Cardinals Whistling for Spring

Temperature, 27 degrees. Cloudy. No breeze. Quiet. I am on my early morning walk. Watching for icy spots. Thinking about spring. Trying to dismiss winter. After all, old man winter has had his chance. It’s time to welcome spring.

Then I hear it. A cardinal’s call to break the silence. Crisp and clean. A spring welcoming sound from this beautiful red bird that stays here all winter. Doesn’t wing south where it is warm.

Back from my walk, I did some checking on cardinals. Did you know (I didn’t) that the female cardinal’s song is more complex than the males? That a pair of male and female cardinals stay together year around? That female cardinals build the nest? That the female cardinal, during the incubation period of their eggs, stays on the nest while her mates brings her food? That cardinal eggs hatch in about 12 days?
That cardinals are not found in the deep woods but live along the edges.

Did you know that the cardinal is the state bird for seven states: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia?

Not only are cardinals one of the most beautiful birds that we can enjoy year around, they are also interesting—as are all living creatures.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Cardinals enjoy bird feeders, especially those offering sunflower seeds.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Premier Showing of JERRY APPS: ONE ROOM SCHOOL, Wednesday, February 28, 6:00 p.m. Wild Rose High School Auditorium. I will be there to answer questions.

Wisconsin Public TV stations, Tuesday, March 6, 7:00 p.m. JERRY APPS: ONE ROOM SCHOOL. I will be at the station, sharing more stories during the breaks.



UPCOMING EVENTS:

March 17, 9:30 to 2:00 p.m. McFarlane’s Sauk City.

Purchase Jerry’s DVDs and his Books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835
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,) and Never Curse the Rain, Jerry’s newest DVD based on his book with the same title.

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his latest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also available are Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.



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Remembering School Days

During these final days of February, I am thinking about the one-room country school that I attended for eight years. February was a special month at our school. We celebrated Valentine’s Day with a party where the parents were invited. We exchanged Valentines with each other—a large decorated box, with a slit on the top—sat on the teacher’s desk from the beginning of the month until the 14th when it was opened and the cute, mostly, little cards were exchanged.

Our teacher also made sure we knew about Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on February 12, and George Washington’s birthday on February 22. How could we forget, for these two presidents stared down on us from either side of the blackboard every day?

Besides these special events, February was a short month. Only 28 days most years. Before we could really get used to the month, March came roaring in—usually like a lion, but not always.

I have recently completed an hour-long Television documentary titled: Jerry Apps: One Room School. It will air on all Wisconsin Public TV stations on March 6, 7:00 p.m. To see the premiere of the show, travel to Wild Rose where it will be shown on the big screen at the Wild Rose High School. The date is Wednesday, February 28, starting at 6:00 p.m. I will chat a bit at both of these events.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Take time to reflect on your earlier education, you may have learned more than you thought.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Wednesday, Feb 28, 6:00 p.m. Wild Rose H.S. Auditorium, Premier showing of Jerry’s
new Public TV documentary on One-Room Country Schools.

Tuesday, March 6, 7:00 p.m. First state-wide airing on all Wisconsin Public TV stations of my hour-long documentary on One-Room Country Schools.

Purchase Jerry’s DVDs and his Books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835
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,) and Never Curse the Rain, Jerry’s newest DVD based on his book with the same title.

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his latest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also available are Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.



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Garden Seeds and Thinking Spring

It’s time to think spring. We’ve just gotten our most serious snowstorm of the season. And my garden seeds have arrived. Just as my mother did for all the years that she and my father lived on the family farm, she ordered garden seeds when the snow was deep and the temperature hung around zero and below for days on end.

For those gardeners interested, my planting strategy, which I have followed for more than fifty years of gardening, I learned from my parents. Order seeds that you know will produce vegetables that do well with your soil type and climate. Always order a variety that is new, and you’ve not tried before. My Dad’s advice, plant something that’s pretty, and plant something that’s unusual

So, here are examples of vegetable varieties I plan to grow in my 2018 garden:

Varieties that have done well:

--Top Crop green beans
--Wisconsin 55 Tomato
--Burpee’s Big Boy Hybrid Tomato
--Early Girl Tomato
--Detroit Dark Red Beets
--Waltham Butternut Squash
--Cherry Belle Radish

What I’ve ordered but never tried:

--Bella Rosa Hybrid Tomato
--Atlas Hybrid Tomato
--Steakhouse Hybrid Tomato
--Bloody Butcher Tomato
--Nirvana Sweet Corn

What’s Pretty:

--Painted Mountain Ornamental Corn
--Fire Catcher Sunflower

What’s Unusual:

--Ornamental Luffa Squash
--Bird House Gourds
--Gremlin Gourds

Why do I grow seven different varieties of tomatoes? I am hoping that at least half of them will do well, resist disease and contribute to our need for several bushels of tomatoes for eating, and making salsa, and soup
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Spring is just around the corner. But where is that corner?


UPCOMING EVENTS:

Wednesday, Feb 28, 6:00 p.m. Wild Rose H.S. Auditorium, Premier showing of Jerry’s
new Public TV documentary on One-Room Country Schools.

Tuesday, March 6, 7:00 p.m. First state-wide airing on all Wisconsin Public TV stations of my hour-long documentary on One-Room Country Schools.

Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835
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,) and Never Curse the Rain, Jerry’s newest DVD based on his book with the same title.

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also available are Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.



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Cold Weather Snow

I’m sitting at the kitchen table at Roshara. The outside temperature is 17 degrees, and it is snowing. A fine-flaked, but persistent snow. My dad would have called this a cold weather snow. We haven’t had much snow at Roshara this winter. I have yet to plow my driveway with my tractor, which has a frontend loader. A few inches fall, and then it warms above freezing and mostly melts. Then it snows a couple more inches and then it once more melts.

The kitchen woodstove is slowly bringing the kitchen temperature into the 60s, but it is comfortable in the cabin and to use a not much-used word these days, cozy.

The weather person predicts three to five inches. One characteristic of cold weather snow, it doesn’t accumulate very fast. So far it’s been snowing for about an hour, and my Aldo Leopold bench has but a white frosting coating.

I’ve always liked to watch falling snow. Something peaceful about it. Something nonpolitical about it—especially during these days of political rancor, when too many folks are yelling at too many other folks

THE OLD TIMER SAY: Watching the snow fall—you could do much worse.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

I am conducting a two-hour writing workshop on February 17, 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. at the Wild Rose Library. It is free, and workshop participants will also receive a free copy of my book, TELLING YOUR STORY. The workshop will focus on telling stories about your early childhood education, whether in a one-room country school, or a village or city school. But you must register for the workshop. Click on this link to find registration information. Register Here for the Workshop. The workshop will be filmed by Wisconsin Public TV.

UPCOMING EVENTS:


Saturday, Feb 10, 2:15 p.m. Garden Expo, Alliant Center, Madison, with daughter Susan

Sunday, Feb. 11: 1:00 p.m. Garden Expo, Alliant Center, Madison, with daughter Susan

Saturday, Feb. 17, 12:00-2:00 p.m. Writing workshop at Wild Rose Library. See above for details. Registration required.

Wednesday, Feb 28, 6:00 p.m. Wild Rose H.S. Auditorium, Premier showing of Jerry’s
new Public TV documentary on One-Room Country Schools.

Tuesday, March 6, 7:00 p.m. First state-wide airing on all Wisconsin Public TV stations of my hour-long documentary on One-Room Country Schools.

Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835
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,) and Never Curse the Rain, Jerry’s newest DVD based on his book with the same title.
Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also available are Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guide book for those who want to write their own stories.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.



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