Sunday, April 17, 2016

50 Years of Tree Planting at Roshara


We planted 2,000 trees at Roshara in 1966, the year we purchased the place.   By hand. We did the same in 1967 and 1968.  Also by hand.  And we have planted trees at Roshara every year since.  Sometimes only 25, one year 7,500 (not by hand).

This year marked 50 years of tree planting—and we planted 300 of them.  Over the years we have planted in the rain, during sleet storms, during snow storms, and when the wind was so cold we were dressed for winter.  This year it was sunny and in the seventies.  Almost too warm for tree planting.

The tree planting crew consisted of Natasha and Steve, Sue and Paul, and grandson, Josh with his friend, Collin. I had the dubious title of Senior Supervisor—which meant I did a little demonstration on how to correctly plant a tree, which I do every year.  “Dad we know how to plant a tree,” I hear every year.  But I repeat the instructions anyway.   I also had the difficult job of keeping the little trees, they are only about eight to ten inches tall, from drying out.  Which meant I made sure that the little trees roots remained immersed in a pail of water. We were planting red pine, jack pine, and Norway spruce—a hundred of each.

The crew was inter-planting to fill in the places where last year’s trees had died.  Not an easy task because it meant shoveling away sod before slicing a hole in the soil and putting a new tree in place.  It was a hot and sweaty project—but little complaining.  Although Sue claimed the last bunch of trees in the pail increased in size from 25 to 50.

By mid-afternoon the last little tree went into the ground, near a clump of trees we had planted in 1968.  I reminded Steve and Sue that they had help planted those trees, which now stand fifty feet tall.  The were just little kids then, but Ruth and I had them helping out, along with their brother Jeff, who, I’m sure misses our annual tree planting—he lives in Colorado.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Plant a tree—what better way to assure a green future.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Writing Workshops for 2016

Telling Your Story Workshop at Wild Rose Library, Saturday June 11, 9-4. Call 920-622-3835 to get your name on the list as enrollment is limited. (Class is filled)

Telling Your Story Workshop at The Clearing in Door County.  Friday, August 12, 9-4.  Call 920-854-4088 to get your name on the list. (Still Room)

UPCOMING EVENTS.

April 19, 6:00 p.m.  Union Grove Library.  Wisconsin Agriculture: A History

May 14, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Book signing, Dregne’s, Westby.

May 26, 7:00 p.m. Richfield Historical Society, 4128 Hubertus Road, Richfield, WI  Whispers and Shadows.

June 7, 7:00 p.m. Cambria Library. Cambria Fire Dept. Community Center, Cambria.

June 11, 9-4 Writing Workshop, Wild Rose Library.  Telling Your Story

June 14, 9:00 a.m. Keynote speech. Country Heritage Day, St. John the Baptist Church, Montello. Barns of Wisconsin.

July 19, 11:00 a.m., Farm Technology Days, Snudden Farms, Lake Geneva, Walworth County. History of Wisconsin Agriculture.

August 9, 6:30 p.m.. Evening. Winnebago County Historical Society.  Oshkosh Library.  History of Wisconsin Agriculture.

August 12 9-4, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.

August 20, 10:30-11:30 am.  Waupaca Annual Arts on the Square. 

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







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