Tween Season

We are in the midst of a tween season again, when the weather one day feels like winter and the next day it’s spring, only to return to winter again.  The tween season is a roller coaster of joy and despair.  The joy of spring on the way, and the despair that winter isn’t ready to give up.

            As a farm kid, I remember those “hints of spring” days when the snow becomes mushy, the melt water drips from the barn roof, and the dirt road trailing by our farm becomes a sea of mud each afternoon.  We walk to school on the frozen road and wallow in mud on our way home in the afternoon.

            On one of those “spring is here” days, I remember hiking out to the previous year’s corn field, where we had plugged a gully with stones that we had picked from the field.  I stood listening to the melt water as it moved over the stones, a wonderfully pleasing, gurgling sound.  A true sound of spring.  And then the very next day, a snowstorm blows in from the west and spring was on hold once more.

            I heard a cardinal call this morning, and the only snow I see is the piles the snowplow left.  The weatherman says a high of 50 degrees.  One of those joyful tween season days to be savored, for who knows when one more snowstorm will roar in from the west.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Time to say goodbye to winter and hello to spring.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Writing Class at Wild Rose Library

            In addition to the one-day writing class I teach at The Clearing in Door County, I will be teaching a one-day “Telling Your Story” writing class at the Wild Rose Library on Saturday, June 11 from nine to four.  Enrollment limited. Call the library at 920-622-3835 to get your name on the list.

UPCOMING EVENTS.

March 2, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Necedah public schools

March  5, 11:00 a.m. Women in Agriculture, Keynote talk. Marriott Hotel, Middleton. Telling Your Story.

March 9, 7:00 p.m.  THE LAND WITH JERRY APPS, hour-long documentary to be aired on Wisconsin Public TV stations throughout Wisconsin.

March 10, 7:30 p.m., Wisconsin agricultural consultants. Keynote talk, Wis Dells. Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.

March 12, 11:00-2:00, McFarlane’s Sauk City.  Book Signing.

March 19, Gathering of the Green, Davenport, IA.  Banquet keynote speaker. Lessons from the Land.

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.)

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. and Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.

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

Oak Smoke Memories

            As I returned from my early morning walk, I caught the smell of oak smoke coming from the cabin’s wood stove.  Immediately I was catapulted back to my childhood with memories both pleasant and not so great.

The pleasant memories are sitting around the big Round Oak wood burning heater in the dining room on a cold, dark night in winter, with the wind rattling the windows.  Pa would say, “Storm coming,” when the wind sent a puff of oak smoke down the chimney and into the cozy room.  And he was usually right in his predication.  But it was comfortable as my brothers and I did our homework with the light of a kerosene lamp.

As cozy as the dining room was in the early evening, it was equally miserably cold the following morning, as the old wood stove would go out about midnight.  The kitchen wood burning cook stove would also die in the night, and the entire house was colder than the inside of an ice house come morning.

 So my memories are mixed.  The cozy warm times and the shivering cold mornings when I dressed in front of the stove, hoping to catch a little of the sputtering warmth as the dining room stove struggled to come alive.

Years later, a guidance counselor asked me, “What do you hope to achieve when you finish your education?”

            “What I would like most is to have a warm floor to put my feet on when I wake up in the morning,” I answered.

            I’ve never forgotten the look on the fellow’s place.  Written all over it were the words, “LOSER.”

           

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Never forget the importance of simple things, such as a warm floor in the morning.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Writing Class at Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose.

            In addition to the one-day writing class I teach at The Clearing in Door County, I will be teaching a one-day “Telling Your Story” writing class at the Wild Rose Library on Saturday, June 11 from nine to four.  Enrollment limited. Call the library at 920-622-3835 to get your name on the list.

UPCOMING EVENTS.

February 23, 7:00 p.m. Phillips Center for the Arts, 109 Locust Street, Hudson, WI. Part of Wisconsin Historical Society Tour program.  Lessons from the Land.

March 2, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Necedah public schools

March 5, 11:00 a.m. Women in Agriculture, Keynote talk. Marriott Hotel, Middleton.

March 9, 7:00 p.m.  THE LAND WITH JERRY APPS, hour-long documentary to be aired on Wisconsin Public TV stations throughout Wisconsin.

March 10, 7:30 p.m., Wisconsin agricultural consultants. Keynote talk, Wis Dells. Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.

March 12, 11:00-2:00, McFarlane’s Sauk City.  Book Signing.

March 19, Gathering of the Green, Davenport, IA.  Banquet keynote speaker. Lessons from the Land.

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.)

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. and Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.

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

The Romance of Wisconsin Place Names

On a radio call-in show this morning, a person from Waupaca, WI called in. “How do you pronounce that place,” the radio host asked.

The person replied “Wa-pack-a,” which is of course correct.

The Wisconsin Historical Society Press recently published a new edition of Robert Gard’s book, THE ROMANCE OF WISCONSIN PLACE NAMES.  I wrote the foreword to this new edition.

The book includes a collection of Wisconsin place names, with a bit of history about each.  No doubt about it, our state has a great diversity of place names, many reflecting our Native-American, French, New-England settlers, and immigrant histories.

My favorites include:

 “ Butte des Morts,” (Winnebago County) sometimes pronounced “But-dis-morts.”  But correctly pronounced “Bue-de-more.” It means “hill of the dead.”

“Lac Courts Oreilles,” (Sawyer County).  The name supposedly means “Short Ears,” and is pronounced, “La-coo-due-ray.”

“Oconomowoc,” (Waukesha).  It means “Place where the river falls,”

 Or”river of lakes.”  This name is one that is regularly mangled by radio and TV people new to Wisconsin, who get all tangled up with the five “Os”.  It is correctly pronounced, “Oh-con-no-mo-walk.”

“Chequamegon,” (Ashland County).  Several meanings including “low land.”  Pronounced, “She-quam-again.”

“Mazomanie,” (Dane County) Comes from an Indian word, may also refer to a former Ho-Chunk chief.  Pronounced, “Ma-zo-may-nee.”

“Weyauwega,” (Waupaca County). Named after an Indian village once located there and means “Here we rest.”  Pronounced. “Why-a-wiga.”

I must also mention my hometown of Wild Rose, not difficult to pronounce, but a little confusion about its history.  One version, a less than upstanding young woman named Rose, once lived there.  Another, many wild roses grow in the area.  Or, and the one that is likely true, Wild Rose is named after Rose, Wayne County, New York.  Many of the early settlers in this part of Waushara Country came from Rose, New York.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Take a look at THE ROMANCE OF WISCONSIN PLACE NAMES by Robert Gard. 

UPCOMING EVENTS.

February 23, 7:00 p.m. Phillips Center for the Arts, 109 Locust Street, Hudson, WI. Part of Wisconsin Historical Society Tour program.  Stories From the Land.

March 2, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Necedah public schools

March 5, 11:00 a.m. Women in Agriculture, Keynote talk. Marriott Hotel, Middleton.

March 9, 7:00 p.m.  THE LAND WITH JERRY APPS, hour-long documentary to be aired on Wisconsin Public TV stations throughout Wisconsin.

March 10, 7:30 p.m., Wisconsin agricultural consultants. Keynote talk, Wis Dels

March 12, 11:00-2:00, McFarlane’s Sauk City.  Book Signing.

March 19, Gathering of the Green, Davenport, IA.  Banquet keynote speaker.

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 and Jerry Apps a Farm Story. Coming soon, The Land With Jerry Apps, which is based on the book Whispers and Shadows.

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including The Quiet Season (on which the DVD A Farm Winter is based), as well as Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm, (which are related to the DVD Jerry Apps a Farm Story).Also available is Jerry’s new novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County as well as Whispers and Shadows and his newest nonfiction book, Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.

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

Garden Expo-2016

In the depths of winter, that time of the year I call the quiet season, many of us are hunkered down and looking forward to spring—not that many weeks away.  At my cabin the snow piles grow taller, and a few deer and rabbit tracks break the expanse of snow that blankets all of Roshara.  Most of my farm is resting, its trees and grasses, its animals and wildflowers are asleep and waiting for spring.

For those who want a taste of spring, and chance to calm the effects of cabin fever, here is an answer.  GARDEN EXPO sponsored by Wisconsin Public TV.  Go to this link for further information: http://www.wigardenexpo.com/

My schedule at Garden Expo:

Saturday, February 13, 11:00-12:00 a.m.  Signing books in University of Wisconsin Press booth.

Want to learn more about sand mining, pick up a copy of my novel, THE GREAT SAND FRACAS OF AMES COUNTY.  How about the challenges of large scale farming?  See TAMARACK RIVER GHOST, or food safety?   See CRANBERRY RED.

Saturday. February 13, 2:15 p.m. Mendota Room 1-2. WILDFLOWERS, BUTTERFLIES AND OTHER STORIES FROM THE LAND.  A PowerPoint presentation based on my books OLD FARM and WHISPERS AND SHADOWS.  My son, Steve, Chief Photographer at the Wisconsin State Journal and whose photos I will be showing, will be with me to answer questions. Book signing to follow after the presentation, and in Wisconsin Historical Society Press booth.

Sunday, February 14, 1:00 p.m. Mendota Room 6-7. A showing of the documentary THE LAND WITH JERRY APPS, which is based on my book WHISPERS AND SHADOWS.  The show features my grandsons, Josh and Ben Horman.  They will be with me to answer questions following the show.  Book signing to follow.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: It’s time to think spring and gardening.

UPCOMING EVENTS.

February 13-14. Garden Expo. Alliant Center, Madison.  February 13, 2:15:Wild Flowers, Butterflies, and Other Stories From the Land.  February 14, 1:00 p.m. Film: The Land With Jerry Apps plus discussion.

February 23, 7:00 p.m. Phillips Center for the Arts, 109 Locust Street, Hudson, WI. Part of Wisconsin Historical Society Tour program.  Stories From the Land.

March 2, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Necedah public schools

March 5, 11:00 a.m. Women in Agriculture, Keynote talk. Marriott Hotel, Middleton.

March 10, 7:30 p.m., Wisconsin Agricultural Consultants. Keynote talk, Wis Dells

March 12, 11:00-2:00, McFarlane’s Sauk City.  Book Signing.

March 19, Gathering of the Green, Davenport, IA.  Banquet keynote speaker.

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 and Jerry Apps a Farm Story. Coming soon, The Land With Jerry Apps, which is based on the book Whispers and Shadows.

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including The Quiet Season (on which the DVD A Farm Winter is based), as well as Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm, (which are related to the DVD Jerry Apps a Farm Story).Also available is Jerry’s new novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County as well as Whispers and Shadows and his newest nonfiction book, Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.

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