Winter at the Farm. Photo by Steve Apps.

            As 2021 limps its way into history, I look forward to opening the door to 2022.  With COVID continuing to menace almost everyone in one way or another, it’s difficult to look forward to another year without wondering “what next?”  Another version of the virus yet not seen? More cancelled events? Is there any hope?

            I remember the late 1940s and early 1950s, when Polio was rampant across the country. Wisconsin was especially hit hard. Thousands of young people suffered from the disease, many of them with paralyzed limbs, some of them confined to iron lungs that helped them breathe. A close neighbor boy died. I was one of them with Polio a paralyzed right leg, which prevented me from walking.  Which kept me home from school for several months.

            For me, a 12-year old at the time, it was a time of little hope.  A time of “why me?”  I will never forget my father’s words at the time, “Next year will be a better year.”  He said that to me often, as he helped me learn to walk once more. At the time, not only could I not walk, but I felt worthless. After several weeks of his therapy—mostly driving the tractor where I had to use my paralyzed leg to drive it—I could walk but with a limp. 

            It’s easy to feel hopeless today, as hospitals fill with COVID patients, and every newscast begins with dreaded stories about the virus swirling through our communities. My father’s words were words of hope, “Next Year will be a better year.”  One way to avoid the feeling of hopelessness is to think about the good things in life.  A beautiful winter day is one of good things.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Hope is powerful, never, ever leave it behind.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

  If you want to learn more about my Polio experience, see my book, Limping Through Life.  You can buy my books at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby, visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

 

 

 Photo by Steve Apps. Herman Apps with Tipup

When I was nine or ten years old, during Christmas break from school, we went ice fishing. Every day.  No matter if it was 10 degrees above zero or ten degrees below, we went ice fishing.  We would hurry up the morning barn chores, gather up the minnows Pa kept in the pump house, the tipups, ice strainer, and ice chisel.  And not to forget our lunch that Ma had prepared that she stuffed in a lunch pail along with a thermos of coffee.

We were off to Mt. Morris Lake, between Wild Rose and Wautoma, about a half hour drive in our 1936 Plymouth.  Arriving at the parking spot, we gathered up our equipment and trudged a half-mile or so through the cold and snow to the lake.  Once there, Pa decided where we should fish, meaning where we would cut holes through the ice with ice chisel—not an easy task.  By this time, the lake had ten or more inches of ice. We fished for northern pike and used tipups to try and catch them. (See photo for a tipup).

Once the holes were cut and the tipups were in place, we each could have two tipups, we returned to shore.  We started a little campfire, using cattail heads, and twigs and small branches that we gathered.  Soon the little fire was sending a lazy thread of smoke into the air as we sat around it warming ourselves, and watching the tipups for a flag to fly up meaning we had a bite. The Kolka boys and their dad might join us, Uncle Wilbur sometime did, as did the Nelson boys and others, too.

It was a time for story-telling—maybe better called truth stretching—as fishermen have a bad habit of catching more and larger fish in their stories than what really happened. It was a time that I have never forgotten.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Christmas break evokes ice fishing stories and wonderful memories.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

  You can buy my books at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase 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.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

 

 

Christmas Creativity

My mother-in-law, Ella Olson, was one of the most creative people I had ever met.  She and my father-in-law, Otto Olson, lived on a farm west of Westby.  She did all the work that farm women did, but she also found time to express her creativity.  Especially at Christmas time.  She had little Christmas displays all around their home.

My wife, Ruth, inherited a goodly measure of my mother-laws’ creativity. Our home, is decorated for fall, for thanksgiving, for winter, for spring, for summer.  But especially for Christmas.  Ruth has a collection of snowmen, from tiny little ones to big stuffed ones that she displays.  “Because I can keep the snowmen displayed well after Christmas,” she says.

Ruth’s collection of Santas is also quite remarkable—from tiny little ones only an inch or so tall, to those able to sit up in a chair.  And not to forget the Scandinavian gnomes.  Some so homely they are cute. Daughter Sue and daughter-in-law, Natasha help arrange the displays.

Her most special collection are angels, she inherited these from her mother and she has added to the collection as the years go by.  And the nativity scene collection is quite remarkable with wise men, angels and of course Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus in a little straw manager.

The center piece of it all, is our home-grown Christmas tree, decorated with story-remembering ornaments.  Our Christmas tree is really a history tree, as Ruth lists the events of the past year in a little book made from match boxes that are hung on the tree each year.

Visiting our home before Christmas is an experience. For the family, memories come flooding back as the kids (they are far from kids) and grandkids visit each of the displays and talk about them.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Ruth’s creativity comes bubbling forth, especially at Christmas time.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

  You can buy my books at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase 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.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

 

 

Searching for the Perfect Christmas Tree

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 Steve Apps Photo: Rob Zaleski and grandson, Zale.

It was a cool, clear, quiet Saturday morning at Roshara, our Waushara County Farm.  A hint of snow covered the grassy areas on the north side of the windbreak, but walking was easy. The subtle smell of pine was in the air.

It was the day of our annual Christmas tree hunt, and a hunt it always is as we have trees of many sizes and shapes, none of them sheared but all growing naturally.  The hunt is complicated by the fact that we have 60 acres of trees, about 40 of them pine and spruce and 60 of them hardwoods, with spruce found here and there among the maple and white oak trees.

Since we bought the farm in 1966, we have planted trees each year.  In the early years we planted a thousand or more trees each year, one year even 7,500.  Mostly we planted red pine, but also a few Norway spruce.  Naturally growing at the farm are white pine, seeded from a white pine windbreak the Coombes family planted in the 1930s.  Jack pine is native to the area, and we have a sprinkling of them here and there on the property.  And Scotch pine also grow naturally. Some consider them an invasive, weed tree, but they make a fine Christmas tree, Scotch Pine are relatively short needled and the needles stay put on the tree.

So, what kind of a tree for Christmas? The goal: A tree for Ruth and me, a tree for Steve and Natasha, a tree for Paul and Sue, and a tree for our friends Rob and Cindy Zaleski.

Earlier, I had selected a white pine about six feet tall, fully branched and quite beautiful.  So that was the first one cut.  After that, the crew was on its own as I had not tried to second guess what each family would like.

By noon, everyone had a tree of their choice.  Smiles all around as he sat down in the cabin for our noon lunch.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: There is something special about selecting a Christmas tree among so many choices.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

  You can buy my books at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase 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.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

 

 

December Memories 

For me, December is a month of memories.  Christmas tops the list, of course, with its preparation, anticipation, and hope. But there are also many other memories as well.

December is the month when winter claims its place among the four seasons of the year, often showing us that it is the most important of all the seasons—with its cold and snow, and short, and often dark, dreary days.  But as a kid, I looked forward to the change.  Now the farm work turned from field work to never ending barn chores as the cows were now kept in the barn nearly all of the time.  They were let out each morning, and sometimes in the morning to drink at the stock tank in the barnyard.  A special wood burning tank heater kept the stock tank water from freezing.

At our one room country school, December an eighth grader was in charge of keeping the woodstove in back of the school room going and struggling to keep the school room warm enough for learning.   It was a time for snow forts and snowball fights.  Riding our sleds down the hill back of the school and playing snow games where during warmer seasons we played softball.

One special memory was of my Grandfather Witt, who lived on a farm a mile or so from ours.  One winter, he made me a pair of skis out of birch wood. He turned up the fronts of the skis by holding the wood over a steaming kettle.  The skis were six feet long, about four inches wide and had strips of harness leather across their middle where my boots would fit. They had no grooves in the bottom.  This meant it might be skiing downhill straight ahead, or I may be going sidewise.  Always an adventure with Grandpa’s skis.

And not to forget the beauty of poinsettias—Christmas always means poinsettias.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: December is for slowing down and remembering a bit about yesterday and what the month of December meant.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

  You can buy my books at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase 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.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

 

 

75 Years of Deer Hunting

 

Somewhere in my upbringing, the words “don’t brag” have stayed with me.  I can hear my dad saying it now, as I write the words.  But I do want to mention that this was my 75^th year deer hunting, without missing a year.  Not when I was in the army.  Not when I was in college.  Not when I wasn’t feeling well—I was always ready for deer season.

I remember that November day in 1946, when I, for the first time, could join my dad on the annual deer hunt.  I carried my dad’s double-barrel 12-gauge shotgun. The barrel was nearly as long as I was tall, and it weighed a ton—or so it seemed for this little 12-year-old.

In those days, there were few deer in Waushara County.  If I as much as saw a deer track, it was an exciting moment.  Several days during the annual hunt, my dad and our neighbor, Bill Miller, drove a few miles west to Adams County where a few deer could be found in the vicinity of the Roche-A-Cri River. I rode along. My dad was born and raised in that neck-of-the-woods, so he knew the area well.  Few people lived there at the time, it was a place for hundreds of acres of woods—and some deer.

Dad dumped me and the 12-guage out on a bridge that crossed the Roche-A-Cri.  His words, “Walk along the river to the west and kick out any deer might that be there. Follow the river and you won’t get lost.”

It was a cool, but sunny fall day.  As I walked along the river, I spotted something swimming in the water. It was a beaver, and it along with other beavers, were building a dam on the river.  I had never seen a beaver before, only pictures. I leaned the shotgun against a big white pine tree and watched the beaver’s work.

When I finally arrived where Pa and Bill Miller were waiting at the ready with their deer rifles, they were certain I had gotten lost.  I didn’t tell them I had been watching the beavers and not driving deer.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: There is much more to deer hunting than trying to bag a deer.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

  You can buy my books at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase 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.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

 

 

Migrating Geese and Seasonal Change

                                       

 Steve Apps photo. 

You could usually hear them before you saw them.  The Canada Goose call is very distinctive, as are the Vs of them winging south each fall to return again in the spring.  It’s a sure sign of seasonal change—fall to winter, winter to spring, when the Canada geese are flying.

As a kid, on cool, clear fall days, I remember seeing long Vs of Canada geese stretching from one horizon to another.  Always curious, I did some checking as to why the Canada geese flew in long Vs while other migrating song birds did not.  By following closely behind each other, the leading goose creates a slipstream, which helps pull the trailing birds forward. The lead goose also creates little pockets of spinning air, which helps provide lift.  Of course, the first goose in line benefits not at all from this, and has to work much harder than those coming behind.

When the lead goose gets tired, it falls back and another takes its place, and the flock continues on, honking happily as they look forward to a warm winter in the south.  Geese prefer flying when the wind is down—understandable.  It takes a lot of energy when there is no wind.  It takes much more if the flock has fly into a brisk wind.

 On a windy day, the migrating flock will “layover” on an available body of water until the wind dies down.  The pond at our farm is sometimes a layover place.  One day I stopped by and saw the pond nearly filled with resting geese.  Each talking in its own way—no doubt grumbling that they had to interrupt their travels because of the wind. Geese that migrate over our farm follow the same “flyway” year after year.  The route is familiar to them and they don’t get lost in their migration. 

THE OLD TIMER SAYS:  Everything seems right with the world when I see a flock of migrating Canada Geese

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WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

It’s not too early for Christmas shopping.  Books make great gifts.  You can buy my books at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase 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.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

Shocking Corn

                                                        Sheboygan County Historical Research Center Photo

Nothing has changed faster in Midwestern agriculture than how the crops are harvested each fall.  Take corn for example.  Consider how it was commonly done when I was a kid—back in the 1940s and 1950s. In those days we grew about 20 acres of corn.  None of it was sold off the farm, it was used to feed our livestock during the long winters.

After the first frost, the corn plants began to dry down.  Pa would hitch the team to the one-row corn binder, which cut the corn and tied it into bundles. Once the corn was cut, we stood the bundles into corn shocks for further drying. About ten bundles in a shock. I was describing shocking corn to a class of fourth graders a few years ago.  A young fellow raised his hand, “Mr. Apps, why did you try to scare the corn?”  He interpreted the word shocking to scaring the corn.

Shocking corn was hard work.  But usually, the days were crisp and cool.  I have never forgotten the smell of drying corn stalks.  It was the smell of fall, not at all an unpleasant one.

After a few weeks in a shock, a fellow with a corn shredder made the rounds of the neighborhood farmers.  Just as in threshing oats, we had a corn shredding bee.  The machine separated the ears from the corn stalks and cut the corn stalks into a little pieces that were blown into the barn loft.  The corn stalks were used for bedding the milk cows during the winter.

The corn ears were stored in a corn crib, a little building with slats a few Inches apart so the air could easily flow into it.  The corn ears continued to dry.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS:  Sometimes it’s important to stop what we are doing for a moment and think about how it was done at an earlier time.

 

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

It’s not too early for Christmas shopping.  Books make great gifts.  You can buy my books at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase 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.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

 

  

Remembering The Home Place

 

Apps Farm Home. Steve Apps Photo.

               Every old house has a story to tell.  I was born in the house pictured here.  It had five bedrooms, a kitchen, dining room, and a parlor (living room).  But no bathroom as we had no running water.  Nor did we have electricity until I was in high school.

               In early November, dad closed off most of the house as it had no central heating. It had a wood burning cookstove in the kitchen and a Round Oak wood burning stove in the dining room.  The only rooms heated were the kitchen, dining room and one downstairs bedroom.  The upstairs bedroom where my brothers and I slept had indirect heat—the stove pipe from the dining room stove thrust through our bedroom and into the brick chimney.

               When the stoves went out around midnight, a great chill came over the house, especially if the outside temperature had dipped to thirty below zero.  Frost covered the inside of our upstairs bedroom windows, so much that we couldn’t see outside.  The frost took many shapes, often resembling giant ferns.

               Being the oldest, I had to get up at five-thirty for the morning milking.  I would grab up my clothes and rush down the frigid hallway, and down the stairs to dress in front of the wood stove that dad had started before leaving for the barn.  I didn’t warm up until I arrived in the barn, where it was always warm.

               I have many memories associated with that house.  Most of them good. Except for the cold winter mornings.

THE OLD TIMERS SAYS: Take time to think about the house you lived in when you were a kid.  You may be surprised at what memories that result.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

It’s not too early for Christmas shopping.  Books make great gifts.  You can buy my books at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase 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.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

 

 

Jack-O'-Lanterns

 

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               Jerry Apps Photo

               Come Halloween each year, Pa would help my brothers and me pick out just the right pumpkins for Jack-O’-Lanterns from our pumpkin patch.   Not too big.  Not too small.  Just the right size so we would could get our hands inside to clean out the seeds and find a place to put a candle.  We’d cut a face in the pumpkin. Sometimes smiling, sometimes sad, sometimes scary.  When finished, for Halloween night we put our pumpkins on the back porch, light the candles and look at our work.  I doubt anyone else saw them as there was no such thing as kids going from house to house in search of some free candy.  Farms were a half mile and more about—too much walking.

               Remembering these early jack-O’-lanterns the other day, I wondered how did all of this begin? After some reading, I discovered that the name, Jack-0’-lantern, traces back to the 17^th century in Britain.   According to what I read, at the time if you didn’t know a man’s name, you called him Jack.  So, an unknown man carrying a lantern was sometimes referred to as “Jack with the lantern,” or “Jack of the lantern.”  That is apparently is the root of the name jack-O’-lantern.  Less clear is how the name became associated with a hollowed-out pumpkin.

               One theory suggests that a carved-out pumpkin with a candle inside was used as a prank to scare people at night.  Another theory suggested that a carved-out pumpkin with a scary face and a candle inside was a way of warding off evil spirits.  These traditions came along with the immigrants from Europe to this country.  Less clear is how the name Jack-O’-Lantern became a common name for these hollowed-out pumpkins.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: There is still some mystery surrounding the early beginnings of Jack-O’-Lanterns.      

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

It’s not too early for Christmas shopping.  Books make great gifts.  You can buy my books at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase 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.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

Memories of the One-Room Country School

 

                              Chain O’ Lake School, 1956. Jerry Apps Photo

               The Chain O’ Lake one-room country school that I attended for eight years closed in 1955.  I have fond memories of that little school that provided me with an excellent education and much more. In July 1956.    I was in the audience when the  families  in the Chain O’ Lake school district gathered to hear a researcher from Madison  to explain that all the students in the district—all farm kids—would benefit when they attended the consolidated school in Wild Rose.  He was there to convince the group that voting to close the country school was the right thing to do.

               He explained how kids attending the larger, consolidated school had higher test scores in reading, writing and arithmetic compared to the country school kids. Someone in the audience should have told him that there was more to an education than test scores. His research didn’t turn up the fact that each of us, through eight years of Christmas programs, had learned how to stand up in front of an audience and say our piece.  His research didn’t show how upper grade students helped lower grade students with their lessons.  He didn’t mention how we, with different ethnic backgrounds and religions, had learned how to get along with each other.

`His research obviously didn’t look into such things as how the country school gave rural communities an identity, and how the school provided a social center for the community.

He also said something that I never forgot, “I’m sorry to have to tell you folks, but your kids who have attended a one-rom country school will likely grow up to be social misfits because they are so isolated from other people.”  He obviously didn’t check on these “social misfits” who grew up to be successful farmers, lawyers, professors, doctors and community leaders.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: The one-room country school gone but not forgotten

              

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

For more about one room country schools, look o my daughter, Susan Apps-Bodilly’s book, One Room Schools: Stories of 1 Room, 1 Teacher, 8 grades, and my book, One Room Country Schools: History and Recollections.  You can buy them at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase 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.  and look at their great selection of my books, including my new ones. Call them to order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

Paul and the Climbing Beans

 

Jerry Apps Photo

I am still smarting from the bunny damage to the bean patch in our farm garden.  For more than 50 years of gardening, have I never seen such hungry bunnies.  They obviously preferred my green beans to several acres of prairie grass that they could have eaten, and have generally enjoyed over the years.

There is a bright spot in this story of bunny destruction, least you believe Ruth and I have gone the summer without our favorite, fresh green beans from the garden.   The answer: my little four by eight kitchen garden that grows just a few feet from the garage door.  My son-in-law, Paul, has been largely responsible for building this little garden, which, by the way, is enclosed with a bunny-proof fence.

Back in May, I planted five pole bean seeds.  Along with a few climbing cucumbers, some lettuce and three tomato plants.  In a few days the bean plants poked out of the ground, and soon began climbing.  In just a few weeks they had grown to the top of the bunny fence and were sending their tendrils in the air, searching for more climbing space.  Paul to the rescue.  He added a few more feet to the top of the fence, and the beans kept climbing.

And then the green beans began appearing, not one or two, but handfuls of them every week.  And tasty, right up there with the bush beans from the farm that we didn’t have this year. The beans continued to climb all through August, right through September, and on into October.  Now in mid-October, I picked a small bucket full of them, enough for Ruth to make a bean casserole. As long as frost holds off, we’ll continue to have beans.  One of the bright spots in our garden season.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: What a surprise. So many beans from so few plants.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

My newest novel for young adults, The Wild Oak.  You can buy it at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase 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.  and look at their great selection of my books, including my new ones. Call them to order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

 

 

Scarecrows and Autumn

 

Jerry Apps Photo

    My wife, Ruth, is a great fan of decorative scarecrows.  She stores them in our basement and when September rolls around each year, the scarecrows once more appear.   I see them everywhere.  They range in height from maybe six inches to some that that are about two feet tall.  They sit on chairs in the living room.  A couple guard the bookshelf.  Several are found nestled in the family room plants, peaking around the corner of the leaves.  One sits in the center of the dining room table.  They are all smiling—a cheerful bunch they are.  Helping us celebrate the coming of autumn.

     Always curious, I wondered how long scarecrows have been around.  To my surprise, the Egyptians are credited with using scarecrows to scare away the birds from their wheat fields along the Nile River 3,000 years ago.  Some 2,500 years ago, the Greeks were using scarecrows to scare the birds away from their vineyards.  About that same time, Japanese farmers were using scarecrows to protect their rice fields.  In Germany, farmers created scarecrows to resemble witches, made out of sacks stuffed with straw and heads made from painted gourds.  In this country, scarecrows were often used to frighten birds away from home gardens There is no evidence to suggest how many birds, especially crows, were scared away with their presence.

      Today, scarecrows are mostly used as decorations in the fall.  Some are supposedly

men, some women, some children, but each one makes me smile when I look at it.  When I’m eating breakfast each morning, I look around and several of them are watching me, cheering me on as I face a  new day.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: On a dreary fall day, scarecrows can make us smile.

 

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

My newest novel is Settlers Valley.  You can buy it at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase 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.  and look at their great selection of my books, including my new ones. Call them to order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

 

 

Woodbine Announces Coming of Fall

 

               Photo by Steve Apps

 Walking near my pond in summer, I see various vines crawling up the trunks of the many trees that grow there.  Wild grape vines are the most prominent.  They are everywhere, sometimes growing to the very tops of trees.  I often overlook another vine that competes with the grapes.  I seldom notice it until mid-September.  It’s called woodbine, and it is the first to announce the coming of fall as it turns a brilliant red.

Woodbine should not be confused with poison ivy.  Poison ivy has three leaflets in a cluster. Woodbine has five.  Woodbine is a native plant found across North America and southern Canada. It is not found in southeastern United States.  Woodbine is widely distributed in Wisconsin, preferring wet soil, but it can also be found along fence rows, and even sometimes found in old farm fields with heavier soils.  Woodbine will tolerate shady places, but for it to develop its brilliant fall color, the vine needs full sun. The color of woodbine, in fall, goes from shiny green to yellow, orange and then brilliant red.

 Historically, woodbine leaves have been used to treat skin sores, cuts, and itching.  Some people have also used the leaves to treat fever and kidney disease.  One source of information stated “Insufficient evidence to rate effectiveness” of woodbine for these maladies.  I take from this—best to enjoy what the woodbine does well—announce the coming of fall with its brilliant display of red leaves.

 As the beauty of fall spreads across Wisconsin from north to south, as the maples turn red and yellow, and later come the browns and tans of the oaks, we remember that it was the woodbine that was in the lead for this colorful annual display of nature's beauty.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS:  The woodbine reminds us that fall is here.

 

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

My newest novel is Settlers Valley.  You can buy it at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase 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.  and look at their great selection of my books, including my new ones, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

End of Garden Season Report

 

          

  Steve with struggling pumpkins.  Jerry Apps Photo.

The vegetable garden year at Roshara has ended.  And what a year it has been.  Everything was planted on time: potatoes, onions, lettuce, spinach, kale, radishes, carrots and beets on April 25.  Sweet corn, pumpkins, winter squash, zucchini, cucumbers, cabbage plants, kohlrabi, gourds and tomatoes on May 23.

Although we had periods of dry weather and periods of too much rain, everything came up and was growing well.  Steve put up the fence to keep out the deer, wild turkeys and raccoons. One of our best-looking gardens.  And then it happened.  The rabbits invaded.  Many of them. All hungry.  They ate everything but the tomatoes, potatoes and vine crops.  Ate the beans, lettuce, kale, beets, and cabbage right down to the ground. Hungry little buggers.  In my more than 50 years of vegetable gardening, I had never seen anything like it.  Nothing close.

So, my end of year garden report is a bit thin. Here are the grades:  Potatoes--A—good yield.  No scab.  Blight held off until the potatoes were ready for harvest.  Tomatoes--B—Quite good. Some blight. Sweet corn—C. Winter Squash—D, really never got going. Pumpkins—C.  Harvested several little decorative pumpkins.  Halloween size pumpkins struggled.  Cucumbers—A. Did well; harvested a bunch. Carrots—C. Rabbits don’t like carrots.   Don’t laugh, but by far the most successful crop was the zucchini.  It grew and grew, and produced more than anything else in the garden. A+ for the zucchini.  Of course, the old saying holds, if you can’t grow anything else, you can probably grow zucchini.

Anyone have a suggestion for keeping those hungry little cotton tails out of my garden next year?

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Just when you think you’ve got everything figured out—you don’t.  Gardening is like that.

UPCOMING EVENTS

October 2, Dregne’s, Westby.  Book signing. 10:30 -2:30.

 

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

My newest novel is Settlers Valley.  You can buy it at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase 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.  and look at their great selection of my books, including my new ones, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

 

 

The Pond at Roshara

 

                                                                Steve Apps Photo

When we bought our farm in 1966, the pond in the valley to the west of the buildings could best be described as a large puddle in a good-sized marsh.  Slowly the water level increased.  By 1973-1975, the pond was filled to its banks.  It was a place for swimming and canoeing, a place for bird watching, and animal gazing as deer, racoons, fox and other wild creatures came to the pond for a drink, especially during the often hot and dry days of mid-summer.

               The pond has no inlet nor outlet, it’s a water table pond.  As the water table in the region goes up and down, so does our pond.  By the early 2000s, the pond level returned to about where it was in 1966, when we bought the place.  We wondered if it would ever return to the level it had been in the 1970s.

               Starting in about 2018, the rains became coming.  Fifteen inches of rain in 10 days in August of that year.  Once more the pond began looking like its former self.  By 2020 the pond was higher than it had ever been in recent memory.  Spilling over the banks of its once high point.  Surrounding trees on the  banks, oaks, aspen, cottonwood—and eventually killing them.  Killing cottonwood trees that were likely more than a hundred years old.

               This year, the pond, best described as a small lake, remains high as the rains continue to fall in central Wisconsin.  Seven inches in a couple weeks.  All the wild creatures love it—the pair of Canada geese that nest there and the sandhill cranes that nest there every summer.   How long will it remain a small lake?  One of the mysteries of nature that I find so interesting.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Ponds, like so many things in nature, are filled with surprises.

 

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

Want to learn more about the importance of rain to farmers.  Pick up a copy of my book, NEVER CURSE THE RAIN.  You can buy it at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase 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.  and look at their great selection of my books, including my new ones, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

 

 

Sunflowers Brighten a Day

            

             Photo by Steve Apps

My dad, a lifelong vegetable gardener, said a garden must always have something that’s pretty.  By that he meant it should include some flowers.  His favorite flowers were dahlias. He always grew a short row of them.  When they were both in their 90s, and my mother was in a nursing home, he would always take a big dahlia from his garden when he went to visit her.

I have followed his advice by growing some flowers in my garden. I grow sunflowers as they are one of my favorites.  As someone once wrote, “No flower can lift someone’s spirits quite like sunflowers.  They are bright and cheery, and as warm and inviting as the sweet summer sun.”

Sunflowers have a long history in the Americas.  In addition to their beauty, they were a food and medicine source for native people.  They crushed and ground the seeds and made bread and cakes from the resulting flour.  They used the juice from the stems to treat wounds.

The sunflower’s name comes from its tendency to face the sun. There are two main types, one grown for its oil, and other, with larger seeds for human and bird feed.  Sunflower oil can be used for cooking, and it is also found in some beauty products. Birds love sunflower seeds

But beyond the practical uses for their seeds.  Sunflowers are valuable in other ways.  They symbolize vitality, intelligence and happiness. Their yellow color symbolizes friendship.  As Helen Keller once wrote: “Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows.  It's what sunflowers do.”

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Want to cheer up a friend; give them a sunflower.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

To learn more about vegetable gardening, purchase a copy of Garden Wisdom.  You can buy it at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase 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.  and look at their great selection of my books, including my new ones, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.