January Thaw

Once again it arrived. In mid-January. After days of bitter cold, and deep and drifted snow. It often arrived overnight, while my brothers and I slept in the cold upstairs bedroom in our drafty farm house. A room that was supposed to be warmed by the stove pipe that made its way from wood burning stove in the dining room through our room and then into the chimney.

We knew the winter thaw had arrived when the eaves on the house were dripping, which I noticed when I hurried to the barn for the early morning milking. By mid-morning it began to rain. A slow, steady, snow-melting rain. And as it rained, my brothers and I kept watch of the big hollow in front of the house as the snow turned from white to gray and then to melt water as the hollow became a pond.

With the pond becoming slowly larger, we began looking for our ice skates, the clamp-on-your-shoes type that you fastened with a little key that you carried in your pocket. We had hung the skates in the woodshed last spring, forgotten about, until the thaw arrived.

The thaw disappeared quicker than you could say, “Isn’t that a north wind blowing this evening?” Freezing weather returned, but the pond remained. A beautiful, flat slippery surface just made for three boys and their clamp-on skates. The ones we bought at Hotz’s Hardware in Wild Rose for fifty cents a pair.

Ice skating remained perfect, sometimes for several weeks. Another gift of winter, for boys who’d tired from shoveling snow, carrying wood, and doing all the other winter-required jobs.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: It’s important to remember the good things about winter.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Saturday, January 21 Noon. Heidel House, Green Lake, WI. Pheasants Forever. Noon talk. Whispers and Shadows. Book signing.

Sunday, January 29, 2:00 p.m. Midvale Lutheran Church, 4329 Tokay Blvd. (corner of Midvale and Tokay), Fellowship Hall. Launch of new book, NEVER CURSE THE RAIN. Books available on site for sale and signing from Mystery to Me bookstore. All are welcome. Enter the church from the parking lot. Enter north door where an elevator is available to lower level Fellowship Hall.

Saturday, February 4, 10:00 a.m. Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose. Book talk and signing. Never Curse the Rain.

Saturday, February 11, 2:15. Garden Expo, Alliant Center, Madison. Roshara Journal

Sunday, February 12, 1:00 p.m. Garden Expo, Alliant Center, Madison. TV documentary “Never Curse the Rain” book signing and discussion.

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.
Jerry’s newest books, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guide book for those who want to write their stories—are also available.

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