Listening for the Quiet

It is a winter world of quiet as I look out my window at snow-covered buildings and snow piled high in my driveway. I sit at my kitchen table, only hearing the occasional snapping and cracking of the wood in the stove, and the subtle sound of steam trickling from the ever-present teakettle. Otherwise, there is no sound. I am surrounded by quiet.

Winter is a quiet season. I published a book a few years ago with that title. Winter is a time for slowing down and reflecting, a time for enjoying the beauty of a landscape that is mostly black and white, with evergreen trees providing a stunning contrast. Winter is time to go outside and be surrounded by quiet as you snowshoe or ski or hike on a winter trail. Or merely stand and listen for the sound of quiet.

As I listen for the quiet today, I remember the subtle sound my six-buckle boots made on the snow as I hurried to the barn for the morning milking on below zero days so many years ago. I remember when the morning chores were done, slipping on my skis and skiing the near mile to my country school. The skis making a subtle sliding sound.

When I was a bit younger, I did a fair amount of snowshoeing. I remember the crunch, crunch of snowshoes on crusty snow. The stopping and listening and mostly hearing nothing, except the quiet.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Listen for the quiet; you might be surprised what you hear.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Speaking Saturday, February 8, 2:15 p.m., Garden Expo, Alliant Center, Madison. Topic: The Land Still Lives: Restoration of an old farm. Book signing in Wisconsin Historical Society Press booth, 10 to 12 in the morning and 3:30 to 5:30 in the afternoon.

Speaking Sunday, February 9, 1:00 p.m.., Garden Expo Alliant Center, Madison. Topic: The Land Still Lives: Restoration of an old farm Book signing in Wisconsin Historical Society Press booth, 2:30 to 4:00 in the afternoon.

Saturday, March 21, 1:30, Columbus Community Center, Columbus, WI Sponsored by Columbus Public Library and Wisconsin Historical Society Press.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS AND DVDS.
Buy a copy of my book, The Quiet Season 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 travel to the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s.. They have a great selection of my books for sale, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. Or visit your local bookstore.

Fifty Years of Book Writing

In 1966, I began writing a weekly column (Outdoor Notebook), for the Waushara Argus in Wautoma. It was in 1966 that we also acquired Roshara, the farm we have now. My columns were mostly about happenings on our farm, which had been abandoned in the 1950s after the farmhouse burned. Always looking for new ideas, I began wondering if a collection of these columns might make a book. In 1969, I showed them to Bob Gard, a rural folklorist for the College of Agriculture in Madison.

Bob, a Kansas farm boy, showed some interest in what I had been writing. But he said, “Why don’t you develop a story-line using your columns as ideas?” And that’s what I did. I even used an old willow tree as a character in the book. The book is mostly about how our young family, we had three little kids at the time, was adjusting to the kind of rural living that Ruth and I both experienced as kids.

I titled the book The Land Still Lives. Bob Gard introduced me to Senator Gaylord Nelson, whom he thought would be interested in my book because of its environmental theme. Senator Nelson agreed to write an introduction to the book, which was published in 1970.

A couple years ago, Kate Thompson, my editor at the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, asked me about publishing a 50th-anniversary edition of the book. How could I say no? It is now available, with an added epilogue that I wrote to bring the story up-to-date.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Who would believe that the Old Timer would still be writing books after 50 years?

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Speaking Saturday, February 8, 2:15 p.m., Garden Expo, Alliant Center, Madison. Topic: The Land Still Lives: Restoration of an old farm. Book signing in Wisconsin Historical Society Press booth, 10 to 12 in the morning and 3:30 to 5:30 in the afternoon.

Speaking Sunday, February 9, 1:00 p.m.., Garden Expo Alliant Center, Madison. Topic: The Land Still Lives: Restoration of an old farm .Book signing in Wisconsin Historical Society Press booth, 2:30 to 4:00 in the afternoon.

Saturday, March 21, 1:30, Columbus Community Center, Columbus, WI Sponsored by Columbus Public Library and Wisconsin Historical Society Press.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS AND DVDS.

New anniversary edition of The Land Still Lives available 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 travel to the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s.. They have a great selection of my books for sale, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. Or visit your local bookstore.

Talk About Winter

2019 snow at Roshara in Waushara County. Photo by Jerry Apps

It is often said that If Wisconsin people didn’t have the weather to talk about they wouldn’t have much to say. There is more than a little truth to the statement. This winter is a good case in point. In Southern Wisconsin, we had more winter in October than we had in December. At Christmas time, Golfers on Madison area golf courses were chasing those little white balls on bare ground with temperatures in the 50s.

Ice fishermen had to wait until January 12 for Lake Mendota to freeze. This usually happens in December. Snowmobilers and cross-country skiers had to travel north to find enough snow for their winter fun.

At my farm in central Wisconsin, so far this winter I’ve not had to crank up my tractor once to plow snow. Four or five inches of snow has been about it—and even this snow shrunk with days of above freezing temperatures. Last winter was different. Snow was piled up everywhere. I put my tractor with front-end loader to good use, making a path just wide enough for my car to pass in my long driveway.

A couple weeks ago, the Madison weather people announced a weather warning. A big snowstorm on the way. Up to a foot or more of snow. People flocked to the grocery stores and gas stations in preparation. Guess what, less than an inch of snow in much of southern Wisconsin, nothing in central Wisconsin.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: In Wisconsin, weather—the good, the bad, and the ugly—gives us something to talk about.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Saturday, February 8, 2:15 p.m., Garden Expo, Alliant Center, Madison

Sunday, February 9, 1:00 p.m.., Garden Expo Alliant Center, Madison

Saturday, March 21, 1:30, Columbus Community Center, Columbus, WI Sponsored by Columbus Public Library and Wisconsin Historical Society Press.


WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS AND DVDS.

To learn more about winter in Wisconsin, check out my book, The Quiet Season. Buy it 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 travel to the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s.. They have a great selection of my books for sale, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. Or visit your local bookstore.


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Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut in cast iron fry pan. Photo by Jerry Apps

When I was a kid, if you were of German heritage, you knew about sauerkraut. If you didn’t like sauerkraut, you got over it, for especially in the winter, you ate a lot of sauerkraut. Ma had many ways of preparing it: baked sauerkraut, fried sauerkraut, sauerkraut and pork chops, sauerkraut and ham, sauerkraut and pock hocks, sauerkraut cake.

A row of cabbage stretched from one end of the home garden to the other. By mid-October, the cabbage was ready for harvesting. Once harvested, Pa sliced the cabbage into shreds with a cabbage slicer, which he called a finger shortener. Ma tucked the cabbage shreds into a five-gallon Red Wing crock and sprinkled salt on each layer of cabbage. My brothers and I took turns tamping down the shredded cabbage with a piece of stove wood. We did this until the crock was filled nearly to the top. On top of the shredded cabbage, Ma placed some cheesecloth that overlapped the edges of the crock, and on top of that, a big round plate that fit inside the crock and, weighted down with a fieldstone. In a few weeks, it was ready for eating.

Today, when I am alone at the farm, where we have a wood-burning cookstove, I will often dig out the big cast-iron fry pan and fry up a batch of sauerkraut. The smell of the frying kraut takes me back to the home farm kitchen and its many memories. I still like sauerkraut.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Sauerkraut is low in calories and high in vitamin C and Vitamin K.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Saturday, February 8, 2:15 p.m., Garden Expo, Alliant Center, Madison

Sunday, February 9, 1:00 p.m.., Garden Expo Alliant Center, Madison

Saturday, March 21, 1:30, Columbus Community Center, Columbus, WI Sponsored by Columbus Public Library and Wisconsin Historical Society Press.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS AND DVDS.

To learn more about Sauerkraut along with several recipes for preparing, see my book, Old Farm Country Cookbook, which my daughter Sue, and I wrote.

Buy it 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

The Pond Seeks a New Level

Ben, Josh, and Paul at the Pond. Photo by Jerry Apps

The pond at our farm nearly dried up in 2015, but then the water began rising with the heavy rains of the last couple of years.

By the fall of 2019, our pond was running over its banks. It had risen to a place it had never been. It was surrounding trees, some of which were likely more than a hundred years old. I have never seen it this high, even when I was a kid and that was a good many years ago.

One of the projects I had in mind once the pond froze was to cut some of the trees and brush that had been surrounded by water. My grandsons, Josh, who lives in Denver, and Ben who lives in San Diego, came home for Christmas. So with these husky lads, both in their twenties, plus my son-in-law, Paul, and daughter, Sue we went on the ice with chain saws and loppers.

Soon, we had a sizeable pile of brush and trees on the ice. The grandsons asked about building a bonfire, and I said, “Sure, go ahead,” I didn’t tell them what happened when you started a brush fire on ice.

Soon they had a substantial fire. And then, just like that, the fire went out with a sizzle.

“What happened?” Josh asked.

“The fire melted the ice and put itself out,” I said, remembering when we had tried to build a campfire on ice when we were ice fishing.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Fire and ice have never been good companions.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Saturday, February 8, 2:15 p.m., Garden Expo, Alliant Center, Madison

Sunday, February 9, 1:00 p.m.., Garden Expo Alliant Center, Madison

Saturday, March 21, 1:30, Columbus Community Center, Columbus, WI Sponsored by Columbus Public Library and Wisconsin Historical Society Press.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS AND DVDS.

Look at my books, OLD FARM, ROSHARA JOURNAL, and THE QUIET SEASON for more about winter.

Buy them 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 travel to the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s.. They have a great selection of my books for sale, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. Or visit your local bookstore.


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