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

.

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.