Splitting Wood

 

Son, Jeff, showing how to split wood.  Photo by Jerry Apps

When I was a kid, with the fall harvest about completed, the granary bins full, the silo filled, and the corn cribs bursting with cob corn, it was time to take up an annual fall task—making wood. 

  In our farmhouse, we had two wood-burning stoves—a kitchen cookstove, and a Round Oak Heater in the dining room.  Another stove in the pump house kept the pump and the milk cooling tank from freezing. A wood stove in the potato cellar kept our potato crop from freezing.

On a cool November Saturday, when the barn chores were done, my dad and I, and sometimes with my younger twin brothers. we were off to the woodlot near the house.  An ax and a crosscut saw were our only implements.  No fancy gasoline chain saws.

With our trusty team and bobsled, assuming snow on the ground, we hauled the cut branches and logs to a huge pile near our house, waiting for the day when we had a wood sawing bee where the neighbors helped us cut the logs into blocks.

 Our next task was splitting the blocks into woodstove size.  A task that required both brawn and brains.  Enough strength to wield a splitting mall, and enough brains to be able to read the wood, as Pa would say.  By that he meant, studying a block before swinging the mall, and deciding the direction of the wood grain, and detecting knots that would make the splitting more difficult. After several hours of splitting, we had a respectable woodpile.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS:  Learn to read a block of wood, the same skill applies when meeting a  person for the first time.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Book Bites, Wednesday, November 4, 7:00 PM.  Go to Wisconsin Historical Society Press Facebook for a live presentation. “When the White Pine Was King.”

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS AND DVDS.

My newest books are WHEN THE WHITE PINE WAS KING, CHEESE THE MAKING OF A WISCONSIN TRADITION (2^nd Edition), and THE OLD TIMER SAYS:  A WRITING JOURNAL.

My books are available at your local bookstore, online from bookshop.org, or 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 live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s. 

The Old Maple Tree is Now a Memory

 

The clean-up crew, left to right-Steve, Sue, Paul. My brother Don in front. Photo by Jerry Apps/

In 1912, the Coombes family, who owned Roshara before us, built new farm buildings across the township road from where they were originally.  They planted a windbreak of black willow trees and at the north end of the windbreak, they planted a maple tree.

When we bought the farm in 1966, the maple tree was more than 50 years old, and a nice shade tree.  The tree had four trunks, each growing from ground level from the same root system.  As the years passed, one of the trunks grew considerably larger than the other three.  By 2020, this trunk was probably 30 inches in diameter and eighty or more feet tall.  But rather than grow straight up, each year it grew a bit more at an angle.

To make matters worse, it was leaning over one of my machine sheds.  My brother Darrel, each time he visited me at the farm said, “Jerry, that old maple is gonna fall on your shed.  And no telling how much damage it will do.”

Darrel was right.  It was only a matter of time—a stiff wind, an ice storm, and down it would go.  So, I hired Gabe’s, a tree company from Wild Rose to cut it down, all four trunks.

On a cool Saturday, my clean up crew hauled away the brush and began piling the blocks, which we will split for firewood.  It was a sad and happy day.  Sad, because my family spent many hours in the shade of that big old maple.  Happy—my machine shed is spared.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: A shade tree can be like an old friend.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS AND DVDS.

My newest books are WHEN THE WHITE PINE WAS KING: A HISTORY OF LUMBERJACKS, LOG DRIVES, AND SAWDUST CITIES IN WISCONSIN. CHEESE THE MAKING OF A WISCONSIN TRADITION (2^nd Edition), and THE OLD TIMER SAYS: A WRITING JOURNAL.

My books are available at your local bookstore, online from bookshop.org, or 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 live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s. Say hello to Jana and Dave, and look at their great selection of my books or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

 

Big Bluestem Has a Story to Tell

 

Big Bluestem grass at Roshara.  Photo by Jerry Apps

When the pioneers arrived in central and southwestern Wisconsin, many of them were greeted by vast acreages of Big Bluestem grass.  It would often grow over six feet tall and wave in the wind creating a sight similar to waves on the ocean.  Indeed, the first pioneers, who arrived in the Midwest with covered wagons pulled by teams of oxen, called their wagons prairie schooners, after the sailing vessels that plied the oceans.

Big Bluestem (Andropagon gerardii) is a native perennial grass.  It is leafy at its base, with a few leaves along its stem.  The seed heads form into three spikelets, which gives the grass its popular name, “turkey foot.”

When Thomas Stewart homesteaded my Roshara farm in 1867, he was greeted by Big Bluestem waving in the wind.  I have read stories of how he hired a neighbor, with a team of oxen and a huge breaking plow to turn under this tall growing grass, which had a root system nearly as deep as the grass grew above ground.

On steep hillsides that Stewart could not plow, the Big Bluestem continued to grow—to this day.  It is also slowly expanding in the prairie we are restoring at Roshara.  Because of its vast root system, it will grow on sandy soils, and also because of its deep roots, it is not much bothered by dry weather, something that is fairly common in our part of Waushara County.

As it grows in spring and summer, it has a blueish stem. In fall the stems turn a reddish brown.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Big Bluestem, a plant with a story to tell.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS AND DVDS.

My newest books are WHEN THE WHITE PINE WAS KING: A HISTORY OF LUMBERJACKS, LOG DRIVES, AND SAWDUST CITIES IN WISCONSIN. CHEESE THE MAKING OF A WISCONSIN TRADITION (2^nd Edition), and THE OLD TIMER SAYS: A WRITING JOURNAL.

My books are available at your local bookstore, online from bookshop.org, or 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 live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s. Say hello to Jana and look at their great selection of my books or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414.

 

Putting the Garden to Bed

 

Steve sowing winter rye on the garden.  Photo by Jerry Apps

Putting our garden to bed is an annual event that we have followed for more than fifty years at Roshara.  It involves several steps, followed carefully each fall, usually in early October.

The first step is to remove the electric fence, with its skinny steel posts and two wires that surround the garden from the time of planting to autumn, when the garden season ends.  The electric wires, the first one about four feet above the ground, the second one about a foot off the ground successfully keep out the deer and wild turkeys.  But not the rabbits.  This year, for the first time ever, we had a problem with rabbits chewing on our broccoli and cabbage plants.  Somehow, they missed the beans.

Next, we remove all the vines from the pumpkins, squash, and gourds along with the tomato and potato vines.  These are taken a distance away from the garden, as they often contain diseases. especially blight.

These days, my son, Steve does most of this work. I mostly watch.  He cuts the sweet corn stalks into little pieces, which he leaves on the ground.  He also leaves the grass-mulching materials that surrounded the tomato, cabbage, and broccoli plants.  With the rototiller, he works the garden, burying the mulching material and corn stalks.

Finally, he sows winter rye over the entire garden, providing a cover crop for the winter. Once sowed, he works in the seeds with the rototiller. Next spring he’ll work the green rye into the soil, adding more organic material to our sandy Waushara County soil.

Another job finished for the season.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: We know that fall is  here when the garden is put to bed.

COMING EVENTS:

Thursday, October 15, 11:00 a.m. (Virtual) Fox Cities Book Festival. When the White Pine was King.  Click on the following to sign up. https://foxcitiesbookfestival.org/authors/jerry-apps-2/

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS AND DVDS.

My newest books are WHEN THE WHITE PINE WAS KING: A HISTORY OF LUMBERJACKS, LOG DRIVES, AND SAWDUST CITIES IN WISCONSIN and CHEESE THE MAKING OF A WISCONSIN TRADITION (2^nd Edition).

My books are available at your local bookstore, online from bookshop.org, or 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 live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s. Say hello to Jana and look at their great selection of my books or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414.

 

Memories of October

 

The beauty of fall.  Photo by Jerry Apps

October brings back many memories for this old farm boy.  It is the month when we dug potatoes on the home farm. We usually grew about 20 acres each year, as did most of our neighbors. Planted by hand, cultivated with a one-horse cultivator, hoed by hand, dug with a six-tine fork, and picked by hand.  Our one-room country school had two weeks of “potato vacation,” when the kids in the neighborhood were home picking potatoes. Some vacation.  Different from some of my fellow students, I was paid for picking potatoes.  One penny a bushel.  Some days I might pick a hundred bushels and earn a dollar.  But that was rare.

October was also the month for cutting corn, the ears headed for the slated corn crib where they would dry. Our trusty team of draft horses pulled a one-row corn binder that cut the corn, and formed it into bundles that spilled out on the ground.   We stood the bundles into corn shocks that marched across the cornfield like teepees. In a couple weeks, similar to oat threshing season, a corn shredder arrived at the farm.  The neighbors came to help.  The corn shocks were taken down, hauled to the farmstead and shoved into the corn shredder, which separated the ears from the corn stalks, and sliced up the stalks.  The corn stalks were used as bedding for our dairy cows during the winter. The ears, stored in the corn crib, were feed for cows..

With all the work going on, we still took time to look at the beauty of the trees in fall.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Take time to enjoy October’s beauty.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS AND DVDS.

My newest books are WHEN THE WHITE PINE WAS KING: A HISTORY OF LUMBERJACKS, LOG DRIVES, AND SAWDUST CITIES IN WISCONSIN and CHEESE THE MAKING OF A WISCONSIN TRADITION (2^nd Edition).

My books are available at your local bookstore, online from bookshop.org, or 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 live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s. Say hello to Jana and look at their great selection of my books or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414.

 

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