to “catch a big one” we made the holes ten inches or so in diameter.

With the holes open, we threaded a minnow on each hook, set our tip-ups in place (we each had two tip-ups as I recall) and made our way to shore where we built a little campfire. There, we could keep warm and watch our tip-ups. On a good day, we might have a half-dozen “tip-ups” as we announced when a flag went up.

Ice fishing took considerable patience—some days we’d catch a half-dozen pike. Other times we caught nothing. But I’ve never forgotten the fun it was, especially the storytelling around the little campfire.

THE OLD-TIMER SAYS: Ice fishing—a study in patience.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

December 14, 9:30 to 2:00 McFarlane’s, Sauk City. Christmas on the Farm.

.For those interested in purchasing my books (Christmas is coming). Get them from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you travel to the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s.. They have a great selection of my books for sale, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414.

Deer Season

Grandson, Nick Apps on his first hunt. Composite Photo by Steve Apps and Jerry Apps

It is only an orange cap you say. What’s the big deal? The big deal is that it is a symbol of one of Wisconsin’s many traditions—the annual gun deer season. A blaze orange cap is on the list of Wisconsin’s important symbols: Turkey-Thanksgiving. Christmas tree—Christmas. Fireworks—Fourth of July.

Especially in rural Wisconsin, never plan a wedding, a funeral, or anything else where you expect people to attend. They will not come. The men, and more women each year are out in the woods, wearing blaze orange, looking for a deer.

I must confess that I am part of the tradition. I hunted deer for the first time with my dad in 1946, the year I was old enough to buy a license. And I haven’t missed a year since—not even when I was in the army. These days, I hunt with my son, Steve, who hasn’t missed a year since he was twelve.

We also hunt with my brother Donald and his sons, Marc, Matt and Eric. Need I say that for our family, deer hunting, as it is for many, is much more than bagging a deer. It’s a time for storytelling and reminiscing: “Remember that 10-point buck you missed back in 82, or that season when it was below zero every day.”

It’s a time to connect with relatives. It’s a time away from hurry-up lives we all have these days. Don’t tell anyone, but for me, it’s also a great time for a nap in the woods.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Deer hunting: A Wisconsin sacred tradition.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

December 14, 9:30 to 2:00 McFarlane’s, Sauk City. Christmas on the Farm.

.For those interested in purchasing my books (Christmas is coming). Get them from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org
If you travel to the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s.. They have a great selection of my books for sale, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414.
.

Fresh Apples

Photo by Jerry Apps.


Fresh apples are a fall pleasure to eat. On the home farm, we had a half dozen apple trees or so in a little orchard fenced off in the field across the road from the farmhouse. We had Whitney Crabs, Northwestern Greenings, Russets, Wealthy, and Duchess trees. I don’t remember that we ever sprayed them with anything—but I also remember my dad would say, “If you happen to come onto a worm when you are eating an apple, be happy that it’s not half a worm.”

Starting in September, we picked the apples and stored them in the cellar under the house, along with the potatoes, rutabagas, onions, carrots and everything else we had harvested from our garden.

My mother made apple sauce, canning it for our use in winter. She made crab apple pickles canning them also. And apple pies, fresh from the oven for Sunday dinners, and for Thanksgiving. Of course, we ate apples from right off the tree. Talk about fresh. I’ve never forgotten that crisp, tart flavor of an apple right off a tree.
Today, one of my favorite apple recipes is Apple Crisp. Here is my wife. Ruth’s recipe

APPLE CRISP

Place in a greased 8-inch pan:

4 sliced baking apples

Blend until crumbly; then spread over apples:

2/3 to 3/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
½ cup sifted flour
½ cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup soft butter
Bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes—until apples are tender and topping is golden brown.
Serves 6-8

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Remember the old saying: An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

November 18, 1:00 p.m. Kiel Public Library, Kiel, WI. “Wisconsin. CCC”

December 14, 9:30 to 2:00 McFarlane’s, Sauk City. Christmas on the Farm.

For those interested in purchasing my books (Christmas is coming). Get them from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you travel to the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s. They have a great selection of my books for sale or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414.
.

First Snowfall

Photo by Jerry Apps

When I was a kid, the first snow in the fall was special. If we were on schedule, and Pa usually was, the fall harvest was completed—cob corn filled the corn crib, the silo was full, the oat bin in the granary was about to run over, the hay mows in the barn were stacked to the roof. All that was left to do was to make some wood as we heated our farm home with woodstoves in those days.

For my brothers and me, it meant looking for our sleds and skis that were stored somewhere in the woodshed. Summer softball and swimming were fun, but sledding and skiing were equally so. And dare I say, no other kind of fishing could be compared to ice fishing, which we did a lot of once the nearby lakes froze over.

At the country school, we switched from warm-weather games to playing fox and geese, a tag game laid out in a wheel-like circle in the snow with the spokes coming together in the middle. Lizzie Hatliff owned the land back of the school yard, which had a long hill, ideal for sledding and skiing. When we tired of fox and geese, it was off to Hatliff’s hill.
If the weather warmed enough to begin melting the snow, we switched to snowball fights—I don’t recall how we decided who should be on which side of the battle. One rule never to be broken, do not. hit anyone in the head with a snowball.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: The first snow marked the beginning of winter, not the calendar.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

November 9, (Saturday) 9:00 a.m. 2nd Sat. Plymouth Art Center, Plymouth, WI. Sheboygan County Historical Research Center. “Farm Winter With Jerry Apps”

November 14, (Thursday) 6:00 p.m. Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose. The Land Still Lives launch.

November 18, 1:00 p.m. Kiel Public Library, Kiel, WI. “Wisconsin. CCC”

.For those interested in purchasing my books (Christmas is coming). Get them from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering.

Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you travel to the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s.. They have a great selection of my books for sale, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414.
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